Laboratory for Experimental Psychology – LEP

Laboratory for Experimental Psychology (LEP) at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade was founded in 1974. We conduct research mainly in four lines: psycholinguistics, perception, experimental aesthetics and psychology of art, decision making and heuristics and biases. Associates of LEP teach more than 15 courses on BA, MA and PhD level of academic studies of psychology in the Department of Psychology, making LEP an important teaching base. Laboratory for Experimental Psychology has a constitutive unit in University of Novi Sad. 

Training of young investigators is one of the pillars of LEP. The Laboratory is a place where young investigators gain their first insights into science and where students perform research for their undergraduate, master and doctoral theses. Young members of Laboratory are engaged as research assistants and, at the end of the academic year they are presenting their work at the scientific meeting and workshop LEPovanje (LEPing). To run their first experiments, young researchers are trained in literature review, conveying a research question, experimental design, ethics of research, programming, data collection, basic and advanced statistical analysis. In more than four decades about 180 young researchers were members of the Laboratory, many of whom were awarded by various independent scientific establishments for their mentored investigative work within the Laboratory. We are proud that many of previous LEP’s associates are today’s distinguished professors and scientists at universities both in Serbia and abroad.  

LEP founded The Collection of Old Scientific Instruments. This unique collection curates about 100 scientific instruments from the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th century. Although most of the instruments were intended for psychological research, the collection contains instruments that were used in other areas of science. Considering that the majority of instruments are designed for research into experimental psychology, its specialized focus distinguishes it as one of the most significant collections of its kind in the world. Our associates are trained to lead you through the gallery, and tell a visitor about the history of psychology, and an amazing story of how the collection was founded. Ofcourse, they will also explain the mechanisms of all instruments and how they were used to investigate fundamental psychological processes and functions. Today, we investigate the same in our Laboratory, but using computers, VR, eye-tracker, and collaborating with other institutions.

Scientific communication. From its establishment, the Laboratory was an organizer of many lectures, symposia, seminars, colloquia and conferences where associates of the Laboratory and researchers from different areas of science exchange their ideas and present the results of their latest studies. In addition to numerous temporary meetings, the Laboratory is organizing two permanent forms of scientific communication, such as weekly LEP Colloquia and the largest in region annual scientific conference Empirical Studies in Psychology (co-organizer of the meeting is Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade). Associates of the Laboratory are intensively involved in various programs for the communication of science. LEP hosted ECVP in 2014 – an annual meeting devoted to the scientific study of vision, particularly visual perception and multisensory processes related to vision. Recently attracting between 700-900 participants from across Europe, North America and the Asian-Pacific region, ECVP is now one of the largest international conferences in the field, and the International Quantitative Morphology Meeting in 2015. 

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LEP means “beautiful” in Serbian.