Verena Clarmann von Clarenau
Fellow, IMPRS COMP2PSYCH Berlin
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Adaptive Rationality
Verena Clarmann von Clarenau is a third-year PhD student at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. During her Bachelor’s in biological sciences at Heidelberg University her interest in mathematical modelling of biological systems emerged, leading to a Master’s degree in systems biology with a strong focus on computational neuroscience. Research stays at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim and at the Learning in Neural Circuits Laboratory at the University of Toronto brought her to the field of computational modelling of decision making. Generally interested in an interdisciplinary approach on decision making and learning with a strong focus on computational methods as well as behavioural data, Verena is currently working on her thesis on psychophysical foundations of experienced-based decisions. Her current project focuses on decisions based on sequential numerical information, especially how extreme numbers are under- and over-weighted, and if these seemingly irrational distortions of decision information might actually be optimal adaptations to the task demands under the consideration of a noisy and capacity-limited brain. Besides her immediate research topic, she is also interested in the interplay of machine learning and cognitive sciences, and how the advances in technology and computational algorithms can help to understand learning mechanisms in the brain.