KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Akira Miyake, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Miyake received his B.A. in English Linguistics from Osaka University of Foreign Studies in Osaka, Japan. Subsequently, he attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology. He has taught at the University of Colorado Boulder since 1995. 

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Dr. Miyake's research has examined the roles of basic cognitive and motivational processes—especially attention, executive functions, and self-control—in various complex psychological phenomena that are important in our everyday lives (e.g., student learning, mental health). Some of his current research projects include: (a) laboratory and classroom studies of self-regulatory behaviors, especially in educational settings (e.g., academic procrastination and its interventions), and (b) individual differences and experimental analyses of task-irrelevant thoughts, such as mind-wandering and repetitive negative thinking (e.g., worry, rumination). More recently, he has started to explore the theoretical and practical implications of adopting idiographic (person-specific) approaches to studying individual differences in cognition, which put a spotlight on what has so far been neglected in cognitive research: (a) within-individual variations in, and situational influences on, human cognition and motivation, and (b) the person-specific (idiosyncratic) nature of many aspects of human behaviors.

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Dr. Miyake is a fellow of the Psychonomic Society, the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 3 (Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science). He is also a member of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition and the APA Division 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology).