Kevin Myers

Kevin Myers

Professor of Psychology
Cross Icon

Educational Background

  • B.S., magna cum laude, University of Scranton, 1993
  • M.A., Duke University, 1997
  • Ph.D., Duke University, 1999
  • NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Brooklyn College of CUNY, 1999-2001

Research Interests

I am a biological psychologist interested in food motivation and eating behavior. I conduct research (mostly using rats, but also sometimes people) to study how different attributes of foods like taste and nutrient content influence food preferences and meal patterns. I also study how animals adapt to predictable vs. unpredictable food availability, to help understand the psychological and health impacts of food insecurity.

Courses Taught

  • Introductory Psychology
  • Learning
  • Research Methods in Learning
  • Appetite and Eating Behavior
  • Biopsychology of Appetite and Obesity

Selected Publications

Myers, K.P. (2017). The convergence of psychology and neurobiology in flavor-nutrient learning. Appetite. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2017.03.048

Myers, K.P. (2017). Sensory-specific satiety is intact in rats made obese on a high-fat, high-sugar choice diet. Appetite. doi:0.1016/j.appet.2017.01.013

Nentwig, T.B., Myers, K.P., & Grisel, J.E. (2017). Initial subjective reward to alcohol in Sprague-Dawley rats. Alcohol, 58, 19-22.

Palframan, K. M., & Myers, K. P. (2016). Modern ‘junk food'and minimally-processed ‘natural food' cafeteria diets alter the response to sweet taste but do not impair flavor-nutrient learning in rats. Physiology & Behavior, 157, 146-157.

Wald, H. S., & Myers, K. P. (2015). Enhanced flavor-nutrient conditioning in obese rats on a high-fat, high-carbohydrate choice diet. Physiology & Behavior, 151, 102-110.

Brunstrom, J. M., Rogers, P. J., Myers, K. P., & Holtzman, J. D. (2015). In search of flavour-nutrient learning. A study of the Samburu pastoralists of North-Central Kenya. Appetite, 91, 415-425.

Myers, K. P., Taddeo, M. S., & Richards, E. K. (2013). Sensory-specific appetition: Postingestive detection of glucose rapidly promotes continued consumption of a recently encountered flavor. Physiology & Behavior, 121, 125-133.

Myers, K. P. (2013). Rats acquire stronger preference for flavors consumed towards the end of a high-fat meal. Physiology & Behavior, 110, 179-189.

Vento, P. J., Myers, K. P., & Daniels, D. (2012). Investigation into the specificity of angiotensin II-induced behavioral desensitization. Physiology & Behavior, 105(4), 1076-1081.

Myers, K. P., & Whitney, M. C. (2011). Rats' learned preferences for flavors encountered early or late in a meal paired with the postingestive effects of glucose. Physiology & Behavior, 102(5), 466-474.

Myers, K.P. (2007). Robust preference for a flavor paired with intragastric glucose acquired in a single trial. Appetite, 48, 123-127.

Myers, K.P. & Izbicki, E.V. (2006). Reinforcing and aversive effects of caffeine measured by flavor preference conditioning in caffeine-naive and caffeine-acclimated rats. Physiology & Behavior, 88, 585-596.

Myers, K.P. & Sclafani, A. (2006). Development of learned flavor preferences. Developmental Psychobiology, 48, 380-388.

Myers, K.P., Ferris, J., & Sclafani, A. (2005). Flavor preferences conditioned by postingestive effects of nutrients in preweanling rats. Physiology and Behavior, 84, 407-19.

Contact