Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Director, Motivation, Affect, & Cognition Lab
University of Denver

** This webpage is not being updated as regularly as it should be. Please see my lab webpage, the Motivation, Affect, & Cognition Lab, for the latest updates on my research program.**

Broadly, I am interested in examining affective and motivational influences on goal-directed cognition (cognitive control, learning, and memory). These investigations have employed a range of methods, including cognitive paradigms, psychophysiological measures, functional neuroimaging, and video analysis of behavior in naturalistic environments.

Before coming to DU, I was a postdoctoral fellow with R. Alison Adcock in the Motivated Memory Lab at Duke University’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. I completed a BSc(Hons) in Neuroscience at University of Toronto (2005) and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis (2013) under the supervision of Todd Braver.

Key research questions include:

  1. Can goal pursuit be parsed into distinct components (i.e., subjective affect, motivational drive) with separable influences on cognition?
  2. How do approach and avoidance motivation differentially influence brain and behavior?
  3. What is the role of individual differences in modulating motivated cognition?

Email: kimberly.chiew@du.edu