Derek Koehler

Derek J. Koehler is a Professor and Cognitive Research Area Head at the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on cognitive processes underlying judgment, decision-making, and reasoning, with particular attention to biases in political communication, gambling behavior, and metacognition. He holds an email address at derek.koehler@uwaterloo.ca and is located in PAS 4050 on campus.

Key research themes include:

• Partisan language effects on audience perceptions and reputational outcomes
• Cognitive biases in gambling contexts and interventions to reduce them
• Illusion of explanatory depth and knowledge calibration
• Interactions between human judgment and algorithmic systems
• Role of cognitive reflection in moral and religious beliefs
• Communication strategies for pandemic-related information

His work bridges cognitive psychology with applied domains like public health, political science, and behavioral economics. Notable contributions include developing icon array visualization techniques for gambling risk communication and analyzing framing effects in algorithmic error perception. His research consistently addresses real-world decision-making challenges through rigorous experimental methods.

Recent work explores:

• Reputational impacts of partisan communication choices
• Metacognitive deficits in distributed knowledge environments
• Psychological barriers to evidence acceptance during crises
• Long-term consequences of sunk cost fallacies in moral judgments

Dr. Koehler has collaborated extensively on interdisciplinary projects, including international surveys on pandemic responses and experimental studies on belief systems. His work frequently appears in top journals like Cognition and Journal of Experimental Psychology.