Education
Free University of Berlin
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. In the past, 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
Publications
Sherman, A. K., Minich, S. H., Langen, T. A., Skufca, J. D., & Wilke, A. (in press). Are college students’ assessments of threat shaped by the dangers of their childhood environment? Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
Gaissmaier, W., Wilke, A., Scheibehenne, B., McCanney, P., & Barrett, H. C. (2016). Betting on illusionary patterns: Probability matching in habitual gamblers. Journal of Gambling Studies, 32, 143-156.
Wilke, A., Minich, S., Panis, M., Langen, T., Skufca, J., & Todd, P. M. (2015). A game of hide and seek: Expectations of clumpy resources influence hiding and searching patterns. PLoS ONE, 10(7), e0130976.
Wilke, A., Sherman, A. K., Curdt, B., Mondal, S., Fitzgerald, C., & Kruger, D. J. (2014). An evolutionary domain-specific risk-taking scale. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 8, 123–141.
Blanchard, T. C., Wilke, A., & Hayden, B. Y. (2014). Hot hand bias in monkeys. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 40, 280–286.
Wilke, A., Scheibehenne, B., Gaissmaier, W., McCanney, P., & Barrett, H. C. (2014). Illusionary pattern detection in habitual gamblers. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35, 291–297.
Hills, T. T., Mata, R., Wilke, A., & Samanez-Larkin, G. R. (2013). Mechanisms of age-related decline in memory search across the adult life span. Developmental Psychology, 49, 2396–2404.
Helversen, B. von, Mata, R., Karlsson, L., & Wilke, A. (2013). Why does cue polarity information provide benefits in inference problems? The role of strategy selection and knowledge of cue importance. Acta Psychologica, 144, 73–82.
Mata, R., & Wilke, A. Foraging across the life span: Is there a reduction in exploration with aging? (2013). Frontiers in Neuroscience, 7, 53.
Wilke, A., & Mata, R. (2012). Cognitive bias. In V. S. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (2nd Edition), Vol. 1 (pp. 531-535). Maryland Heights: Elsevier.
Wilke, A., & Todd, P. M. (2012). The evolved foundations of decision making. In M. K. Dhami, A. Schlottmann, & M. Waldmann (Eds.), Judgment and decision making as a skill: Learning, development and evolution (pp. 3–27). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Presentations at Scientific Meetings (Last 5 years):
Wilke, A., Sherman, A., Curdt, B., Monday, S., Fitzgerald, C., & Kruger, D. J. (July 2016). An evolutionary domain-specific risk scale. Paper presented at the 28th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Vancouver, Canada.
Jarecki, J. B., & Wilke, A. (July 2016). Non-compensatory integration of memory cues in evolutionary domains of risky choice. Paper presented at the 28th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Vancouver, Canada.
Jarecki, J. B., & Wilke, A. (April 2016). Evolutionary functions shape the construction of risk preferences. Paper presented at the Shaped/Constructed Preferences Workshop, Potsdam, Germany.
Jarecki, J. B., & Wilke, A. (August 2015). Risk attitudes meet process-tracing: Informational cues relate to risk-attitudes in ten different domains. Poster presented at the 25th biannual meeting of Subjective Probability, Utility, and Decision Making Conference (SPUDM), Budapest, Hungary.
Jarecki, J. B., & Wilke, A. (May 2015). Informational cues for risk differentiate between risk-attitudes in ten evolutionary domains. Paper presented at the 27th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Columbia, USA.
Wilke, A., Blanchard, T. C. & Hayden, B. Y. (May 2015). Hot hand bias in rhesus monkeys. Paper presented at the 27th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Columbia, USA.
Wilke, A., Blanchard, T. C. & Hayden, B. Y. (April 2015). Hot hand bias in rhesus monkeys. Paper presented at the 9th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Boston, USA.
Jarecki, J. B., & Wilke, A. (March 2015). Process tracing across evolutionary domains: A novel view on risky choice. Paper presented at the 10th annual meeting of European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association (EHBEA), Helsinki, Finland.
Wilke, A., Sherman, A., Curdt, B., Mondal, S., Fitzgerald, C., & Kruger D. J. (November 2013). An evolutionary domain-specific risk scale. Paper presented at the 54th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Toronto, Canada.
Helversen, B. von, Mata, R., Samanez-Larkin, G., & Wilke, A. (August 2013). Modeling exploration-exploitation behavior across tasks reveals little evidence for a common factor. Poster presented at the 46th annual meeting of the Society for Mathematical Psychology (SMP), Potsdam, Germany.
Wilke, A., Minich, S., Panis, M., Langen, T., & Todd, P. M. (July 2013). A game of hide and seek: Expectations of clumpy resources influence hiding and searching patterns in a sequential multi-person game. Paper presented at the 25th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Miami, USA.
Wilke, A., Minich, S., Panis, M., Langen, T., & Todd, P. M. (November 2012). A game of hide and seek: Expectations of clumpy resources influence hiding and searching patterns in a sequential multi-person game. Paper presented at the 53rd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, USA.
Helversen, B. von, Mata, R., Samanez-Larking, G., & Wilke, A. (November 2012). Exploration-exploitation across tasks reveals little evidence for a common factor. Poster presented at the 53rd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, USA.
Wilke, A., Barrett, H. C., Scheibehenne, S., & Gaissmaier, W. (September 2012). Sequential decision making and illusionary pattern detection in gamblers. Poster presented at the 13th annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction, Las Vegas, USA.
Wilke, A., Helverson, B. von, & Johnson, T. (June 2012). Positive benefits of depression: Sequential decision making in a healthy and a clinically depressed sample. Paper presented at the 24nd annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Albuquerque, USA.
Student Publications (Last 5 years):
Sherman, A. K., Minich, S. H., Langen, T. A., Skufca, J. D., & Wilke, A. (in press). Are college students’ assessments of threat shaped by the dangers of their childhood environment? Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
Gaissmaier, W., Wilke, A., Scheibehenne, B., McCanney, P., & Barrett, H. C. (2016). Betting on illusionary patterns: Probability matching in habitual gamblers. Journal of Gambling Studies, 32, 143–156.
Wilke, A., Minich, S., Panis, M., Langen, T., Skufca, J., & Todd, P. M. (2015). A game of hide and seek: Expectations of clumpy resources influence hiding and searching patterns. PLoS ONE, 10(7), e0130976.
Wilke, A., Sherman, A. K., Curdt, B., Mondal, S., Fitzgerald, C., & Kruger, D. J. (2014). An evolutionary domain-specific risk-taking scale. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 8, 123–141.
Wilke, A., Scheibehenne, B., Gaissmaier, W., McCanney, P., & Barrett, H. C. (2014). Illusionary pattern detection in habitual gamblers. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35, 291–297.
Student Presentations (Last 5 years):
Bedell, V., Lydick, J., Treat, J. & Wilke, A. (April 2016). Spatial dependency in local resource distributions. Poster presented at the 18th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Welsch, J., Liss, J., Plaza, J., Sherman, A. & Wilke, A. (April 2015). Construct validity and behavioral correlates of the evolutionary domain-specific risk scale. Paper presented at the 9th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Boston, USA.
Robinson, D., Langen, T., Skufca, J., Todd, P. M. & Wilke, A. (April 2015). A game of hide and seek: Expectations of clumpy resources influence hiding and searching patterns. Poster presented at the 9th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Boston, USA.
Bedell, V., Scheibehenne, B., Gaissmaier, W., Barrett, H. C. & Wilke, A. (April 2015). Illusionary pattern detection in habitual gamblers. Poster presented at the 9th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Boston, USA.
Schlaeg, L., Sherman, A., Mondal, S., Fitzgerald, C., Kruger, D. J. & Wilke, A. (April 2015). An evolutionary domain-specific risk-taking scale. Poster presented at the 9th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Boston, USA.
Plaza, J., Liss, J. & Wilke, A. (April 2015). A literature review on the hot hand phenomenon and the gambler’s fallacy. Poster presented at the 9th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), Boston, USA.
Ellis, A., & Wilke, A. (April 2014). Identifying behavioral trends among college students’ video game and internet use. Paper presented at the 16th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Welsch, J., Sherman, A. & Wilke, A. (April 2014). Construct validity of the evolutionary domain-specific risk scale. Poster presented at the 8th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), New Paltz, USA.
Liss, J., Plaza, J., & Wilke, A. (April 2014). Behavioral correlates of the evolutionary domain-specific risk scale. Poster presented at the 8th annual meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), New Paltz, USA.
Lindsay, A., Ebert, J. & Wilke, A. (April 2014). PYCTS: A multi-user credit system to track undergraduate psychology research experience. Poster presented at the 16th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Plaza, J., Liss, J., & Wilke, A. (April 2014). Behavioral correlates of the evolutionary domain-specific risk scale. Poster presented at the 16th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
McCanney, P., Wood, A., Sherman, A., Scheibehenne, B., Gaissmaier, W., Barrett, H. C., & Wilke, A. (July 2013). Sequential decision making and illusionary pattern detection in gamblers. Paper presented at the 25th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Miami, USA.
Sherman, A., Minich, S., Langen, T., Skufca, J., & Wilke, A. (July 2013). The influence of past and present living environments: Are current risk assessments shaped by the dangers of our childhood environment? Paper presented at the 25th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Miami, USA.
McCanney, P., Wood, A., Barrett, H. C., Scheibehenne, B., & Wilke, A. (April 2013). Sequential decision making and illusionary pattern detection in gamblers. Paper presented at the 15th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Wood, A., McCanney, P., Barrett, H. C., Scheibehenne, B., & Wilke, A. (April 2013). Sequential decision making and illusionary pattern detection in gamblers. Paper presented at the 15th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Brown, J., Ellis, A., & Wilke, A. (April 2013). Psychological factors involved in playing multiline slot machines. Poster presented at the 15th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Best, T., Lindsay, A., & Wilke, A. (April 2013). PYCTS: A multi-user credit system to track undergraduate psychology research experience. Poster presented at the 15th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Munz, H., Minich, S., Mata, R., & Wilke, A. (April 2013). Age differences in adaptive information foraging. Poster presented at the 14th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Wood, A., Wilke, A., & Barrett, H. C. (September 2012). Expectations of clumpy resources influence predictions of sequential events. Poster presented at the 13th annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction, Las Vegas, USA.
McCanney, P., Minich, S., & Wilke, A. (September 2012). Hiding and searching behaviors in a sequential multi-person game. Poster presented at the 13th annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction, Las Vegas, USA.
Wood, A., Mata, R., & Wilke, A. (July 2012). Age differences in adaptive information foraging. Poster presented at the 18th annual McNair Research Conference, Buffalo, USA.
Sherman, A., Minich, S., Langen, T., Skufca, J., & Wilke, A. (July 2012). The influence of past and present living environments on human risk-taking propensity. Poster presented at the 1st Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology, Ottawa, Canada.
Minich, S., Panis, M., McCanney, P., Wood, A., Langen, T., Todd, P. M., & Wilke, A. (June 2012). Can animal hoarding studies inform us about how humans hide and search for resources? Poster presented at the 24nd annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Albuquerque, USA.
McCanney, P. Kruger, D. J., Fitzgerald, C., & Wilke, A. (June 2012). An evolutionary valid domain-specific risk-taking scale. Poster presented at the 24nd annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Albuquerque, USA.
Wood, A., Mata, R., & Wilke, A. (June 2012). Age differences in adaptive information foraging. Poster presented at the 24nd annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Albuquerque, USA.
Racette, L., Hou, D., & Wilke, A. (April 2012 ). Visualization of data in more than three dimensions. Paper presented at the 14th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Panis, M., Minich, S., Munz, H., & Wilke, A. (April 2012 ). Can hoarding studies from animal behavior inform us how humans hide and search for resources? Paper presented at the 14th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Munz, H., Minich, S., Mata, R., & Wilke, A. (April 2012). Age differences in adaptive information foraging. Poster presented at the 14th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Panis, M., Racette, L., & Wilke, A. (April 2012). Expectations of clumpy resources influence choice of environment to search in. Poster presented at the 14th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.
Minich, S., Panis, M., Racette, L., & Wilke, A. (April 2012). Can hoarding studies from animal behavior inform us how humans hide and search for resources? An experimental test. Paper presented at the 14th Symposium on Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), Potsdam, USA.