Research in the Lempert Lab seeks to understand how and why people make the decisions that they make. People’s preferences are shaped by their experiences, so it is no wonder that there are such large individual differences in what people prefer. Situational factors, such as affective states, may also impact the kinds of choices that we make.
We take a “neuroeconomics” approach to understanding the mechanisms of value-based decision making, by combining tools from psychology, economics, and neuroscience.
Lab News
June 2026: Dr. Lempert travels to Italy to present a poster at the ESCAN conference in Rome, and to give a talk at the University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara.
May 2026: Undergraduate student Areesha Riaz receives SPARK summer research fellowship to study the effects of scarcity mindset on intertemporal choice.
May 2026: Dr. Pazia Miller defends her dissertation and graduates with her PhD in clinical psychology.
April 2026: PhD student Pazia Miller presents a poster at the Society for Biological Psychiatry conference.
February 2026: Undergraduate RAs Abigail Mallia and Kushvinder Kaur, and PhD student Luis Garcia present posters at the Eastern Psychological Association conference.
January 2026: Dr. Lempert receives Brain & Behavior Research Foundation’s NARSAD Young Investigator Award.
March 2025: Lab manager Chloe Ott and undergrad RA Heather Gittelson present posters at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference, and Dr. Lempert gives at talk.
October 2024: Graduate students Jonathan Grant and Pazia Miller, along with Dr. Lempert, present at the Society for Neuroeconomics Conference in Cascais, Portugal.
April 2024: Dr. Lempert presents a poster on her work with Danielle Akilov on semantic memory and temporal discounting.
March 2024: Chloe Ott presents a poster on borderline personality traits and temporal discounting at the Society for Affective Science conference in New Orleans, LA. Dr. Lempert also gives a talk on incidental positive affect and temporal discounting.
May 2023: Luis Garcia presents a poster on negative affect and decision making at the Association for Psychological Science conference in Washington, DC.
March 2023: Lempert Lab receives NIA grant to study memory and temporal discounting.