Research

The Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences (CDS) aims to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying information search, representation, and integration, in particular, how individuals of all ages search and integrate evidence to make decisions under risk and uncertainty. CDS is committed to theoretical and methodological pluralism as well as interdisciplinary collaboration.

The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.
Confucius

Current Research Topics

The Aging Decision Maker

The world is experiencing a demographic revolution. Life expectancy is on the rise. But how can we ensure that longer lives will be better lives? Will we be up to the challenge of making financial and other consequential decisions well into old age? The Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences aims to understand how cognitive and affective changes brought about by aging can change the way we search and represent information and, ultimately, make decisions in all life domains.

Understanding Risk and Uncertainty

How do people understand evidence, risk, and uncertainty? And how can we structure information so as to maximize understanding of evidence and the associated gaps? The Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences investigates how evidence, risk, and uncertainty are understood in different contexts and aims to apply these insights to improve the communication of information in various domains, such as wealth, health, and sustainable behaviour.

Research Projects

The links below offer information about some ongoing or completed research projects conducted at the Center for Cognition and Decision Sciences.

Representative Publications

Publication by Frey et al. (2020):
Identifying robust correlates of risk preference using specification curve analysis

Publication by Wulff et al. (2019):
New perspectives on the aging lexicon

Publication by Mata et al. (2018):
Risk Preference: A View from Psychology

Our Researchers

At the Center for Cognition and Decision Sciences we conduct research on a variety of topics. Please follow the links below to find out more about the research of individual staff members.