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MMXXVI

Senior Research Scientist · Toyota Research Institute

Shabnam Hakimi

Building AI that understands people — grounded in cognitive neuroscience, motivated by human flourishing.

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About

How context shapes behavior

I'm a Senior Research Scientist in the Human-Centered AI division of the Toyota Research Institute, where I work on the Future Product Innovation team. My research sits at the intersection of behavioral science and AI — combining theory- and data-driven approaches to investigate how context modulates learning and decision-making.

I'm particularly interested in motivation, flexible self-regulation, and developing personalizable interventions for individual behavior change. I use diverse methods — physiological monitoring, neuroimaging, experience sampling, pharmacological manipulation, and computational modeling — to characterize the neural and psychological mechanisms that support learning and choice.

My current work focuses on two questions: how can novel approaches to preference elicitation resolve unique preference signals? And can neuroscience inspire more effective support for human creativity, especially when combined with generative AI?

Research areas

  • Motivated learning & decision-making
  • Behavior change & self-regulation
  • Preference elicitation & prediction
  • Creativity & generative AI
  • Computational cognitive neuroscience
  • Human-centered AI design

Research

01

Motivated Learning & Decision-Making

Using computational neuroimaging to study how affective context, motivation, and individual differences shape learning and choice — from risky decisions to intertemporal trade-offs.

fMRIComputational modelsReward
02

Behavior Change & Self-Regulation

Developing neuroscience-informed, personalizable interventions for individual behavior change. Previously led behavioral labs at Welltok, designing science-based health interventions at scale.

Intervention designSelf-regulationmHealth
03

Preference Elicitation & Prediction

Developing novel methods to resolve unique preference signals from behavior and language — including cognitive complexity measures that predict consumer choice and inform product innovation.

NLPConsumer behaviorLLMs
04

Creativity & Generative AI

Exploring how psychology and neuroscience can inspire better support for creative problem-solving, especially when combined with generative AI — supporting TRI's Future Product Innovation work.

Generative AIDesignCHI

Selected Work

2024
Personalizing Driver Safety Interfaces via Cognitive Factors Inference
Sumner, Hakimi et al. · Scientific Reports · A data-driven approach to infer impulsivity and inhibitory control from driving behavior to personalize safety interventions.
Paper
2024
Creative Commuter: Designing Moments for Idea Generation During the Commute
Paredes, Hong, Hakimi, Klenk · CHI · Using context-aware AI to scaffold creative incubation during everyday transitions.
Conference
2023
Anticipatory Thinking in Design
Klenk, Hong, Hakimi · AI Magazine · How anticipatory cognition frameworks can be integrated into AI-assisted design processes.
Paper
2022
Social Cognitive Processes Explain Bias in Juror Decisions
Castrellon, Hakimi et al. · Using neuroimaging to decompose the cognitive mechanisms underlying consequential social decisions.
Paper

CV

Education & Training
2008–14
PhD, Computation & Neural Systems
California Institute of Technology
2002–06
BA, Psychology
Stanford University
Positions
2021–
Senior Research Scientist
Toyota Research Institute, Human-Centered AI
2016–21
Postdoctoral Researcher
Duke University, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
2013–15
Director, Behavioral Labs
Welltok
Selected Publications
2024
Personalizing driver safety interfaces via driver cognitive factors inference
Sumner, Hakimi et al. · Scientific Reports
2024
Creative Commuter: Towards Designing Moments for Idea Generation
Paredes, Hong, Hakimi, Klenk · CHI
2023
Anticipatory thinking in design
Klenk, Hong, Hakimi · AI Magazine
2022
Social cognitive processes explain bias in juror decisions
Castrellon, Hakimi et al.
29 publications · ~3,400 citations →
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