Monika Lohani portrait
  • Assistant Professor, Psychology Department
801-581-7148

Publications

  • Stokes, C., Lohani, M., DeCostanza, A. H. & Loh, E. (2023). Human-machine social systems: Test and validation via military use cases.. Handbook of Human-Machine Systems, Wiley. Published, 12/31/2023.
  • McDonnell AS, Simmons TG, Erickson GG, Lohani M, Cooper JM & Strayer DL (2023). This Is Your Brain on Autopilot: Neural Indices of Driver Workload and Engagement During Partial Vehicle Automation. Human factors. Vol. 65, 143514501435-1450. Published, 11/01/2023.
  • Lohani M, Pfund GN, Bono, T & Hill, P. L. (2023). Starting school with purpose: Self-regulatory strategies of first-semester university students. Applied psychology. Health and well-being. Vol. 15, 723739723-739. Published, 05/01/2023.
  • Aina D., Poitras, E. & Lohani, M. (2022). Detection of student confusion in MOOCs: Feature extraction methods for EEG signal processing. Proceedings of the American Educational Research Association. Accepted, 04/06/2022.
  • Lohani, M., Cooper, J. M., Erickson, G. G., Simmons, T. G., McDonnell, A. S., Carriero, A. E., Crabtree, K. & Strayer, D. L. (2021). No Difference in Arousal or Cognitive Demands Between Manual and Partially Automated Driving: A Multi-Method On-Road Study. Frontiers in Neuroscience. Published, 06/10/2021.
    https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.577418
  • Lohani, M. & Cooper, J., Erickson, G., Simmons, T., McDonnell, A., Crabtree, K., & Strayer, D. (2020). Driver arousal and workload under partial vehicle automation: a pilot study. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Accepted, 10/30/2020.
    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/10711...
  • Lohani M, McElvaine K, Payne B, Mitcheom K, Britton W, A Longitudinal Training Study to Delineate the Specific Causal Effects of Open Monitoring Versus Focused Attention Techniques on Emotional Health, Complementary Therapies in Medicine (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2020.102525. Accepted, 07/20/2020.
  • Lohani, M., Poitras, E. & Stokes, C. (2019). A Framework for Human-Technology Social Systems: The role of inter-personal interactions. IGI Global. Accepted, 06/11/2019.
  • Lohani, M. & Payne, B. R., & Strayer, D. L. (2019). A review of psychophysiological measures to assess cognitive states in real-world driving. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Published, 03/19/2019.
    https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00057
  • Chit-Tegmark, M. & Lohani, M., & Scheutz, M. (2019). Gender effects in perceptions of robots and humans with varying emotional intelligence. Proceedings of ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. Published, 03/09/2019.
    http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arn...
  • Lohani M., Payne B. & Isaacowitz D. (2018). Emotional coherence in early and later adulthood during sadness reactivity and regulation. Vol. 18, Emotion. 789-804. Published, 09/01/2018.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28682087
  • Biondi, F. & Lohani, M., Hopman, R., Mills, S., Cooper, J., & Strayer, D. (2018). 80 MPH and out-of-the-loop: Effects of real-world semi-automated driving on driver workload and arousal. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. Vol. 62, 1878-1882. Published, 09/01/2018.
    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/15419...
  • Purcell J., Lohani M., Musket C., Hay A., Isaacowitz D. & Gruber J. (2018). Lack of emotional gaze preferences using eye-tracking in remitted bipolar I disorder. Vol. 6, International Journal of Bipolar Disorders. Published, 07/31/2018.
    https://journalbipolardisorders.springeropen.com/a...
  • Lohani, M. & Stokes, C., Dashan, N., McCoy, M., Bailey, C. A., & Rivers, S. E. (2017). A framework for human-agent social systems: the role of non-technical factors in operation success. Proceedings of Advances in Human Factors in Robots and Unmanned Systems. Published, 12/31/2017.
  • Leite, I., & McCoy, M., Lohani, M., Ullman, D., Salomons, N., Stokes, C., Rivers, S., & Scassellati, B. (2017). Affective narratives with robots: The impact of interaction context and individual differences on story recall and emotional understanding. Frontiers in Robotics and AI. Vol. 4. Published, 07/12/2017.
    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt...
  • Lohani M., Stokes C., Oden K., Frazier S., Landers K., Craven P., Lawton D., McCoy M. & Macannuco D. (2017). The impact of non-technical skills on trust and stress. ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. 191-192. Published, 03/06/2017.
  • Fan L., Scheutz M., Lohani M., McCoy M. & Stokes C. (2017). Do we need emotionally intelligent artificial agents? First results of human perceptions of emotional intelligence in humans compared to robots. (pp. 129-141). Vol. 10498 LNAI, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). Published, 01/01/2017.
  • Lohani, M. & Stokes, C., McCoy, M., Bailey, C. A., Joshi, A., & Rivers, S. E. (2016). Perceived role of physiological sensors impacts trust and reliance on robots. Proceedings of 25th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication. Published, 08/31/2016.
  • Leite, I. & McCoy, M., Lohani, M., Salomons, N., McElvaine, K., Stokes, C., Rivers, S., & Scassellati, B. (2016). Autonomous disengagement classification and repair in multiparty child-robot interaction. Proceedings of 25th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication. 525-532. Published, 08/31/2016.
  • Lohani, M. & Stokes, C., McCoy, M., Bailey, C. A., & Rivers, S. E. (2016). Social interaction moderates human-robot trust-reliance relationship and improves stress coping. Proceedings of 11th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. 471-472. Published, 03/15/2016.
  • Oden, K. & Lohani, M., McCoy, M., Crutchfield, J., & Rivers, S. (2015). Embedding emotional intelligence into military training contexts. Procedia Manufacturing. Vol. 3, 4052-4059. Published, 12/31/2015.
  • Leite, I. & McCoy, M., Lohani, M., Ullman, D., Salomons, N., Stokes, C., Rivers, S., & Scassellati, B. (2015). Emotional storytelling in the classroom: Individual versus group interaction between children and robots. Proceedings of 10th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. 75-82. Published, 03/15/2015.
  • Stanley, J. T. & Lohani, M., & Isaacowitz, D. M. (2014). Age-related differences in understanding socially inappropriate humor. Psychology and Aging. Vol. 29, 528-541. Published, 09/30/2014.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC41768...
  • Lohani, M. & Isaacowitz, D. M. (2014). Age differences in managing response to sadness elicitors using attentional deployment, positive reappraisal, and suppression. Emotion. Vol. 28, 678–697. Published, 05/31/2014.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC41768...
  • Lohani, M. & Larcom, M. J., & Isaacowitz, D.M. (2013). Happier & older? Age-related effects on positive emotion. The Light and Dark Sides of Positive Emotion. Oxford University Press. Published, 12/31/2013.
  • Lohani, M. & Gupta, R., & Srinivasan, N. (2013). Cross-cultural evaluation of the International Affective Picture System on an Indian sample. Psychological Studies. Vol. 58, 233-241. Published, 12/31/2013.
  • Noh, S. & Lohani, M., & Isaacowitz, D. (2011). Deliberate real-time mood regulation in adulthood: The importance of age, fixation and attentional functioning. Cognition & Emotion. Vol. 25, 998-1013. Published, 05/24/2011.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC31685...
  • Srinivasan, N. & Srivastava, P., Lohani, M., & Baijal, S. (2008). Focused and distributed attention. Progress in Brain Research. Vol. 176, 87-100. Published, 12/31/2008.

Research Statement

Monika Lohani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah. Monika earned her M.A. in Cognitive Science from the University of Allahabad and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Developmental Psychology from Brandeis University. She completed her postdoctoral research training in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. Monika directs the Applied Cognitive Regulation (ACR) Lab at the University of Utah. The ACR lab integrates basic and applied perspectives to understand how people can effectively adapt their attention and emotions to daily and long-term stressors in real-world contexts. Furthermore, the lab focuses on developing evidence-based interventions and utilizing technology to facilitate healthy self-regulation, psychological well-being, and performance. The ACR lab adopts a combination of ​experience sampling, behavioral, and psychophysiological measures to assess responses in the lab and real-world settings. ​

Opportunities for graduate students: I will be accepting graduate students for the coming application cycle. If more information is needed prior to submitting the application, please email me at Monika.Lohani@utah.edu.

Opportunities for undergraduate students: Research assistants are integral to the development and success of all ongoing projects. Students will gain hands-on experience in high-quality research on all critical aspects of a project, including study development, data collection and processing, and dissemination of findings (such as conference presentations). These research experiences are not only applicable to a wide array of professions but also enhance students’ competitive edge when pursuing postgraduate studies or seeking employment opportunities. If the focus of the lab is of interest to you, please do not hesitate to apply by filling out this online form. It is a competitive process, but no prior research experience is required. 

Our laboratory is dedicated to fostering a welcoming and easily accessible atmosphere, ensuring inclusivity for everyone. 

Research Keywords

  • Affect Regulation
  • Applied Cognition
  • Human Factors
  • Lifespan
  • Evidence-based Interventions
  • Psychophysiology

Presentations

  • Dutton, S.*, Hill, P. L., Imel, Z. E., & Lohani, M. (2023) Affect in the wild: Psychophysiological responses to real-world contexts. Society for Psychophysiological Research. New Orleans, LA. Poster, Presented, 10/31/2023.
  • Elsey, J. S.* , Dutton, S.* , & Lohani, M. (2023). Affective experiences and stress reactivity: The moderating role of stressor forecasting. Society for Affective Science Conference. Long Beach, CA. Poster, Presented, 03/31/2023.
  • Lohani, M., Dutton, S., & Elsey, J. S. (2021). Effective emotion regulation in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Society for affective science. Presentation, Accepted, 02/28/2021.
  • Lohani, M., Cooper, J., Erickson, G., Simmons, T., McDonnell, A., Crabtree, K., & Strayer, D. (2020). Application of heart rate variability to assess arousal in semi-automated vehicles. Society for Psychophysiological Research. Presentation, Presented, 10/11/2020.
  • Lohani, M., Cooper, J., Erickson, G., Simmons, T., McDonnell, A., Crabtree, K., & Strayer, D. (2020). Driver arousal and workload under partial vehicle automation: a pilot study. Human Factors Ergonomic Society. Presentation, Presented, 10/09/2020.
  • Chit-Tegmark, Lohani, M., & Scheutz, M. (2019). Gender effects in perceptions of robots and humans with varying emotional intelligence. The 14th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction, Daegu, South Korea. Presentation, Accepted, 01/12/2019.
  • Payne, B.R., Silcox, J., Lash, A., Ferguson, S.H., & Lohani, M. (2018a). Text captioning reduces the effects of perceptual effort on speech memory. Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New Orleans, LA. Presentation, Presented, 11/16/2018.
  • Biondi, F., Lohani, M., Hopman, R., Mills, S., Cooper, J., & Strayer, D. (2018). 80 MPH and out-of-the-loop: Effects of real-world semi-automated driving on driver workload and arousal. International Annual Meeting of Human Factors Ergonomic Society. Philadelphia, PA. Presentation, Presented, 10/04/2018.
  • Payne, B.R., Silcox, J., Lash, A., Ferguson, S.H., & Lohani, M. (2018b). Assistive text captioning offsets the effects of background noise on speech memory and pupillometry. Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology, Pittsburgh, PA. Presentation, Presented, 09/30/2018.

Grants, Contracts & Research Gifts

  • A psychophysiological approach to the refinement of suicide risk management intervention. PI: Monika Lohani. 1U4U, 03/2020 - present. Total project budget to date: $30,000.00
  • The effects of text captioning on neurocognitive workload of speech understanding. PI: Brennan Payne. Co-PI(s): Monika Lohani. Telecommunications Research and Development Grant by CaptionCall LLC., 02/01/2018 - 12/31/2019. Total project budget to date: $103,841.00
  • A longitudinal training study to delineate the specific causal effects of open monitoring versus focused attention techniques on emotional regulation skills. PI: Lohani, Monika. 01/31/2013 - 12/30/2016. Total project budget to date: $15,000.00