Understanding Value, Shaping Choices

About the lab

The Economic Brain Lab investigates how humans make decisions when information is uncertain, time is limited, and effort matters. We are interested in the computations that support learning, valuation, and choice in complex environments—conditions that more closely resemble real-world decision-making than idealised laboratory tasks.

Our research integrates behavioural experiments with computational models grounded in reinforcement learning and decision theory. By linking observable choices to latent cognitive processes, we aim to explain not only what decisions people make, but how and why those decisions arise.

The lab is home to a collaborative group of researchers, including undergraduate students, postgraduate students, and early‑career scientists working closely together. We value an open, supportive research environment in which ideas are discussed critically but constructively, and where students are actively involved in experimental design, analysis, and modelling.

A core principle of the lab is cumulative and reproducible science. We prioritise transparent methods, open datasets, and shared code, and collaborate widely across psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and economics. Through these collaborations, we seek to connect decision science to meaningful applications in mental health, policy, and everyday human behaviour.