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Jonathan D. Nelson

I study human cognition using a combination of behavioral experiments, eye tracking, brain imaging, and probabilistic modeling. A forthcoming chapter and recent Psych Review paper introduce much of my research. A Neurocomputing article discusses work modeling category formation and eye movements with Bayesian, optimal experimental design models. I'm currently a postdoc in the Computer Science and Engineering Dept., at UCSD.

Current research foci:

-- statistical foundations of active visual perception: eye movements as hypothesis testing (eye movement experiments)
-- neural bases of the value of information for categorization (fMRI experiments)
-- use of optimal experimental design principles to design informative behavioral experiments, to characterize the intuitive value of information
-- communicative pragmatics of biases (base rate neglect, conservatism) in Bayesian inference
-- effective communication of probabilities using experienced-based learning and natural sampling
-- characterization of helpful and unhelpful strategies for teaching by examples
-- Bayesian modeling of learning on probabilistic and deterministic categorization tasks
-- (see my papers or my CV for more info)

Contact info:

Computer Science and Engineering Dept., University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0404
office: room 4108
email: jnelson at salk dot edu
phone: 858-534-9028

Collaborators:

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