Cognitive Science: Research Area — Prolific Citations Library

Discover 12 peer-reviewed studies in Cognitive Science (2022–2026). Explore research findings powered by Prolific's diverse participant panel.

This page lists 12 peer-reviewed papers in the research area of Cognitive Science in the Prolific Citations Library, a curated collection of research powered by high-quality human data from Prolific.

Papers (12 of 12)

Cognitive empathy and dehumanization co-vary with dark triad traits and agency detection sensitivity

Authors: K Rudnicki, O Borowiecki, K Poels, B Beersma

Year: 2026

Published in: Evolution and Human …, 2026 - Elsevier

Institution: University of Antwerp, University of Bialystok, VU University, Emory University

Research Area: Personality psychology, Social cognition, Cognitive neuroscience

Discipline: Evolutionary psychology, human behavioral ecology

In a preregistered study, psychopathy (more than the other Dark Triad traits) is linked to worse cognitive empathy and greater dehumanization, and this empathy–psychopathy link is especially strong among people who are less sensitive at detecting agency in others.
Capturing the complexity of human strategic decision-making with machine learning

Authors: JQ Zhu, JC Peterson, B Enke, TL Griffiths

Year: 2025

Published in: Nature Human Behaviour, 2025 - nature.com

Institution: Princeton University, Boston University, Harvard University

Research Area: Strategic decision-making, Machine learning, Computational Cognitive Science

Discipline: Artificial Intelligence

This study used deep neural networks to analyze human strategic decision-making, predicting choices more accurately than existing theories and uncovering the context-dependent nature of reasoning and decision-making in complex games.

Methods: Deep neural networks trained on data from procedurally generated matrix games with over 2,400 variations; models were modified for interpretability.

Key Findings: Human choices and reasoning in initial play of two-player matrix games, focusing on strategic decision-making and response to game complexity.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02230-5

Citations: 16

Sample Size: 90000
Do People Think Fast or Slow When Training AI?

Authors: L S. Treiman, CJ Ho, W Kool

Year: 2025

Published in: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference ..., 2025 - dl.acm.org

Institution: Washington University in St. Louis, National Cheng Kung University

Research Area: Human-AI Interaction, Cognitive Science, Behavioral Research in AI Training

Discipline: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Behavioral Science

Participants tend to rely on intuition (fast thinking) rather than deliberation (slow thinking) when training AI agents in the ultimatum game, impacting human-AI collaboration system design.

Methods: Participants trained an AI agent in the ultimatum game to analyze whether their training decisions aligned more with intuitive or deliberative cognitive processes.

Key Findings: The cognitive processes (fast vs. slow thinking) underlying human decision-making during AI training.

DOI: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3715275.3732177

Citations: 1
Sounding Trustworthy: AI-Generated Audio Outperforms Video and Images in Political Communication

Authors: H Shakeeb, C Conrad

Year: 2025

Published in: 2025 - aisel.aisnet.org

Institution: Dalhousie University

Research Area: AI, Political Communication, Media Trustworthiness, Cognitive Science, Autonomous Applications

Discipline: Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science

AI-generated audio in political communication is perceived as more trustworthy than image or video formats, but lower realism leads to skepticism.

Methods: An online experiment with participants assessing AI-generated political content in audio, video, and image formats; data analyzed using linear mixed effects analysis and NLP.

Key Findings: Impact of AI-generated media formats on trust and willingness to follow political recommendations, considering realism levels.

Citations: 1

Sample Size: 150
The persuasive effects of political microtargeting in the age of generative artificial intelligence

Authors: A Simchon, M Edwards, S Lewandowsky

Year: 2024

Published in: PNAS nexus, 2024 - academic.oup.com

Institution: University of Bristol

Research Area: Political Microtargeting, Generative AI, Political Science, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences

Discipline: Political Science, Psychology

The study highlights the effectiveness and scalability of using generative AI to microtarget personalized political advertisements based on personality traits, raising ethical and policy concerns.

Methods: Four studies were conducted, including experiments (studies 1a and 1b) on the effectiveness of personality-tailored ads and feasibility assessments (studies 2a and 2b) of automatic generation and validation of these ads using generative AI and personality inference.

Key Findings: Effectiveness of personality-based microtargeted political ads and the scalability of their generation using generative AI tools.

Citations: 172
Evidence of human-like visual-linguistic integration in multimodal large language models during predictive language processing

Authors: V Kewenig, C Edwards

Year: 2024

Published in: ... and Rechardt, Akilles ..., 2023 - papers.ssrn.com

Research Area: Multimodal AI, Cognitive Science, Visual-Linguistic Integration

Discipline: Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics, Cognitive Science

Citations: 2
Milgram’s experiment in the knowledge space: Individual navigation strategies

Authors: M Zhu

Year: 2024

Published in: ArXiv

Institution: Central European University, Corvinus University of Budapes

Research Area: Network Science, Cognitive Science, Information Retrieval

Discipline: Artificial Intelligence
People cannot distinguish GPT-4 from a human in a Turing test

Authors: C Jones, B Bergen

Year: 2024

Published in: ArXiv

Institution: University of California San Diego

Research Area: Turing Test, LLM Evaluation, Cognitive Science of AI

Discipline: Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Artificial intelligence can persuade humans on political issues

Authors: H Bai, J Voelkel, J Eichstaedt, R Willer

Year: 2023

Published in: 2023 - researchsquare.com

Institution: Stanford University, London Business School, Dartmouth College, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Research Area: Political Persuasion, Social Influence of AI, Cognitive Science

Discipline: Political Science, Social Science

Citations: 100
How to run behavioural experiments online: Best practice suggestions for cognitive psychology and neuroscience

Authors: N Gagné, L Franzen

Year: 2023

Published in: ... Open: the official journal of the ..., 2023 - swisspsychologyopen.com

Institution: Concordia University, University of Lübeck

Research Area: Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, Behavioral Research Methods

Discipline: Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience

Citations: 75
Multimodality and attention increase alignment in natural language prediction between humans and computational models

Authors: V Kewenig, A Lampinen, SA Nastase

Year: 2023

Published in: arXiv preprint arXiv ..., 2023 - arxiv.org

Institution: University College London, Princeton University, Exeter University

Research Area: Computational Linguistics, Cognitive Science

Discipline: Computational Linguistics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.06035

Citations: 3
Crowdsourcing in cognitive and systems neuroscience

Authors: BP Johnson, E Dayan, N Censor

Year: 2022

Published in: The ..., 2022 - journals.sagepub.com

Research Area: Cognitive Neuroscience, Systems Neuroscience, Crowdsourcing, Behavioral Neuroscience, Motor Control, Motor Learning

Discipline: Neuroscience, Psychology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/10738584211017018

Citations: 25