Affiliation: Developmental Psychology Department of the University of Amsterdam
Keywords: Computational modeling, decision-making, reinforcement learning, adolescence, development, social learning, social networks, teenagers.
Full profile:
Wouter van den Bos has a broad background in both neuroscience and developmental psychology and his research broadly investigates the relation between the developing brain and changes in behavior. More specifically his research is focused on how changes in brain function and structure relate to typical and atypical development of learning and decision-making.
To approach these questions he uses computational models, social network analyses and methods form experimental economics. Computational models are used to quantify behavior and the complex processes underlying learning and decision-making. The parameters from these models support spanning the bridge between developmental theories and neurobiology and enable to identify more specific processes that underlie developmental change.
Using these techniques he has have investigated the neurocognitive development of risky & intertemporal choice, basic learning mechanisms, social decision-making and social learning. Currently Wouter is an Associate Professor at the Developmental Psychology Department of the University of Amsterdam & Director of the Connected Minds Lab and an adjunct Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development Center for Adaptive Rationality. His work is funded by national (NWO, DFG, NSF) and international (ERC) funding agencies.