CV: PROFESSOR MIKE OAKSFORD, PhD, DSc, FBPsS, FAPS
Date of Birth 27th February, 1956
Address Department of Psychological Sciences
Birkbeck College
University of London
Malet Street
London, WCIE 7HX
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone +44 (0) 020 7079 0879
PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS
2005- Professor of Psychology, Head of Department, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London
1996-2005 Professor of Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Cardiff University
1994-1996 Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Warwick
1989-1994 Lecturer (B), Department of Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor
1988-1989 Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh
QUALIFICATIONS
DSc. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh, 2001
Ph.D. Centre for Cognitive Science, Faculty of Science, University of Edinburgh, 1989
BA(Hons.) Philosophy and Psychology, St. Cuthbert’s Society, University of Durham, (First), 1985
DISTINCTIONS, AWARDS AND HONOURS
2012 Fellowship of the Association for Psychological Science (FAPS) for “sustained and outstanding distinguished contributions to Psychological Science.”
2001 Doctor of Science (DSc.), University of Edinburgh, for the publication of the book Rationality in an Uncertain World, Psychology Press.
1999 (March) Invited Visiting Professor at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium.
1999 Fellowship of the British Psychological Society (FBPsS) for “making an outstanding contribution to psychological knowledge.”
1997 (June) Invited Visiting Professor at the Max-Planck Institute for Psychological Research, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Munich, Germany.
1996-2004 Honorary Fellow of the Psychology Department, University of Warwick.
1995 Spearman Medal of the British Psychological Society, for making an outstanding contribution to psychological knowledge during the first 10 years since gaining an undergraduate degree in psychology.
1995 Cognitive Section Award of the British Psychological Society, for the best cognitive psychology journal article of 1994.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Editing/Editorial Boards
2005 - Consulting Editor for Psychological Review (American Psychological Association, USA).
2004 - 2007 Consulting Editor for Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition (American Psychological Association, USA).
2002 - 2008 Consulting Editor for Memory and Cognition (Psychonomic Society, USA).
2001 - 2005 Associate Editor for the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (A) (Experimental Psychology Society, UK).
1997 - Editorial board of Thinking and Reasoning (Psychology Press, UK).
Journal Reviews
I have reviewed papers for:
Acta Psychologica; Applied Logic; Behavioral & Brain Sciences; British Journal of Psychology; Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive; Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology; Cognition & Emotion; Cognitive Science; Developmental Science; Erkenntnis; Evolution and Human Behavior; Experimental Psychology; Human Brain Mapping; Journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers; International Journal of Human Computer Studies; Journal of Child Language; Journal of Decision Making; Journal of Experimental Child Psychology; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition; Journal of Language, Logic and Information; Journal of Memory & Language; Linguistics & Philosophy; Memory & Cognition; Mind & Language; Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B; Psychological Bulletin; Psychological Review; Psychological Research; Psychological Science; Psychonomic Bulletin & Review; Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology; Social Studies of Science; Synthese; The Psychologist; Theory & Psychology; Thinking & Reasoning; Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Grant Reviewing
I have reviewed grants for:
National Science Foundation of the USA; The Austrian Science Foundation; The Dutch Fund for Scientific Research; Swiss National Science Foundation; Joint Research Councils Initiative on Cognitive Science and Human Computer Interaction; The Leverhulme Trust; The Economic and Social Research Council (UK); The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK); The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK): Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK).
Book Proposals
I have reviewed book proposals for:
Academic Press, Cambridge University Press, McGraw-Hill, McMillan Press, MIT Press, Oxford University Press, and the Psychology Press.
Advisory Roles
1999 Consultant on mood induction procedures for Unilever Research, Colworth Laboratory.
2002 Specialist Advisor for the London School of Economics, Promotions Committee.
2004 External Advisor on Professorial Appointment Panel for Warwick University.
2005 External Assessor on Promotion to Professor for Warwick University.
2005 Consultant on decision making and information search for Qinetiq Research.
2009 International Advisor to the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences Advanced Fellowships and Fellowships Scheme.
2009 External Advisor to the University of Kent RAE2008 Review Panel to review the performance of the Department of Psychology.
2010 Member of the ESRC Advanced Quantitative Methods (AQM) Assessment Panel.
2010 Member of the European Science Foundation Pool of Peer Reviewers.
2010 Consultant HoD to the RCUK/AHPD/EPS/BPS Benchmarking Review of UK Psychology.
2010 Consultant on Cognition and Perception to the RCUK/AHPD/EPS/BPS Benchmarking Review of UK Psychology.
2011 International Advisor to the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences Advanced Fellowships and Fellowships Scheme.
2011 Member of the ESRC Advanced Quantitative Methods (AQM) Assessment Panel.
2012 External Advisor to the University of Sussex, Psychology Department Periodic Review.
2012 External Advisor to the Royal Holloway, University of London, Psychology Department Periodic Review.
2012 External Advisor on Professorial Appointment Panel for Cardiff University.
2013 International Advisor to the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences Advanced Fellowships and Fellowships Scheme.
External Examining
1998-2000 External examiner for undergraduate degree programmes for the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex.
Ph.Ds I have been the external examiner for 5 Ph.Ds: Dr. Aureliu Lavric (University of Warwick); Dr. Emanuel Pothos (University of Oxford);
Dr. Ivaylo Vlaev (University of Oxford); Dr. Carolyn Rice (Birkbeck College London); Dr. Stelios Lelis (University of Manchester).
Conference Organization
2013 London Reasoning Workshop7 2013.
2012 7th International Conference on Thinking (Local Organiser and Conference Committee Chair). Plenary Speakers: Professors Maya Bar-Hillel (Hebrew University, Israel), Jonathan Evans (University of Plymouth, UK), Chris Frith FRS (UCL, UK), Keith Holyoak (UCLA, USA), Phil Johnson-Laird FRS (Princeton, USA), Dan Sperber (Central European University, Budapest), Josh Tenenbaum (MIT, USA).
2011 London Reasoning Workshop6 2011.
2010 London Reasoning Workshop5 2010.
2009 London Reasoning Workshop4 2009.
2008 London Reasoning Workshop3 2008: Festschrift for Jonathan St.B T Evans.
2007 London Reasoning Workshop2 2007: The Psychology of Conditionals. Invited speakers: Professors David O’Brien (New York), Henry Markovits (Montreal), and Valerie Thompson (Saskatchewan).
2006 London Reasoning Workshop1 2006: Festschrift for David Over. Joint organizer with Prof. J. St.B T. Evans (Plymouth).
2006 The Probabilistic Mind: Prospects for Rational Models of Cognition. (Gatsby Centre for Computational Neuroscience, UCL). Invited speakers: Professors Gerd Gigerenzer (Max Planck, Berlin), Josh Tenenbaum (MIT), John Anderson (Carnegie Mellon), and Klaus Fiedler (Heidelberg). (Joint organizer with Prof. Nick Chater [UCL]).
1996 Rational Models of Cognition (University of Warwick). Invited speakers: Professors John R. Anderson (Carnegie Mellon), Richard M. Shiffrin (Indiana), James L. McClelland (Carnegie Mellon) and Robert M. Nosofsky (Indiana).
1992 Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop: Neurodynamics and Psychology (University of Wales, Bangor). Invited speakers: Professors Jean-Pierre Changeux (Institut Pasteur, Paris), Tim Shallice (UCL), Marc Richelle (Liege) and John Taylor (King’s College, London). (Joint organizer with Prof. Gordon D. A. Brown [Warwick]). This was the first in a series of NCPW workshops which still occur biannually.
Conference Committees
2001 Conference Program Committee Member for the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Edinburgh, Scotland
2002 Conference Program Committee Member for the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Fairfax, Virginia, USA.
2007 Conference Program Committee Member for the European Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Delphi, Greece.
2011 Conference Program Committee Member for the European Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Sophia, Bulgaria.
2011 Conference Program Committee Member for Formal Epistemology Meets Experimental Philosophy, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands.
2012 Conference Program Committee Member for the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Sapporo, Japan.
2013 Conference Program Committee Member for the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
ADMINISTRATION
University Level
2007 – 2010 Member of the Clerical, Craft, Technical and Related Staff Joint Committee, Birkbeck College, University of London. Oversees HR policy jointly with the Trades Unions.
2006 – 2011 Member of the Nominations Committee, Birkbeck College, University of London. Recommends appointments to College Committees and Co-opted Lay Governors to the Board of Governors.
2006 – 2011 Member of the Finance and General Purposes Committee, Birkbeck College, University of London
2005 – 2011 Academic Governor, Birkbeck College, University of London
2004 – 2005 Chair of the Cardiff University Research Ethics Committee (Only non Pro-VC to chair a University Committee). This committee oversees the work of School RECs across the newly merged institution.
1999 – 2004 Member of the University Personnel Committee, Cardiff University. The committee oversees all human resource issues across the University.
1999 – 2004 Member of the Technicians Re-grading Panel, Cardiff University. Together with Trades Union representatives, this panel assesses applications for re-grading on a yearly basis.
Department/School Level
2005 – Head of Department (Birkbeck College London)
Chair of the Staff Committee
Chair of the Management Committee
Chair of the Research Committee (Member of the RAE2008 and REF2014 Working Groups)
1996 – 2004 Chair of the Psychology School Research Ethics Committee (Cardiff University)
1996 – 2005 Chair of the Participant Panel Committee (Cardiff University)
1996 – 2005 Member of the Resources Board (Cardiff University)
1996 – 2005 Member of the Research Committee (Cardiff University)
1996 – 2005 Member of the Professors Committee (Cardiff University)
1997 – 2005 Member of the Promotions Committee (Cardiff University)
1997 – 2005 School Examinations Officer (Cardiff University)
RESEARCH STUDENT SUPERVISION
Frances Morris Ph.D. (1997), The Psychology of Information Selection and Reasoning. Psychology Department, University of Wales, Bangor.
Andrea Mumford Ph.D. (1997), A Mathematical Study of Non-Target Interference Effects in Selective Prehension. Psychology Department, University of Warwick, I was first Supervisor with Prof. Ian Stewart (Maths, Warwick) and with the assistance of Prof. Steve Tipper (Bangor).
Simon Moore Ph.D. (2000), The Emotional Modulation of Human Categorization Processes. School of Psychology, Cardiff University.
Joselyn Sellen Ph.D. (2002), Schizotypy, Reasoning, and Semantic Memory. School of Psychology, Cardiff University.
Nick Perham Ph.D. (2003), The Effects of Anticipated and Experienced Emotion on Deontic Reasoning. School of Psychology, Cardiff University.
Adam Corner Ph.D. (2008), A Bayesian Approach to the Slippery Slope Argument. School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Joint with Prof. Ulrike Hahn.
Stephen Jones Ph.D., (2007-current), Transactions and the Temporal and Probabilistic Discounting of Costs. Department of Psychological Science¸ Birkbeck College London.
Germaine Symons Ph.D., (2008-current), Bayes Net Models of Source Reliability and Children’s Scientific Reasoning. Department of Psychological Science¸ Birkbeck College London.
James Vance Ph.D., (2009-current), Negations and Reasoning in Natural Discourse. Department of Psychological Science¸ Birkbeck College London.
Chris Brand Ph.D., (2011-current), Causal possibility and Moral Reasoning. Department of Psychological Science¸ Birkbeck College London.
RESEARCH GRANTS
A theoretical and experimental investigation of human conditional reasoning.
(ESRC, £34,000, 10/88 - 10-90). Mike Oaksford, Keith Stenning (Edinburgh).
A Bayesian model of human hypothesis testing in Wason’s selection task.
(British Academy, £2,300, 9/93 - 3/94) Mike Oaksford, Nick Chater (Edinburgh).
Reasoning and Frontal Lobe Dysfunction
(University of Wales, Bangor, Research Committee Grant, £2,100, 9/93 - 3/94) Mike Oaksford
Negations: Reasoning and representation.
(British Academy, £2,300, 3/94 - 9/94) Mike Oaksford
Negations: Reasoning and representation.
(Leverhulme Trust, £42,885, 7/95 - 6/97) Mike Oaksford
Probabilistic models of reasoning: The case of conditional inference.
(ESRC, £28,850, 7/95 - 6/96) Mike Oaksford, Dr. Nick Chater (Oxford).
Personality disorder, information processing, and social problem solving in offenders
(NHS National Programme on Forensic Mental Health R&D, £140,000, 4/04 – 4/07) Mary McMurran, Mike Oaksford, and Jo Sellen (University of Wales Institute, Cardiff).
INVITED TALKS
Invited Speaker
12/95 Spearman Medal Award Lecture, British Psychological Society, London Conference.
7/96 International Congress of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada (Invited Symposiast, Organiser: Professor Keith Holyoak).
10/96 International Conference on Thinking, University College London (Invited Symposiast in two Symposia, Organisers: Professor Nick Chater and Professor Keith Stenning).
11/96 ESRC Economic Beliefs and Behaviour Programme. One day workshop on The Odd-One-Out Phenomenon, St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford. (Organised by Professor Mike Bacharach, Bounded Rationality in Economic Behaviour Unit, Institute of Economics and Statistics, University of Oxford).
2/98 Vancouver Cognitive Science Conference on Commonsense, Reasoning, and Rationality.
1/99 ESRC conference on Decision Making and Reasoning, at the London Guildhall University.
3/99 Workshop on Decision Processes and Individual Differences in Reasoning, University of Plymouth.
7/00 Symposium on The Psychology of Human Reasoning: The States of its Various Arts, BPS Centenary Conference, Glasgow
3/02 Mind & Language Conference on Conditionals, Birkbeck College London.
5/04 Workshop on Conditionals, University of Plymouth.
10/10 Workshop on Bayesian Argumentation, University of Lund, Sweden.
3/12 Keynote Speaker at the 9th Oxford Brain Day on The Thinking Brain, University of Oxford.
9/12 Keynote Speaker at the Biannual Conference of the German Cognitive Science Society, Bamberg, Germany.
9/13 The 8th A. R. Jonckheere Lecture, University College London: “An Integrative Theory of Human Reasoning: Modelling the Physical and Social Worlds”.
Invited Seminar Talks (from 1996)
1/96 Chaucer Club, Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge.
2/96 Psychology Department, University of Leicester.
10/96 Psychology Department, University of Reading.
10/96 Psychology Department, University of Warwick.
11/96 Psychology Department, University of Sussex.
2/97 Psychology Department, University of Edinburgh.
11/98 Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex.
2/99 Department of Psychology, Birkbeck College, London.
3/02 Department of Psychology, University of Reading.
1/03 Department of Psychology, University of Warwick
12/03 Department of Psychology, University of Manchester
12/03 Department of Psychology, University of Exeter