Cognitive and Emotional Control Lab

Dr. John G. Kerns is a Professor of Psychological Sciences. His primary interests center around the psychological and neural basis of cognitive and emotional control, factors that diminish control, and the role of poor control in psychopathology such as psychosis. His current research is especially focused on striatal functioning, feedback-related learning, and aberrant salience in psychosis risk and in the schizophrenia spectrum.

Dr. Kerns is accepting applications for graduate students to begin Fall 2026.

Megan Liew is a 3rd year clinical psychology Ph.D. student at Mizzou. Her research interests primarily lie in the formation and maintenance of delusions and unconventional beliefs. She is currently working on testing and refining the Bayesian Hierarchical Model of delusion-like beliefs and examining the role of perceived stigma in driving the adoption of unconventional beliefs. Prior to joining the Kerns Lab, Megan completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Stony Brook University, where she worked under Dr. Aprajita Mohanty. She has also collaborated on projects with Dr. Erik Benau at SUNY Old Westbury and Dr. Tamara Sussman and Dr. David Saunders at Columbia University. ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5434-398X

Tyler Rogers is a 2nd year clinical psychology Ph.D. student at Mizzou. He is broadly interested in the formation and maintenance of delusional thinking. While in the Kerns lab, Tyler has focused on developing behavioral measures of prediction error processing and aberrant salience. He is also interested in how dopamine processes drive delusional thinking, as well as early detection and prevention. Before joining the lab, Tyler earned a B.S. in psychology from Georgia Southern University, where he worked under Dr. Shauna Joye. He later completed an M.A. in clinical psychology at Columbia University under the mentorship of Dr. Scott T. Wilson. He then spent 5 years in research roles at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where he worked in the OPAL Center and COPE Clinic under the supervision of Dr. T. Scott Stroup and Dr. Ragy Girgis, respectively. ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5976-2921