These lectures are in honour of prof.dr. Margueritha Vuyk, the first full professor in Developmental Psychology at the University of Amsterdam. See the Album Academicum of the University of Amsterdam for more information.

These monthly lectures have a diverse character with a wide range of eminent speakers and could be of interest to both students and employees from all departments. Here, the dates, speakers and topics for the Rita Vuyk lectures are listed.

For upcoming lectures see below. For a full overview see the Archive.

Upcoming Events

• When: Tuesday 7 March 2023, 16:00 – 17:00
• Where: REC A2.11
• Speaker: Dr. Poppy Watson (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)
• Topic: Attention, reward and compulsive behaviour 

Prior learning about signals of reward can guide attention and behavioural choice - even when we are motivated to ignore such signals. For example, when determined to avoid alcohol, the presence of a beer sponsor’s logo during a televised sporting match can be difficult to ignore. I will discuss a series of experiments highlighting the conflict that can arise between voluntary goal-directed control and more automatic attentional processes and the relationship with maladaptive reward-seeking behaviour, for example, as seen in overeating and addiction.

About the speaker: The research interests of Poppy Watson lie at the intersection of motivation, attention and choice behaviour. After obtaining her PhD from the University of Amsterdam she worked as a postdoc in the lab of Sanne de Wit investigating habit formation. She moved to UNSW Sydney in 2017 and worked on a project led by Mike Le Pelley and Steve Most, examining attentional capture by reward. In 2020 she was awarded an early career research fellowship from the Australian Research Council, examining how reward anticipation can shift the balance between involuntary attentional capture and goal-directed control.

Upcoming lectures

• Thu 20 April – TBA
• Tue 16 May – Dr. Nicole Walasek (Utrecht University)
• Thu 15 June – Prof. Mariska Kret (Leiden University)