Department of Psychology

Justin Storbeck, PhD

Basic Information

Title: Associate Professor
Area: Social Psychology
PhD: University of Virginia
Email: justin.storbeck@qc.cuny.edu
Office: D-312 Science Building
Office Phone: 718-997-3465
Lab: D-312 Science Building
Lab Phone: 718-997-3465
Website: Queens Affective Neuroscience Lab

Professional Activities

Society Memberships

• Society for Personality and Social Psychology
• American Psychological Society
• Society for Psychonomic Research

Research Interests

• Emotion
• Emotion and Cognition Interactions
• Lupus and Emotional Deficits

Dr. Storbeck runs the Queens Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. His research examines why and how emotion can be both adaptive and maladaptive for behavior. He assumes that emotion has the ability to influence cognition, for instance being happy can increase the ability to hold words in working memory. However, what remains unclear is how positive emotion makes it possible to improve verbal working memory. To begin to solve this puzzle, he asks very specific questions that include: 1) do emotions automatically activate or prime specific kinds of cognitive processes? 2) How do emotion and cognitive goals interact to influence the amount of psychological effort necessary to complete the task at hand? 3) Do emotions only interact with executive control functions, or does this model hold for all kinds of cognition, such as perception and encoding? Dr. Storbeck is developing the emotion and cognitive compatibility model in order to be better understand the cognitive consequences of cognition.

Moreover, I collaborate with the Center for Autoimmune and Musculoskeletal Diseases in which are investigating how resulting brain damage to the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and white matter tracks produce deficits in emotional recognition and learning, attention to emotional events, and emotion regulation in individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus (an autoimmune disease that can negatively impact the brain). Moreover, we are also interested in the clinical implications of such emotional deficits. In addition, we are also investigating whether a particular antibody common in lupus is directly correlated with hippocampal damage and spatial memory deficits

Selected Publications

1. Storbeck, J. (2013). Negative affect promotes encoding of and memory for details at the expense of the gist: Affect, encoding, and false memories. Cognition & Emotion, 27, 800-819.
2. Watson, P., Storbeck, J., Mattis, P., & Mackay, M. (2012). Cognitive and emotional abnormalities in Systemic Lupus Erythematosis: Evidence for amygdala dysfunction. Neuropsychology Review, 22, 252-270.
3. Storbeck, J. (2012). Performance costs when emotion tunes inappropriate cognitive abilities: Implications for mental resources and behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 411-416.
4. Storbeck, J. & Clore, G. L. (2011). Affect influences false memories at encoding: Evidence from recognition data. Emotion, 11, 981-989.
5. Stefanucci, J. K. & Storbeck, J. (2009). Don’t look down: Emotional arousal elevates height perception. Journal of Experiment Psychology: General, 138, 131-145.