Elliot Berkman, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon, Co-Director of the Center for Translational Neuroscience, and faculty in The Ballmer Institute for Children's Behavioral Health. He studies the motivational and cognitive factors that contribute to success and failure at health goals such as cigarette smoking cessation and dieting. His research leverages the distinct strengths of several research methods, including functional magnetic resonance imaging, longitudinal survey methods, and laboratory experiments. This work adopts a translational neuroscience approach by using knowledge of brain function, structure, and connectivity to design and improve interventions on health behavior and wellbeing. Projects in the lab are currently funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He directs the Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory in the Department of Psychology. Follow his blog at Psychology Today, The Motivated Brain, and his twitter feed @Psychologician.

The Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab particularly welcomes scholars who are from populations historically underrepresented in the academy.

Dr. Berkman is interested in accepting new doctoral students for Fall 2025. Please see this memo before applying to the SAN Lab for doctoral training.

Recent representative publications:

Hughes, B.T., Ludwig, R.M., Robles, K.E. & Berkman, E.T. (2024). The effect of financial stress on inhibitory control and economic decisions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 113, 104621.

Schultz, K.E., Mantell, B., Berkman, E.T., & Swann, N.C. (2023). Prepared and reactive inhibition in smokers and non-smokers. Behavioural Brain Research, 437, 114120. 

Smith, B.J., Lipsett, M., Cosme, D., Braun, V.A., Browning O’Hagan, A.M., & Berkman, E.T. (2023). Striatal response to negative feedback in a stop signal task operates as a multi-value learning signal. Imaging Neuroscience, 1, 1-16. 

Stice, E., Yokum, S., Nelson, T., Berkman, E.T., Veling, H., & Lawrence, N. (2022). Efficacy of a combined food response and attention training for weight loss. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 46, 101168.

Berkman, E.T., & Wilson, S.M. (2021). So useful as a good theory? The practicality crisis in (social) psychological theory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16, 864-874.

Nagayama Hall, G.C., Berkman, E.T., Zane, N.W., Leong, F.T.L., Hwang, W-C., Nezu, A.M., Nezu, C.M., Hong, J.J., Chu, J.P., & *Huang, E.R. (2021). Reducing mental health disparities by increasing the personal relevance of interventions. American Psychologist, 76, 91-103.

Horn, S.R., Fisher, P.A., Pfeifer, J.H., Allen, N.B., & Berkman, E.T. (2020). Levers and barriers to success in the use of translational neuroscience for the prevention and treatment of mental health and promotion of well-being across the lifespan. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 12, 38-48. [pdf]

*Cosme, D., *Ludwig, R.M., & Berkman, E.T. (2019). Comparing two neurocognitive models of self-control during dietary decisions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. [pdf] [osf] [*NOTE: The first two authors contributed equally]

Ludwig, R.M., Srivastava, S., & Berkman, E.T. (2019). Predicting exercise with a personality facet: Planfulness and goal achievement. Psychological Science, 30, 1510-1521. [pdf] [osf]

Ludwig, R.M., Flournoy, J., & Berkman, E.T. (2019). Inequality in personality and temporal discounting across socioeconomic status? Assessing the evidence. Journal of Research in Personality, 81, 79-87. [oa] [osf] [pdf]

DeStasio, K.L., Hill, A.P., & Berkman, E.T. (2018). Efficacy of an SMS-based smoking intervention using message self-authorship: A pilot study. Journal of Smoking Cessation, 13, 55-58.

Ludwig, R.M., Srivastava, S., & Berkman, E.T. (2018). Planfulness: A process-focused construct of individual differences in goal achievement. Collabra, 4, 28.

Pfeifer, J.H., & Berkman, E.T. (2018). Self and identity development in adolescence: Neural evidence and implications for a value-based choice perspective on motivated behavior. Child Development Perspectives, 12, 158-164.

Berkman, E.T., Livingston, J.L., & Kahn, L.E. (2017). Finding the "self" in self-regulation: The identity-value model. Psychological Inquiry, 28, 77-98.

Berkman, E.T., Hutcherson, C.A., Livingston, J.L., Kahn, L.E., & Inzlicht, M. (2017). Self-control as value-based choice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26, 422-428.

See a complete list of Dr. Berkman's publications at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/browse/collection/0864077