Colleen M Seifert

Colleen M Seifert serves as Arthur F Thurnau Professor and Professor of Psychology in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan, with additional affiliation as Faculty Associate at the Research Center for Group Dynamics (Institute for Social Research). She directs the Design Science program, a Rackham Interdisciplinary Graduate Degree, and teaches graduate-level creativity courses alongside large-scale psychology methods instruction.

Her research investigates creative problem solving through cognitive psychology lenses, focusing on memory and misinformation, divergent thinking, improvisation, and causal learning mechanisms. Applied work extends to design processes, eyewitness memory analysis, medical decision making, consumer behavior patterns, sustainability initiatives, and qualitative studies of group instruction in higher education. She develops evidence-based creative techniques to enhance design outcomes and problem-solving efficacy across domains.

Recent publications (2019-2025) demonstrate consistent integration of cognitive psychology with design science, emphasizing human-centered design frameworks, perspective-taking in problem exploration, and improvisational techniques for idea generation. Her work bridges psychological theory with engineering practice, particularly in biomedical contexts and sustainability applications, while examining how cognitive exhaustion and structured heuristics influence creative output.

Scientific recognition includes:

• Arthur F Thurnau Professorship

As Design Science program director, Seifert leads interdisciplinary collaborations between psychology, engineering, and social sciences. Her Research Center for Group Dynamics affiliation supports investigations into team cognition during design processes, while her teaching innovations focus on scalable methods for developing creative competencies in large student cohorts.