Research interests

I am a researcher in computational neuroscience/psychiatry, focusing on developing computational models to replicate and understand biases in human behavior during problem-solving tasks. My goal is to understand the underlying mechanisms behind the systematic errors humans make during their academic education, and to find ways to decrease how often they occur. For example, I design computational models that aim to identify defects in numerical representation and to understand the effect of behavioral training on numerical representation, that I validate using human behavior and neural recordings.

Different aspect of problem solving

Problem solving involves multiple different cognitive abilities. Imagine you're asked to calculate the addition 15 plus 27 in your head. To find the result of this addition, in school you learned how to use an algorithm. In other words, you learned a planning of your behavior into a sequence of actions. For example, you would first focus your attention on the two units 5 and 7. Then, using your semantic memory, you would remember that 5 plus 7 equals 12. Then, you would focus your attention on the tens 1 and 2, while still remembering the carryover and the intermediate result 2 thanks to your working memory. Thanks to your semantic memory again, you would remember that 1 plus 2 equals 3, and that when you add the carry-over you obtain the result 4.And finally, you would combine your two intermediate results 4 and 2 to say that the result is 42.