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Christian Luhmann, Ph.D.


Vanderbilt University (2006)
Associate Professor, Cognitive Science

Dr. Christian Luhmann: Please check back soon for updated recruitment information.

Luhmann

Contact:

christian.luhmann@stonybrook.edu
Office: Psychology B-250
Phone: (631) 632-7086

Visit Website

Research Interests:

Decision making, learning, and computational modeling

Current Research:

My lab focuses on complex behavior with a particular focus on decision making and learning and the interplay between these behaviors. We explore these interests in a variety of domains. We also use a variety of methodological tools, including behavior and computational modeling as well as neuroscientific methods such as EEG and fMRI. I am interested in how people make decisions in the face of incomplete, inconsistent, ambiguous, or uncertain information. I am exploring this interest in a variety of domains. Utilizing behavioral and computational methods, my work in the area of learning suggests that learners are adept at dealing with incomplete data, a situation ignored by current learning theories. Utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging, my work in economic decision-making explores the neural bases of decision-makers' ability to foresee, evaluate, and react to the presence of uncertainty. My behavioral work on perceptual decision-making explores both how even relatively simple decisions involve integrating noisy information over time and how decision-makers evaluate quantities such as confidence.

Book Chapters and Reviews:

Rottman, B., Ahn, W., & Luhmann, C. C. (2011). When and how do people reason about unobserved causes? In P. M. Illari, F. Russo, & J. Williamson (Eds.), Causality in the Sciences (pp. 150-183), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ahn, W., Marsh, J. K., & Luhmann, C. C. (2007). Dynamic interpretations of covariation data. In Gopnik, A., & Schultz, L. (Eds.), Causal Learning: Psychology, Philosophy, and Computation (pp. 280-293). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Representative Publications:

 *Indicates a mentored graduate student author

**Indicates a mentored undergraduate/high school student author

Luhmann, C. C., & Rajaram, S. (2015). Memory transmission in small groups and large networks: An agent-based model. Psychological
Science, 26, 1909-1917.

Liu, P., Safin, V., Yang, B., & Luhmann, C. C. (2015). Direct and indirect influence of altruistic behavior in a social network. PLoS
ONE, 10(10).

**Massi, B., & Luhmann, C. C. (in press). Fairness influences reward-related neural processing, Cognitive, Behavioral, and Affective Neuroscience, 15, 768-775.

*Bixter, M. T., & Luhmann, C. C. (2015). Evidence for implicit risk: Delay primes the processing of uncertainty. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 28, 347-359.

*Arfer, K. B., & Luhmann, C. C. (2015). The predictive accuracy of intertemporal-choice models, British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 68, 326–341.

*Liu, P., & Luhmann, C. C. (2015). Evidence for online processing during causal learning, Learning & Behavior, 43, 1-11.

Ferson, S., Antonenko, A., O’Rawe, J., Siegrist, J., Mickley, J., Luhmann, C., Sentz, K., Parles, C. & Finkel, A. (2014). Natural language of uncertainty: Numeric hedge words, International Journal of Approximate Reasoning, 57, 19-39.

*Bixter, M. T., *Trimber, E. M. & Luhmann, C. C. (2014). Contagion effects in intertemporal decision making.  In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1929-1934). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Luhmann, C. C., & *Bixter, M. T. (2014). Subjective hazard rates rationalize “irrational” temporal preferences.  In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 904-909). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Bixter, M. T., & Luhmann, C. C. (2014). Shared losses reduce sensitivity to risk: A laboratory study of moral hazard, Journal of Economic Psychology, 42, 63-73.

Luhmann, C. C. (2013). Discounting of delayed rewards is not hyperbolic. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39, 1274-1279.

Luhmann, C. C., & Rajaram, S. (2013). Mnemonic diffusion: An agent-based modeling investigation of collective memory.  In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 936-941). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Luhmann, C. C., & **Pak, S. S. (2013). Won’t you think of the children?: Traits predicting intergenerational preferences.  In M.Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2949-2954). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

*Bixter, M. T., & Luhmann, C. C. (2013). Adaptive intertemporal preferences in foraging-style environments. Frontiers in Decision Neuroscience, 7.

Liu, P., & Luhmann, C. C. (2013). Evidence that a transient, but cognitively demanding process underlies forward blocking.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66, 744-766.

Kujawa, A., Smith, E., Luhmann, C. C., & Hajcak, G. (2013). The feedback negativity reflects favorable compared to non-favorable outcomes based on global, not local, alternatives. Psychophysiology, 50, 134-138.

Weinberg, A., Luhmann, C. C., Bress, J. N., & Hajcak, G. (2012). Better late than never? The effect of feedback delay on ERP indices of reward processing, Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 12, 671-677.

Luhmann, C. C. (2011). Integrating spatial context learning over contradictory signals: Recency effects in contextual cueing. Visual Cognition, 19, 846-862.

Luhmann, C. C., & Ahn, W. (2011). Order effects during learning: Expectations and interpretations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition,37, 568-587.

*Liu, P., & Luhmann, C. C. (2011). Blocking requires uncertainty about novel cues. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher, & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1697-1702). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Luhmann, C. C., Ishida, K., & Hajcak, G. (2011). Intolerance of uncertainty and decisions about delayed, probabilistic rewards. Behavior Therapy, 42, 378-386.