Profile

My Interview

• What topics do you work on?

  My work focuses on the cognitive processes that underlie how we interact with others, known as social cognition. I study how social cognition changes and motivates behavior during adolescence, a period during which social relationships are particularly important and influential. More specifically, I am interested in how the unique social behaviours we see during adolescence can be used to inspire and motivate adolescents towards positive life course trajectories.

  I’ve also done some work investigating the prevalence of so-called neuromyths in education, and am interested in how the occurrence of these misconceptions can be reduced.

  What methods do you use?

  Experimental tasks and questionnaires combined with neuroimaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

  Me and my work

  I am a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the department of Educational Neuroscience at VU University Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

  Typical day

  Every day is different! But typical activities include: collecting and analysing data, discussing the results with my collaborators, writing papers, preparing and giving lectures to undergraduate and MSc students, meeting with students to discuss their research projects, attending conferences to present my research.