Dr. Andreas Wilke
Dr. Andreas Wilke
Assistant Professor
Psychology Department
171 Science Center
PO Box 5825
Potsdam, NY 13699-5825
Phone: 315-268-7023
Fax: 315-268-7118
E-mail: awilke@clarkson.edu
Education:
Ph.D., Free University of Berlin, 2006
Courses Taught:
Introduction to Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Human Cognitive Evolution, Learning and Memory
Research Interests:
Over evolutionary time, humans had to solve difficult information-processing problems, such as finding food and finding a mate, in an uncertain world. My primary interest is in this human cognitive evolution, specifically, the evolution of human judgment and decision-making capacities. The central questions motivating my research are these: how has the evolutionary process shaped the cognitive mechanisms underlying human decision-making behavior under risk and uncertainty? How do these mechanisms operate in domains such as risk taking, mate choice, and foraging for food and information?
To answer these questions, I have adopted an interdisciplinary approach grounded firmly in the theory and methods of cognitive psychology but drawing on ideas from evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, and anthropology. Appropriately, my training has been interdisciplinary. After completing my diploma in cognitive psychology at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, I joined the International Max Planck Research School LIFE, which emphasizes the study of systematic changes in human behavior over evolutionary and ontogenetic time. LIFE takes an interdisciplinary approach by bringing together doctoral students from such diverse disciplines as biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and educational science and provides them with opportunities for collaborative research and supervision at cooperating institutions in the United States, Germany, and Switzerland. Recently, I have been a postdoctoral research fellow both at the Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture (BEC), UCLA Department of Anthropology as well as the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Altenberg, Austria.
To date, my research has investigated a variety of topics in human cognitive evolution. I have examined, for instance, the question of how risk taking differs across different domains of everyday life, how it should be defined and measured, and how an evolutionary perspective can help explain why young men in particular are very risk prone. My present research focuses on cognitive adaptations underlying decision making under uncertainty in foraging. I have investigated whether the same mechanisms animals use in foraging for patchy resources are also shared by humans and used in novel tasks such as searching for physical resources or information on the Internet. I am also currently investigating whether people bring to bear heuristics or assumptions about the patchiness of resources and whether these underlie certain well-known phenomena of human judgment, such as the “hot hand” fallacy. In this research, I have expanded my methods to include cross-cultural comparative experiments in a foraging society in Amazonian Ecuador. I am an active collaborator with researchers in adjacent disciplines and regularly interact with other fields of psychology by applying my findings, for example, to research in developmental and clinical psychology. Further information about my research and the collaborators I work with can be found on my personal webpage: www.clarkson.edu/~awilke
Publications (Last 5 years):
Wilke, A., & Mata, R. (in press). Cognitive bias. In V. S. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (2nd Edition). Maryland Heights: Elsevier.
Helversen, B. von, Wilke, A., Johnson, T., Schmid, G., & Klapp, B. (in press). Performance benefits of depression: Sequential decision making in a healthy sample and a clinically depressed sample. Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
Scheibehenne, B., Wilke, A., & Todd, P. M. (in press). Expectations of clumpy resources influence predictions of sequential events. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Wilke, A., & Todd, P. M. (in press). The evolved foundations of decision making. In M. K. Dhami, A. Schlottmann, & M. Waldmann (Eds.), Origins of judgment and decision making. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hills, T. T., Mata, R., Wilke, A., & Samanez-Larkin, G. R. (2011). Exploration and exploitation in memory search across the lifespan. In L. Carlson, C. Hoelscher, & T. F. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 991–996). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Wilke, A., & Todd, P.M. (2010). Past and present environments: The evolution of decision making. Psicothema, 22, 4–8.
Haselton, M. G., Bryant, G. A., Wilke, A., Frederick, D. A., Galperin, A., Frankenhuis, W. E., & Moore, T. (2009). Adaptive Rationality: An evolutionary perspective on cognitive bias. Social Cognition, 27, 733–763.
Mata, R., Wilke, A., & Czienskowski, U. (2009). Cognitive aging and adaptive foraging behavior. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 64, 474–481.
Wilke, A. & Barrett, H. C. (2009). The hot hand phenomenon as a cognitive adaptation to clumped resources. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30, 161–169.
Wilke, A., Hutchinson, J. M. C, Todd, P. M., & Czienskowski, U. (2009). Fishing for the right words: Decision rules for human foraging behavior in internal search tasks. Cognitive Science, 33, 497–529.
Wang, X. T., Kruger, D. J., & Wilke, A. (2009). Life-history variables and risk-taking propensity. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30, 77–84.
Barrett, H. C., Frankenhuis, W. E., & Wilke, A. (2008). Adaptation to moving targets: Culture/gene coevolution, not either/or (Commentary on M. H. Christiansen and N. Chater, Language as shaped by the brain). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 511–512.
Hutchinson, J. M. C., Wilke, A., & Todd, P. M. (2008). Patch leaving in humans: Can a generalist adapt its rules to dispersal of items across patches? Animal Behaviour, 75, 1331–1349.
Panchanathan, K. & Wilke, A. (2007). Modelling for Field Biologists and Other Interesting People by Hanna Kokko. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28, 447–450.
Kruger, D. J., Wang, X. T., & Wilke, A. (2007). Towards the development of an evolutionary valid domain-specific risk-taking scale. Evolutionary Psychology, 5, 555–568.
Presentations at Scientific Meetings (Last 5 years):
Wilke, A. (August 2011). Expectations of clumpy resources influence choice of environments to search in. Paper presented as part of the Cognition as Foraging Symposium at the 48th annual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society (ABS), Indiana University, Bloomington, USA.
Wilke, A., Helversen, B. von, & Johnson, T. (April 2011). Positive benefits of depression: Sequential decision-making in a healthy and a clinically depressed sample. Paper presented at the 5th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Binghamton, New York, USA.
Wilke, A., Scheibehenne, B., Mata, R., Todd, P. M., & Barrett, H. C. (November 2010). Human foraging behavior in external and internal search tasks. Paper presented at the 51th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, USA.
Mata, R., Wilke, A., & Czienskowski, U. (September 2010). Age differences in search from memory. Paper presented at the 3rd Junior Research Group in Decision-Making Workshop, Basel, Switzerland.
Wilke, A., Todd, P. M., Barrett, H. C., Mata, R., & Scheibehenne, B. (June 2010). Past and present environments: The evolution of decision making. Paper presented at the 22nd annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Eugene, Oregon, USA.
Wilke, A., Todd, P. M. (March 2010). Past and present environments: The evolution of decision making. Paper presented at the 4th annual meeting of the Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), New Paltz, New York, USA.
Wilke, A. (November 2009). Cognitive adaptations for resource search: Explaining hot hands and fallacious gamblers. Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Judgment and Decision-Making Mini-Conference, Potsdam, New York, USA.
Wilke, A., Heintz, C., & Haselton, M. G. (July 2009). Adaptive rationality: An evolutionary perspective on cognitive bias. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), Brisbane, Australia.
Wilke, A., Barrett, H. C., & Todd, P. M. (May 2009). Cognitive adaptations for resource search: Explaining hot hands and fallacious gamblers. Paper presented at the 21st annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Fullerton, California, USA.
Todd, P. M., Hills, T. H., Jones, M. N., & Wilke, A. (May 2009). Optimal foraging in semantic memory. Paper presented at the 21st annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Fullerton, California, USA.
Barrett, H. C., & Wilke, A. (June 2008). The hot hand phenomenon as a cognitive adaptation to clumped resources. Paper presented at the 20th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Kyoto, Japan.
Panchanathan, K., Wilke, A., Chelini, C., & Gervais, M. (March 2008). The evolution of a prestige-biased transmission. Paper presented at the Second Annual 3UC Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences Conference (3UC), San Luis Obispo, California, USA.
Hutchinson, J. M. C, Wilke, A., & Todd, P. M. (September 2007). Task switching in humans compared to patch leaving in animals. Paper presented at the summer conference of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB), Newcastle, England.
Mata, R., Pachur, T., Schooler, L., Wilke, A., & Rieskamp, J. (July 2007). Cognitive aging and adaptive strategy selection. Paper presented at the 20th Anniversary “Cognitive Ageing Conference – Down under”, Adelaide, Australia.
Wilke, A., Todd, P. M., & Hutchinson, J. M. C. (June 2007). Fishing for the right words: Human foraging behavior in external and internal search tasks. Paper presented at the 19th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Williamsburg, Virginia, USA.
Wilke, A., Hutchinson, J. M. C, & Todd, P. M. (March 2007). Human foraging behavior in patchy environments. Paper presented at the Southern California Animal Behavior Symposium (SCAB), University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.
Student Publications (Last 5 years):
Ross, C. & Wilke, A. (in press). Decision Making: Towards and evolutionary psychology of rationality by Mauro Maldonato. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology.
Student Presentations (Last 5 years):
Sherman, A., Minich, S., Apau, G., Langen, T., Skufca, J., & Wilke, A. (August 2011). Early environment and life-history variables: Effects on risk perception and behavior. Paper presented at the 14th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Minich, S., Sherman, A., Apau, G., Langen, T., Skufca, J., & Wilke, A. (August 2011). Early environment and life-history variables: Effects on risk taking propensity. Paper presented at the 14th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Apau, G., Sherman, A., Minich, S., Langen, T., Skufca, J., & Wilke, A. (August 2011). Early environment and life-history variables. Poster presented at the 14th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Curdt, B., Kruger, D. J., & Wilke, A. (April 2011). An evolutionary valid domain-specific risk-taking scale. Paper presented at the 5th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Binghamton, New York, USA.
Ross, C., Chen, X., & Wilke, A. (April 2011). Expectations of clumpy resources influence predictions of sequential events. Poster presented at the 5th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Binghamton, USA.
Sherman, A., Ross, C., Colello, L., & Wilke, A. (April 2011). Early environment and life-history variables: Effects of subsequent risk-perception and behavior when going out for the night. Poster presented at the 5th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Binghamton, USA.
Colello, L., Platek, M., Curdt, B., Mata, R., & Wilke, A. (April 2011). Information foraging in a patchy memory environment. Poster presented at the 5th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Binghamton, USA.
Curdt, B., Kruger, D. J., & Wilke, A. (April 2011). An evolutionary valid domain-specific risk-taking scale. Paper presented at the 13th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Sherman, A., Ross, C., Colello, L., & Wilke, A. (April 2011). Early environment and life-history variables: Effects of subsequent risk-perception and behavior when going out for the night. Paper presented at the 13th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Ross, C., Chen, X., & Wilke, A. (April 2011). Expectations of clumpy resources influence predictions of sequential events. Poster presented at the 13th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Colello, L., Platek, M., Curdt, B., Mata, R., & Wilke, A. (April 2011). Information foraging in a patchy memory environment. Poster presented at the 13th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Bain, D., & Wilke, A. (April 2010). Sex differences in risk attitudes and victimization rates. Poster presented at the 11th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Preston, R., Carey, N., Mata, R., & Wilke, A. (April 2010). Information foraging in a patchy memory environment. Poster presented at the 11th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Curdt, B., Morgan, A., Bain, D., Barrett, H. C., & Wilke, A. (April 2010). Cognitive adaptations for resource search. Poster presented at the 11th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Preston, R., Carey, N., Mata, R., & Wilke, A. (March 2010). Information foraging in a patchy memory environment. Poster presented at the 4th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), New York, USA.
Morgan, A., Curdt, B., Bain, D., Barrett, H. C., & Wilke, A. (March 2010). Cognitive adaptations for resource search. Poster presented at the 4th annual meeting of the Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), New York, USA.
