Home People at PLEEP
These are the people associated with PLEEP. Clicking on their names will take you to their personal web pages.
Lab Director: Robert Kurzban
Senior Researchers: Roger Koppl
Graduate Students: Tessa Andrews -- Athena Aktipis -- Peter DeScioli -- Marc Egeth
Undergraduate Students: Kelly Asao -- Alex Shaw -- Erik Malmgren-Samuel
Interested in PLEEP and the Kurzban lab? Information about applying to the PhD program in Psychology is here. If you're interested in doing undergraduate research with Dr. Kurzban, please email him.
Robert Kurzban Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Contact Information: phone: (215) 898-4977, fax: 215-898-7301
For information on Dr. Kurzban's research, please see the Research page.
Roger Koppl, Professor of Finance, FDU
Contact Information:
phone: (973) 443-884; fax:(973) 443-8377
Roger Koppl is the Director of the Institute for Forensic Science Administration (IFSA) of Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he is also a Professor of Economics and Finance. He has served on the faculty of the Copenhagen Business School, Auburn University, and Auburn University at Montgomery. He has held visiting positions at George Mason University, New York University, and the Max Planck Institute of Economics. He is a past president of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics. He edits Advances in Austrian Economics. He is the book review editor for the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and a member of the advisory board of Review of Political Economy.
Koppl conducts research in forensic science administration, which studies how error rates in forensic science may be affected by institutional and organizational structures. His homepage and online CV have more information on his professional activities.
Tessa Andrews, Graduate Student, Dept. of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Information about Tessa Andrews will appear here shortly.
C. Athena Aktipis, Graduate Student, Dept. of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
mailto:aktipis@psych.upenn.edu
Athena Aktipis earned her BA in Psychology from Reed College in Portland, OR. She was employed at Portland State University briefly following her graduation from Reed. There she developed the curriculum for a new graduate course in Agent Based Simulation and acted as the co-instructor for that course. Athena is now a doctoral student in the Psychology Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She works with Dr. Kurzban.
I am interested in evolutionary approaches to understanding human behavior, particularly in the context of cost/benefit analysis and economic decision-making. My main focus is studying the evolution of cooperation and the cognitive/behavioral mechanisms underlying intertemporal choice using the tools of empirical psychology and evolutionary agent-based simulations.
Peter DeScioli Graduate Student, Dept. of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Peter DeScioli studied philosophy and anthropology at the University of Delaware (1995-1999), focussing on Buddhist philosophy. He then joined Teach For America, and taught second grade at Whittier Elementary School in Washington, DC. Peter is currently working on his Phd in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation, he will continue research and teaching in a university faculty position.
My projects seek to identify aspects of evolved cognition that have been shaped by game theoretic forces. I am particularly interested in coordination, cooperation, moralistic punishment, friendship, love, war, and cultural learning. My primary investigation regards the development of common knowledge representation, and how this ability facilitates coordination among children. Additionally, I am examining how people seek information about others' contributions when cooperating in groups; the sensitivity of third party punishment to anonymity; and how direct "tit for tat" reciprocity affects friendship. I have further interests in the functioning of love as a commitment device; the particular constellation of cognitions underlying war, such as enemy number estimation and the signalling functioning of courage; and finally, the computations involved in decoding and reconstructing invented behaviors and plans, which enable cumulative culture.
Marc Egeth, Graduate Student, Dept. of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Marc's biography and research interests will be posted here Very Soon. Watch this space.
Kelly Asao , Undergraduate, University of Pennsylvania
Kelly Asao is currently an undergraduate in the college double majoring in Psychology and Classical Studies. She is from California and, like all Californians, is very proud of this fact and therefore insisted it be mentioned here. Her interests include collecting and menacingly brandishing weapons, sitting on the beach in the early morning, reading about serial killers and sexual predators, studying, eating copious amounts of meat whenever her vegetarian roommates are not looking, learning Ancient Greek, and naturally all things evolutionary psychology based. She aspires to continue her studies and eventually earn her doctorate in psychology. Given that her brain does not implode upon itself, she hopes to eventually combine her clinical urges with her individual practice (preferably in a university setting).
Kelly's research focuses mainly on the seductive field of evolutionary psychology. She became taken with the field when she took Human Sexuality taught by Prof. Robert Kurzban. Although she had some experience with this subject prior to the course (experience in psychology, gosh), she soon became heavily involved with the field and the rest is history. She is currently working with Roger Koppl on research involving forensic psychology, exploring the question of whether outside incentives can influence peoples’ willingness to interact truthfully with others. She is also having clandestine meetings with Alex Shaw to discuss their own research focused upon altruism and the distinct impacts of reputation and pure empathy upon altruistic acts.
Alex Shaw, Undergraduate, University of Pennsylvania
Alex Shaw grew up in the Suburbs of Philadelphia and went to La Salle College High School˜a catholic all boys¦ school. Alex Shaw is a psych major at Penn and works for and with Robert Kurzban. Currently Alex is unsure if he wants to peruse a career in psychology or Law, but isn¦t really too worried about it.
Research Interests: Altruism and cooperation, but am still open to different topics.
Erik Malmgren-Samuel, Undergraduate, University of Pennsylvania
Erik Malmgren-Samuel graduated from Germantown Friends School in 2000. He has spent his years at Penn fostering a diverse array of research interests. He plans to graduate in the spring of 2006. Following graduation he will begin choosing a graduate program in clinical psychology that encourages interdisciplinary research, allowing his to continue his investigations into the evolutionary, genetic and cognitive bases of mental disorders, especially Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. His background is evolutionary anthropology, but he has extended his interests into psychology and cognitive science.
Mr. Malmgren-Samuel currently works in two labs, that of Robert Kurzban and that of Amishi Jha. In the Kurzban Lab, Mr. Malmgren-Samuel is investigating the evolutionary psychology underlying third-party punishment, a little studied topic relevant to questions of human cooperation. He is employing experimental economics to demonstrate that surveillance has an amplifying effect on a third-party's decision to punish at a cost. Current lines of experimental investigation include identifying the possible reputational benefits of third-party punishment, and assessing the effect that emotion elicitation has on the third-party's decision to punish. In the Jha Lab (amishi.com), Mr. Malmgren-Samuel is using behavioral experiments to investigate the attentional and working memory profiles of both normal subjects and those with the various subgroups of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. This neuropsychological investigation is complemented by a behavioral genetics component in which patients will be genotyped for the presence or absence of low-rate mutations of the DRD4 dopamine receptor gene - specifically, the 2-repeat and the 7-repeat alleles. This work is both an early attempt to isolate neurospychological profiles for the subgroups of ADHD and an attempt to elucidate the debated association between the DRD4 gene and ADHD. This work is an interdepartmental effort, including the ADHD Research and Treatment Program of Penn Psychiatry, and the Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology.
Some Lab Alumni
Alex Chavez worked in the PLEEP lab as an undergraduate, and still collaborates with people in the lab, and is currently a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. His personal web page is here.
Erin O'Brien worked in the PLEEP lab, and worked on experiments surrounding "third party punishment."
Amelia Fong did some research in the PLEEP lab that focused on how a male's method of resource acquisiton influences a woman's desirability for him. Amelia graduated in 2006
Danielle Trief worked in the PLEEP lab as an undergraduate and is currently at Oxford.
Diana Zarzuelo won the John P. Sabini Undergraduate Award for the Study of Emotion, Character, and Responsibility for her work. She was the first recipient of this prize, which will be awarded annually in memory of John Sabini. Diana, who graduated in 2006, did research that focused on the reputational effects of engaging in moralistic punishment.
Are you a PLEEP alum and want to be listed on our page? Just let us know.