Dr Romy Froemer PhD

Dr Romy Froemer

School of Psychology
Assistant Professor

Dr Froemer studies the switches by which people flexibly adjust how they learn and make decisions, and how they set these switches according to their momentary goals and motivational states. To address these questions, she combines behavioral measures, computational modeling, eye-tracking, psychophysiological recordings and/or neuroimaging techniques. The long-term goal of her work is to identify levers that empower people to improve not only their learning and decision-making, but also how they feel about it.

Qualifications

Diplom in Psychology - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2011)

Dr.rer.nat. - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2016)

Biography

Dr Froemer completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Following a one-year postdoc with Professor Abdel Rahman at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, she worked with Amitai Shenhav at Brown University as a postdoctoral fellow and subsequently senior research associate. She joined University of Birmingham as an Assistant Professor in January 2023.

Postgraduate supervision

Students interested in working with Dr Froemer are encouraged to email her at r.froemer@bham.ac.uk.

Research

Learning, Decision-making, Motivation, Metacognition, Cognitive Control

Publications

Highlight publications

Frömer, R & Shenhav, A 2022, 'Filling the gaps: cognitive control as a critical lens for understanding mechanisms of value-based decision-making', Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, vol. 134, 104483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.12.006

Frömer, R, Nassar, MR, Bruckner, R, Stürmer, B, Sommer, W & Yeung, N 2021, 'Response-based outcome predictions and confidence regulate feedback processing and learning', eLife, vol. 10, e62825. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.62825

Frömer, R, Lin, H, Dean Wolf, CK, Inzlicht, M & Shenhav, A 2021, 'Expectations of reward and efficacy guide cognitive control allocation', Nature Communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 1030 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21315-z

Frömer, R, Dean Wolf, CK & Shenhav, A 2019, 'Goal congruency dominates reward value in accounting for behavioral and neural correlates of value-based decision-making', Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12931-x

Frömer, R, Maier, M & Abdel Rahman, R 2018, 'Group-level EEG-processing pipeline for flexible single trial-based analyses including linear mixed models', Frontiers in Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00048

Recent publications

Article

Frömer, R, Nassar, MR, Ehinger, BV & Shenhav, A 2024, 'Common neural choice signals can emerge artefactually amid multiple distinct value signals', Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01971-z

Grahek, I, Frömer, R, Prater Fahey, M & Shenhav, A 2022, 'Learning when effort matters: neural dynamics underlying updating and adaptation to changes in performance efficacy', Cerebral Cortex. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhac215

Lai, LY, Frömer, R, Festa, EK & Heindel, WC 2020, 'Age-Related Changes in the Neural Dynamics of Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing During Visual Object Recognition: An Electrophysiological Investigation', Neurobiology of Aging. https://doi.org/10.1101/608240

Ritz, H, Frömer, R & Shenhav, A 2019, 'Bridging Motor and Cognitive Control: It’s About Time!', Trends in Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.11.005

Fröber, K, Froemer, R, Stürmer, B & Dreisbach, G 2017, 'The role of affective evaluation in conflict adaptation: An LRP study', Brain and Cognition, vol. 116, pp. 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2017.05.003

Froemer, R, Stürmer, B & Sommer, W 2016, 'Come to think of it: Contributions of reasoning abilities and training schedule to skill acquisition in a virtual throwing task', Acta Psychologica, vol. 170, pp. 58-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.06.010

Froemer, R, Stürmer, B & Sommer, W 2016, '(Don't) Mind the effort: Effects of contextual interference on ERP indicators of motor preparation', Psychophysiology, pp. 1577-1586. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12703

Froemer, R, Stürmer, B & Sommer, W 2016, 'The better, the bigger: The effect of graded positive performance feedback on the reward positivity', Biological Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.12.011

Froemer, R, Dimigen, O, Niefind, F, Krause, N, Kliegl, R & Sommer, W 2015, 'Are individual differences in reading speed related to extrafoveal visual acuity and crowding?', PLOS One, vol. 10, no. 3. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121986

Froemer, R, Hafner, V & Sommer, W 2012, 'Aiming for the bull's eye: Preparing for throwing investigated with event‐related brain potentials', Psychophysiology, vol. 49, pp. 335-344. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01317.x

Comment/debate

Bream, S, Held, L, Shenhav, A & Froemer, R 2023, 'Learning how to reason and deciding when to decide', Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 46, e115. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X22003090

Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Froemer, R & Nassar, MR 2024, Belief updates, learning and adaptive decision making. in Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-820480-1.00059-0

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