Dr. phil. Ben Eppinger
Professor
Contact information
Department of Psychology
Institute of Educational and Developmental Psychology
Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience Section
Technische Universität Dresden
Zellescher Weg 17
10169, Dresden
Department of Psychology
Concordia University
Loyola Campus
7141 Sherbrooke Street W.
Montreal
Quebec
Canada
Phone: +1-514-848-2424
E-Mail:
Research Statement
The primary goal of my research is to gain a better understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying changes in learning and decision-making across the human lifespan. My current work focuses on three major research questions: a) What are the neuro-computational mechanisms underlying learning in uncertain, dynamically changing environments and how do these adaptive learning processes develop across the lifespan? b) How does the ability to arbitrate between different learning strategies change as a function of age? c) How do humans learn from the behavior of other individuals and how does this ability change during lifespan development? To address these questions I use a multi-methodological approach that combines experimental paradigms, computational modeling and neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI).
Scientific Education
| 2008 | Dr. phil. (PhD-equivalent) in Psychology, Saarland University. |
| 2004 | Diploma in Psychology at Saarland University |
| 1999 - 2004 | Studies of Psychology at Saarland University |
Professional Experience
| Since 08/2016 | Associate Professor of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal. |
| 2013 - 2016 | Assistant (Junior) professor for neurocognitive development of motivational mechanisms, TU Dresden. |
| 2010 - 2012 | Research Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin |
| 2007 - 2010 | Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University |
| 2005 - 2007 | PhD student SFB 378, Saarland University |
Selected Publications
Nassar, M. R., Bruckner, R., Gold, J. I., Li, S.-C., Heekeren, H. R., & Eppinger, B. (2016). Age differences in learning emerge from an insufficient representation of uncertainty in older adults. Nature Communications, 7, 1-13.
van den Bos, W., & Eppinger, B. (2016). Developing developmental cognitive neuroscience: From agenda setting to hypothesis testing. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 138-144.
Eppinger, B, Heekeren, HR, Li, S-C (2015) Age-related prefrontal impairments implicate deficient prediction of future reward. Neurobiology of Aging 36:2380-2390.
Eppinger, B., Schuck, N.W., Nystrom, L.E., Cohen, J.D. (2013) Reduced striatal responses to reward prediction errors in older compared to younger adults. Journal of Neuroscience 33:9905-9912.
Hämmerer, D., & Eppinger, B. (2012). Dopaminergic and prefrontal contributions to reward-based learning and outcome monitoring during child development and aging. Developmental Psychology, 48, 862-874.