Dr Philip Jean-Richard Dit Bressel

My Expertise

My research investigates the psychology and biology of motivated learning, decision-making, and behaviour.

My main area of interest is how we learn and make decisions about actions with negative consequences ("punishment learning"). Understanding why we stop vs. fail to stop doing things that are bad for us is key to understanding and improving the choices we make in our everyday lives. It also has relevance for a number of conditions characterised by dysfunctions in punishment learning, like addictions (e.g. drug addiction, gambling disorder), psychopathy (e.g. conduct disorder), and depression.

Keywords

behavioural neuroscience

decision-making processes

associative learning

avoidance learning

individual differences

Fields of Research (FoR)

Behavioural neuroscience, Biological psychology, Central nervous system, Learning, motivation and emotion, Decision making

SEO tags

Expanding Knowledge in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences

Behaviour and Health

Biography

I am a behavioural neuroscientist and experimental psychologist at UNSW School of Psychology. I recevied my PhD from UNSW School of Psychology in 2015.

My research seeks to understand the psychology and neurobiology of motivated learning, decision-making, and behaviour. I am particularly interested in how we learn and make decisions about actions with negative consequences ("punishment learning").