Welcome!

We are the Mechanisms of Creative Cognition and Attention (MoCCA) Lab, located at the University of Arkansas. The lab is directed by the principle investigator Dr. Darya Zabelina. The research in the lab focuses on understanding creative cognition, imagination, and other related processes, and how these processes are linked with more traditional sub-fields of cognitive psychology, such as attention and executive functions. 

We use a variety of approaches, including behavioral, experience sampling, electrophysiological (EEG and ERP), and functional MRI (fMRI) techniques. We also do work on mind-wandering, mindfulness, problem solving, and the influence of technology on creativity and imagination. MoCCA is part of the UA Integrative Systems Neuroscience.

MoCCA Lab group photo 2024
Tomoki Osaki wearing EEG cap
Lab members at a conference
MoCCA Lab group gathering in restaurant
MoCCA Lab LOGO

Lab News

  • We are recruiting graduate applicants! Deadline Dec 1, 2024
  • MoCCA Lab hosted the APA I Am Psyched! exhibit that explored the history of women of color in psychology. More info here.
  • Darya Zabelina is awarded Mensa Education & Research Foundation Award for Excellence in Research. 
  • Whitney Davis receives an E. D. and Peggy Yancey Award for an outstanding Psychology Student.
  • Ashley Keith receives the E. P. Trapp Award for an outstanding Psychology student. 
  • Lucas Bellaiche receives the Walter J. Richards Award for an outstanding Psychology student, and is named 2021 Senior of Significance. 
  • Grace Staples receives the R. H. Waters Award for an outstanding Psychology student. 
  • Lucas Bellaiche wins 1st place poster award at the Undergraduate Research Poster Competition.
  • MoCCA Lab is awarded $750K from ONR to study creative thinking over different timescales.
  • Darya Zabelina discusses her research on NPR-KUAF.
  • Whitney Davis and Josh Upshaw win 2nd place in the Arkansas Psychology Association poster competition for their poster “Imagination and Social Media Use in Young Adults.”
  • Whitney Davis and Ashley Keith receive Honors College Research Grants.
  • Lucas Bellaiche is accepted to the Princeton Neuroscience Institute Summer Internship Program.
  • Carl E. Stevens, Jr., Ph.D. receives the Postdoctoral Fellows Award (PFA) from the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS).
  • Darya Zabelina is awarded the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science (APS).

Newest Publications

Hubert, K. F., Awa, K. N., & Zabelina, D. L. (2024). The current state of artificial intelligence generative language models is more creative than humans on divergent thinking tasks. Scientific Reports.

Ramey, M., & Zabelina, D. L. (2024). Divergent thinking modulates interactions between episodic memory and schema knowledge: Controlled and spontaneous episodic retrieval processes. Memory & Cognition.