Madeleine graduated as valedictorian from Cal Poly in 2015 before joining the META (Memory Emotion Thought Awareness) lab within the Psychological and Brain Sciences department. Since then she has broadly studied the psychological basis of creative idea generation and insight, the physiology of awe and wonder— via the experience of “aesthetic chills”, growth and fixed mindsets, artistic engagement, and the relationship between creative idea generation and evaluation. Using eye tracking technology, she also investigates how inter-individual differences in perceptual processing and eye movement behavior may relate to creativity and creativity-related traits, such as curiosity, schizotypy, and artistic interest. Madeleine has a hobby fascination with the “hard problem" of consciousness. She enjoys swing dancing, playing the mandolin, and wearing hats.

Contact: m.gross@psych.ucsb.edu