Dr Julie Ji

Under the guidance of ARC Laureate Prof. Colin MacLeod at the UWA Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion (CARE), Julie’s research investigates how mental imagery-based simulations of future rewarding experiences can be leveraged to promote greater reward-seeking behaviour in depression, via its impact on judgment, motivation and decision-making.

Her work draws from research on episodic memory and simulation, motivation, and judgment and decision-making to discover new ways of enhancing the desire and willingness to seek potentially rewarding activities, i.e. those that make us feel good, or feel good about ourselves.

Ultimately, Julie’s Fellowship research will inform the development of an innovative cognitive “tool” that has the potential to enhance depression treatment efficacy by restoring the wanting and seeking of rewarding experiences in daily life.

Julie completed her PhD with Prof. Emily Holmes at the Medical Research Council Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, and her first postdoctoral research position at the University of Virginia with Prof. Bethany Teachman.