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The Laboratory

The Laboratory of Philosophy of Law and Cognitive Psychology (PSI-PHI-LAW) is an interdepartmental research initiative devoted to the empirical study of the cognitive foundations of law and legal institutions. It brings together scholars in legal theory and cognitive psychology with the aim of investigating how people conceptualize institutional notions and how expertise affects the understanding of legal concepts.

Established within the Alma Mater Research Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (Alma AI), the laboratory develops through interdisciplinary collaborations with the Departments of Legal Studies and Philosophy. Ongoing projects employ experimental methods — such as behavioural measures, reaction-time tasks, and conceptual analysis — to explore how institutional concepts are represented, processed, and used by experts and non-experts.

The aim of the laboratory is to promote an evidence-based understanding of the way in which cognition underpins legal reality, by clarifying the division of cognitive labour on which institutional life relies and by offering new tools for studying how individuals recognize, interpret, and legitimize legal concepts.