Casual Cognitions Lab
Leya Lisa Hampson
University College London, Div of Psychology & Lang Sciences
PhD Students
I am a PhD student interested in how we reason about arguments we see in our everyday lives. More specifically, I investigate what features in arguments people like and dislike, how people evaluate the quality of these arguments as a function of their beliefs, and potential mechanisms that link the beliefs people hold with their evaluation of the arguments they see.
I am a PhD student under the supervision of Prof Adam Harris (UCL), Dr Henrik Singmann (UCL), and Dr Sarah Jenkins (Centre for Decision Research, University of Leeds). My research focuses on decision-making under risk and uncertainty. Specifically, I am interested in the effect of warning systems on decision-making during natural hazards, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia. I am using causal inference methods (e.g., regression discontinuity designs) to establish a causal relationship between the warnings issued and the decisions people take during actual natural hazards, as well as the impacts associated with such events. This work also involves analysing decision-making during natural hazards in a controlled experimental setting. I am funded by the UK Met Office's WCSSP Southeast Asia initiative. My other work involves reasoning about polarising political topics.
The aim of the research is to investigate the methods currently used in the UK and internationally for the interpretation of forensic footwear evidence. Synchronicity and differences between the methods will be identified with a view to developing best practice and standardisation of procedure. As part of this, an assessment of the appropriateness and reliability of reference data will be made and options for better sharing of data explored to facilitate standardisation.
I am a PhD student in the Causal Cognition Lab under the supervision of Prof. David Lagnado. My research investigates the psychological mechanisms behind belief updating, misinformation processing, and decision-making in complex informational environments.
Supervision of taught course research projects
Collaborative projects
Conference participation as a speaker or panellist
Helen joined UCL in 2018 as a BSc Psychology undergraduate and continued her studies with an MSc in Crime Science from 2021 to 2022. She then pursued a PhD in the Causal Cognition Lab under the supervision of Prof. David Lagnado.
Helen's research focuses on legal decision-making. Specifically, she investigates how new evidence influences the perceived probability of guilt and verdict, and whether the update aligns with Bayesian norms. Her other works involve causal and counterfactual reasoning when attributing responsibility.
Post Graduate Teaching Assistant
University College London, Dept of Security and Crime Science
I am a PhD student at the Causal Cognition Lab, Department of Experimental Psychology. My primary supervisor is Prof David Lagnado and my secondary supervisor is Dr Christos Bechlivanidis. The main aim of my current research is focusing on how people perceive causality, and how perception of causality influences the rest of the cognitive process, Apart from this, I am also interested in blame/causal judgement, moral judgement and qualitative research methods in general.
Trisevgeni Papakonstantinou (UCL Experimental Psychology) is a PhD student studying the cognitive mechanisms involved in the formation and revision of complex mental models, through experimental methods, computational modeling and analysis of naturalistic data. She has a background as a behavioural data scientist in the field of health behaviour change, with experience in industry and government.
I am a PhD student in the Causal Cognition Lab under the supervision of Prof. David Lagnado. My research focuses on moral judgment and decision-making. In particular, I investigate causal explanations of moral responsibility. Some of my work explores how people use prior information about an agent (i.e., their moral character) when attributing blame in an unrelated situation; how people use causal and counterfactual reasoning when attributing responsibility, and how they distribute responsibility in complex situations where multiple agents interact and contribute to an outcome. Some of my other work involves exploring the metacognitive processes behind moral decision-making and how people learn from the outcomes of their previous moral decisions.
Dr. Maximilian Maier was a PhD student at UCL Experimental Psychology studying topics related to applied statistics and decision-making psychology. His main contribution to applied statistics is the development of a Bayesian meta-analysis method to correct for publication bias (robust Bayesian meta-analysis, RoBMA). In his experimental work, he used behavioural research as well as computational modelling to study topics related to moral and altruistic decision-making. Max is now an Assistant Professor at Warwick Business School.
Post-doc and Research Fellows
Christos briefly studied archaeology, and then film studies in Athens, Greece. He came to the UK to study Computer Science at the University of Bath (2003-2006) and then worked as a software developer in Greece and later in London. He studied Cognitive and Decision Sciences at UCL (2007-2009) while also working as a developer. He continued working as a programmer for some time before starting his PhD on causal perception and reasoning at UCL (2010-2014) under the supervision of Dave Lagnado.
I am a PhD student in the Causal Cognition Lab, supervised by Prof. David Lagnado. My research explores the psychological mechanisms of blame attribution in healthcare, focusing on how causal reasoning shapes responsibility judgments, clinician-patient interactions, and stigma.
Lecturer (Teaching) in Psychology Research Methods
University College London, Experimental Psychology
Tia Gong
Research Assistant
Charlotte Guo
Charlotte here. I spend most of my time working within academic research, on the intersection of psychology, philosophy and neuroscience. I wish to pursue a PhD in Neuroaesthetics/cinematics, Experimental Philosophy and related fields. Outside academia, I enjoy music, cinema and fiction. Professional image aside, this site is equally an archive of my creative noises.
Alumni