Catherine L. Reed

Catherine L. Reed is the McElwee Family Professor of Psychology and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College, where she leads the Reed Cognitive Neuroscience Lab in the Department of Psychological Science. Her research integrates EEG and behavioral methods to investigate how aging affects cognition and how bodily states influence attention, perception, and emotional processing within peripersonal space.

Education

• B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara

Research Focus

Dr. Reed's work centers on embodied cognition, examining how body position, movement, and multisensory integration shape cognitive processes. Her research spans aging-related neural changes, autism-spectrum neural correlates, and social-emotional processing, with methodological expertise in EEG microstate analysis, sensorimotor rhythms, and pupillometry. She investigates how tools extend peripersonal space and modulate attentional allocation.

Publication Trends

Her 2021-2025 publications reveal sustained focus on individual differences in cognitive control, with increasing integration of pupillary responses and microstate analysis. Key themes include aging effects on ERP components (P3/N400), autism-spectrum variations in mu rhythm, and the dissociation of perceptual/motor correlates in emotional processing. Recent work emphasizes methodological innovation in EEG signal decomposition and ecological validity.

Scientific Recognition

• McElwee Family Professor of Psychology
• George R. Roberts Fellow
• Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
• Fellow, Western Psychological Association
• Fellow, Psychonomic Society

Research Leadership

Dr. Reed directs the NSF-funded PURSUE project (2016-2026; $1.5M) developing open-access cognitive electrophysiology curricula. Her lab trains undergraduates in EEG methodology, with students contributing to publications in top journals. Current grants include NSF SBE awards on emotional action simulation and aging studies. She serves as faculty advisor for the Claremont Neurosciences Program and W.M. Keck Science Department.

Lab Infrastructure

The Reed Cognitive Neuroscience Lab houses high-density EEG systems acquired through NSF MRI grants. It serves as the hub for the PURSUE consortium (pursue.richmond.edu), which produces open educational resources including lab simulations, animations, and instructional videos. The lab maintains active collaborations with the Keck Science Department and Claremont Colleges consortium for cross-institutional research.