Kim Meidenbauer

Dr. Kimberly Meidenbauer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Washington State University and serves as Director of the Social, Cognitive, & Environmental Neuroscience (SCENe) Lab. She joined WSU after completing postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago, where she earned her Ph.D. in Psychology (2020) following a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2012).

• Ph.D., University of Chicago (2020)
• B.A., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2012)

Her research investigates how physical and social environments influence brain function, mental health, and behavior through:

• Heat exposure effects on cognitive decline and aggression
• Environmental justice frameworks for health disparities
• Mobile neuroimaging (fNIRS) in naturalistic settings
• Computational modeling of environmental impacts
• Validation of methods bridging lab experiments with real-world applications

The SCENe Lab emphasizes open science practices, including data sharing, reproducible code, and pre-registration. Recent publications highlight:

• 2025: Environmental impacts on impulsivity and aggression in urban forests
• 2024: Thermal comfort dynamics and neural responses to natural environments
• 2023: Mouse movement analysis as digital behavioral biomarkers
• 2022: fNIRS for cognitive load measurement and urban design preferences
• 2021-2018: Longitudinal studies on nature preference development

As an educator, she teaches graduate seminars on cognition and affect and undergraduate courses in environmental psychology and human well-being. Lab personnel include both graduate and undergraduate researchers exploring nature-brain-behavior relationships through interdisciplinary approaches.