Primary Investigator: Joe Kable, Ph.D. Joe Kable recently returned to Penn (where he received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience) to join the Psychology Department as Assistant Professor. Research in his lab is concerned with how people make choices, and the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying decision-making. This work combines approaches from experimental economics, the psychology of judgment and decision-making, and social and cognitive neuroscience. For a copy of Dr. Kable’s CV, click here. To visit Dr. Kable’s Faculty webpage, click here.
Post-doctoral Fellow: Joe McGuire, Ph.D (CV) Joe's research focuses on how decision makers evaluate the costs of effort and delay. His graduate work, in Matthew Botvinick's lab at Princeton, examined neural mechanisms associated with uncertainty and executive control demands.
Post-doctoral Fellow: Karin Cox, Ph.D (CV) Karin’s research focuses on how value information is learned, encoded, and applied in the service of decision-making. Her graduate work, conducted in the Fiez lab at the University of Pittsburgh, was concerned with the hemodynamic correlates of values that have been inferred via generalizable deduction rules.
Graduate Student: Nicole Senecal (CV) Nicole Senecal is from Boston, MA, and received her bachelor's degree in Neuroscience and Psychology from Brandeis University. She completed her undergraduate thesis on memory and hearing ability in elderly adults in the Wingfield lab. Nicole is currently a doctoral student in the Neuroscience Graduate Group at UPenn. Nicole’s research examines the neural mechanisms of value representation and preference change, using behavioral and fMRI experiments.
Graduate Student: Betty Kim Betty Kim is from Los Angeles, CA and received her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UCLA and master’s degree at the UPenn School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2). While at SP2, she investigated the decision-making processes and risk assessments used in the child welfare system. Betty is currently a graduate student in the Psychology Graduate Group at UPenn. Her research is concerned with how people make decisions and what factors affect decision-making, using behavioral and fMRI experiments.
Research Specialist: Stav Atir (CV) Stav Atir is from Tel Aviv, Israel. She received her B.Sc. in Psychology in 2010 from Yale University, where she completed her senior thesis on the effect of humor on memory. She is currently working on a project concerning preference reversals in inter-temporal and risky choices, and on a separate project investigating the effect of arousal on impatience.
Research Specialist: Dan Willard Dan received his degree in psychology from Drew University, in sunny New Jersey. He is working on a project using fMRI to explore the neural correlates of empathy for pain and its effect upon helping behavior between familial generations.
Undergraduate Independent Study Student: Khoi Vo Khoi is currently a Senior in the Biological Basis of Behavior program at Penn. His current project aims to delineate the functions of the striatum and to study various reinforcement learning models.
Undergraduate Independent Study Student: Allison Oakes Alli is currently a Junior, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Biological Basis of Behavior. Her thesis project examines the effect of emotion on decision-making and monetary choices.
Undergraduate Independent Study Student: Shikha Saxena Shikha is a junior pursuing a dual degree in the College of Arts & Sciences and Wharton, majoring in Biological Basis of Behavior. Her project examines the link between brain anatomy and monetary decision-making.
Undergraduate Independent Study Student: Justin Reggi Justin is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in the Biological Basis of Behavior and minoring in Psychology. His independent study analyzes the behavioral/ physiological processes behind the simplifying strategies employed during decision-making in trials with both multiple choice options and induced time constraint.
Lab Alumni
Annika Hillebrandt Annika was a Research Specialist in the lab from May 2010 to May 2011. She is currently a graduate student in the Organizational Behavior/Human Resource Management program at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Jessica Stump Jessica Stump was a research specialist at the lab from 2008 to 2010. She is now enrolled in a doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Temple University.
Daniel Santos Daniel completed his Undergraduate Independent Study at the Kable Lab in Fall 2011. He is currently working as a Research Assistant at the Memory Disorders Program in Georgetown Medical Center's Neurology Department
Maggie Covel Maggie completed her Psychology Undergraduate Honors Thesis at the Kable Lab in Spring 2011. She is currently attending Widener University's doctoral program in clinical psychology, with aspirations to pursue private practice.
Qintan (QT) Lin QT completed her Psychology Undergraduate Honors Thesis at the Kable Lab in Spring 2011. She is currently a graduate student in the Masters in Counseling and Mental Health Services at Penn's Graduate School of Education. She is also working on re-writing her thesis with Joe for publication
Teresa Wang Teresa completed her Undergraduate Independent Study at the Kable Lab in Fall 2010. She is a Penn undergraduate in the Vagelos Life Sciences and Management Dual Degree Program.
Lauren Brandes Lauren completed her Undergraduate Independent Study at the Kable Lab in Spring 2009. She is now a research assistant with Geoff Aguirre at Penn.
Sunny Saxena Sunny completed his Undergraduate Independent Study at the Kable Lab in Fall 2009. He is working at ZS Associates, a health care consulting firm.
Cindy Kim Cindy completed her Undergraduate Independent Study at the Kable Lab in Fall 2009-Spring 2010. She is currently a research assistant with Elke Weber and Eric Johnson at Columbia University.