Teaching
Teaching has always been a central part of my professional identity — not just as a role, but as a craft. I’m drawn to the challenge of making complex ideas clear, intuitive, and engaging. Whether lecturing undergraduates or guiding honours students through their first research project, my aim is to create learning environments that foster curiosity, critical thinking, and intellectual independence.
At the University of Queensland, I’ve taught into several of the School of Psychology’s most distinctive courses. I previously served as lecturer and course coordinator for The Psychology of Everyday Thinking, a popular course that explores belief formation, cognitive bias, and how to think more effectively about misinformation, pseudoscience, and everyday decision-making. I also taught in Judgment and Decision Making, an advanced elective examining expertise, metacognition, heuristics and biases, and the psychology of AI — a course that practices what it teaches by incorporating principles of learning science into its own design.
Beyond university settings, I’ve run workshops for school students on topics like bias, reasoning, and how to evaluate information — experiences that continue to remind me how widely applicable cognitive science can be. More recently, I’ve supervised teams of honours thesis students at UQ, supporting them as they refine their thinking, writing, and research skills. Helping students build confidence in their ideas and methods remains one of the most rewarding aspects of my academic work.
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Research
I take a cognitive science approach to understanding how people think — combining experimental methods, computational tools, and theory-driven analysis to unpack the processes behind judgement, reasoning, and belief formation. My work is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing from psychology, philosophy, education, and AI to build models that reflect how thinking operates in real-world contextsI'm a strong advocate of open science. I preregister all my studies, share data and materials via the Open Science Framework (OSF), and use transparent methods to support reproducibility and cumulative knowledge-building. Projects
Thinking in the Dark: What Cognitive Load Reveals About Bullshit Detection and Brain Teasers
What does mental effort reveal about different types of reasoning?
By manipulating working memory constraints, this study shows that bullshit detection and CRT performance draw on overlapping but distinct processes. While the CRT suffered under cognitive load, many participants maintained bullshit detection accuracy — suggesting that intuitive judgement may play a more central role in bullshit detection than previously thought.
Reflection Isn’t All You Need: The Central Role of Insight in the Cognitive Reflection Test
Can “Aha!” moments explain correct answers on reflection tasks?
Using think-aloud methods and metacognitive ratings, I found that many correct answers on the CRT emerged suddenly, without step-by-step correction of an intuitive error. These results highlight the role of insight and intuitive restructuring, calling into question traditional accounts of the CRT as a purely analytic measure.
Is ChatGPT More Persuasive Than Humans?
Testing LLMs against human arguments across political topics
This large-scale experiment compares the persuasive power of GPT-3.5, GPT-4o, and humans. Participants evaluated arguments on four Australian policy issues, rating persuasiveness and choosing between competing sources. Using Bayesian hierarchical models, we test which sources win — and why.
Enhancing Actively Open-Minded Thinking for Better Career Decision Making
Can we reduce bias in career decision-making?
This experiment evaluates whether a workshop focused on cognitive biases can promote more open-minded thinking than standard government career education. The study tracks changes in reasoning style, confidence, and intrinsic goals among young adults.
How Good Are the Police at Manhunts?
Studying accuracy and confidence in high-stakes visual search
This project assesses how well police officers, laypeople, and super-recognisers identify a target person in crowded public locations. We examine the effects of disguise, target presence, and confidence calibration, with practical implications for public safety and training.
My talk from the ASPP conference
The Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology (ASPP) conference hosts talks from philosophers and psychologists. I’m pleased to say that my talk received the award for best psychology talk in 2023.