Publications | Björn Meder

Publications

Wirth, L. A. Sadedin, N., Meder, B., & Schad, D. J. (2026). Beyond model-free Pavlovian responding: a two-stage Pavlovian-instrumental transfer paradigm. bioaRxiv.

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Meder, B. Sterf, M., Wu, C. M., & Guggenmos, M. (2025). Dopamine depletion in Parkinson’s increases directed but not random exploration. PsyArXiv.

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Meder, B. Wu, C M., & Rebitschek, F. G. (2025). Causal analysis of absolute and relative risk reductions. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 127, 102942.

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Wu, C M. Deffner, D., Kahl, B., Meder, B., Ho, M., & Kurvers, R. (2025). Adaptive mechanisms of social and asocial learning in immersive collective foraging. Nature Communications, 16:3539.

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Bae, M. Lademann, J., Meinke, M. C., Meder, B., & Geilen, C. (2025). Therapeutic use of cold atmospheric plasma for the treatment of mild acne papulopustulosa —- a randomized, controlled, double-blind pilot study. Dermatologic Therapy, 1, 4228323.

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Ziemann, L. Meder, B., Wronski, C., & Ruggeri, A. (2025). Exploring cognitive and social differences in children with and without imaginary companions. PsyArXiv.

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Wu, C M. Meder, B., & Schulz, E. (2025). Unifying principles of generalization: past, present, and future. Annual Review of Psychology, 76, 275-302.

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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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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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Adams, Z. Osman, M., Bechlivanidis, C., & Meder, B. (2023). (Why) Is misinformation a problem?. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(6), 1436-1463.

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Meder, B. Crupi, V., & Nelson, J. D. (2022). What makes a good query? Prospects for a comprehensive theory of human information acquisition. In I. Cogliati Dezza, E. Schulz and C. M. Wu (Eds.) (2022) The drive for knowledge: the science of human information-seeking (pp. 101-123). Cambridge University Press.

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Nelson, J. D. Rosenauer, C., Crupi, V., Tentori, K., & Meder, B. (2022). The Likelihood Difference Heuristic and binary test selection given situation-specific utilities. Decision, 9(3), 285–319.

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Meder, B. Mayrhofer, R., & Ruggeri, A. (2022). Developmental trajectories in the understanding of everyday uncertainty terms. Topics in Cognitive Science, 14, 258-281.

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Swaboda, N. Meder, B., & Ruggeri, A. (2022). Finding the (most efficient) way out of a maze is easier than asking (good) questions. Developmental Psychology, 58(9), 1730–1746.

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Osman, M. Adams, Z., Meder, B., Bechlivanidis, C., Verduga, O., & Strong, C. (2022). People’s understanding of the concept of misinformation. Journal of Risk Research, 25(10), 1239-1258.

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Meder, B. & Mayrhofer, R. (2021). Diagnostic causal reasoning. In M. Knauff and W. Spohn (Eds.)(pp. 449-460), Handbook of rationality. MIT Press.

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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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Wu, C. M. Ho, M., Kahl, B., Leuker, C., Meder, B., & Kurvers, R. (2021). Specialization and selective social attention establishes the balance between individual and social learning. In Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp.1921-1927). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

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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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Wu, C. M. Schulz, E., Garvert, M.M., Meder, B., & Schuck, N. W. (2020). Similarities and differences in spatial and non-spatial cognitive maps. PLOS Computational Biology, 16, e1008149.

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Jones, A. Schulz, E., Meder, B., & Ruggeri, A. (2019). Learning functions actively.

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Meder, B. Nelson, J. D., Jones, M., & Ruggeri, A. (2019). Stepwise versus globally optimal search in children and adults. Cognition, 191, 103965.

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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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Meder, B. Fleischhut, N., Krumnau, N.-C., & Waldmann, M. R. (2019). How should autonomous cars drive? A preference for defaults in moral judgments under risk and uncertainty. Risk Analysis, 2, 295–314.

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Nelson, J.D. Meder, B., & Jones, M. (2018). Towards a theory of heuristic and optimal planning for sequential information search. PsyArXiv.

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Crupi, V. Nelson, J. D., Meder, B., Cevolani, G., & Tentori, K. (2018). Generalized information theory meets human cognition: Introducing a unified framework to model uncertainty and information search. Cognitive Science, 27, 1–56.

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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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Wu, C. M. Schulz, E., Garvert, M. M., Meder, B., & Schuck, N. W (2018). Connecting conceptual and spatial search via a model of generalization. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp.1357-1362). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

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Meder, B. Fleischhut, N., & Osman, M. (2018). Beyond the confines of choice architecture: A critical analysis. Journal of Economic Psychology, 68, 36–44.

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Jones, A. Schulz, E., Meder, B., & Ruggeri, A. (2018). Active function learning. In Kalish, C., Rau, M., Zhu, J., Rogers, T. T. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 580–585). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society..

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Krisam, M. von Philipsborn, P., & Meder, B. (2017). Nudging in der Primärprävention: Eine Übersicht und Perspektiven für Deutschland [The use of nudging for primary prevention: A review and perspectives for Germany]. Das Gesundheitswesen, 2, 117–123.

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Jarecki, J. B. Meder, B., & Nelson, J. D. (2017). Naïve and robust: Class-conditional independence in human classification learning. Cognitive Science, 1, 4–42.

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Fleischhut, N. Meder, B., & Gigerenzer, G. (2017). Moral hindsight. Experimental Psychology, 2, 110–123.

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Wu, C. M. Schulz, E., Speekenbrink, M., Nelson, J. D., & Meder, B. (2017). Mapping the unknown: The spatially correlated multi-armed bandit. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp.1357-1362). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society..

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Knauber, H.M. Schray, H. H., Meder, B., Martignon, L. M., & Nelson, J. D. (2017). Informationssuche im Mathematikunterricht der Grundschule: Zahlenspiele und Fabelwesen als mögliches Lern-Lehrarrangement. [Information search in mathematics teaching in primary school: Number games and mythical creatures as a possible learning-teaching arrangement]. MNU Journal, 6, 375–382..

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Mousavi, S. Meder, B., Neth, H., & Kheirandish, R. (2017). Heuristics: fast, frugal, and smart. In Morris Altman (Ed.), Handbook of behavioral economics and smart decision-making: Rational decision-making within the bounds of reason (pp. 101–118). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing..

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Meder, B. & Mayrhofer, R (2017). Diagnostic reasoning. In M. R. Waldmann (Ed.), Oxford handbook of causal reasoning. (pp. 433-458). New York: Oxford University Press..

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

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Wu, C. M. Meder, B., Filimon, F., & Nelson, J.D. (2017). Asking better questions: How presentation formats influence information search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 8, 1274–1297.

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Schulz, E. Speekenbrink, M., & Meder, B. (2016). Simple trees in complex forests: Growing Take The Best by approximate Bayesian computation. In Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2531–2536). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society..

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von Sydow, M. Hagmayer, Y., & Meder, B. (2015). Transitive reasoning distorts induction in causal chains. Memory Cognition, 44, 469–487.

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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. & Gigerenzer, G. (2014). Statistical thinking: No one left behind. In E. J. Chernoff and B. Sriraman (Eds.), Probabilistic thinking: Presenting plural perspectives (pp. 127–148). Springer.

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Neth, H. Meder, B., Kothiyal, A., & Gigerenzer, G. (2014). Homo heuristicus in the financial world: From risk management to managing uncertainty. Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, 2, 134–144.

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Morais, A. S. Schooler, L. J., Olsson, H., & Meder, B. (2014). From causal models to sound heuristic inference. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1036-1041). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society..

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Bodemer, N. Meder, B., & Gigerenzer (2014). Communicating relative risk changes with baseline risk: presentation format and numeracy matter. Medical Decision Making, 34, 615–626.

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Nelson, J. D. Divjak, B., Gudmundsdottir, G., Martignon, L. F., & Meder, B. (2014). Children's sequential information search is sensitive to environmental probabilities. Cognition, 1, 74–80.

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Jarecki, J. B. Meder, B., & Nelson, J. D. (2013). The assumption of class-conditional independence in category learning. In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2650-2655). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society..

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Meder, B. & Mayrhofer, R. (2013). Sequential diagnostic reasoning with verbal information. In N. A. Taatgen & H. van Rijn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1014–1019). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

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Hagmayer, Y. & Meder, B. (2013). Repeated causal decision making. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1, 33–50.

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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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Hagmayer, Y. Meder, B., von Sydow, M., & Waldmann, M. R. (2011). Category transfer in sequential causal learning: The unbroken mechanism hypothesis. Cognitive Science, 5, 842–873.

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Waldmann, M. R. Meder, B., von Sydow, M., & Hagmayer, Y. (2010). The tight coupling between category and causal learning. Cognitive Processing, 2, 143–158.

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Hagmayer, Y. Meder, B., Osman, M., Mangold, S., & Lagnado, D. (2010). Spontaneous causal learning while controlling a dynamic system. The Open Psychology Journal, 3, 145–162,.

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Meder, B. Gerstenberg, T., Hagmayer, Y., & Waldmann, M. R. (2010). Observing and intervening: Rational and heuristic models of causal decision making. The Open Psychology Journal, 3, 119–135.

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von Sydow, M. Hagmayer, Y., Meder, B., & Waldmann, M. R. (2010). How causal reasoning can bias empirical evidence. In S. Ohlsson & R. Catrambone (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2087–2092). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society..

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Meder, B. Hagmayer, Y., & Waldmann, M. R. (2009). The role of learning data in causal reasoning about observations and interventions. Memory Cognition, 3, 249–264.

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Meder, B. & Hagmayer, Y. (2009). Causal induction enables adaptive decision making. In N. A. Taatgen H. van Rijn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1651-1656). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

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von Sydow, M. Meder, B., & Hagmayer, Y. (2009). A transitivity heuristic of probabilistic causal reasoning. In N. A. Taatgen & H. van Rijn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 803–808). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society..

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Meder, B. Mayrhofer, R., & Waldmann, M. R. (2009). A rational model of elemental diagnostic inference. In N. A. Taatgen & H. van Rijn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2176-2181). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

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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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Hagmayer, Y. & Meder, B. (2008). Causal learning through repeated decision making. In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 179–184). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society..

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Meder, B. (2006). Seeing versus doing: Causal Bayes nets as psychological models of causal reasoning. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Göttingen.

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Meder, B. Hagmayer, Y., & Waldmann, M. R. (2005). Doing after seeing. In B.G. Bara, L. Barsalou, & M. Bucciarelli (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1461–1466). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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