Research

Jackson Pollock’s paintings have been statistically analyzed to uncover self-repeating patterns found in nature, while Pixar simulates fluid dynamics to animate oceans in films like Finding Nemo and Luca. In bridging seemingly disparate fields of thought to inform one another, we uphold ideals very near to my identity: we find meaning in the complex. Atypical combinations can offer uncharted knowledge. As an academic, an artist, and an immigrant child of Black-African and White-European parents, I promote a scientific paradigm that encourages blends of thought through studying the cognitions of emotion and creativity. This includes understanding how art evokes emotional responses, how engaging in creative activities can regulate emotions, and how emotions are flexibly regulated and experienced. Below is a sample of research topics I have tackled in recent years.

Creativity as a methodological lens

Creativity is a diverse, heterogeneous construct that drives human innovation. How do we, as psychologists and scientists, operationalize this process given such high variability? I dedicate a portion of my efforts towards understanding this question and sharpening the methodological study of creativity. This includes examining how we interact with creative products as well as how different measures of creative ability correspond with and predict one another.

Emotion regulation

We are faced with an overwhelming amount of emotional information each day, across our lives. Emotion regulation is a crucial skill to reconcile these affective experiences with our own personal identities and goals. While I have studied how factors like age and depression may affect regulatory processes, I predominantly investigate emotion regulation through a generative mechanism framed by creative ideation. This work includes (a) the therapeutic expression of creativity via art, (b) the creative characterization within specific strategies (e.g., reappraisals), and (c) emotion regulation as a creative process at large, between strategies.

Evolving definitions of creativity

To many, creativity is no longer human-specific in light of the explosion of generative AI technologies capable of producing creative products. Thus, one of my research goals is to elucidate how human psychology interacts with these generative AI tools, and determine the predictive role of human creativity among this new landscape. This work has been especially prolific, with one article in particular earning its journal's Best Article award in 2024.

Publications

Bellaiche, L., Lihardo, K., Williams, C., Chaffee, J., LaBar, K. S., & Seli, P. (2025). Selective emotion regulation in creative art production: Psychophysiological reactivity during painting reduces anxiety. iScience, 28(6).

Seli, P., Ragnhildstveit, A., Orwig, W., Bellaiche, L., Spooner, S., & Barr, N. (2025). Beyond the brush: Human versus artificial intelligence creativity in the realm of generative art. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication.

Orwig, W.*, Bellaiche, L.*, Spooner, S., Vo, A., Baig, Z., Ragnhildstveit, A., Schacter, D. L., Barr, N., & Seli, P. (2024). Using AI to Generate Visual Art: Do Individual Differences in Creativity Predict AI-Assisted Art Quality? Creativity Research Journal, 1–12.

Faul, L.*, Bellaiche, L.*, Madden, D. J., Smoski, M. J., & LaBar, K. S. (2024). Depression and Emotion Regulation Strategy Use Moderate Age-Related Attentional Positivity Bias. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1-15.

Bellaiche, L.*, Haar Horowitz, A.*, McClay, M., Bottary, R., Denis, D., Chen, C., Maes, P., & Seli, P. (2024). Targeted dream incubation at a distance: The development of a remote and sensor-free tool for incubating hypnagogic dreams and mind-wandering. Frontiers in Sleep, 3, 1-15.

Bellaiche, L.*, Smith, A. P.*, Barr, N., Christensen, A., Williams, C., Ragnhildstveit, A., Schooler, J., Beaty, R., Chatterjee, A., & Seli, P. (2023). Back to the basics: Abstract painting as an index of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 1–16.

Bellaiche, L., Shahi, R., Turpin, M. H., Ragnhildstveit, A., Sprockett, S., Barr, N., Christensen, A., & Seli, P. (2023). Humans vs. AI: whether and why we prefer human-created compared to AI-created artwork. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 8(1), 1-22.

McAuley, J. D., Wong, P. C. M., Bellaiche, L., & Margulis, E. H. (2021). What drives narrative engagement with music? Music Perception, 38(5), 509-521.

Grants and Funding

Active

Impact Neuroscience Fellowship, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, 2024-2026. $10,000 pilot study costs; $6,000 travel costs.

Past

Diversity Trainee Award, Society for Affective Science, 2025. Emotion regulation generation: Creativity and depression predict strategy choice, diversity, and fluency. Conference membership costs.

Graduate Grant Award, Charles Lafitte Foundation Program for Research in Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, 2023. Assessing the generation of emotion regulation techniques with divergent thinking. $4,480 total direct costs

Curiosity, Creativity, & Complexity Conference Travel Grant, Columbia University, 2023-2024. Judgements of AI-art: New insights into both aesthetics and human reaction to artificial intelligence. $1,000 travel and conference costs

Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation., 2022-2026. Judgements of AI-art: New insights into both aesthetics and human reaction to artificial intelligence.

Bass Connections Student Research Award, Duke University, 2022-2023. Effects of mindfulness-based painting on psychophysiological well-being. $5,000 total direct costs

Graduate Grant Award, Charles Lafitte Foundation Program for Research in Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, 2022. Judgements of AI-art: New insights into both aesthetics and human reaction to artificial intelligence. $3,456 total direct costs

Honors College Travel Conference Grant, University of Arkansas, 2019. The roles of contrast and enculturation in the generation of musical narratives. $900 travel and conference costs.

Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), Arkansas Department of Higher Education, 2018. The roles of contrast and enculturation in the generation of musical narratives. $2750 total direct costs

Selected Presentations

Award presentation, Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity, 2024. The emotion-creativity link.

Invited lecture for "Thinking Outside of the Box" course at University of Arkansas, 2025. Creativity: A psychological approach.

Invited lecture for NIH's Student Training in Academic Research (STAR) program for high school students and teachers, July 2023. The intersection of creativity and emotion regulation.

As part of the NIH STAR talk, I provided materials to students and encouraged them to paint as if they were in one of my studies.

Oral presentation, Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity, University of California San Francisco, 2023. Human aesthetics meets artificial intelligence: How does the human mind receive automated art, and what does that tell us about us?.

Poster presentation, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, 2023. Attentional positivity bias is moderated by age, depression, and emotion regulation strategy use: An eye-tracking study.

Poster presentation, Society for Music Perception and Cognition, New York University, 2019. The Roles of Contrast and Enculturation in the Generation of Musical Narratives.

2nd-year colloquium presentation, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, 2022. Real Judgements of Artificial Art: Exploring Who Prefers Human vs. AI Art and Why.

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