Taylor, Alexander H
ICREA Research Professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
Social & Behavioural Sciences
Short biography
I obtained my bachelor’s degree at Oxford University, and my PhD at the University of Auckland. I then worked as a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, before taking up a lectureship at the University of Auckland, where I was awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand both a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (2014-19), and the Prime Minister’s Emerging Scientist prize (2015). In 2022 I was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant (2023-2028) for my project ‘UNIPROB’.
Research interests
My research is focused on comparing and understanding the similarities and differences between human, animal and machine minds. At the heart of my research program is an experimental framework I term the signature testing approach (Taylor et al. 2022). This uses the information processing errors, biases and other patterns agent exhibits to make inference about the content of different minds. This approach generates powerful intelligence tests that strongly constrain the possible cognition an agent is using and allows for the comparison of both biological and artificial intelligences. I also have a keen interest in understanding the role information processing errors and biases play in human decision-making. My lab currently works with a wide range of study species, including the kea parrot, rats, and adult humans.