Dr. Samuel Mcdougle

Biography

Samuel McDougle is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. He obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2018. His research focuses on the extraordinary capacity of humans to develop precise motor skills, which alongside language and complex social cognition are considered defining features of the species. He explores the cognitive processes involved in acquiring and performing motor skills, emphasizing that this capacity is cognitively demanding and involves more than just habit formation. His expertise covers areas such as athletics, music, and everyday skills, which rely on the interaction between cognitive processes and lower-level motor systems. He leads the Action, Computation, Thinking (ACT) Lab, where he investigates the intersection of cognition and motor behavior using a variety of methods, including behavioral experiments, computational modeling, neuroimaging, and neuropsychology.

Research Interests