About Me
I am completing (Aug 2009) an interdisciplinary doctoral degree at the University of Michigan in Psychology (Cognition and Perception) and Computer Science (Intelligent Systems).
I have been actively involved in teaching from the outset of my doctoral program. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach in a number of areas including cognitive psychology, clinical psychology, neuropsychology, and artificial intelligence.
My primary research interests are in investigating the cognitive and neurobiological substrates of human decision making in healthy and clinical populations. In particular, my research focuses on individual differences: (i) identifying the key dimensions of variation in decision behavior; (ii) revealing important subsets of decision style; (iii) characterizing decision style based on measures of cognitive performance, personality, and fundamental biological correlates; (iv) developing computational models to simulate and predict decision style, and (v) understanding the environmental, task-specific, and person-specific factors that can be manipulated to positively influence decision behavior.
What's New?
Research: Defensing Dissertation, Summer 2009
I’m in the home stretch, working to finish my current research projects and defend the dissertation in August.
Teaching: Psych 270 (Intro Psychopathology), Winter 2009
I will teaching two sections of Psych 270 this Fall with Prof. Gone. If you are trying to get an override for Psych 270, please contact the Undergraduate Student Academic Affairs Office. If you are registered for the course and are interested in attending one of my sections (Mon 10-12; Wed 5-7), please see me after lecture on the first day of class. I will hold my office hours on Mondays from 1-3pm in B316 East Hall.
Teaching: Psych 240 (Intro Cognitive), Fall 2008
I will be a GSI for Psych 240 this Fall (with Prof. Polk). If you are trying to get an override for Psych 240, please contact the Undergraduate Student Academic Affairs Office. If you are registered for the course and are interested in attending one of my sections (t.b.d.), please see me after lecture on the first day of class.
Dissertation prospectus approved…
I defended and obtained approval for my dissertation prospectus on Monday, June 2nd. This summer I plan to complete the first of two manuscripts that will be the core of the dissertation. My summer research will investigate individual differences in decision making behavior using a model selection methodology,
Completed the writing of my dissertation prospectus
I have just completed the prospectus for my dissertation. My proposal defense is set for June 2. The dissertation will focus on understanding decision making in the Iowa Gambling Task. I will use neurally-motivated computational models to try to reveal mechanisms that underly both normal and impaired decision making in this task.
