Yixin Chen | Boston University

About

I am a Ph.D. researcher at Boston University, working in Cognition & Decision Lab. I build reinforcement learning models that make human-like decisions, which aims to:

uncover the cognitive processes behind everyday decision-making,
and stimulate the invention of model-based diagnosis for mental diseases.

I also develop automated tools for data analysis and online experimentation at scale, with the goal of increasing the accessibility of computational tools in the era of big data.

[One-page Resume] [Academic CV]

Education

Boston University - Ph.D. in Cognitive Science (2018 - Current)
Tsinghua University - B.S. with Honors in Psychology (2014 - 2018)
Peking University - Dual Degree in Economics (2015 - 2018)

Manuscripts in Preparation

A reinforcement learning model of adaptive persistence
Chen, Y. & McGuire, J.T.

Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings

Test-retest reliability of task-based measures of voluntary persistence
Chen, Y., Fulford, D., & McGuire, J.T. (2022)
44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
RL with temporal representations captures reliable phenotypes of adaptive persistence behavior
Chen, Y. & McGuire, J.T. (2022)
5th Multi-disciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM)

Talks

BBC Seminar, Boston University (2021)
NERD Symposium, Harvard University (2019)

Conference Presentations

Individual-specific functional architecture and activation patterns in medial prefrontal cortex
Toro-Serey, C., Chen, Y., Sussman, L., & McGuire, J.T. (2020)
26th Annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM)
Learning and individual differences in adaptive persistence
Chen, Y., Li, T., Lynch., J., & McGuire, J.T. (2020)
17th Annual Meeting of the Society of Neuroeconomics (SNE)
Physiological markers predict the adjustment of learning rates in dynamic environments
Kao, C., Chen, Y., Ogbaselas, F., Gold, J., & Kable, J. (2019)
17th Annual Meeting of the Society of Neuroeconomics (SNE)