Decision-Making & Human-AI Interaction | Ph.D. Candidate, IIT Kanpur
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Cognitive Science at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, researching the computational mechanisms of context effects in human decision-making. My work investigates how environmental structures—such as irrelevant options or decoys—bias human choice, and how we can robustly model these deviations from rationality.
My approach is informed by my background in Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering and prior experience as a Senior Software Developer at Accenture, where I worked on large-scale software testing for British Telecom. I bridge these disciplines by combining behavioral experimentation with rigorous computational modeling.
Currently, I am extending my research into Human-AI Interaction. I am specifically interested in how human "sense of agency" changes when using AI tools, and how we can design AI assistants that support—rather than undermine—human perceived control. I aim to apply my experience in measuring behavioral biases to the evaluation of human-AI partnerships.
My doctoral work investigates context effects in decision-making, exploring how attribute structures (like decoys) influence human choice. To ensure precise control over stimulus timing and interaction, I primarily use vanilla JavaScript to build granular online and offline experiments.
A key focus is statistical robustness: I develop simulation frameworks to test if standard decision metrics (like RST/AST) hold up under heterogeneous preferences.
Modeling Bounded Rationality: Computational modeling of how humans select adaptive strategies under resource constraints.
My current work bridges cognitive science and AI by using reinforcement learning agents as computational benchmarks for human behavior. I use Python and PyTorch to simulate decision agents (e.g., DRQN, POMDPs), comparing their adaptive strategies against human data.
When I take a break from research papers, I often come across short yet insightful reads on AI, cognitive science, and human decision-making. This section lists some articles, blogs, and repositories that I found particularly useful.
Feel free to reach out to me for any inquiries related to research or collaborations.
Email: tapasr@iitk.ac.in