I am eager to bring on board enthusiastic researchers with a keen interest in understanding why human thinking is both flawed and powerful. Postdocs in my lab are encouraged to pursue independent research projects, form collaborations in and out of the lab, pick up new skills in science, and communicate their ideas effectively.

Potential topics of interest

Causal reasoning
Epistemic reasoning about what people know, think, and believe
Reasoning about time and duration
Explanatory reasoning
Reasoning about quantities and properties
Deduction
Inductive reasoning and generalization
Probabilistic reasoning
Facts, counterfactuals, and possibilities
Spatial reasoning
Computational cognitive modeling
Teleological thinking about the functions of objects
Integrating reasoning with machine learning techniques

Desired skills and background

Ph.D. in cognitive science, linguistics, or computer science
Interest in exploring various domains of human reasoning
Experience with designing online experiments
Data analysis skills
Computational cognitive modeling experience
Experience with programming languages such as R, LISP, JavaScript
Experience with open science techniques

How to apply

If you’d like to join the lab, please contact me first, or hunt me down at a conference. Postdocs at NRL are hired through the National Research Council’s Research Associateship Program. Application deadlines for the program are February 1st, May 1st, August 1st and November 1st. NRL postdocs must be US citizens or green card holders.

About the Reasoning Lab

The Reasoning Lab at the Naval Research Laboratory focuses on building AI systems capable of rich inferential interactions. The lab conducts basic research into human thinking to build computer models of its strengths and weaknesses.