Dr. Mayr's primary research focus is on the relationship between memory, attention, and cognitive control, both from a general and a developmental/life-span perspective. His research methods include behavioral experiments, eye-tracking, and EEG or fMRI neuroimaging. As a secondary focus he also examines complex, social decision processes (e.g., whether or not to enter a competition or to give money to a charity).

Dr. Mayr will not be accepting new graduate students for Fall 2025.

Selected Publications (student authors bolded):

Moss, M. E., & Mayr, U. (2023). What’s so hard about hierarchical control? Pinpointing processing constraints within cue-based and serial-order control structures. Cognitive Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2023.101582

Kikumoto, A., & Mayr, U., (2022). The role of conjunctive representations in stopping actions. Psychological Science, 33, 325-338. doi: 10.1177/09567976211034505

Kikumoto, A., & Mayr, U., (2020). Conjunctive representations that integrate stimuli, responses, and rules are critical for action selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201922166. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1922166117\

Kikumoto, A., & Mayr, U. (2018). Decoding hierarchical control of sequential behavior in oscillatory EEG activity. eLife,7:e38550, doi: 10.7554/eLife.38550

Hubbard, J., Harbaugh, W.T., Srivastava, S., Degras, D., & Mayr, U. (2016). A general benevolence dimension that links neural, psychological, economic, and life-span data on altruistic tendencies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(10), 1351.

Mayr, U., Kuhns, D., & Hubbard, J. (2014). Long-term memory and the control of attentional control. Cognitive Psychology, 72, 1-26.

Mayr, U., Kuhns, D., Rieter, M. (2013). Eye-movements reveal dynamics of task control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 14, 489-509.

Mayr, U. (2009). Sticky plans: Inhibition and binding during serial task control. Cognitive Psychology, 59, 123-153.

Harbaugh, B.T., Mayr, U., & Burghart, D. (2007). Neural responses to taxation and voluntary giving reveal motives for charitable donations. Science, 316, 1622-1625.

Mayr, U., Awh, E., & Laurey, P. (2003). Does conflict adaptation require executive control? Nature Neuroscience, 6,450-452.