A theoretician and experimentalist in neuroscience, Ezequiel Morsella received his Ph.D. at Columbia University (2002) and carried out his postdoctoral training (2003 - 2007) at Yale University.  Since his pre-college days, he has studied perception-and-action, focusing on the role of conscious ("controlled") processes.  Click here to visit his neuroscience blog, Consciousness and the Brain. 

In 2007, he was hired as a professor in neuroscience at San Francisco State University (where he is now Professor of Neuroscience) and as an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.  His theory has appeared in Psychological Review and Behavioral and Brain Sciences (target article). Click here for TIME's coverage of the theory.  His current research has been supported by the Toyota Motor Corporation. 

He is the lead author of Oxford Handbook of Human Action. His research has appeared in journals such as Psychological Review, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Neurocase, Consciousness and Cognition, Experimental Brain Research, and Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. He has served as an editorial reviewer for many journals, including Science, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and Psychological Review.   

Click here for book based on the think tank "Where's the Action? The Pragmatic Turn in Cognitive Science" (Chairpersons: Andreas K. Engel, Karl Friston, and Danica Kragic), Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Germany (2014). Photo below taken from book.  

Click here for TIME's coverage of the lab's research:

"A group of really, really smart people thinking really, really hard about things"

What is the difference between a blink, a wink, and the dilation of a pupil? The basic nuts and bolts underlying human action remain mysterious from a mechanistic point of view.  At our laboratory, we investigate action control from an integrative cognitive neuroscience perspective, focusing on both unconscious brain mechanisms and conscious mechanisms (e.g., voluntary action and cognitive conflict, urges, working memory, impulse control).  One aim of the lab is to home in on the neural and cognitive mechanisms responsible for conscious states.  Many of our insights are synthesized in the publication, "Homing in on consciousness in the nervous system: An action-based synthesis" (2016), which appeared as a "target article" in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences.  The current research of the laboratory has been supported by the Toyota Motor Corporation. 

INTRODUCTORY READINGS

Morsella, E., Godwin, C. A., Jantz, T. K., Krieger, S. C., & Gazzaley, A. (2016). Homing in on consciousness in the nervous system: An action-based synthesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences [Target Article], 39, 1-17. IMPACT FACTOR: 29.3. Link. The follow-up to the article in Psychological Review (below), this is the theoretical foundation of research in our lab. It focuses on the primary function of conscious processing in the nervous system. The evidence for different aspects of the theory can be found in five sections following Books and Special Volumes. These sections are organized by theme. Click here for TIME's coverage of the theory (111).
 

Morsella, E., Godwin, C. A., Jantz, T. K., Krieger, S. C., & Gazzaley, A. (2016). Passive frame theory: A new synthesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39, 44-70.  Authors' Reply to the 30 commentaries that were written in response to the target article above.] Link.

Morsella, E., Velasquez, A. G., Yankulova, J. K., Li, Y., Wong, C. Y., & Lambert, D. (2020). Motor cognition: The role of sentience in perception-and-action. Kinesiology Review, 9, 261-274. This review article covers most of the ideas developed by the laboratory and covers many of the ideas presented in the other introductory readings. Link. 

Morsella, E. (2005). The function of phenomenal states: Supramodular interaction theory. Psychological Review, 112, 1000-1021. IMPACT FACTOR: 8.93 [Addresses the differences between conscious and unconscious integrations in the nervous system] Link.
 
Bhangal, S., Cho, H., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2016). The prospective nature of voluntary action: Insights from the reflexive imagery task.  Review of General Psychology, 20, 101-117. This review focuses on the prospective aspects of voluntary action and covers the findings from the first handful of experiments using the reflexive imagery task, which is the primary paradigm used by the lab.
 
Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2008). The unconscious mind.  Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 73-79. IMPACT FACTOR: 10.58. Link.

Morsella, E. (2022).  Consciousness and the Brain: Lab Manual 1.0.  San Francisco: KDP.  Link

MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS
 

Brauer, S., Gazzaley, A., Toyoda, H., & Morsella.  (in press).  Habituation of Stimulus-Elicited Involuntary Cognitions:  Implications for Psychopathology.  Psychology of Consciousness:  Theory, Research, and Practice (an APA journal).
 

Morsella, E., Brauer, S., Wright-Wilson, L., & Elsabbagh, T. (in press).  Attention, the homunculus, and the Greek theater effect. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Wong, C. Y., Heredia Cedillo, A., & Morsella, E. (in press).  The priming of stimulus-elicited involuntary mental imagery.  Acta Psychologica.

Bui, N-C. T., Ghafur, R. D., Yankulova, J., & Morsella, E. (2023). Stimulus-elicited involuntary insights and syntactic processing. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice,  10, 115-133.  doi:10.1037/cns0000208 (An APA journal).

Heredia Cedillo, A., Lambert, D., & Morsella, E. (2024).  Identifying consciousness in other creatures: Three initial steps.  Behavioral Sciences, 14, 337.  doi: 10.3390/bs14040337  

Wright-Wilson, L., Elsabbagh, T., & Morsella, E. (in press).  Stimulus-elicited involuntary autobiographical memories.  Acta Psychologica.

Elsabbagh, T., Wright-Wilson, L., Brauer, S., & Morsella, E. (2023).  The habituation of higher-order conscious processes: Evidence from mental arithmetic.  Acta Psychologica, 236, 103922. Link

Morsella, E., Velasquez, A. G., Yankulova, J. K., Li, Y., & Gazzaley, A. (2022).  Encapsulation and subjectivity from the standpoint of viewpoint theory.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45, 37-38.

Velasquez, A. G., Yankulova, J. K., White, N. A., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2023).  Involuntary refreshing of mental representations.  Acta Psychologica, 03819, ISSN 0001-6918. Link

Yankulova, J. K., Zacher, L. M., Velazquez, A. G., Dou, W., & Morsella, E. (2022).  Insuppressible cognitions in the reflexive imagery task:  Insights and future directions.  Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition, 13:957359. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.957359 Link

Yankulova, J. K., Zacher, L. M., Velasquez, A. G., Dou, W., & Morsella, E. (2023).  Stimulus-elicited involuntary cognition: Boundary conditions and systematic effects.  Psychological Reports, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941231219792.

BOOKS AND VOLUMES
 

Morsella, E., Bargh, J. A., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2009). Oxford handbook of human action.  New York: Oxford University Press. Link.

 
Consciousness and action control, A special issue (18 articles) of Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition (2013). Link.
 
Morsella, E. (2010). Expressing oneself / expressing one's self: Communication, cognition, language, and identity. (A Festschrift in the honor of Robert M. Krauss.)  London, UK: Psychology Press. Link.

Morsella, E. (2022).  Consciousness and the Brain: Lab Manual 1.0.  San Francisco: KDP.  Link

 
 
 
CONSCIOUSNESS AND NERVOUS FUNCTION
 
(Click here for CV listing all publications in chronological order. See next section for consciousness research based on the Reflexive Imagery Task, the new paradigm developed by the lab.)
 

Morsella, E. (2022).  Consciousness and the Brain: Lab Manual 1.0.  San Francisco: KDP.  Link
 

Yankulova, J. K., Zacher, L. M., Velazquez, A. G., Dou, W., & Morsella, E. (2022).  Insuppressible cognitions in the reflexive imagery task:  Insights and future directions.  Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition, 13:957359. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.957359 Link

Morsella, E., Brauer, S., Wright-Wilson, L., & Elsabbagh, T. (in press).  Attention, the homunculus, and the Greek theater effect. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Morsella, E., Velasquez, A. G., Yankulova, J. K., Li, Y., Wong, C. Y., & Lambert, D. (2020). Motor cognition: The role of sentience in perception-and-action. Kinesiology Review, 9, 261-274. This review article covers most of the ideas developed by the laboratory and covers many of the ideas presented in the other introductory readings. Link.

Morsella, E., Godwin, C. A., Jantz, T. K., Krieger, S. C., & Gazzaley, A. (2016). Homing in on consciousness in the nervous system: An action-based synthesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences [Target Article], 39, 1-17. IMPACT FACTOR: 29.3.  Link.

Morsella, E., Godwin, C. A., Jantz, T. K., Krieger, S. C., & Gazzaley, A. (2016). Passive frame theory: A new synthesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39, 44-70. Authors' Reply to the 30 commentaries that were written in response to the target article above.] Link.
 

Morsella, E. (2005). The function of phenomenal states: Supramodular interaction theory. Psychological Review, 112, 1000-1021. Link.
 

Morsella, E., Velasquez, A. G., Yankulova, J. K., Li, Y., & Gazzaley, A. (2022).  Encapsulation and subjectivity from the standpoint of viewpoint theory.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45, 37-38.

Heredia Cedillo, A., Lambert, D., & Morsella, E. (2024).  Identifying consciousness in other creatures: Three initial steps.  Behavioral Sciences, 14, 337.  doi: 10.3390/bs14040337    

Seth, A. K., Verschure, P. F. M. J., Blanke, O., Butz, M. V., Ford, J. M., Frith, C. D., Jacob, P., Kyselo, M., McGann, M., Menary, R., Morsella, E., & O'Regan, J. K. (2016). Action-oriented understanding of consciousness and the structure of experience. In Engel, A. K., Friston, K. J., & Kragic, D. (Eds.), The pragmatic turn: Toward action-oriented views on cognitive science (pp. 261-281). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Link.
 
Dou, W., Walker, E. B., & Morsella, E. (2020). The prospective nature of involuntary entry into consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 27, 69-87.
 
Graziano, M. S. A., & Morsella (2020). A new motor approach to consciousness: Implications for the simulation of future behavior. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 27, 88-103.
 
Yankulova, J. K., & Morsella, E. (2020). Conscious contents: Their unanalyzable, arbitrary, and unarbitrary properties. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 37, 187-189.
  
Morsella, E., Wilson, L. E., Berger, C. C., Honhongva, M., Gazzaley, A., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). Subjective aspects of cognitive control at different stages of processing (7-experiment article). Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 71, 1807-1824.
 
Morsella, E., Gray, J. R., Krieger, S. C., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). The essence of conscious conflict: Subjective effects of sustaining incompatible intentions. Emotion, 9, 717-728.
 
Gray, J. R., Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2013). Neural correlates of the essence of conscious conflict: fMRI of sustaining incompatible intentions. Experimental Brain Research, 229, 453-465.
 
Krisst, L., Montemayor, C., & Morsella, E. (2015). Deconstructing voluntary action: Unconscious and conscious component processes. In B. Eitam & P. Haggard (Eds.), The sense of agency (pp. 25-62). New York: Oxford University Press.
 
Cho, H., & Morsella, E. (2016). Brain and consciousness. In H. L. Miller Jr. (Ed.), The Sage encyclopedia of theory in psychology (p. 59). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers.
 
Morsella, E., & Walker, E. B. (2016). What makes us conscious is not what makes us human. Animal Sentience, 120, Link. Click here for a blog about this article.
 
Cushing, D., Velasquez, A. G., & Morsella, E. (2016). Competition between cognitive control and encapsulated, unconscious inferences: Are Aha-experiences special?  Frontiers in Psychology, 7:626. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00626. Link.
 
Cushing, D., Ghafur, R. D., & Morsella, E. (2017). The interdependence between conscious and unconscious processes. In Z. Radman (Ed.), Before consciousness: In search of the fundamentals of mind (pp. 50-82). UK: Imprint Academic.
 
Morsella, E., & Reyes, Z. (2016). The difference between conscious and unconscious brain circuits. Animal Sentience. Link.

 
Robinson, M. M., & Morsella, E. (2014). The subjective effort of everyday mental tasks: Attending, assessing, and choosing. Motivation and Emotion, 38, 832-843.

Merrick, C., Godwin, C. A., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2014). The olfactory system as the gateway to the neural correlates of consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1011. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.01011 Link.

Corr, P. J., & Morsella, E. (2015). The conscious control of behavior: Revisiting Gray's comparator model. In P. J. Corr, M. Fajkowska, M. W. Eysenck, & A. Wytykowska (Eds.), Personality and control, volume 4 (pp. 15-42). New York: Eliot Werner Publications.
 
Zarolia, P., Tomory, J. J., Rosen, H. J., & Morsella, E. (2015). The subjective aspects of self-control: Theory and experimental paradigms. In P. J. Corr, M. Fajkowska, M. W. Eysenck, & A. Wytykowska (Eds.), Personality and control, volume 4 (pp. 43-66). New York: Eliot Werner Publications.
 
Riddle, T. A., Rosen, H. J., & Morsella, E. (2015). Is that me? Sense of agency as a function of intra-psychic conflict. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 36, 27-46.
 
Morsella, E., Lynn, M. T., Riddle, T. A. (2013). Voluntary action and the illusion of conscious will. In H. Pashler (Ed.), The encyclopedia of the mind (pp. 772-774). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers.
 
Morsella, E., & Poehlman, T. A. (2013). The inevitable contrast: Conscious versus unconscious processes in action control. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 590. doi: 10.3889/fpsyg.2013.00590. Link.
 
Godwin, C. A., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2013). Homing in on the brain mechanisms linked to consciousness: Buffer of the perception-and-action interface. In A. Pereira and D. Lehmann's (Eds.), The unity of mind, brain and world: Current perspectives on a science of consciousness (pp. 43-76). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
 
Morsella, E., Molapuor, T., & Lynn, M. (2013). The three pillars of volition: Phenomenal states, ideomotor processing, and the skeletal muscle system. In H. S. Terrace & J. Metcalfe (Eds.), Agency and joint attention (pp. 284-303). New York: Oxford University Press.
 
Morsella, E., Dennehy, T. C., & Bargh, J. A. (2013). Voluntary action and the three forms of binding in the brain. In A. Clark, J. Kiverstein, & T. Vierkant (Eds.), Decomposing the will (pp. 183-198). New York: Oxford University Press.
 
Poehlman, T. A., Jantz, T. K., & Morsella, E. (2012). Adaptive skeletal muscle action requires anticipation and 'conscious broadcasting.' Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 369. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00369 Link.
 
Robinson, M. M., Poehlman, T. A., & Morsella, E. (2012). The subjective aspects of agency, cognitive control, and self-regulation: Findings from the action and consciousness laboratory. In A. E. Cavanna & A. Nani (Eds.), Consciousness: States, mechanisms, & disorders (pp. 207-230). 

Morsella, E., Zarolia, P., & Gazzaley, A. (2012). Cognitive conflict and consciousness (pp. 19-46). In B. Gawronski & F. Strack (Eds.), Cognitive consistency: A unifying concept in social psychology. New York: Guilford Press. [This focuses on the different kinds of conflict in the brain]
 
Molapour, T., Berger, C. C., & Morsella, E. (2011). Did I read or did I name? Diminished awareness of processes yielding identical 'outputs.' Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 1776-1780. 
 
Morsella, E., Krieger, S. C., & Berger, C. C. (2011). Cognitive and neural components of the phenomenology of agency. Neurocase, 17, 209-230. [Includes a quantitative review of evidence regarding agency and the function of consciousness in action production] Link.
 
Morsella, E., & Jantz, T. (2011). Conscious states are a crosstalk mechanism for only a subset of brain processes. Journal of Cosmology, 14, 4469-4471. (Special issue edited by Sir Roger Penrose.)
 
Morsella, E., Feinberg, G., H., Cigarchi, S., Newton, J. W., & Williams, L. E. (2011). Sources of avoidance motivation: Valence effects from physical effort and mental rotation. Motivation and Emotion, 35, 296-305.
 
Lynn, M. T., Berger, C. C., Riddle, T. A., & Morsella, E. (2010). Mind control? Creating illusory intentions through a phony brain-computer interface. Consciousness and Cognition, 19, 1007-1012. 
 
Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2010). What is an output? Psychological Inquiry, 21, 354-370. [Influenced by Gibson's classic article which posed the question, "What is the stimulus?", this piece argues that action is the only undisputable 'output' in the nervous system; with this in mind, it reveals the intimate link between action and conscious processing] Link.
 
Morsella, E., Ben-Zeev, A., Lanska, M., & Bargh, J. A. (2010). The spontaneous thoughts of the night: How future tasks breed intrusive cognitions. Social Cognition, 28, 640-649.
 
Morsella, E., & Hubbard, J. (2010). Controlled-reflective processes arise from integrative action-goal selection in the ventral pathway. European Journal of Personality, 24, 412-416.
 
Morsella, E., Krieger, S. C., & Bargh, J. A. (2010). Minimal neuroanatomy for a conscious brain: Homing in on the networks constituting consciousness. Neural Networks, 23, 14-15.
 
Morsella, E., Krieger, S. C., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). The function of consciousness: Why skeletal muscles are 'voluntary' muscles. In. E. Morsella, J. A. Bargh, & P. M. Gollwitzer, Oxford handbook of human action (pp. 625-634). New York: Oxford University Press.
 
Morsella, E. (2003). The function of phenomenal states: Is there progress for the 'softer problem' of consciousness? Psychological Reports, 93, 435-440.
 
Krauss, R. M., & Morsella, E. (2000/2006 [second edition]). Communication and conflict. In M. Deutsch & P. T. Coleman (Eds.), The handbook of conflict Resolution: Theory and practice (pp. 131-143 [pp. 144-157 for 2nd edition]). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
 
 

REFLEXIVE IMAGERY TASK (RIT):
INVOLUNTARY ENTRY INTO CONSCIOUSNESS OF IMAGERY AND OTHER COGNITIONS

Brauer, S., Gazzaley, A., Toyoda, H., & Morsella.  (in press).  Habituation of Stimulus-Elicited Involuntary Cognitions:  Implications for Psychopathology.  Psychology of Consciousness:  Theory, Research, and Practice (an APA journal). 

Wong, C. Y., Heredia Cedillo, A., & Morsella, E. (in press).  The priming of stimulus-elicited involuntary mental imagery.  Acta Psychologica.

Wright-Wilson, L., Elsabbagh, T., & Morsella, E. (in press).  Stimulus-elicited involuntary autobiographical memories.  Acta Psychologica.

Elsabbagh, T., Wright-Wilson, L., Brauer, S., & Morsella, E. (in press).  The habituation of higher-order conscious processes: Evidence from mental arithmetic.  Acta Psychologica, 236, 103922. Link

Yankulova, J. K., Zacher, L. M., Velasquez, A. G., Dou, W., & Morsella, E. (2023).  Stimulus-elicited involuntary cognition: Boundary conditions and systematic effects.  Psychological Reports, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941231219792

Velasquez, A. G., Yankulova, J. K., White, N. A., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2023).  Involuntary refreshing of mental representations.  Acta Psychologica, 03819, ISSN 0001-6918. Link

Yankulova, J. K., Zacher, L. M., Velazquez, A. G., Dou, W., & Morsella, E. (2022).  Insuppressible cognitions in the reflexive imagery task:  Insights and future directions.  Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition, 13:957359. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.957359

White, N., Velasquez, A., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2024). Mary had a little... : Stimulus-elicited involuntary musical imagery. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/szb5g  Retrieved from osf.io/szb5g

Gardner, K., Walker, E. B., Li, Y., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2020). Involuntary attentional shifts as a function of set and processing fluency. Acta Psychologica, 203. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy .2020.103009.

 
Cushing, D., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2019). Involuntary mental rotation and visuospatial imagery from external control. Consciousness and Cognition, 75. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.019.102809.Epub 2019 Sep 12. 
 
Dou, W., Allen, A. K., Cho, H., Bhangal, S., Cook, A. J., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2020). EEG correlates of involuntary cognitions in the reflexive imagery task. Frontiers in Psychology, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00482. eCollection 2020. Link.
 

Bui, N-C. T., Ghafur, R. D., Yankulova, J., & Morsella, E. (2023). Stimulus-elicited involuntary insights and syntactic processing. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice,  10, 115-133.  doi:10.1037/cns0000208 (An APA journal).

Velasquez, A. G., Gazzaley, A., Toyoda, H., Ziegler, D. A., & Morsella, E. (2021).  The generation of involuntary mental imagery in an ecologically-valid task.  Frontiers in Psychology. Link 

Bhangal, S., Cho, H., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2016). The prospective nature of voluntary action: Insights from the reflexive imagery task. Review of General Psychology, 20, 101-117. (An APA journal.) This review focuses on the prospective aspects of voluntary action and covers the findings from the first handful of RIT experiments.
 

Allen, A. K., Wilkins, K., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2013). Conscious thoughts from reflex-like processes: A new experimental paradigm for consciousness research. Consciousness and Cognition, 22, 1318-1331. [After using the Stroop and flanker tasks to examine the role of consciousness in action control, we now use also this paradigm, which was developed in the lab.]  *Importantly, this article received the honor of being an "Editor's Choice" article for Elsevier Publishers. In the field of the scientific study of consciousness, Consciousness and Cognition is the premier journal.

 
Bhangal, S., Merrick, C., Cho, H., & Morsella, E. (2018). Involuntary entry into consciousness from the activation of sets: Object counting and color naming. Frontiers in Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01017 Link.
 
Cushing, D., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2017). Externally controlled involuntary cognitions and their relations with other representations in consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 55, 1-10 (lead article).

Allen, A. K., Krisst, L., Montemayor, C., & Morsella, E. (2016). Entry of involuntary conscious contents from ambiguous images. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 3, 326-337. (An APA journal.)
 
Bhangal, S., Merrick, C., & Morsella, E. (2015). Ironic effects as reflexive responses: Evidence from word frequency effects on involuntary subvocalizations. Acta Psychologica, 159, 33-40.
 
Bhangal, S., Allen, A. K, Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2016). Conscious contents as reflexive processes: Evidence from the habituation of high-level cognitions. Consciousness and Cognition, 41, 177-188. 
 
Cho, H., Godwin, C. A., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2014). Internally generated conscious contents: Interactions between sustained mental imagery and involuntary subvocalizations. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 1445. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01445 Link.
 
Merrick, C., Farnia, M., Jantz, T. K., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2015). External control of the stream of consciousness: Stimulus-based effects on involuntary thought sequences. Consciousness and Cognition, 33, 217-225. 
 
Cho, H., Zarolia, P., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2016). Involuntary symbol manipulation (Pig Latin) from external control: Implications for thought suppression. Acta Psychologica, 166, 37-41.
 
Cushing, D., Ghafur, R. D., & Morsella, E. (2017). The interdependence between conscious and unconscious processes. In Z. Radman (Ed.), Before consciousness: In search of the fundamentals of mind (pp. 50-82). UK: Imprint Academic.
 
Cho, H., Dou, W., Reyes, Z., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2018). The reflexive imagery task: An experimental paradigm for neuroimaging. AIMS Neuroscience, 5, 97-115.
 
Garcia, A. C., Bhangal, S., Velasquez, A. G., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2016). Metacognition of working memory performance: Trial-by-trial subjective effects from a new paradigm. Frontiers in Psychology, 7:927, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00927 Link. The research from our lab covered in this article led to the RIT and has implications for understanding the boundary conditions of the RIT effect.
 
Dou, W., Li, Y., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2018). Involuntary polymodal imagery involving olfaction, audition, touch, taste, and vision. Consciousness and Cognition, 62, 9-20. 
 
 
 

INVOLUNTARY ENTRY OF ACTION-RELATED URGES DURING COGNITIVE CONTROL
 
Morsella, E., Wilson, L. E., Berger, C. C., Honhongva, M., Gazzaley, A., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). Subjective aspects of cognitive control at different stages of processing (7-experiment article). Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 71, 1807-1824.
 
Morsella, E., Gray, J. R., Krieger, S. C., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). The essence of conscious conflict: Subjective effects of sustaining incompatible intentions. Emotion, 9, 717-728.
 
Gray, J. R., Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2013). Neural correlates of the essence of conscious conflict: fMRI of sustaining incompatible intentions. Experimental Brain Research, 229, 453-465.
 
Zarolia, P., Tomory, J. J., Rosen, H. J., & Morsella, E. (2015). The subjective aspects of self-control: Theory and experimental paradigms. In P. J. Corr, M. Fajkowska, M. W. Eysenck, & A. Wytykowska (Eds.), Personality and control, volume 4 (pp. 43-66). New York: Eliot Werner Publications.
 
Hubbard, J., Rigby, T., Godwin, C. A., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2013). Representations in working memory yield interference effects found with externally-triggered representations. Acta Psychologica, 142, 127-135.
 
Riddle, T. A., Rosen, H. J., & Morsella, E. (2015). Is that me? Sense of agency as a function of intra-psychic conflict. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 36, 27-46.
 
Robinson, M. M., Poehlman, T. A., & Morsella, E. (2012). The subjective aspects of agency, cognitive control, and self-regulation: Findings from the action and consciousness laboratory. In A. E. Cavanna & A. Nani (Eds.), Consciousness: States, mechanisms, & disorders (pp. 207-230). (Volume contains a contribution from Dr. Alfredo Pereira Jr.)
 
Lynn, M. T., Riddle, T. A., & Morsella, E. (2012). The phenomenology of quitting: Effects from repetition and cognitive effort. Korean Journal of Cognitive Science, 23, 25-46.
 
Morsella, E., Zarolia, P., & Gazzaley, A. (2012). Cognitive conflict and consciousness (pp. 19-46). In B. Gawronski & F. Strack (Eds.), Cognitive consistency: A unifying concept in social psychology. New York: Guilford Press. [This focuses on the different kinds of conflict in the brain]
 
Molapour, T., Berger, C. C., & Morsella, E. (2011). Did I read or did I name? Diminished awareness of processes yielding identical 'outputs.' Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 1776-1780. In the field of the scientific study of consciousness, Consciousness and Cognition is the premier journal.
 
Morsella, E., Krieger, S. C., & Berger, C. C. (2011). Cognitive and neural components of the phenomenology of agency. Neurocase, 17, 209-230. [Includes a quantitative review of evidence regarding agency and the function of consciousness in action production]
 
Morsella, E., Feinberg, G., H., Cigarchi, S., Newton, J. W., & Williams, L. E. (2011). Sources of avoidance motivation: Valence effects from physical effort and mental rotation. Motivation and Emotion, 35, 296-305.
 
Molapour, T., & Morsella, E. (2011). Valence from conflict? Preliminary evidence from Stroop interference. Journal of Communications Research, 3, 255-270.
 
 
 

VOLUNTARY ENTRY INTO CONSCIOUSNESS DURING ACTION-RELATED WORKING MEMORY DURING COGNITIVE CONTROL
 
Garcia, A. C., Bhangal, S., Velasquez, A. G., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2016). Metacognition of working memory performance: Trial-by-trial subjective effects from a new paradigm. Frontiers in Psychology, 7:927, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00927 Link.
 
Jantz, T. K., Tomory, J. J., Merrick, C., Cooper, S., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2014). Subjective aspects of working memory performance: Memoranda-related imagery. Consciousness and Cognition, 25, 88-100. In the field of the scientific study of consciousness, Consciousness and Cognition is the premier journal.
 
Jantz, T. K., Tomory, J. J., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2013). Subjective aspects of action control for delayed actions: Action-related imagery. Journal of Mental Imagery, 37, 21-48.
 
Hubbard, J., Rigby, T., Godwin, C. A., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2013). Representations in working memory yield interference effects found with externally-triggered representations. Acta Psychologica, 142, 127-135.
 
Paik, J. H., Luong, H. N., & Morsella, E. (2012). Giving children a prefrontal cortex? Increased mental control through external cues. In A. Durante & C. Mammoliti (Eds.), Psychology of self-control (pp. 175-186). New York: Nova.
 
Morsella, E., Larson, L. R. L., Bargh, J. A. (2010). Indirect cognitive control, working-memory-related movements, and sources of automatisms. In E. Morsella (Ed.), Expressing oneself / expressing one's self: Communication, cognition, language, and identity (pp. 61-90). London: Psychology Press.
 
Morsella, E. (2010). Prologue: A Festschrift in the honor of Robert M. Krauss. In E. Morsella (Ed.), Expressing oneself / expressing one's self: Communication, cognition, language, and identity (pp. xiii - xxviii). London: Psychology Press.
 
Morsella, E., Lanska, M., Berger, C. C., & Gazzaley, A. (2009). Indirect cognitive control through top-down activation of perceptual symbols. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1173-1177.
 
Morsella, E., & Krauss, R. M. (2004). The role of gestures in spatial working memory and speech. American Journal of Psychology, 117, 411-424.
 
 
 

ACTION-RELATED UNCONSCIOUS MECHANISMS AND INFERENCES
 
Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2008). The unconscious mind. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 73-79. IMPACT FACTOR: 10.58.
 
Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2011). Unconscious action tendencies: Sources of 'un-integrated' action. In J. T. Cacioppo & J. Decety (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of social neuroscience (pp. 335 - 347). New York: Oxford University Press. [A comprehensive review of research on unconscious action].
 
Morsella, E., & Miozzo, M. (2002). Evidence for a cascade model of lexical access in speech production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28, 555-563.
 
Godwin, C. A., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2016). The origins of a spontaneous thought: EEG correlates and thinkers’ source attributions. AIMS Neuroscience, 3(2), 203-231: doi: 10.393410.3934/Neuroscience.2016.2.203 Link.
 
Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2010). Unconscious mind. In I. B. Weiner & W. E. Craighead (Eds.), The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science, Fourth Edition (Volume 4, pp. 1817-1819). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
 
Berger, C. C., Dennehy, T. C., Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2016). Nisbett and Wilson (1977) revisited: The little that we can know and can tell. Social Cognition, 34, 167-195.
 
Chen, P-W., Jantz, T. K., & Morsella, E. (2014). The prepared reflex: Behavioral and subjective flanker interference effects. International Journal of Psychological Studies, 6, 1-11. Open access.
 
Dennehy, T. C., Cooper, C., Molapour, T., & Morsella, E. (2014). Is there release from masking from isomorphism between perception and action? Brain Sciences, 4, 220-239.
 
Montemayor, C., Allen, A. K., & Morsella, E. (2013). The seeming stability of the unconscious homunculus. Sistemi Intelligenti, 25, 581-600.
 
Larson, L. R. L., Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2012). Mental modes: Priming of expertise-based dispositions in expertise-unrelated contexts. Psicólogica: International Journal of Methodology and Experimental Psychology, 33, 305-317.

Morsella, E., Larson, L. R. L., Zarolia, P., & Bargh, J. A. (2011). Stimulus control: The sought or unsought influence of the objects we tend to. Psicólogica: International Journal of Methodology and Experimental Psychology, 32, 145-170.
 
Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2010). Unconscious behavioral guidance systems. In Agnew, C. R., Carlston, D. E., Graziano, W. G., & Kelly, J. R. (Eds.), Then a miracle occurs: Focusing on behavior in social psychological theory and research (pp. 89-118). New York: Oxford University Press.
 
Levine, L. R., Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2007). The perversity of inanimate objects: Stimulus control by incidental musical notation. Social Cognition, 25, 267-283.
 
Hubbard, J., Molapour, T., & Morsella, E. (2016). The subjective consequences of experiencing random events. International Journal of Psychological Studies, 8, 120-125.
 
Krauss, R. M., Freyberg, R., & Morsella, E. (2002). Inferring speaker's physical attributes from their voices. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 618-625.
 
Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2010). Unconscious mind. In I. B. Weiner & W. E. Craighead (Eds.), The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science, Fourth Edition (Volume 4, pp. 1817-1819). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
 
 

MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS OF ACTION-RELATED CONTENT
 
Morsella, E. (2009).  The mechanisms of human action: Introduction and background.  In E. Morsella, J. A. Bargh, & P. M. Gollwitzer, Oxford handbook of human action (pp. 1-32). New York: Oxford University Press. [A comprehensive primer of all human action research].
 
Seth, A. K., Verschure, P. F. M. J., Blanke, O., Butz, M. V., Ford, J. M., Frith, C. D., Jacob, P., Kyselo, M., McGann, M., Menary, R., Morsella, E., & O'Regan, J. K. (2016). Action-oriented understanding of consciousness and the structure of experience. In Engel, A. K., Friston, K. J., & Kragic, D. (Eds.), The pragmatic turn: Toward action-oriented views on cognitive science (pp. 261-281). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
 
Morsella, E., Hoover, M. A., & Bargh, J. A. (2013). Functionalism redux: How adaptive action constrains perception, simulation, and evolved intuitions. In K. L. Johnson & M. Shiffrar (Eds.), People watching: Social, perceptual, and neurophysiological studies of body perception (pp. 256-282). New York: Oxford University Press.
 
Morsella, E., & Ben-Zeev, A. (2012). Cognition and action in the social world. In S. T. Fiske & C. N. Macrae (Eds.), Sage handbook of social cognition (pp. 278-294). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
 
Berger, C. C., Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2012). The 'what' of doing: Introspection-based evidence for James's ideomotor principle. In A. Durante & C. Mammoliti (Eds.), Psychology of self-control (pp. 145-160). New York: Nova.
 
Hubbard, J., Gazzaley, A., & Morsella, E. (2011). Traditional response interference from anticipated action outcomes: A response-effect compatibility paradigm. Acta Psychologica, 138, 106-110.
 
Morsella, E., & Krauss, R. M. (2005). Muscular activity in the arm during lexical retrieval: Implications for gesture-speech theories. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 34, 415-427.
 
Morsella, E., & Krauss, R. M. (2005). Can motor states influence semantic processing? Evidence from an interference paradigm. In A. Columbus (Ed.), Advances in Psychology Research, 36, 163-182. New York: Nova.
 
Morsella, E. (2002). The motor components of semantic representation. (Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, 2002). Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: the Sciences & Engineering, 63 (4B). (University Microfilms No. AAI3048195)
 
 

ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRIES AND OTHER SHORT PIECES
 
Morsella, E., & Bui, N-C. T. (2019). Why we need a blueprint for consciousness. In P. Negro, A blueprint for the hard problem of consciousness (pp. i - vii). New York: Bentham Science.
 
Morsella, E., & Walker, E. B. (2016). What makes us conscious is not what makes us human. Animal Sentience, 120, Link. Click here for a blog about this article.
 
Cho, H., & Morsella, E. (2016). Brain and consciousness. In H. L. Miller Jr. (Ed.), The Sage encyclopedia of theory in psychology (p. 59). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers.
 
Morsella, E., & Reyes, Z. (2016). The difference between conscious and unconscious brain circuits. Animal Sentience. Link.
 
Cushing, D., Velasquez, A. G., & Morsella, E. (2016). Competition between cognitive control and encapsulated, unconscious inferences: Are Aha-experiences special? Frontiers in Psychology, 7:626. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00626. Link.
 
Morsella, E., Lynn, M. T., Riddle, T. A. (2013). Voluntary action and the illusion of conscious will. In H. Pashler (Ed.), The encyclopedia of the mind (pp. 772-774). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers.
 
Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2010). Unconscious mind. In I. B. Weiner & W. E. Craighead (Eds.), The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science, Fourth Edition (Volume 4, pp. 1817-1819). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
 
Morsella, E., Montemayor, C., Hubbard, J., & Zarolia, P. (2010). Conceptual knowledge: Grounded in sensorimotor states, or a disembodied deus ex machina? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 455-456.
 
Morsella, E., & Montemayor, C. (2010). ¿Somos conscientes de toda la información que integra nuestro cerebro?: La Teoría de la Interacción Supramodular. Ciencia Cognitiva, 4, 44-46. [A review in Spanish about the lab's theory]
 
Morsella, E., Riddle, T. A., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). Undermining the foundations: Questioning the basic notions of associationism and mental representation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 218-219.
 
Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2007). Supracortical consciousness: Insights from temporal dynamics, processing-content, and olfaction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30, 100.
 
Morsella, E., Krieger, S. C., & Rizzo-Fontanesi, S. (2007). The primary function of consciousness in the nervous system. Annual Review of Biomedical Sciences, 9, 37-40.
 
 
 

ARCHIVED RESEARCH REPORTS

Kong, F., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2025, January 18). Flanker Interference from Activation of Mental Imagery: A Proof of Concept. Retrieved from osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/f3bq9 

REPRESENTATIVE POSTER PRESENTATIONS
 
(Number 109) Brauer, S., Shettigar, D., Chilton, S., & Morsella, E. (2024, May 23).  Habituation of Stimulus-Elicited Involuntary Cognitions: Implications for Psychopathology. Poster Session 3. Annual Convention for the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA, United States.

Wieczorek, N. E., Kong, F., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. (2024).  In-Between Resting States Predicting Future Cognitions: An EEG Study.  Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.

Pathak, S., Lopez-Carreno, J.M., & Morsella, E. (2024).  Challenges to Executive Function: Attentional Capture and High-Level Conditional Discriminations. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.

Taylor, C. A., & Morsella, E. (2024).  Urges During Impulse Control: Implications for Motivation Science. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, San Francisco.

Brauer, S., Wieczorek, N., Bueno, J., Panlilio, Z., Velasquez, A. G., & Morsella, E. (2023).  Stimulus-elicited involuntary cognitions: Response conflict, habituation, and word-frequency effects. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.

Elsabbagh, T., Wright-Wilson, L., Brauer, S., & Morsella, E. (2023).  The habituation of higher-order conscious processes: Evidence from mental arithmetic.  Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 

Kong, F., Lambert, D., Li, Y., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. (2023).  EEG of mental imagery elicited by distractors in the flanker task. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 

Brauer, S., Elsabaggh, T., Lambert, D., Bhangal, S., & Morsella, E. (2022).  Habituation of stimulus-elicited involuntary cognitions:  Implications for neuroimaging and psychopathology.  Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 

Wright-Wilson, L., Kong, F., Renna, J., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2022).  During action selection, consciousness represents selected actions, unselected actions, and involuntary memories.  Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.

Li, Y., Lambert, D., Daly, E., & Morsella, E. (2021).  Involuntary mental imagery elicited by distractors in a flanker task.  Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science.

Lambert, D., Wong, C. Y., & Morsella, E. (2020). Habituation of involuntary imagery as a function of stimulus threat and frequency. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, Boston.
 
Heredia Cedillo, A., Wong, C. Y., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2020). Effects of action priming on involuntary imagery in the reflexive imagery task. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, Boston.
 
Li, Y., Bui, N-C. T., Yankulova, J. K., & Morsella, E. (2020). The influence of external stimuli on the generation of random thoughts. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago.
 
Cook, A. J., Dou, W., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2019). EEG correlates of involuntary cognitions from external control. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Velasquez, A. G., Gazzaley, A., Toyoda, H., & Morsella, E. (2019). Stimulus-elicited involuntary imagery in semi-automated driving: Implications for neuroscience. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Velasquez, A. G., Gazzaley, A., Toyoda, H., & Morsella, E. (2018). Flanker-like effects in the wild: Stimulus-elicited involuntary imagery in semi-automated driving. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Yankulova, J. K., Bui, N-C. T., & Morsella, E. (2018). Involuntary insight, judgments, and syntactic processing and their experimentally-controlled determinants. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Walker, E. B., Li, Yanming, Gardner, K., Wong, C. Y., & Morsella, E. (2018). Involuntary high-level attentional shifts as a function of set and processing fluency. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
White, N. A., Velasquez, A. G., & Morsella, E. (2018). Mary had a little… : Involuntary music imagery and memory retrieval. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Zacher, L. M., Dou, W., & Morsella, E. (2018). External control of conscious thoughts by brand symbols. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Cedillo, A. H., Cook, A. J., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2018). Determinants of involuntary imagery: Accessibility, motor priming, and pop-out effects. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Walker, E. B., Renna, J., Gardner, K., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2017). External control of high-level processing: Involuntary counting, verbal imagery, and attentional shifts. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Boston.
 
Bui, N. C. T., Ghafur, R. D., Yankulova, J. K., & Morsella, E. (2017). Are spontaneous thoughts out-of-the-blue? Stimulus-elicited involuntary insights and syntactic processing. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Boston.
 
Reyes, Z., Yankulova, J. K., Yoo, S. H., & Morsella, E. (2017). Resilience and involuntary processing of valenced stimuli: The factor of approach/avoidance orientation. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Boston.
 
Dou, W., Bhangal, S., Cho, H., Allen, A. K., Reyes, Z., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2017). External control of the stream of consciousness: An EEG study. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.

Renna, J., Dou, W., Bhangal, S., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2017). Automatic counting and involuntary polymodal imagery (involving olfaction, audition, touch, taste, and vision). Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 

Cushing, D., & Morsella, E. (2017). Involuntary mental rotation and visuospatial imagery from external control: Implications for frontal control mechanisms. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Velasquez, A. G., & Morsella, E. (2016). A new flanker variant involving still more contextual-sensitivity: Implications for psychopathogical research. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago.
 
Dou, W., Cho, H., Velasquez, A. G., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2016). Cognitive biases and involuntary cognitions in at-risk populations. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago.
 
Cushing, D., & Morsella, E. (2016). The polymodal role of consciousness in adaptive action selection: A paradigm for neuroimaging. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, New York.
 
Bhangal, S., Garcia, A. C., Velasquez, A. G., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2016). Working memory-based action control: An interference paradigm for neuroimaging. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, New York.
 
Bhangal, S., Allen, A. K., & Morsella, E. (2015). Habituation effects on involuntary cognitions: Evidence from the reflexive imagery task. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, New York.
 
Cho, H., Zarolia, P., Velasquez, A., & Morsella, E. (2015). Cognitive- versus emotion-based involuntary cognitions: An informative contrast for the reflexive imagery task. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, New York.
 
Merrick, C., Jantz, T. K., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2015). Further evidence of event-related alpha synchronization as inhibitory control during a working memory task. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Cho, H., Bhangal, S., Allen, A. K., Zarolia, P., & Morsella, E. (2015). Cognitive- versus emotion-based involuntary cognitions: Frontal control and habituation effects. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Krisst, L. C., Chen, P-W., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. (2014). Revisiting Libet's paradigm: Decision time and the influence of automaticity on time perception. Poster presented at the Northern California Consciousness Conference, UC Davis.
 
Bhangal, S., Merrick, C., Farnia, M., Jantz, T. K., & Morsella, E. (2014). External control of the stream of consciousness: Stimulus-based effects of involuntary thought sequences. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Merrick, C., Jantz, T. K., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2014). EEG correlates of spontaneous imagery during working memory rehearsal. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Allen, A. K., Chen, P-W., & Morsella, E. (2014). Consciousness and the flanker task: Task-set rehearsal and subliminal flankers. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Krisst, L. C., Chen, P-W., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. (2014). Revisiting Libet's paradigm: EEG of response uncertainty and effects of action on temporal perception. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Cho, H., Allen, A. K., Godwin, C. A., Montemayor, C., & Morsella, E. (2014). Thought stopping through sustained imagery: Involuntary subvocalizations and the sense of agency. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.
 
Garcia, A. C., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2014). Response interference during working memory-based action control: A new interference paradigm for neuroimaging. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, Boston.
 
Allen, A. K., Merrick, C., Wilkins, K., & Morsella, E. (2013). The reflexive imagery task: Unintentional imagery despite extensive training and voluntary set selection. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, San Diego.
 
Krisst, L. C., Allen, A. K., Lanska, M., & Morsella, E. (2013). Subliminal priming of spontaneously experienced memories. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, San Diego.
 
Allen, A. K., Wilkins, K., Merrick, C., & Morsella, E. (2013). The reflexive imagery task: A new, robust paradigm for neuroimaging. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Merrick, C., Cooper, S., Jantz, T. K., & Morsella, E. (2013). Working memory based action control: Increased refreshing rate in the face of interference. Poster presented at the Annual California Cognitive Science Conference, Berkeley.
 
Chen, P-W., Allen, A. K., Montemayor, C., & Morsella, E. (2013). Perceptual conflict over time and between modalities: Comparing bistable percepts and intersensory illusions. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Samaha, J., Lynn, M. T., Jantz, T. J., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2013). Still searching for the phonological store: EEG correlates implicating motor and perceptual regions. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Krisst, L. C., Robinson, M. M., & Morsella, E. (2013). Revisiting Libet's studies: Effect of volition on time perception and response interference. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Godwin, C. A., Garcia, A. C., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2013). EEG correlates of spontaneous thoughts triggered by external stimuli and stimulus-independent cognitions. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Samaha, J. M., Morsella, E., Geisler, M. W. (2012). Motor aspects of auditory imagery: Evidence for a Broca's area network. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, Brighton, UK.
 
Godwin, C. A., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2012). EEG correlates of spontaneous thoughts and their introspection-based psychic determinants. Poster accepted for presentation at the Bay Area Memory Meeting, Davis, California.
 
Krisst, L. C., & Morsella, E. (2012). Introspections about visual sensory memory during the classic Sperling iconic memory task. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago.
 
Jantz, T., Tomory, J. J., Schweiger, E. B., & Morsella, E. (2012). Subjective and behavioral effects of external distractors on items in working memory. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago.
 
Godwin, C. A., Hubbard, J., Schweiger, E., McBride [Allen], A., & Morsella, E. (2012). Subjective effects in a response-effect compatibility paradigm with subliminal distractors. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago.
 
Chen, P-W., Jantz, T. K., Cooper, S., & Morsella, E. (2012). Action set from training-based versus working memory-based knowledge: Subjective and performance effects. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago.
 
McBride [Allen], A., Godwin, C. A., Montemayor, C., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2012). The phenomenal self: Introspections about the internal observer and origins of thoughts. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago.
 
Samaha, J. M., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2012). The role of Broca's area and supramarginal gyrus in auditory imagery. Poster presentated at the Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association.
 
Cooper, S., Jantz, T., Hubbard, J., & Morsella, E. (2012). The limits of self-control: Susceptibility of goal-related representations to externally-triggered distraction. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego.
 
Godwin, C. A., & Morsella, E. (2012). The history of a thought: Instrospection-based 'psychic determinants' of spontaneous thought. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego.
 
Robinson, M. M., & Morsella, E. (2012). The subjective cost of everyday thinking (comparing, attending, and choosing): Implications for social cognition research. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego.
 
Simpson, B., Matsumoto, D., Morsella, E., & Olide, A. (2012). On the functional activation of emotions in goal pursuit. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego.
 
Tomory, J., Jantz, T., Morsella, E. (2012). Disturbing working memory: Rehearsal, imagery, and latency effects from external distractors. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, Chicago.
 
Godwin, C. A., McBride [Allen], A., Montemayor, C., Geisler, M. W., & Morsella, E. (2012). Phenomenology of the stream of consciousness: Introspections about thoughts and the internal observer. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, Chicago.
 
Cooper, S., Dennehy, T. C., & Morsella, E. (2012). Action and consciousness: Entry into awareness from behavioral inclinations and perceptual motor resonance. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, Chicago.
 
McBride [Allen], A., Lanska, M., & Morsella, E. (2011). Subliminal and task-related determinants of spontaneously-experienced autobiographical memory. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Washington, D.C.
 
Hubbard, J., Godwin, C. A., Sigman, M., & Morsella, E. (2011). The cost of consciousness: The processing of simultaneous subliminal and supraliminal stimuli. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Washington, D.C.
 
Zarolia, P., Jantz, T., Hubbard, J., & Morsella, E. (2011). Beyond the flanker task: Interference from incentivized distracters, anticipated action-effects, and refreshed representations. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Bedo, N., Lynn, M. T., Morsella, E., & Geisler, M. W. (2011). Neural components of conscious and unconscious conflict: An EEG study. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
 
Dennehy, T. C., & Morsella, E. (2011). Entry into attentional awareness as a function of top-down action-related activation versus bottom-up perceptual salience. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco.
Dennehy, T. C., Hubbard, J., & Morsella, E. (2011). Nisbett and Wilson (1977) revisited: The little that we can know and can tell. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, Texas.
 
Morsella, E., Jantz, T., & Tomory, J. J. (2011). Subjective and agency-related effects of controlled versus automatic processing: A quantitative review. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, Texas.
 
Hubbard, J., Molapour, T., Dennehy, T. C., & Morsella, E. (2011). The subjective consequences of experiencing random events. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, Texas.
 
Hubbard, J., Morsella, E., Rigby, T., & Gazzaley, A., (2010). Inter-representational dynamics: endogenously-generated representations in working memory yield the interference effects found with external stimuli. Poster presented at the California Cognitive Science Conference, Berkeley, CA.
 
Molapour, T., Berger, C. C., Dennehy, T. C., & Morsella, E. (2010). Awareness during cognitive conflict: Double blindness and introspections about speed of processing. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Boston, Massachusetts.
 
Dennehy, T. C., & Morsella, E. (2010). Doing is for perceiving: Does causal action influence entry into attentional awareness? Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Boston, Massachusetts.
 
Molapour, T., Lynn, M. T., Zarolia, P., Riddle, T. A., & Morsella, E. (2010). Valence from conflict: Its influence on likeability of perceptible and subliminal stimuli. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Las Vegas, Nevada. For a review of this challenging line of research, request reprint of Molapour, T., & Morsella, E. "Valence from conflict? Preliminary evidence from Stroop interference," Language Acquisition.
 
Hubbard, J., Lynn, M. T., Zarolia, P., & Morsella, E. (2010). Internally-generated representations yield the facilitation and interference effects found with external stimuli. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Boston, Massachusetts.
 
Berger, C. C., Lynn, M. T., Riddle, T. A., & Morsella, E. (2010). The 'what' of doing: Lay perceptions of action and illusory intentions to act. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Las Vegas, Nevada.
 
Lanska, M., Ben-Zeev, A., & Morsella, E. (2010). Future action influences the content of spontaneous autobiographical memory: A new paradigm. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Luong, H. N., Morsella, E., & Paik, J. H. (2010). Giving children a prefrontal cortex: Maintaining 'set' through external cues. Poster presented at the Western Psychological Association Annual Convention, Cancun, Mexico.
 
Luong, H. N., Paik, J. H., & Morsella, E. (2010). Giving children a  prefrontal cortex: Using environmental stimulus to supplant existing  interference. Paper presented at the 17th International Conference on Learning, Hong Kong, China.
 
Berger, C. C., Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2009). Perturbing metacognition: Tip-of-the-tongue state contagion and the urge fan effect. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, California.
 
Cigarchi, S., Zarolia, P., & Morsella, E. (2009). How different modes of cognitive control influence affective/incentive States. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, California.
 
Lanska, M., Rigby, T., & Morsella, E. (2009). The forward-looking bias of the mind/brain: How future tasks breed intrusive cognitions. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, California.
 
Rigby, T., & Morsella, E. (2009). Conscious of conflict, but not of the triggering stimuli. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, California.
 
Larson, L. R. L., Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). Mental modes: Expertise priming influences behavioral dispositions in expertise-unrelated contexts. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, California.
 
Zarolia, P., & Morsella, E. (2009). The role of indirect cognitive control in activating affective/incentive states. Poster presented at the Western Psychological Association Annual Convention, Portland, Oregon.
 
Cigarchi, S., & Morsella, E. (2009). Subjective fatigue, self-regulation, and mental rotation. Poster presented at the Western Psychological Association Annual Convention. Portland, Oregon.
 
Rigby, T., Riddle, T. A., Berger, C. C., & Morsella, E. (2009). Conscious of conflict but not of the eliciting stimulus: Implications for the neuroscience of cognitive control. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco, California.
 
Lanska, M., Rigby, T., & Morsella, E. (2009). The prospective brain: How future actions breed intrusive cognitions and interfere with current tasks. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco, California.
 
Riddle, T. A., & Morsella, E. (2009). Is that me? Authorship processing as a function of intra-psychic conflict. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, California.
 
Rigby, T., Acosta, K., & Morsella, E. (2009). Does conscious conflict require awareness of the triggering stimulus? Implications for social cognition research. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Tampa, Florida.
 
Berger, C. C., Wilson, L. E., Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2009). Cognitive dynamics underlying the subjective aspects of self-control. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Tampa, Florida.
 
Riddle, T. A., & Morsella, E. (2009). Is that me? The influence of subjective conflict on authorship processing. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Tampa, Florida.
 
Lanska, M., Morsella, E., Ben-Zeev, A., and Bargh, J. A. (2009). The spontaneous thoughts of the night: How future action breeds intrusive congnitions. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Tampa, Florida.
 
Rigby, T. (2009). Metacognition without the cognition: Subjective effects of interference from subliminal stimuli and prospective memory. Presented at the Annual Psi Chi Conference at San Francisco State University.
 
Kang, Y. N., Morsella, E., Shamosh, N. A., Bargh, J. A., Gray, J. R. (2008). The essence of subjective conflict during self-control: Neural correlates of sustaining incompatible intentions. Proceeding of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California.
 
Larson, L. R. L., Morsella, E., & Bargh, J. A. (2008). Mental Modes: Direct effects of expertise-based priming on action. Poster presented at Poster presented at the Judgment and Decision-Making Preconference at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
 
Morsella, E., Honhongva, M. K., & Bargh, J. A. (2007). On the function of consciousness: The subjective consequences of priming conflicting actions. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Memphis, Tennessee.
 
Morsella, E., Gray, J. R., Levine, L. R., & Bargh, J. A. (2006). On the function of consciousness: The subjective experience of incompatible intentions. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, New York City.
 
Morsella, E., Romero, R., Halim, J., & Krauss, R. M. (2003). Judging social identity from voice and photograph. Poster presented at the Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Los Angeles, California.
 
Camacho, C. J., Higgins, E. T., & Morsella, E. (2001). The mere categorization effect: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Presented as a 'Hot Topic' talk at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, Montreal, Canada.
 
Morsella, E. (2004). The cognitive role of conscious states: Supramodular interaction theory (SIT). Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, Chicago, Illinois.
 
Morsella E., & Krauss, R. M. (1999). Electromyography of arm during the lexical retrieval of abstract and concrete words. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Psychophysiology, Granada, Spain. Psychophysiology, 36, S82-S82. (This poster presentation led to a publication in Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.)

DR. MEREDITH LANSKA is a visiting scholar who received her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Binghamton University in 2015. Her research examined the attribution of fluency—ease of processing—on recognition memory judgments. Fluency creates a sense of familiarity that is attributed to a feeling of “oldness” on a recognition memory test. Her research illuminates that the attribution of processing fluency on a recognition memory test is not a simplistic process, as it is frequently thought of, but is actually quite sophisticated. After graduate school, she conducted research in the technology industry while also teaching at colleges in the Bay Area. Since she has always been preoccupied with the way we make sense of this world, she is currently back visiting her first lab to continue to investigate how memory helps us navigate our environment and gives rise to a cohesive experience.

NATALIA WIECZOREK is a graduate student interested in which neural pathways are associated with the conscious field, how conscious contents influence action selection, and the role of external stimuli and encapsulation in adaptive action selection. 

BELLA BENZAKEN is a graduate student interested in the neural mechanisms of consciousness, neuroplasticity, and music’s influence on brain processes, specifically memory, emotion and executive functioning. 

SONIA PATHAK is a graduate student interested in attention, unconscious behavior, and learning. She is especially interested in the mechanistic underpinnings of neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD.

CLAYTON TAYLOR is a graduate student interested in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.  He is particularly interested in the role of urges, and other metacognitions, in conscious action selection. 

ARIEL HUH is a graduate interested in indirect cognitive control and the differences between social pain and physical pain.

KARINA ANDRADE is a graduate student interested in cognitive psychology and developmental psychology. She is interested in conditional discriminations, the effects of trauma, memory, and developmental/intellectual disabilities in children. 

CASSANDRA VERA NEWMAN is a graduate student interested in the neural mechanisms involved in unconscious behavior, attention, and cognition. She is also interested in PDP networks and computational modeling.

DENISE GARCIA is a graduate student interested in cognitive neuroscience, specifically in the realm of cognitive processing, neural networks, and computational models within the context of learning disabilities.

DIVYA SHETTIGAR is an undergraduate interested in the conscious and unconscious processes that influence human behavior.  She is interested also in clinical psychology and social psychology.

ANGELINA LEOPARDO is an undergraduate student interested in neuropharmacology, neuroplasticity and cognitive neuroscience. She is also interested in habituation, and the neural processes connected to consciousness. 

KATELYN CHOI is an undergraduate student interested in the roles of consciousness and unconsciousness in the brain, specifically how the two processes influence creativity and behavior.  She is also interested in implicit memory, the meaning of dreams, and how art can affect cognitive development.

The Action and Consciousness Laboratory is interested in training SFSU volunteer research assistants during the entire year. 

Qualified candidates will be considered for full-time positions in the lab.  Psychology and neuroscience majors, especially those interested in pursuing graduate studies in this field, are strongly encouraged to apply.  

All potentially interested should email morsella@sfsu.edu with a statement of interest, resume, unofficial transcript, and contact information.

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY
1600 HOLLOWAY AVENUE, EP 301
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132

Club: Neuroscience Division of MBB