Sung-il Kim, Ph.D.

• Position: Professor, Director of bMRI
• Area of Specialization: Educational Psychology
• Research Interests: Neural Basis of Interest and Motivation
• Phone: +82-2-3290-2304
• E-mail: sungkim@korea.ac.kr
• Homepage: http://edpsy.korea.ac.kr

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Biography

Sung-il Kim is a Professor of Educational Psychology and the Director of bMRI (Brain and Motivation Research Institute). He received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Utah State University and was an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Whereas his earlier research focused on discourse comprehension and memory, his current research projects include investigating the neural bases of interest and motivation, developing a motivationally adaptive tutoring agent, modeling interest-based learning, and designing fun and exciting learning environments. He received the ‘Edwin B. Newman Award for Excellence in Research’ from APA/Psi Chi, the ‘Award for Outstanding Contribution’ from the Korean Educational Psychology Association, and the ‘Distinguished Teaching Award’ multiple times from Korea University. He is currently President of the Korean Educational Psychology Association and serves on the editorial boards of Motivation and Emotion and Frontiers in Educational Psychology.

Education

Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, Utah State University, 1992
M.S. in Cognitive Psychology, Utah State University, 1988
B.A. in Psychology, Korea University, 1985

Employment

Director, Brain and Motivation Research Institute (bMRI), Korea University, 2002-present
Professor of Educational Psychology, Department of Education, Korea University, 2002-present
Associate Professor, Department of Industrial Psychology, Kwangwoon University, 1994-2002
Senior Researcher, Institute of Behavioral Science, Korea University, 1993-1994
Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1992-1993

Representative Publication

Lee, W., & Kim, S. (2014). Effects of achievement goals on challenge seeking and feedback processing: Behavioral and fMRI evidence. PLoS ONE 9(9): e107254. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0107254
Jiang, Y., Kim, S., & Bong, M. (2014). Effects of reward contingencies on brain activation during feedback processing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8:656. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00656
Kim, S. (2013). Neuroscientific model of motivational process. Frontiers in Psychology. 4:98. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00098
Kim, S., Yoon, M., Kim, W., Lee, S., & Kang, E. (2012). Neural correlates of bridging inference and coherence processing. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 41, 311-321.
Kim. S., Lee, M., Chung, Y., & Bong, M. (2010). Comparison of brain activation during norm-referenced versus criterion-referenced feedback: The role of perceived competence and performance-approach goals. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 35(2), 141-152.