In my research I investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying purposeful and goal-directed behavior, i.e., the human ability to flexibly adjust behavior to changing environmental requirements. I address questions of how human agents exert self-control, regulate emotions, implement intentions in working memory and realize situation-appropriate behavior.
For this I follow an experimental approach studying cognitive control functions and their relation to learning and memory such as anticipatory action control, efficient conflict processing and coordination of multiple task performance.
Besides the study of selective executive functions (enabling, for example, goal-shielding, updating of working memory) that are seen as prerequisite for goal-directed behavior, I am particular interested in the flexible adjustment and regulation of those executive control parameters in the context of changing environmental requirements, conditions of physiological imbalances, and everyday fluctuations (e.g., acute psychosocial stress, varying daytime optima).

I earned my PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Humboldt University of Berlin in 2006. I conducted a post-doctoral fellowship at the Cognitive and Psychophysiology Lab of Jeff Miller at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand and then joined the Department of Psychology at Dresden University of Technology as research scientist and lecturer. With funding from the DFG, I established my own research group focusing on cognitive control, conflict processing, and multitasking. In 2013, I completed my habilitation and continued to work in Dresden in the position as an “Oberassistent” (equivalent to Assistant Professor). In October 2015, I accepted a position as Professor of General Psychology at Greifswald University.