Curriculum Vitae

Lukas William Mayer

PhD Student in Cognitive Science

Contact Information

Education

PhD in Cognitive Science, 2028 (Expected)

University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

  • Thesis (preliminary title): “Computational modelling of inversion problems in human-AI interaction”
  • Advisor: Prof. Mark Steyvers
  • Focus on Bayesian modelling of human problem-solving abilities and alignment of AI systems with human cognition

MSc in Behavioural and Data Sciences (Distinction), 2022

University of Warwick, Coventry, England, UK

  • Thesis: “Cognition-Inspired Heuristics Improve Machine-Learning Predictions in Multi-Attribute Multi-Alternative Choice”
  • Advisor: Prof. Nick Chater
  • Focus on unifying models from computational cognitive science and machine learning

BSc (Hons) in Psychology (First-Class), 2021

University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, UK

  • Thesis: “Cooperation does not improve selective and/or sustained attention”

  • Advisors: Dr. John Michael and Dr. Ross Goutcher

  • Focus on measuring cognitive abilities in online games

Research Experience

Research Assistant: Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) 2022 - 2023

University of Bath, School of Management, Bath, England, UK

  • Working within the Applied Digital Behaviour Lab on large-scale mixed methods study concerned with the prediction of online group communications which translate into real-world actions.
  • Principal Investigator: Prof. Adam Joinson

Research Assistant: Centre for Cognition in Complex Environments 2019- 2021

University of Stirling, Department of Psychology, Stirling, Scotland, UK

  • Working within the ConFace Lab on projects around face matching and concealed identity recognition
  • Principal Investigator: Dr. Ailsa E. Millen

Research Assistant: Centre for Cognition in Complex Environments 2021

University of Stirling, Department of Psychology, Stirling, Scotland, UK

  • Working within the Learning & Memory Lab on automated video analysis for discrimination learning in lumpfish
  • Principal Investigator: Dr. Jamie Murray

Publications

  • Steyvers, M., Tejeda, H., Kumar, A., Belem, C., Karny, S., Hu, X., Mayer, L. W., & Smyth, P. (2024). The Calibration Gap between Model and Human Confidence in Large Language Models. arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.13835.
  • Mayer, L. W., Bocheva, D., Hinds, J., Brown, O., Piwek, L., Ellis, D. (under Review) Waste not want not: Computational methods to maximise attendance in group research. Behavior Research Methods.

Awards and Honors

  • Best Overall Score: Behavioural and Data Science (2022)
  • Peter McEwan Prize for the Best Single Honours Psychology Student (2021)
  • Alan Baddeley Prize for the Best Psychology Dissertation (2021)
  • My Stirling Award (GOLD) for acquiring an exceptional depth and breadth of extracurricular achievements (2021)
  • Honourable Mention for the Best Psychology Placement Student (2021)

Other Activities

International Interdisciplinary Computational Cognitive Science Summer School, 2022

University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

NeuroMatch Academy Summer School: Deep Learning, 2022

NeuroMatch Academy, Los Angeles, CA, USA

  • Project: Classifying medical misinformation in news using transformers

References

Available upon request.