When Associate Professor Henry Yoon <\/b>was a child, his mother asked him why humans had been so successful despite not being the biggest, strongest, or fastest animals. \u201cIntelligence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her answer kickstarted her son\u2019s lifelong interest in intelligence and individual differences. Today, Yoon specializes in individual differences and behavioral genetics as co-director of Augsburg\u2019s biopsychology major. Since joining Augsburg in 2009, he has embraced the flexibility to pursue new, meaningful directions. So when generative artificial intelligence burst on the scene in recent years, he was interested both as a scientist and as a teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, I thought it might be a flash in the pan,\u201d Yoon said. \u201cBut when I began to delve into it, I realized this might be a monumental moment not just for technology, but in the history of our species.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like any good researcher, he went to work, developing an annotated guide and toolkit of AI resources. Yoon divided them into categories that made sense to a psychologist: how AI works, potential impacts on instruction and teaching, implications for the science of learning and cognition, and ethics. In the last 18 months, he has published an essay on AI in EDUCAUSE Review<\/a>, contributed to Lindell Library\u2019s student-facing AI- and digital-literacy work<\/a>, created and led multiple faculty workshops on AI through the Center for Teaching and Learning<\/a>, and developed Augsburg\u2019s AI-Informed Assignment Pilot<\/a>. Now, he\u2019s developing a focused operational-readiness discovery project with student-facing administrative offices.<\/p>\n In all of these arenas, Yoon starts with the end goal in mind. \u201cThe right question is: \u2018What are my learning outcomes or work objectives, and would AI be appropriate to help?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cNot: \u2018Here\u2019s this AI tool, how should I use it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Reflecting his own curiosity, Yoon\u2019s research interests intersect with multiple issue areas, from substance use risk to criminal justice reform. Across his Augsburg career, Yoon has mentored nearly 80 student researchers in scholarly activities. His students have gone on to pursue careers in medicine, clinical psychology and neuropsychology, addiction research, and other STEM fields. Many of his students have completed projects in Augsburg\u2019s electroencephalogram (EEG) lab, where a major focus of Yoon\u2019s research, in partnership with StepUP\u00ae<\/a>, has been to examine whether certain measures of brain activity may serve as candidate markers associated with substance-use risk. Others are engaged in research into the scientific validity of polygraph interrogation or \u201clie detector\u201d tests, which can contribute to false confessions and wrongful convictions. Augsburg students work on real cases of people who have been told they failed a polygraph test but were later exonerated. In related work, Yoon served as an expert consultant for an amicus brief submitted to the Texas Court of Appeals; in 2025, the court affirmed a lower court\u2019s decision to suppress the post-polygraph statement as involuntary.<\/p>\n That kind of engagement, to Yoon, is what AI cannot replace in the college experience. \u201cMore than ever, I believe that students need hands-on experiences, like the ones they get in the lab: learning to formulate a research question, design an experiment, collect data, think critically, and communicate what they find. This is more important than ever in the shadow of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Working alongside Yoon, \u201ca brilliant academic peer,\u201d has been one of the highlights of his time at Augsburg, said Ben Denkinger<\/b>, professor of psychology. After the COVID-19 pandemic, Yoon and Denkinger jointly developed a course called \u201cPsychology in a Post-Pandemic World,\u201d which sought to grapple with the deepening political polarization in the U.S. Students in the course explored misinformation and disinformation, how people come to hold conspiratorial beliefs, and moral psychology. They also practiced developing the skills to have conversations about challenging topics.<\/p>\n