BIOGRAPHY

Education
Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, Emory University

M.A., Philosophy, Georgia State University

B.A., Psychology and Philosophy, University of South Alabama

Dr. Jason Shepard is an assistant professor of psychology at Life University. He earned his PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Emory University and an MA in Philosophy with a concentration in Neurophilosophy from Georgia State University.

Dr. Shepard thoroughly enjoys teaching and mentoring. He teaches a wide range of courses, including Biopsychology, Cognitive Psychology, Neuroethics, Positive Psychology, Research Methods, and Research Statistics. His approach to teaching is inspired by decades of research on self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1980) as it is applied to the classroom (Ryan, Connell, & Deci, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2009). Research on self-determination has provided compelling evidence that the educational outcomes we value the most – such as critical engagement, making connections beyond the material learned, self-regulated learning, and long-term retention of the material – can be fostered through support of students' needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Dr. Shepard is also actively involved in research. His research consists of two major lines of work: In one line of research, he is interested in people's beliefs and theories about agency-related concepts, especially free will and intentional action. In a second line of research, he employs advance computational techniques (e.g., neural networks, deep learning, etc.), alongside traditional lab experiments, to better understand how people think about the future and how different ways of thinking about the future relate to well-being. His research has been published in academic outlets spanning six disciplines: psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, computer science, and law.