معرفی
Tania Lombrozo serves as the Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor at Princeton University, leading the Concepts and Cognition Lab where she investigates the psychological and philosophical dimensions of human reasoning. Her work uniquely integrates empirical methods from cognitive science with conceptual frameworks from analytic philosophy.
Her academic background includes a Ph.D. from Harvard University, establishing her foundation in interdisciplinary research approaches.
Lombrozo's research centers on the human drive to explain, examining why we seek explanations for certain phenomena but not others, how explanation-seeking affects learning, and whether explanatory processes serve epistemic goals or introduce reasoning errors. She explores connections between causal reasoning, moral responsibility, and intuitive theories of knowledge, drawing from cognitive, social, and developmental psychology alongside philosophy of science and moral philosophy. Her methodology emphasizes experimental rigor while addressing normative questions about ideal reasoning.
Analysis of her 2024-2025 publications reveals dominant themes in explanation evaluation across scientific and moral contexts, with significant attention to jargon in science communication, simplicity principles (Ockham’s razor), and moral responsibility in collective action. Her work increasingly addresses AI-human interaction, particularly how explanations influence trust in large language models and the cognitive effects of chain-of-thought reasoning.
Notable honors include:
- Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professorship
- Excellence in Mentoring Graduate Students Award
Lombrozo actively mentors graduate students including Sarah Joo, Casey Lewry, and Sebastian Montesinos, with research supported by interdisciplinary grants spanning cognitive science, ethics education, and technology policy. Her Concepts and Cognition Lab functions as a collaborative hub where philosophical questions are tested through behavioral experiments, contributing to both theoretical advances and practical applications in science communication and AI design.
