Heath Demaree

Heath Demaree is a Professor of Psychology at Case Western Reserve University, specializing in the intersection of emotional and cognitive processing. His research focuses on decision-making mechanisms, particularly exploration-exploitation dynamics, and how personality traits and emotions influence these processes. He leads the Demaree Lab, exploring topics like risk-taking behavior, affect regulation, and cognitive neuroscience methods.

Education details are not explicitly provided, but his academic career spans over two decades with a strong focus on empirical research. He advises graduate students Amanda Merner, Rock Lim, and Kyle LaFollette.

Research interests include:

• Emotion-cognition interactions
• Risk learning and decision-making
• Neurophysiological correlates of affect
• Computational modeling (e.g., diffusion decision models)
• Individual differences in behavioral outcomes

His work bridges psychology and neuroscience, employing methods like EEG, psychophysiological measurements, and behavioral experiments. Over 50 publications demonstrate contributions to understanding emotional processing in decision contexts. He collaborates on tools like the FlexDDM Python package for diffusion decision modeling.

Notable projects include:

• Impact of incidental emotions on reinforcement learning
• Physiological correlates of emotion regulation
• Cognitive load in medical decision-making