Jaime Castrellon

Humans regularly make decisions that require integrating benefits and costs to motivate pursuit of goals. However, there is much we don’t know about what motivates people to make decisions and why people differ in these motivations as they balance benefits and costs. To explore these questions, my research takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of motivation and value in decision making. Specifically, I combine experimental behavioral economics, computational models, theories about social perception and bias, pharmacology, neuroimaging techniques (fMRI and PET), and experience sampling measures to understand basic mechanisms of motivation and individual differences in how and why people arrive at their decisions to affect their own well-being and the well-being of others. My research can be organized into two areas of focus (1) basic mechanisms of motivation and decision making and (2) translation to everyday life. These areas are complementary and integrate methods that seek to explain how cognitive and neural systems support motivation and value-based decision making. My lab studies questions such as: What neural and behavioral factors contribute to how an individual learns, values, and is motivated to pursue different kinds of social versus non-social rewards? What is the role of catecholamines like dopamine and norepinephrine in shaping social preferences (e.g., fairness or trust) and value-based decisions? What are the cognitive and neural mechanisms that explain how biases in social perception shape decision making at-large and in specific legal contexts? How do adult age differences moderate all these motivational and decision mechanisms? And what is the interrelationship between these mechanisms and daily social, cultural, and environmental experiences?