Individual preferences fluctuate over time and differ among people. Few models of utility and decision making attempt to capture this fundamental fact explicitly. Prof. Regenwetter’s primary goal is to model, measure, and predict preference and choice behavior when it is allowed to vary. Random utility models are designed as a modeling language to capture and quantify the ubiquitous variability in choice and preference behavior.
Prof. Regenwetter’s primary interests can be categorized as falling within three paradigms: probabilistic measurement, social choice, and preference evolution over time.
Probabilistic measurement theory reformulates axiomatic measurement structures (e.g., in decision theory) in a probabilistic framework and thereby makes them empirically (and statistically) testable.
Social choice theory is the theory of aggregating individual preferences or choices into a social ordering or choice. Dr. Regenwetter’s interest in social choice is behavioral. Using random utility models as measurement tools, he evaluates and compares competing social choice functions on empirical data of various kinds.
Dr. Regenwetter studies preference change over time via stochastic process models in which random utilities are indexed by continuous time.

RESEARCHERS

Rain (Yu) Huang
PhD Candidate
Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, University of Michigan
Rain has a broad interest in human decision making, with a particular emphasis on exploring decision processes using mathematical and statistical methods. She tries to study human's irrational and heterogeneous behaviors in systematic ways.

David Spencer
Bachelor of Science in Finance; Bachelor of Science in Social Psychology
(2018 - Current)
David is interested in how social dynamics affect our behavior and what leads certain people to react differently in social situations.

Meichai Chen
PhD Student in Quantitative Psychology (2020 - Current)
Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Psychology, Union College (2016-2020)
Meichai is interested in the aggregation of preference at both the group and the individual level.

Brittney Currie
PhD Student in Philosophy (2017 - Current)
Masters of Science in Philosophy, University of Edinburgh (2016)
Masters of Arts, King's College, London (2013)
Bachelor of Arts, Saint Leo University (2011)

Emily Line
PhD Student in Quantitative Psychology (2020 - Current)
Masters of Science in Psychology, Arizona State University (2018-2020)
Bachelor of Science in Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Stout (2015-2018)
Emily is interested in individual differences in decision-making, particularly in the context of psychology and law.

Victor H. Cervantes
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Psychology (2020 - Current)
PhD in Mathematical and Computational Cognitive Science, Purdue University (2020)
Victor's research interests are about the mathematical development of a probabilistic theory of contextuality, as well as applications of mathematics and statistics to psychological modeling and educational assessment.
ALUMNI
- Mi Zhou, Graduate Student, Statistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Bryanna Fields, Data Analyst, IRPO.
- Xiaozhi Yang, Graduate Student, Psychology, The Ohio State University.
- Ying Guo, Data Analyst, Marketing Attribution, LLC.
- Cihan Wang, Graduate Student, Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- Yixin Zhang, Software Engineer, Snowflake.
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Muye Chen, Graduate Student, Department of Economics, Cornell University.
- Chris Zwilling, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Beckman Institute.
- Anna Popova, Data Scientist, Dell Research.
- Jason Dana, Associate Professor, Department of Organizational Behavior, Yale School of Management.
- Clintin P. Davis-Stober, Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri.
- Daniel R. Cavagnaro, Lecturer, Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, California State University Fullerton.
- William Messner, Data Scientist, Lubrizol.
- Yun-shil Cha, Assistant Professor, Accounting, University of New Hampshire.
- Michelle Choi, Business Intelligence Analyst, Devsisters.

Regenwetter Lab circa 2008
(clockwise from the top): Bill Messner, Mike Regenwetter, Clint Stober, Dan Cavagnaro, Ying Guo, Anna Popova