Dr David A. Lagnado
Research Interests
My research focuses on the psychological processes that underlie human learning, reasoning and decision-making.
A major theme is the central role played by causal models in cognition. I investigate how people learn causal models from uncertain data, and how they use these models to draw inferences and make decisions. I have extended this work to the area of juror decision-making, showing that people use their causal knowledge to organize legal evidence and make decisions. I am currently developing a general framework for evidential and legal reasoning, and studying the dynamics of jurors’ beliefs across the course of a trial.
Another key theme in my research is the interplay between causal thinking and judgments of responsibility. I examine how people use causal models to attribute responsibility and blame, both with normal and patient populations. In a parallel stream to my work on causality, I have applied novel methods to explore the dynamics of probabilistic learning, and contributed to the study of impaired learning in Parkinson’s patients.
Contact
David Lagnado
Course Director, MSc Cognitive and Decision Sciences
Cognitive, Perceptual, and Brain Sciences Department
University College London, UK
E-mail: d . lagnado @ ucl . ac . uk
Publications
Forthcoming
Lagnado, D. A., Gerstenberg, T. & Zultan, R. (2012). Causal responsibility and counterfactuals. submitted manuscript
Zultan, R., Gerstenberg, T. & Lagnado, D. A. (2012). Finding fault: Causality and counterfactuals in group attributions. resubmitted manuscript
2012
Gerstenberg, T., Goodman, N. D., Lagnado, D. A. & Tenenbaum, J. B. (2012). Noisy Newtons: Unifying process and dependency accounts of causal attribution. In N. Miyake, D. Peebles, & R. P. Cooper (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [pdf]
Gerstenberg, T. & Lagnado, D. A. (2012). When contributions make a difference: Explaining order effects in responsibility attributions Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. [pdf]
2011
Lagnado, D. A. (2011). Thinking about Evidence. in Dawid, P., Twining, W., Vasaliki, M. (ed.) Evidence, Inference and Enquiry. Oxford University Press/British Academy. [pdf]
Lagnado, D. A. (2011). Causal Thinking. in McKay-Illari, P., Russo, F., Williamson, J. (ed.) Causality in the Sciences. Oxford University Press. [pdf]
Gerstenberg, T., Lagnado, D. A, Speekenbrink, M. & Cheung, C. (2011). Rational order effects in responsibility attributions. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher, & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, 1715-1720. [pdf]
Gerstenberg, T., Ejova, A. & Lagnado, D. A. (2011). Blame the skilled. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher, & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society,720-725. [pdf]
Schächtele, S., Gerstenberg, T. & Lagnado, D. A. (2011). Beyond outcomes: The influence of intentions and deception. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher, & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, 1860-1865. [pdf]
Frosch, C.A., McCormack, T., Lagnado, D.A., Burns, P. (2011). Are causal structure and intervention judgements inextricably linked? Cognitive Science.
Channon, S., Lagnado, D. A., Fitzpatrick, S., Drury, H. & Taylor, I. (2011). Judgments of cause and blame: Sensitivity to intentionality in Asperger's syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Hagmayer, Y. & Lagnado, D. A. (2011). Causal models in judgment and decision making. In Dhami, M., Schlottman, A., Waldmann, M. (ed.) Judgment and decision making as a skill: Learning, Development and Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wilkinson, L., Beigi, M., Lagnado, D. A. & Jahanshahi, M. (2011). Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus selectively improves learning of weakly associated cue combinations during probabilistic classification learning in Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychology, 25, 286-294.2010
Channon, S., Lagnado, D. A., Drury, H., Matheson, E., Fitzpatrick, S., Shieff, C., Mendoza, N. & Maudgil, D. (2010). Causal reasoning and intentionality judgments after frontal brain lesions. Social Cognition.
Channon, S. Fitzpatrick, S., Drury, H., Taylor, I. & Lagnado, D. A. (2010). Punishment and sympathy judgments: Is the quality of mercy strained in Asperger’s syndrome? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40, 1219-1226.
Gerstenberg, T., Lagnado, D. A. (2010). Spreading the Blame: The Allocation of Responsibility amongst Multiple Agents. Cognition, 115, 166-171. [pdf]
Hagmayer, Y., Meder, B., Osman, M., Mangold, S. & Lagnado, D. A. (2010). Spontaneous Causal Learning While Controlling A Dynamic System. The Open Psychology Journal, 3, 145-162. [pdf]
Lagnado, D. A. & Speekenbrink, M. (2010). The Influence of Delays in Real-Time Causal Learning. The Open Psychology Journal, 3, 184-195. [pdf]
Perales, J. C., Shanks, D. R. & Lagnado, D. A. (2010). Causal Representation and Behavior: The Integration of Mechanism and Covariation. The Open Psychology Journal, 3, 174-183. [pdf]
Wilkinson, L., Jahanshahi, M., Gahir, H., Dharmindra, A. & Lagnado, D. A. (2010). Medication impairs probabilistic classification learning in Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychologia.
2009
Lagnado, D. A. (2009). A causal framework for integrating learning and reasoning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 211-212.
Moore, J. W., Lagnado, D. A, Deal, D. C. & Haggard, P. (2009). Feelings of control:contingency determines experience of action. Cognition, 110, 279-283. [pdf]
Speekenbrink, M., Lagnado, D. A., Wilkinson, L., Jahanshahi, M. & Shanks, D. R. (2009). Models of probabilistic category learning in Parkinson’s disease: Strategy use and the effects of L-dopa. Journal of Mathematical Psychology.
2008
Lagnado, D. A. & Channon, S. (2008). Judgments of Cause and Blame: The influence of Intentionality and Foreseeability. Cognition, 108, 754-770. [pdf]
Lagnado, D. A. &Harvey, N. (2008). The impact of discredited evidence. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 15 (6), 1166-1173. [pdf]
Wilkinson, L., Lagnado, D. A., Quallo, M. & Jahanshahi, M. (2008). The effect of feedback on non-motor probabilistic classification learning in Parkinson’s disease. Neuropsychologia, 46 (11), 2683-2695.
Yu, E., Lagnado, D. A. & Chater,N. (2008). Retrospective evaluations of gambling wins: Evidence for a 'peak-end' rule. Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Love, B., McRae, K., Sloutsky, V. (ed.) , 77-82.
2007
Lagnado, D. A. (2007). Perspectives on Daniel Kahneman. Thinking & Reasoning, 13, 1-4.
Lagnado, D. A. & Shanks, D. R. (2007). Dual concerns with the dualist approach. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30 (3), 271-272.
Lagnado, D.A., Waldmann, M. R., Hagmayer, Y., & Sloman, S.A. (2007). Beyond covariation: Cues to causal structure. Gopnik, A., & Schultz, L. (Eds.), Causal learning: Psychology, philosophy, and computation. OUP. [pdf]
Hagmayer, Y., Sloman, S.A., Lagnado, D.A. & Waldmann, M. R., (2007). Causal reasoning through intervention. Gopnik, A., & Schultz, L. (Eds.), Causal learning: Psychology, philosophy, and computation. OUP. [pdf]
Newell, B.R, Lagnado, D. A., & Shanks, D. R. (2007). Straight choices: The psychology of judgment and decision. Psychology Press.
Newell, B.R., Lagnado, D.A., & Shanks, D.R. (2007). Challenging the role of implicit processes in probabilistic category learning. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 14, 505-511.
2006
Lagnado, D. A., Newell, B., Kahan, S., & Shanks, D. R. (2006). Insight and strategy in multiple cue learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135, 162-183. [pdf]
Lagnado, D. A., & Sloman, S. A. (2006). Time as a guide to cause. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 32, 451-460. [pdf]
2005
Sloman, S.A. & Lagnado, D.A. (2005). Do we ‘do’? Cognitive Science, 29, 5–39. [pdf]
Sloman, S.A. & Lagnado, D.A. (2005). The Problem of Induction. In K. Holyoak & R. Morrison (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning, Cambridge University Press.
2004
Lagnado, D.A. & Sloman, S.A. (2004). The advantage of timely intervention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 30, 856-876. [pdf]
Lagnado, D.A. & Sloman, S.A. (2004). Inside and outside probability judgment. In D. Koehler & N. Harvey (Eds.), Blackwell Handbook of Judgment and Decision Making. Blackwell.
Sloman, S.A. & Lagnado, D.A. (2004). Causal Invariance in Reasoning and Learning. In B. Ross (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 44, 287-325. San Diego: Elsevier Science.
2003
Lagnado, D.A. & Shanks, D.R. (2003). The influence of hierarchy on probability judgment. Cognition, 89, 157-178.
2002
Lagnado, D.A. & Shanks, D.R. (2002). Probability judgments in hierarchical learning: a conflict between predictiveness and coherence. Cognition, 83, 81-112.
Lagnado, D.A. & Sloman, S.A. (2002). Learning causal structure. In W. Gray & C. D. Schunn (Eds.), Proceedings of the twenty-fourth annual conference of the cognitive science society, Erlbaum. [pdf]
Sloman, S.A. & Lagnado D.A. (2002). Counterfactual undoing in deterministic causal reasoning. In W. Gray & C. D. Schunn (Eds.), Proceedings of the twenty-fourth annual conference of the cognitive science society, Erlbaum.
2000
Shanks, D.R & Lagnado, D.A. (2000). Sub-optimal reasons for rejecting optimality? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 761-762.