Jialin Li

Master's Student at NYU | Cognitive Science & Neuroscience & AI

I'm interested in the cognitive and neural principle of the brain that support human adaptive decision-making and learning. By integrating approaches from psychology, machine learning, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, I build computational models to study how the brain constructs its mental representation of the structure of the world that supports such intelligent behavior. Currently, I work with Prof. Marcelo Mattar on using recurrent neural networks to model the choices and reaction times and investigate the temporal dynamics in multi-stage decision-making tasks. Previously, I completed my B.S. in Psychology at Peking University. Outside of academia, I enjoy playing music, taking photos, and exploring new places (see my Portfolio).


Jialin Li Profile

News


Apr 2026
My paper is accepted with full publication and poster presentation by CogSci2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro!
Mar 2026
I will be joining UC Irvine as a PhD student in the upcoming Fall 2026 working with Prof. Aaron Bornstein!
Feb 2026
I submitted my second conference paper to CogSci2026!
Nov 2025
Website updated with new design!
Sep 2025
My first paper is accepted by NeurIPS2025@CogInterp Workshop!
Sep 2024
I started my master's degree at NYU!
Jul 2024
I graduated from Peking University!

Education


UCI Logo

University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Starting Fall 2026
Pursuing Ph.D. in Cognitive Science
Advisor: Prof. Aaron Bornstein
NYU Logo

New York University (NYU)

2024 - Present
Thesis
M.A. in Psychology with a concentration in Cognition/Perception Neuroscience
Advisor: Prof. Marcelo Mattar & Prof. Paul Glimcher
PKU Logo

Peking University (PKU)

2020 - 2024
Thesis (Chinese)
B.S. in Psychology with Distinguished Graduation Thesis Honor Award
Advisor: Prof. Jian Li

Selected Research


Optimal Stopping Rule in Sequential Sampling for Decision-making

Optimal Stopping Rule in Sequential Sampling for Decision-making

We trained reinforcement learning agent to study the optimal stopping rule in heterogeneous sequential sampling for decision-making.

Reinforcement Learning Recurrent Neural Network Code PDF Poster Experiment
Planning in Decision Tree

Joint Modeling of Choices and Reaction Times in Multi-stage Decision making

We designed a decision tree task and build computational model to study human planning through reaction time and eye-tracking data,.

Cognitive Model Eye-tracking Human Experiment Code PDF Experiment
Context-dependent Decision-making

Description-Experience Gap in Exploration-Exploitation

We designed a minimalistic reinforcement learning task to study the context-dependent decision-making in exploration-exploitation task.

Cognitive Model Behavioral Analysis Human Experiment Code Experiment

Technical Skills