Sashank Varma

Sashank Varma is a Professor at the School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on computational models of cognition, mathematical thinking, and the alignment between human cognition and artificial intelligence systems. He investigates how humans understand abstract mathematical concepts and solve computationally complex problems, while also exploring whether machine learning models 'understand' concepts similarly to humans.

His empirical work examines mathematical and computational thinking through human experimentation and modeling, with recent studies on geometric/topological concept understanding and the development of cognitive intelligence in language models. Collaborations with students have produced notable work on factorial estimation, visual clustering, and the psychological reality of statistical thresholds like p < .05.

Varma's AI research addresses developmental alignment—comparing machine learning progression with human cognitive development—and evaluates how pre-trained models handle language acquisition, conceptual understanding, and interference mitigation. His work bridges cognitive science, education, and machine learning, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to cognition.

He holds an office in JS Coon Building 251 and can be reached at varma@gatech.edu. His research has been published in journals like Psychological Review and Cognitive Psychology, with recent conference contributions at AAAI and EMNLP.