Prof. Dr. Kou Murayama
Kou Murayama is a Professor for Educational Psychology at the Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology. In 2020, he has been awarded with the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Professorship. He is also Co-Director of the LEAD Graduate School & Research Network.
Kou Murayama's research focuses on a number of overlapping questions about how motivation works in human functioning. With his broad and interdisciplinary background both in basic and applied (especially educational) sciences, his research program features a “multimethod approach”, combining a number of different perspectives, and methodologies (e.g., longitudinal modeling, behavioral experiments, neuroimaging, ecological momentary assessments, meta-analysis, educational intervention, computational/statistical simulation) to gain a comprehensive understanding of motivation. One of the central themes of his recent work is to understand how humans are autonomously motivated to seek and gain knowledge (motivational state often called “interest” or “intrinsic motivation”) and how we can apply this idea to educational settings.
Curriculum Vitae
since 2020
Professor for Educational Psychology
Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen
since 2020
Alexander von Humboldt Professor
since 2018
Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
University of Reading, UK
2017-2020
Distinguished International Professor
Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen
since 2016
Honorary Professor
Kochi University of Technology, Japan
2015-2018
Associate Professor
University of Reading, UK
2013-2015
Lecturer
University of Reading, UK
2012-2013
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
2010-2012
Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow
University of Munich, Germany
2009-2012
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Munich, Germany
2006-2009
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
2006-2008
Visiting Research Fellow
University of Rochester, USA
2006
Ph.D., Educational Psychology
University of Tokyo
2002
M.A., Educational Psychology
University of Tokyo, Japan
2000
B.S., Educational Psychology
University of Tokyo, Japan