Main Focus

Head of Research Area Search and Learning

Research Interests

  • Large language models
  • Semantic networks
  • Learning mechanisms
  • Information search
  • Generalizability
  • Sustainability


Curriculum Vitae

Since 2023 Senior Research Scientist, Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Since 2023 Senior Adjunct Researcher, Center for Cognitive and Decision Science, University of Basel
2016-2022 Researcher, Center for Cognitive and Decision Science, University of Basel
2015-2016 Postdoc, Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development 
2015          PhD in Psychology, University of Berlin & Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Selected publications

Wulff, D. U., & Mata, R. (in press). Semantic embeddings reveal and address taxonomic incommensurability in psychological measurement. Nature Human Behaviour.

Spektor, M. S., & Wulff, D. U. (in press). Pre-decisional information search adaptively reduces three types of uncertainty. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hussain. Z., Mata R., & Wulff, D. U. (2024). A tutorial on open-source large language models for behavioral science. Behavior Research Methods, 1-24.

Hertwig, R., & Wulff, D. U. (2022). A description–experience framework of the psychology of risk. Perspectives on psychological science17(3), 631-651.

Wulff, D. U., & Mata, R. (2022). On the semantic representation of risk. Science advances8(27), eabm1883.

Wulff, D. U., Hills, T. T., & Mata, R. (2022). Structural differences in the semantic networks of younger and older adults. Scientific Reports12(1), 21459.

Hertwig, R., Wulff, D. U., & Mata, R. (2019). Three gaps and what they may mean for risk preference. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B374(1766), 20180140.

Siew, C. S., Wulff, D. U., Beckage, N. M., & Kenett, Y. N. (2019). Cognitive network science: A review of research on cognition through the lens of network representations, processes, and dynamics. Complexity2019.

Wulff, D. U., De Deyne, S., Jones, M. N., Mata, R., & Aging Lexicon Consortium. (2019). New perspectives on the aging lexicon. Trends in cognitive sciences23(8), 686-698.

Wulff, D. U., Mergenthaler-Canseco, M., & Hertwig, R. (2018). A meta-analytic review of two modes of learning and the description-experience gap. Psychological bulletin144(2), 140-172. 

Wulff, D. U., & van den Bos, W. (2018). Modeling choices in delay discounting. Psychological Science, 29(11), 1890-1894.


R packages

text2sdg: Detecting UN Sustainable Development Goals in text
cstab: Selecting the number of clusters via normalized clustering instability
mousetrap: Processing and analyzing mouse-tracking data

Grants and Awards

German Research Foundation, Addressing the generalizability crisis using large language models (€617'320)
Swiss National Science Foundation, Laying the groundwork for understanding age-related changes in individual semantic networks and their role in cognitive aging (€398'972)
Biäsch Foundation for Applied Psychology, Harnessing simulated expriences (€49'258)
Otto Hahn Medal, Max Planck Society (€7'000)    
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