The Human–AI Cognition and Trust Laboratory (HACTL) conducts research guided by a central question: How can intelligent systems be designed to align with human cognitive processes to enhance collaboration and decision-making? This question is approached across three interrelated domains: trust and cognition in the context of automation, perception of theory of mind in artificial intelligence (AI) agents, and the cognitive dynamics of human–AI interaction. Each of these domains contributing to the development of empirically grounded, psychologically informed design principles for intelligent systems.
The lab is directed by Dr. Derek Koehl. For questions email derek.koehl@uah.edu.
Accepting Graduate Students for Spring 2027 and Fall 2027.
What students do in the lab with research participants
Students in HACTL are involved in every stage of the research process, from designing studies to collecting and analyzing data. They run controlled experiments in which participants interact with automated systems and AI agents on decision-making, monitoring, and problem-solving tasks. During experiment sessions, students collect behavioral measures such as reliance, response time, and accuracy, and self-report measures of trust, workload, and perceived agent intelligence. Students also handle the human side of research: recruiting and consenting participants, running sessions under ethical guidelines, and debriefing participants. Beyond data collection, students help build experimental tasks and AI agent interfaces, analyze data, and present findings at lab meetings and conferences.
Outcomes we hope our research with students will lead to
HACTL aims to produce empirically grounded, psychologically-informed design principles that help developers build intelligent systems people can trust appropriately. This means people should rely on AI when it is reliable and stay skeptical when it is not. HACTL seeks to clarify how people form mental models of AI agents and how those perceptions shape collaboration, so that systems can be designed to support human judgment rather than replace or undermine it.For students, the lab experience builds skills in experimental design, statistical analysis, and the responsible conduct of human-subjects research, as well as the ability to work across human factors psychology, computer science, and engineering disciplines. HACTL provides students the opportunity to become co-authors on conference presentations and publications, and leave as competitive applicants for graduate programs and research careers.