About us

Lab Photo – 2022:  From left to right: Shelby Laing (honours), Bailey Brashears (PhD 4), Julia Ignaszewski (MSc 2), Anthony Cruz (PhD 1), Dr. John Paul Minda (Director), Evan Cross (honours), Priya Kalra (postdoc), Tim Qiu (MSc 2), Chelsea McKenzie (MSc 1), Raha Nemani (independent study). not pictured: Urooj Anees (honours)

The Minda Lab is a cognitive psychology research laboratory that is part of the Department of Psychology, the Western Institute for Neuroscience, and the Brain and Mind Centre at the Western University. Our research seeks to understand how people learn about categories and concepts and how conceptual structure influences thinking and decision making. The lab is directed by Dr. John Paul Minda and consists of graduate students, postdocs, honours students, and research assistants.

Check out our publications page for a complete list of peer review publications.


Dr. Minda will not accepting new graduate students for the 2023-2024 academic year. Please see the opportunities page for more information.

Our lab is funded by NSERC, SSHRC, and by Mitacs.