Hello! My name is Yiwei Cao and I am a final-year undergraduate student at McGill University, majoring in Cognitive Science and minoring in Computer Science. My research interest pertains to both human and machine intelligence. More specifically, I am interested in using artificial intelligence methods to study human cognition, as well as applying insights from neuroscience and psychology to develop better AI.

You can take a look at my CV here.

Project

A Resource-Rational Process Model of Violation of Cumulative Independence

Abstract: Human decision-making is filled with numerous paradoxes and violations of rationality principles. A particularly notable example is violation of cumulative independence (VoCI). Recently, there has been a surge of interest in theorizing and developing a resource-rational foundation for many such phenomena. Here we ask whether VoCI could be given a resourcerational basis too. To what extent could VoCI be explained in terms of the optimal use of limited cognitive resources? In this work, we look at VoCI through the lens of modern psychological theories of bounded rationality, presenting the first resource-rational account of VoCI.We discuss the implications of our work for risky decision-making, and more broadly, human rationality.