I am currently a 3rd year psychology PhD student at the University of Pennslvania.
Contact Information:
Betty Kim
Department of Psychology
University of Pennsylvania
3720 Walnut Street, C6
Philadelphia, PA 19103
bettyek@sas.upenn.edu
Research Interests
Broadly speaking, I am interested in how people make decisions, what factors affect decision-making, and what the underlying cognitive and neural processesses of decision-making are. My research uses behavioral, eye-tracking and fMRI methods to investigate the mechanisms behind decision-making. Currently, Joseph Kable and I are investigating the decision strategies people engage in as the decision context increases in complexity (e.g., increases in the number of options, added time pressure) and the differential patterns in visual attention during economic decision-making. I am also interested in cognitive effort, self-control, and boredom and how they relate to decision-making. Check out the Kable Lab website to see what members of the Kable Lab are working on.
Advisory Committee:
Joseph Kable (adviser)
Martha Farah
Barbara Mellers
Russell Epstein (for '12-'13 academic year)
Students I advise(d):
Yael Burla (Biological Basis of Behavior, '12-'13)
Justin Reggi (Biological Basis of Behavior,'11-'12)
Nitya Kanuri (Biological Basis of Behavior,'12)
Darryl Seligman ('11)
Publications
- Kim, B.E., Seligman, D., and Kable, J.W. Preference reversals in risky decision-making are accompanied by changes in attention to different attributes. Frontiers in Decision Neuroscience,6(19).
- Duckworth, A.L.,Kim, B.E. and Tsukayama, E. (in press). Life stress impairs self-control in adolescents. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.
- Duckworth, A.L.,Tsukayama, E., and Kim, B.E.. Development and validation of a domain-specific impulsivity scale for children. Manuscript under review.
- Tsukayama, E., Duckworth, A.L., and Kim, B.E. (in press) Resisting everything but temptation: Evidence and an explanation for domain-specific impulsivity. European Journal of Personality.
Curriculum Vitae
Updated CV coming soon!
Teaching
Office hours for Spring 2013: By appointment only Solomon, C6
About Me
Hello! I am a California native and grew up in the Los Angeles area. I moved to Philadelphia right after college to get a master's in social work at UPenn's School of Social Policy and Practice with the goal of improving how we recognize and help maltreated children. And, as I learned more about the child welfare system and how risk of maltreatment of risk was assessed, I became more and more interested in how people make decisions and what factors influence decision-making.
After my masters program, I worked with Dr. Angela Duckworth at the Positive Psychology Center investigating non-cognitive factors (e.g., self-control and grit) that contribute to personal and academic achievement. I worked with Dr. Duckworth until I started the PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania.
I currently live in Philadelphia with my fiance Bryon Viechnicki, an orthodontist in the Lehigh Valley. He specializes in braces and Invisalign at Viechnicki Orthodontics Bethlehem and Viechnicki Orthodontics Kuztown. Check him out!