Dr. Yael Niv

Biography

Yael Niv is a distinguished professor at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Her research investigates the computational processes that underlie reinforcement learning and decision-making, particularly how these processes relate to mental health. Niv's lab focuses on the dynamic processes through which people modify their behavior by learning from the consequences of their actions. She is specifically interested in how attention and memory interact with reinforcement learning to form representations that enable individuals to learn and efficiently solve new tasks. A significant aspect of her work is dedicated to understanding how learning and decision-making affect mental health, aiming to quantify individual differences in these cognitive processes to better tailor psychotherapy treatments for individuals. This research is pivotal as it seeks to provide precise treatments that can improve mental health outcomes.

Research Interests