Matthew Dylan Lieberman
lieber@ucla.edu
 

Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
Franz Hall
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563

(310) 206-4050

EDUCATION

            $150,000 "The Role of the Basal Ganglia in Automatic Social Inference"  McDonnell-Pew Cognitive Neuroscience Grant
                (JSMF 99-25 CN-QUA.05), 1999-2002

             $  98,013 "Fast or Slow, High or Low, Stop or Go:  The Neural Basis of Three Basic Dichotomies of Social Cognition"
                National Science Foundation Small Grant for Exploratory Research, 2000-2001 (with Barbara Knowlton)
 

OTHER GRANTS AND AWARDS

Gordon Allport Fund, Harvard University, 1998

Derek Bok Teaching Prize, Harvard University, 1998

Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize, Harvard University, 1997

Derek Bok Teaching Prize, Harvard University, 1997

Marie E. McMaster Bequest Fund, Harvard University, 1997

Elsie Hopestill Stimson Fund, Harvard University, 1996

Innovative Instruction Fund, Harvard University, 1996

Derek Bok Teaching Prize, Harvard University, 1996

Gordon Allport Fund, Harvard University, 1995

William James Fellowship, Harvard University, 1995-1996

George W. Goethals Teaching Prize, Harvard University, 1995, 1996, 1997

Elsie Hopestill Stimson Fund, Harvard University, 1995

Fellow at the McDonell Summer Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of California at Davis, 1995

Henry A. Rand Fund, Harvard University, 1995

Graduate Writing Fellow, Harvard University, 1995

Jordan B. Knox Bequest Fund, Harvard University, 1994

Henry Rutgers Grant, Rutgers College, 1991-1992

Rutgers College Merit Scholarship, Rutgers College, 1990 and 1991

Dean's Award for Excellence, Rutgers College, 1989

Rutgers College Award for Academic Excellence, Rutgers College, 1990

Women's League of Rutgers Award for Academic Excellence and Community Service, Rutgers College, 1992

Dean's List, all eight semesters, Rutgers College, 1988-1992

Garden State Scholarship, NJ, 1988

Justice Lodge Scholarship, Atlantic County, NJ, 1988

 

Processing goals and amygdala activation in response to outgroups:  An fMRI study.  Hart et al. (1999) found that the amygdala is activated in response to outgroup faces.  The amygdala is associated with an automatic fear response.  Hariri, Bookheimer and Mazziotta (2000) found that the amygdala fear response can removed by introducing different processing goals.  We are currently examining whether the amygdala response to outgroup faces can be eliminated in the same fashion.  (Hariri, Lieberman & Bookheimer)

An fMRI study of implicit learning. Examining the role of the basal ganglia in artificial grammar learning using a single trial fMRI study. The data have been collected and are currently being analyzed. (Lieberman, Knowlton & Savoy)

An fMRI study of the four elementary forms of human relations.  Examining which neural structures and cognitive processes are activated when each relational model is being applied.  We hope that reveal differences in the extent to which the different models draw on positive affect, negative affect, deliberative thought and automatic processes.  (Fiske, Lieberman & Knowlton)

Culture, attribution and cognitive busyness. Cross cultural research generally assumes that individuals from interdependent cultures show a diminished correspondence bias in their attributions. There are two possible reasons for this difference from our culture. Individuals from interdependent cultures might be automatically predisposed to take situational information into account. Alternatively, they might make a greater conscious effort to correct their initial attributions to take the situation into account. We have used the cognitive busyness paradigm with subjects from Japan and America and have found no cross cultural differences in the automatic component of the attribution process suggesting that an attenuated correspondence bias is the result of effortful process (Lieberman & Gilbert)

Is it the thought that counts? We often don't ask others to treat us differently even if we wish they would because we believe that intention is central to the value of a behavior. If the new behavior is extrinsicially motivated we believed it will be experienced by the recipient as inauthentic. In experience, however, we predict that the behavior is what really drives our reactions because (a) immediate affective responses are prior to consideration of intention and (b) to the extent that one does consider intention, we will often still come to the conclusion that the new behavior was intrinsically motivated because of the correspondence bias. (Lieberman & Gilbert)

Stereotype activation after extended interaction: The moderating role of explicit prejudice in implicit stereotype maintenance. Recent studies on the controllability of stereotyping have examined whether our conscious desire not to stereotype can prevent automatic stereotype activation. The current study examines stereotype activation in an actual interaction between a white subject and a black confederate. I hypothesize that explicit prejudice will not predict stereotype activate early in the interaction (1 min), but will predict activation later in the interaction (7 min). (Lieberman)

Categorization vs. Evaluation:  Unravelling a chicken and egg problem.  Zajonc suggested that preferences need no inferences and it is clear that the amygdala codes implicit evaluations before information ever reaches the prefrontal cortex where inferential "work" happens.  The problem is that this inferential work is conscious and Zajonc's research has not considered the possibility that there are implicit categorizations prior to implicit evaluation.  The current research examines whether the time between prime and target can be shorter for prime-target pairs that are categorically linked (black-->athletic) than pairs that are evaluatively linked (black-->bad).  Neurobiological research (Gabriel, 1993) suggests this implicit categorization might be coded in the thalamus.

Cognitive dissonance and self-regulation.  In this study, subjects were primed with either a prevention or promotion focus (Higgins).  During the free choice procedure, subjects with a promotion focus tended to increase their preference for the undesirable, but selected, art print relative to those with a prevention focus  who tended to decrease their preference for the desirable, but rejected, art print. (Ochsner & Lieberman) (Ochsner & Lieberman)
 
 

 

Working with Robert Savoy in fMRI lab, Massachussetts General Hospital, Charlestown, 1999.

Working with Daniel Williamham and Dr. William Koroshetz in neuropsychology, 1997-1998

Working with Daniel Gilbert in social cognition, 1996-1998, Harvard University

Working with Daniel Schacter in cognitive neuroscience,1996-1998, Harvard University

Working with Robert Rosenthal in social psychology, 1993-1998, Harvard University

Methodological Consultant for honor theses candidates, 1997, Harvard University

Worked with Nalini Ambady in social psychology, 1994-1996, Harvard University

Research Assistant for Nalini Ambady in social psychology, 1995, Harvard University

Statiscal Consultant for honor theses candidates, 1994-1995, Harvard University

Worked with Ellen Langer in social psychology, 1993-1996, Harvard University

Undergraduate Honors Thesis, 1991-1992, Rutgers College

Research Assistant for Professor Lee Jussim in social psychology, 1991, Rutgers College

Research Assistant in developmental psychology, 1990-1991, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ

Field work with schizophrenics, 1990, UMDNJ Community Mental Health Center, Piscataway, NJ

 

 

Instructor, Winter 2000, Introduction to Social Psychology, UCLA.  Student evaluation 8.29 / 9.00


Instructor, Summer 1999, Experimental Methods in Social Psychology, UCLA.  Student evaluation 8.47 / 9.00

Head Teaching Fellow, Spring 1999, Social Psychology, Professor Ellen Langer, Harvard University.  Student evaluation 4.86 / 5.00

Instructor, Fall 1998, Social Cognitive Neuroscience, Harvard University. Student evaluation 4.87 / 5.00

Lab Course in Social Psychology, 1994-1998, Supervised 26 undergraduate research assistants.

Head Teaching Fellow, Spring 1998, Social Psychology, Professor Ellen Langer, Harvard University.Student evaluation 4.81 / 5.00

Head Teaching Fellow, Spring 1997, Social Psychology, Professor Ellen Langer, Harvard University. Student evalutation 4.50 / 5.00

Teaching Fellow, Spring 1996, Social Psychology, Professor Ellen Langer, Harvard University. Student evalutation 4.50 / 5.00

Instructor, 1996-1997, Departmental Tutorial in Psychology, Harvard University. Student evaluation 5.00/ 5.00

Instructor, 1995-1996, Departmental Tutorial in Psychology, Harvard University. Student evaluation 4.60 / 5.00

Instructor, 1994-1995, Departmental Tutorial in Psychology, Harvard University. Student evaluation 4.94 / 5.00

In the 1996-1997 year, I was awarded the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize which is given each year to a single graduate student teaching at Harvard College. The student governing body, the University Council, solicits nominations from undergraduates for "the most outstanding graduate student teacher". Those who nominate write recommendations and based on these and teaching evaluations, a University Council committee choses the annual recipient.

DEPARTMENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND UNDERGRADUATE ADVISING:

Neuroimaging Core Steering Committee, 2000-2001, UCLA


Academic Senate, 2000-2003, UCLA
Social Psychology Admissions Committee, 2000-2001, UCLA

Developed the course, Psychology 1558r, a research course in which undergraduates are matched with social psychology graduate students, Spring 1995, Harvard University.

Psychology 1558r lab mentor, 1994-1999, Supervised 26 undergraduate research assistants.

Worked with Professor Philip Stone to create the psychology department's first subject pool, Spring 1995, Harvard University.

Committee for Undergraduate Instruction, 1995-1996, Department of Psychology, Harvard University.

Concentration Advisor for Psychology Department, 1995-1997, Harvard University.

Instructional Consultant for graduate student teachers, 1997-1998, Harvard University.

Assistant Senior Tutor, 1998-1999, Cabot House, Harvard University.

Resident tutor, 1995-1999, Cabot House, Harvard University.

Non-resident tutor, 1994-1995, Cabot House, Harvard University.

 

 

Residents Hall Presidents Council, President, governing body representing 7100+ students living on campus, 1990-1991

Residents Hall Presidents Council, Vice-President, 1989-1990

Clothier Hall Government, Advisor, 1989-1990

Clothier Hall Government, President, 1988-1989

Residence Life Budget Committee, 1988-1991

Residence Life Programming Advisory Board, 1988-1990

Dean's Cabinet, 1990