Peter Sokol-Hessner

People

Peter Sokol-Hessner

Graduate Student
New York University
Department of Psychology

B.A. in Psychological and Brain Sciences (2004)
Dartmouth College

Research

Since arriving at the Phelps Lab in the fall of 2005, I have pursued research in decision-making. This has involved study in the burgeoning field of neuroeconomics, as well as in the psychology of decision-making and social neuroscience. I have been conducting a series of studies in collaboration with Colin Camerer's lab at the California Institute of Technology, studying the phenomenon of loss aversion using behavioral and physiological methods (and soon, functional imaging). To this work we have brought a parameterized study of the use of strategies in choice behavior, and shown that people can intentionally change how they make decisions, in a very specific and reliable fashion. I hope for future research to explore this intersection of intentional manipulation of decision behavior, as an example of the interaction between cognition and emotion.

I have also worked at Dartmouth College with Prof. William Kelley, Prof. George Wolford, and Dr. Joe Moran on an fMRI study of neural activity when anticipating and receiving rewards and punishments, and at Stanford University with Prof. John Gabrieli, Dr. Noa Ofen, and Dr. Ching Kao on studies involving the cognitive reappraisal of emotion, priming effects on judgments of learning, and the development of long term memory and executive functions.

Publications

Ofen, N., Kao, Y-C., Sokol-Hessner, P., Kim, H., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Gabrieli, J.D.E., August, 2007, Development of the declarative memory system in the human brain, Nature Neuroscience, 10, p1198-1205

Sokol-Hessner, P., Hsu, M., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps E.A. (in preparation) Intentional Cognitive Strategies Reduce Individuals' Loss Aversion

Sokol-Hessner, P., Moran, J., Wolford, G.L., Kelley, W.M. (in preparation) Dissociating reward anticipation from reward outcome: an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study of nucleus accumbens behavior

Donovan, C.L., Sokol-Hessner, P., German, E., Van Horn, J.D., Miller, M.B. (in preparation) Sex and individual differences in brain activity during episodic retrieval, working memory, and semantic retrieval as measured with fMRI

Posters

Sokol-Hessner, P. (2007, November) Thinking Like A Trader: Regulating Loss Aversion, Society for Neuroscience Press Conference

Sokol-Hessner, P., Hsu, M., Curley, N., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2007, November) Thinking Like A Trader: Distinct Neural Correlates of Loss Aversion and its Intentional Regulation, Society for Neuroscience

Sokol-Hessner, P. Hsu, M., Curley, N., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2007, September) Thinking Like A Trader: Distinct Neural Correlates of Loss Aversion and its Regulation, Society for Neuroeconomics

Curley, N., Sokol-Hessner, P., Hsu, M., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2007, September) Reappraising Loss Aversion: A Physiological Correlate of the Relative Overvaluation of Losses, Society for Neuroeconomics

Sokol-Hessner, P., Hsu, M., Curley, N., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps E.A. (2007, May) Reappraising Loss Aversion: Physiological and Neural Correlates of the Intentional Regulation of Loss Aversion, Neural Systems of Social Behavior Conference

Curley, N., Sokol-Hessner, P., Hsu, M., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2007, May) Reappraising Loss Aversion: A Physiological Correlate of the Relative Overvaluation of Losses, Cognitive Neuroscience Society

Sokol-Hessner, P., Curley, N., Hsu, M., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2006, September) Reappraising Loss Aversion: Manipulating Choices with Emotion Regulation Strategies, Society for Neuroeconomics

Ofen, N., Kao, Y.C., Sokol-Hessner, P., Motsinger, J., Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2006, June) Developmental relationship between memory systems underlying successful memory encoding, working memory, source memory, and speed of processing, Organization for Human Brain Mapping

Donovan, C.L., Sokol-Hessner, P., German, E., Van Horn, J.D., Miller, M.B. (2006, Apr.) Sex and individual differences in brain activity during episodic retrieval, working memory, and semantic retrieval as measured with fMRI, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, #C138

McRae, K., Ochsner, K.N., Robertson, E.R., Sokol-Hessner, P., Ray, R.D., Gross, J.J., Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2006, Apr.) The developmental trajectory of the cognitive control of emotion, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, #F16

Donovan, C.L., Sokol-Hessner, P., German, E., Van Horn, J.D., Miller, M.B. (2005, Nov.) Sex and individual differences in brain activity during episodic retrieval, working memory, and semantic retrieval as measured with fMRI, Society for Neuroscience, #409.20

Sokol-Hessner, P., Kao, Y.C., Ofen, N., Motsinger, J., Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2005, Apr.) Relating the development of executive functions and long term memory, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, #G136

McRae, K., Ochsner, K.N., Robertson, E.R., Sokol-Hessner, P., Ray, R.D., Gross, J.J., Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2005, Apr.) Exploring the neural bases of the development of emotion regulation, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, #F117

P. Sokol-Hessner, J. Moran, G.L. Wolford, W.M. Kelley (2004). Dissociating reward anticipation from reward outcome: an fMRI study of nucleus accumbens behavior, Society for Neuroscience, #785.13

P. Sokol-Hessner, Y.C. Kao, N. Ofen, J. Motsinger, J.D.E. Gabrieli (2005). Relating the development of executive functions and long term memory, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, #G136

Talks

Sokol-Hessner, P. (2007, September) Thinking Like a Trader: The Effect of a Cognitive Strategy on Loss Aversion, NYU Mini-Convention Second Year Talk

Sokol-Hessner, P. (2006, December) Losses: Why Exactly Do We Totally Flip Out?: Evidence on loss aversion from our choices, arousal, and brains, NYU Psychology Cognition & Perception Brown Bag

Sokol-Hessner, P. (2006, May) Reappraising Loss Aversion: Manipulating Choices with Emotion Regulation Strategies, NYU Mini- Convention First Year Talk