Find the question
Turn a student’s genuine interest into a focused, answerable research question.
Cognitive Neuroscientist · Educator
Ghootae Kim
I study how experience changes memory—how the brain stabilizes, differentiates, and reorganizes what we learn.
Student research mentoring
From a question to a paper
I guide high-school students in the US, Korean students studying in the US, and students at international schools in Korea and across Asia through original research: finding a real question, designing a study, analyzing data, and writing it up to publication standard. The same training that led to papers in PNAS and Nature Communications now goes into helping students build research that stands out in US college admissions.
7Students mentored
2Student papers published or accepted
1stPlace, International Young Scholars Conference 2026
4More student papers under journal review
Design the study
Choose methods, data, and analyses the way a working scientist would.
Analyze & interpret
Run the analysis and reason carefully about what the results do and do not show.
Write & submit
Draft, revise, and prepare the paper for journals, competitions, or applications.
When AI Sounds Human: AI-to-Self Source Confusion Following Human-Like AI Narratives
L.K., high-school student, international school in Bangkok · Experimental study of how human-like AI shapes source memory
Pandemic-Related Concern Domains Associated With PTSD-Like Symptoms Among U.S. Medical Students: An Exploratory Secondary Analysis
Y.S., high-school student · Secondary analysis of a six-school U.S. survey (N = 662)
Currently under review
- Columbia Junior Science Journal · Under reviewRelative Neural Evidence and False Acceptance in Source Memory
- Columbia Junior Science Journal · Under reviewBaseline Theta and Beta Activity and Theta Beta Ratio Change During Neurofeedback in Children With ADHD
- Columbia Junior Science Journal · Under reviewCute Mascots and Truth Discernment: Lower Sensitivity in a Truth-Judgment Task
- Young Scientists Journal · Under reviewCan Fractal Patterns Help Explain Why Nature Restores Attention? A Critical Review
New book · November 2026
대치동에 간 뇌과학자
AI 시대 상위 1% 뇌과학 공부법
A guide for students on how the brain actually learns. Drawing on nearly twenty years of memory research, the book explains why memorization is the foundation of creativity, how the hippocampus builds memories, and why sleep consolidates what we study, and turns these principles into concrete study strategies.
Pre-order at Kyobo Book CentreResearch focus
Memory in motion
My work connects cognitive theory, human neuroimaging, and computational approaches to explain how memories compete, separate, and support new knowledge.
Episodic memory
How events are represented, retrieved, and updated across experiences.
Prediction error
How violated expectations reshape competing memory representations.
Memory & sleep
How REM sleep supports neural differentiation and memory stability.
Learning decisions
How implicit learning and confidence interact with decision processes.
Critical Reading and Writing Instructor
Culture-Literacy Research Institute
Senior Researcher and Principal Investigator
Cognitive Science Research Group, Korea Brain Research Institute
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Psychology, University of Oregon · Advisor: Brice A. Kuhl
Education
2016
PhD, Psychology
Princeton University · Nicholas B. Turk-Browne and Kenneth A. Norman
2013
MA, Psychology
Princeton University
2010
MA, Psychology
Yonsei University · Do-Joon Yi
2008
BA, Psychology
Yonsei University
Peer-reviewed work
Publications
Research on memory competition, prediction error, neural differentiation, and hippocampal remapping.
The role of rapid eye movement sleep in neural differentiation of memories in the hippocampus
McDevitt, E. A., Kim, G., Turk-Browne, N. B., & Norman, K. A. · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 38(1), 126–143.
Abrupt hippocampal remapping signals resolution of memory interference
Wanjia, G., Favila, S. E., Kim, G., Molitor, R. J., & Kuhl, B. A. · Nature Communications, 12, 4816.
Diagnosis and visualization of intracranial hemorrhage on computed tomography images
Youn, Y., Kim, M., Kim, J., Kang, B. K., & Kim, G. · Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research, 42(4), 150–158.
Neural overlap in item representations across episodes impairs context memory
Kim, G., Norman, K. A., & Turk-Browne, N. B. · Cerebral Cortex, 29(6), 2682–2693.
Neural differentiation of incorrectly predicted memories
Kim, G., Norman, K. A., & Turk-Browne, N. B. · Journal of Neuroscience, 37(8), 2022–2031.
Pruning of memories by context-based prediction error
Kim, G., Lewis-Peacock, J. A., Norman, K. A., & Turk-Browne, N. B. · PNAS, 111(24), 8997–9002.
Repetition anti-priming: The effects of perceptual ambiguity on object recognition
Kim, G., & Yi, D.-J. · Cognitive Science, 21(4), 603–625.
Conferences
Recent presentations
Selected talks, posters, and abstracts across sleep, episodic memory, visual cognition, and applied deep learning.
Neural differentiation of competing memory representations after a prediction error depends on REM sleep
Houston, Texas · Published abstract
How memory representations change as a function of competition-dependent learning and sleep
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · Program
Confidence computation incorporates task-relevant and task-irrelevant noises unlike decision making
Virtual conference · Abstract
Feedback from higher visual processing regions modulates redundancy gains in retinotopic cortex
Virtual conference · Program
Context-based memory reactivation enhances learning of structural knowledge
Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon
Encoding context overlap facilitates learning of common structures among similar visual events
St. Pete Beach, Florida
View earlier and additional presentations
- 2020 · Distinct neural populations of repetition suppression and enhancement in visual perception.
- 2020 · Automated clustering of songbirds’ vocal behavior using a variational autoencoder and UMAP.
- 2020 · Intracranial hemorrhage diagnosis using a convolutional deep-learning algorithm.
- 2019 · Context-based memory overlap enhances structural knowledge of similar experiences.
- 2018 · Measuring the behavioral consequences of statistical learning.
- 2018 · Resolving memory clutter based on competition.
- 2017 · Repetition priming and episodic memory.
- 2016 · Incorrectly predicted memories become differentiated after restudy.
- 2015 · Storing and updating non-visual features in visual long-term memory.
- 2013 · Statistical learning of new relationships depends on predictive history.
- 2013 · Pruning of visual memories based on contextual prediction error.
- 2012 · Context-based prediction and memory suppression.
- 2011 · Repetition anti-priming.
- 2009 · Self-positivity bias in source memory; scene inversion and boundary extension.
Beyond the lab
Public scholarship
Writing, lectures, and interviews that connect neuroscience with reading, investing, social life, and everyday memory.
Apr 2023
Why loneliness fuels conflict
The Korea Times Chicago · Opinion
Dec 2022How does the brain learn?
Naeum Plus · Seoul National University Bundang Hospital
Nov 2022The illusion of successful investing
Seoul Economic Daily · Neuroscience column
Sep 2022Metacognitive reading for a smarter brain
The Liverary · Public video lecture
Jan 2022Revealing how memory and the brain work
Electronic Times · Featured researcher interview
Academic contributions
Teaching, talks & service
A continuing commitment to making rigorous cognitive science useful to students and wider communities.
Teaching
- Critical Reading & WritingCulture-Literacy Research Institute, 2022–present
- Assistant in InstructionPrinceton University, 2013–2015
- Assistant in InstructionYonsei University, 2008–2009
Invited talks
- Pusan National UniversityDepartment of Psychology, 2019
- Korea UniversityDepartment of Psychology, 2018
- Yonsei UniversityDepartment of Psychology, 2017 & 2018
Honors & service
- Best Paper AwardAgency for Humanities, Yonsei University
- Highest HonorsUndergraduate School, Yonsei University
- Research & Education ProgramDaegu Il Science High School, 2019
Contact
Let’s talk about your student’s research.
For mentoring consultations, research, teaching, or writing inquiries, email is the best way to get in touch.