Dirk Wulff

Dirk Wulff serves as Senior Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development's Center for Adaptive Rationality and Senior Adjunct Researcher at the University of Basel's Center for Cognitive and Decision Science. His work bridges cognitive psychology, computational modeling, and artificial intelligence to address fundamental questions in human decision-making and semantic representation.

Education:

• PhD in Psychology, University of Berlin & Max Planck Institute for Human Development (2015)

Research Interests:
Wulff's primary focus spans large language models, semantic networks, and learning mechanisms, with significant contributions to information search strategies, generalizability in psychological measurement, and sustainability applications. His work integrates cognitive network science with behavioral experiments to model risk perception, decision processes, and age-related cognitive changes. He pioneers methods for using LLMs to enhance psychological measurement validity and address taxonomic incommensurability in theoretical constructs.

Publication Trends:
His 2024-2025 publications reveal intense focus on LLM applications in behavioral science, particularly semantic embeddings for psychological measurement, experiential simulations for risk communication, and open-source tools development. Key themes include resolving conceptual ambiguities in psychological constructs, modeling pre-decisional information search, and translating network science into practical cognitive aging research. His work consistently bridges theoretical cognitive models with real-world applications in sustainability and clinical contexts.

Scientific Awards:

• Otto Hahn Medal, Max Planck Society (€7,000)

Grants and Advising:
Wulff secured €617,320 from the German Research Foundation for addressing the generalizability crisis using LLMs, €398,972 from the Swiss National Science Foundation for studying age-related semantic network changes, and €49,258 from the Biäsch Foundation for harnessing simulated experiences. While no formal advisees are listed, his R packages (text2sdg, cstab, mousetrap) support widespread methodological training in behavioral science.

Labs and Tools:
As Head of the 'Search and Learning' Research Area at the Center for Adaptive Rationality, Wulff leads a team developing computational models of human information search. His open-source R packages enable semantic network analysis (text2sdg), cluster validation (cstab), and mouse-tracking data processing (mousetrap), establishing critical infrastructure for cognitive and behavioral research globally.