I am a professor of cognitive and experimental psychology (Allgemeine Psychologie) at the Health and Medical University in Potsdam, Germany. My research investigates the computational and behavioral principles that support human learning, search, and decision making. I am particularly interested in how humans actively search for information or rewards, how they make causal inferences based on limited and noisy data, and the cognitive foundations of judgment and decision making. I like computational models of cognition, which I develop and test by running behavioral studies that span across a wide range of age groups. Additionally, my work extends to applied research areas, such as leveraging behavioral insights to inform policy-making processes and examining how individuals understand medical risks.

See my CV for details.

Interests

  • Search, exploration, and active learning
  • Causal induction
  • Cognitive development
  • Judgment and decision making
  • (Bounded) Rationality and heuristics
  • Cognitive modeling
  • Behavioral insights

Education

  • PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Psychology, 2006

    University of Göttingen

  • M.Sc. (Diplom) in Psychology, 2003

    University of Göttingen

Key Publications

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Meder, B., Wu, C. M., Schulz, E., & Ruggeri, A. (2021). Development of directed and random exploration in children. Developmental Science, 24(4), e13095.

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Osman, M., McLachlan, S., Fenton, N., Neil, M., Löfstedt, R., & Meder, B. (2020). Learning from behavioural changes that fail. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24(12), 969-980.

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Schulz, E., Wu, C. M., Ruggeri, A., & Meder, B. (2019). Searching for rewards like a child means less generalization and more directed exploration. Psychological Science, 30(11), 1561–1572.

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Wu, C. M., Schulz, E., Speekenbrink, M., Nelson, J. D., & Meder, B. (2018). Generalization guides human exploration in vast decision spaces. Nature Human Behaviour, 2, 915–924.

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Meder, B., & Mayrhofer, R. (2017). Diagnostic causal reasoning with verbal information. Cognitive Psychology, 96, 54–84.

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Meder, B., Mayrhofer, R., & Waldmann, M. R. (2014). Structure induction in diagnostic causal reasoning. Psychological Review, 3, 277–301.

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Meder, B., Le Lec, F., & Osman, M. (2013). Decision making in uncertain times: what can cognitive and decision sciences say about or learn from economic crises?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6, 257–260.

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Meder, B., & Nelson, J.D. (2012). Information search with situation-specific reward functions. Judgment and Decision Making, 2, 119–148.

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Meder, B., Hagmayer, Y., & Waldmann, M. R. (2008). Inferring interventional predictions from observational learning data. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1, 75–80.

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Recent Publications

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Meder, B., Wu, C M., & Rebitschek, F. G. (2024). Causal analysis of absolute and relative risk reductions. PsyArXiv.

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Wu, C M., Meder, B., & Schulz, E. (2024). Unifying principles of generalization: past, present, and future. PsyArXiv.

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Giron, A. P., Ciranka, S., Schulz, E., van den Bos, W., Ruggeri, A., Meder, B., & Wu, C. M. (2023). Developmental changes in exploration resemble stochastic optimization. Nature Human Behavior, 7, 1955-1967.

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Wu, C M., Deffner, D., Kahl, B., Meder, B., Ho, M., & Kurvers, R. (2023). Visual–spatial dynamics of social learning in immersive environments. bioRxiv.

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Rebitschek, F. G., Spinner, C., Wagner, G. G., & Meder, B. (2023). Rapid-antigen testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: Citizens’ selective granting of freedoms for negatively tested, vaccinated, recovered, and other citizens. PsyArXiv.

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Teaching

I regularly teach different courses, including lectures and seminars on general and experimental psychology, as well as research methods. See my CV for a complete list of courses I have taught.

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