Kris Kirby

Professor
Department of Psychology &
Chair, Program in Cognitive Science
Williams College

308 Bronfman Science Center
Williams College
18 Hoxsey Street
Williamstown, MA 01267

Phone: (413) 597-3142
Fax: (413) 597-2085

E-mail: kkirby@williams.edu

Fall 2007

PSYC 326: Decision Making
   Lecture: Tuesday and Fridays, 1:10 to 2:25 PM
   Lab: Thursdays, 1:10-3:50 PM
   [Description.]

PSYC 101: Introductory Psychology: Cognition Section
   Lecture: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:00 to 10:50 AM
   Labs: TBA
   [Description.]

Spring 2008

COGS 222 (same as PSYC 222): Minds, Brains, and Intelligent Behavior: An Introduction to Cognitive Science
   Lecture: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:55 to 11:10 AM
   [Description.]

PSYC 101: Introductory Psychology: Cognition Section
   Lecture: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:00 to 10:50 AM
   Labs: TBA
   [Description.]

National Science Foundation, SES-0617868: Utility and time perception effects in discounting of delayed rewards; 1 September 2006 to 31 August 2009. Total costs: $160,000.

National Institutes of Health, FIRST Award, MH55262: Discounting models of impulsiveness and self-control; 1 August 1996 to 30 April 2003. Totals costs: $506,376.

Russell Sage Foundation, Behavioral Economics Small Grants Program: Myopic time discounting and the term structure of the US bond market; 1 October 1999 to 28 February 2001. Co-PI, Eric Schulz, Northwestern University. Total costs: $4,236.

*Williams College Undergraduate.

Kirby, K. N., & Finch,* J. Delay-discounting rates and the hierarchical structure of impulsivity. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Kirby, K. N. (2006). The present values of delayed rewards are approximately additive. Behavioural Processes, 72, 273-282.

Kirby, K. N., Winston, G., & Santiesteban,* M. (2005). Impatience and grades: Delay-discount rates correlate negatively with college GPA. Learning and Individual Differences, 15(3), 213-222.

Kirby, K. N., & Petry, N. M. (2004) Heroin and cocaine abusers have higher discount rates for delayed rewards than alcoholics or non-drug-using controls. Addiction, 99, 461-471.

Kirby, K. N., & Santiesteban,* M. (2003). Concave utility, transaction costs, and risk in measuring discounting of delayed rewards.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29(1), 66-79. Exp. 2 Data (328k)

Kirby, K. N., Godoy, R., & et al. (2002). Correlates of delay-discount rates: Evidence from Tsimane’ Amerindians of the Bolivian rain forest. Journal of Economic Psychology, 23, 291-316.

Petry, N. M., Kirby, K. N., & Kranzler, H. R. (2002). Effects of gender and family history of alcohol dependence on a behavioral task of impulsivity in healthy subjects. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 63(1), 83-90.

Kirby, K. N., & Guastello,* B. (2001). Making choices in anticipation of similar future choices can increase self-control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 7(2), 154-164.

Kirby, K. N., Petry, N. M., & Bickel, W. K. (1999). Heroin addicts discount delayed rewards at higher rates than non-drug using controls. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128(1), 78-87.

Kirby, K. N. (1997). Bidding on the future: Evidence against normative discounting of delayed rewards. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 126(1), 54-70.

Kirby, K. N. & Marakovic,* N. N. (1996). Delay-discounting probabilistic rewards: Rates decrease as amounts increase. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3(1), 100-104.

Kirby, K. N. (1996). Future directions for the melioration model of addiction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19(4), 583.

Kirby, K. N. & Marakovic,* N. N. (1995). Modeling myopic decisions: Evidence for hyperbolic delay-discounting within subjects and amounts. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 64(1), 22-30.

Kirby, K. N. & Herrnstein, R. J. (1995). Preference reversals due to myopic discounting of delayed reward. Psychological Science, 6(2), 83-89.

Kirby, K. N. (1994). False alarm: A reply to Over and Evans. Cognition, 52(3), 245-250.

Kirby, K. N. (1994). Probabilities and utilities of fictional outcomes in card selection tasks. Cognition, 51(1), 1–28.

Kirby, K. N. (1992). Intensity of stimulation, necessary truths, and the acquisition of numeracy. Mind & Language,7(4), 359-363.

Kirby, K. N. (1992). Certainty, reliability, and visual images. Mind & Language, 7(4), 402-408.

Kirby, K. N., & Kosslyn, S. M. (1990). Thinking visually. Mind & Language, 5(4), 324-341.

Kirby, K. N. (1993). Advanced Data Analysis with SYSTAT. NY: Von Nostrand Reinhold.

2005–             Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

1996–1999     Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

American Psychological Society

Psychonomic Society

Society for Judgment and Decision Making

1985–91       Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

1982–85      B.A., Psychology; B.A., Philosophy; Marshall University, Huntington, WV

1980–82     West Virginia Institute of Technology, Montgomery, WV

Nino Marakovic ’94, A choice-analytic approach to impulsiveness.

Barbarose Guastello ’97, Motivating self-control by linking future rewards.

Julie Finch ’97, The relationships between the dimensions of impulsivity and delay and probability discounting.

Maria-Teresa Plantilla ’97, Delay discounting and the time course of regret.

Mariana Santiesteban ’97, Transaction costs, risk and practice in myopic decision making.

Kristin M. Frentzel ’98, The effect of patterns of behavior on self-control.

Justin S. Houk ’98, To Stroop or not to Stroop: A novel experimental paradigm for  studying impulsivity.

Jennifer C. Page ’00, The magnitude effect in intertemporal and risky decision making: Fact or artifact?

Daniel Klasik ’03, The value of the future: Utility functions and intertemporal decision making.

Noam Yuchtman ’05, Are gamblers rational? Examining the impact of indivisible goods on individuals’ risk preferences.