User:Alexander L. Davis: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 08:32, 30 May 2014

About Me

I am currently a research scientist in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. As a member of the Center for Climate and Energy Decision-Making, I'm most actively involved in research about human decision-making with respect to energy use and climate change. This work, mostly with Tamar Krishnamurti and Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, includes topics such as the design of field studies to test behavior change interventions, understanding the barriers to energy efficiency in both commercial and residential sectors, and preparedness, resiliance, and reliability of individuals and organizations in the face of climate change induced events (e.g., hurricanes).

My second line of research, stemming from my dissertation work with my advisor Baruch Fischhoff, looks at the psychology of experimental methods. Experiments often come out in unexpected ways, and this work has found that people tend to think unexpected results were caused by a flawed experiment, and, in turn, not worth sharing with the scientific community.

A third line of research looks at human altruism using the methods of experimental economics. This work with John Miller, Roberto Weber, and Sudeep Bhatia has specifically examined when and why people are willing to endure harm to prevent harm to others, finding greater altruism and egalitarianism when people make such a decision about harm than money.

Contact Info

Alexander L. Davis
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Email me through OpenWetWare

Education (CV)

2012, PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, Behavioral Decision Research
2009, MS, Carnegie Mellon University, Behavioral Decision Research
2007, BS, Northern Arizona University, Psychology

Research and Lab Notebooks

Notebook Template

Human Behavior and Electricity Consumption

What are the cognitive and motivational factors involved in understanding one's electricity consumption?

CMU Energy and Behavior Group

Setting a Standard for Electricity Pilot Studies

Do pilot studies of residential energy use meet the standards of clinical trials? Can they?

Davis, A., Krishnamurti, T., Fischhoff, B., and Bruine de Bruin, W. (2013). Setting a standard for electricity pilot studies. Energy Policy. In Press. [1]

Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses

Creating an In-Home Display

Can people learn from in-home electricity displays? What features of an in-home electricity display promote learning?

Krishnamurti, T., Davis, A., Wong-Parodi, G., Wang, J., and Canfield, C. (2013). Creating an in-home display: Experimental evidence and guidelines for design. Applied Energy, 108, 448–458.[2]

Predicting Participation in Energy Efficiency Programs

Can we predict who volunteers for energy efficiency programs?

Davis, A., Krishnamurti, T. (2013). The problems and solutions of predicting participation in energy efficiency programs. Applied Energy, 111, 277–287. [3]

Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses

One Good Trial

What does it take to do an energy efficiency trial up to FDA's standards?

Psychology of Methodology

What are the important psychological aspects of designing, implementing, interpreting, and reporting experimental research?

Communicating Uncertain Experimental Evidence

To what degree are unexpected data attributed to methodological error in foresight and hindsight, and how does this relate to decisions to share the data?

Davis, A., Fischhoff, B. (2013). Communicating uncertain experimental evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. In Press. [4]

Incentives, Error, and Data Sharing

Do incentives undermine decisions to share data when error in the data is possible?

Backdating Causal Theories

How do we evaluate theories that were not considered beforehand?

Notebook
[[Media: | Manuscript pdf]]
Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses

In the Problem Pit

How can laypeople be involved in solving scientific problems?

Notebook
[[Media: | Manuscript pdf]]
Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses

Human Altruism

How do humans behave when they can prevent harm to others by incurring it on themselves?

Generosity Across Contexts

Are we more altruistic when preventing harm to others?

Are Preferences for Harming Others Rational?

Are choices to inflict harm on ourselves or others consistent with the generalized axiom of revealed preferences?

[[User:| Notebook]]
[[Media:]]

The File-Drawer Problem (Dissertation)

Do we share data when we should?

Other Publications

Preparing for smart grid technologies: A behavioral decision research approach to understanding consumer expectations about smart meters
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511009244
[Paper1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+==About Me==
+I am currently a research scientist in the Department of [http://www.epp.cmu.edu/ Engineering and Public Policy] at Carnegie Mellon University.  As a member of the [http://cedmcenter.org/ Center for Climate and Energy Decision-Making], I'm most actively involved in research about human decision-making with respect to energy use and climate change.  This work, mostly with [http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/tamark/ Tamar Krishnamurti] and [http://gwongparodi.berkeley.edu/gwongparodi.berkeley.edu/Welcome.html Gabrielle Wong-Parodi], includes topics such as the design of field studies to test behavior change interventions, understanding the barriers to energy efficiency in both commercial and residential sectors, and preparedness, resiliance, and reliability of individuals and organizations in the face of climate change induced events (e.g., hurricanes).
+My second line of research, stemming from my dissertation work with my advisor [http://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/people/faculty/baruch-fischhoff.html Baruch Fischhoff], looks at the psychology of experimental methods.  Experiments often come out in unexpected ways, and this work has found that people tend to think unexpected results were caused by a flawed experiment, and, in turn, not worth sharing with the scientific community.
+A third line of research looks at human altruism using the methods of experimental economics.  This work with [http://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/people/faculty/john-miller.html John Miller], [http://www.econ.uzh.ch/faculty/weber.html Roberto Weber], and [http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/sudeepb/ Sudeep Bhatia] has specifically examined when and why people are willing to endure harm to prevent harm to others, finding greater altruism and egalitarianism when people make such a decision about harm than money.
 ==Contact Info==
 [[Image:Davis-alex_150x200.jpg|110px|thumb|right|Alexander L. Davis]]
@@ Line 8: / Line 15: @@
 *[[Special:Emailuser/Alexander L. Davis|Email me through OpenWetWare]]
-I work in Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University.  I learned about [[OpenWetWare]] from Wikipedia and John Miller.  My main interest is creativity and hypothesis generation with respect to normative, descriptive, and prescriptive decision-making, focusing on scientific decisions.
+==Education [[Media:AldCV.pdf| (CV)]]==
-==Education [[Media:AldCV.pdf| CV]]==
 <!--Include info about your educational background-->
 * 2012, PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, Behavioral Decision Research
@@ Line 16: / Line 21: @@
 * 2007, BS, Northern Arizona University, Psychology
-==Research Interests and Lab Notebooks==
+==Research and Lab Notebooks==
 <!-- Feel free to add brief descriptions to your research interests as well -->
 *[[User:Alexander L. Davis/Notebook/Notebook_Template|Notebook Template]]
+===Human Behavior and Electricity Consumption===
+What are the cognitive and motivational factors involved in understanding one's electricity consumption?
+*[http://wpweb2.tepper.cmu.edu/energy-behavior/ CMU Energy and Behavior Group]
+====Setting a Standard for Electricity Pilot Studies====
+Do pilot studies of residential energy use meet the standards of clinical trials?  Can they?
+Davis, A., Krishnamurti, T., Fischhoff, B., and Bruine de Bruin, W. (2013). Setting a standard for electricity pilot studies. Energy Policy. In Press. [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421513007362]
+*[http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/21586 Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses]
+====Creating an In-Home Display====
+Can people learn from in-home electricity displays? What features of an in-home electricity display promote learning?
+Krishnamurti, T., Davis, A., Wong-Parodi, G., Wang, J., and Canfield, C. (2013). Creating an in-home display: Experimental evidence and guidelines for design. Applied Energy, 108, 448–458.[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261913002444]
+*[http://openwetware.org/wiki/IHD_Simulation:Notebook/IHD_Field_Trial Notebook]
+*[http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/19153 Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses]
+====Predicting Participation in Energy Efficiency Programs====
+Can we predict who volunteers for energy efficiency programs?
+Davis, A., Krishnamurti, T. (2013). The problems and solutions of predicting participation in energy efficiency programs. Applied Energy, 111, 277–287. [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261913004054]
+*[http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/19154 Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses]
+====One Good Trial====
+What does it take to do an energy efficiency trial up to FDA's standards?
 ===Psychology of Methodology===
 What are the important psychological aspects of designing, implementing, interpreting, and reporting experimental research?
-*Surprises, Error, and Data Sharing
+====Communicating Uncertain Experimental Evidence====
-[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/Error_Models_and_Data_Sharing_in_Hindsight| (Notebook)]]
+To what degree are unexpected data attributed to methodological error in foresight and hindsight, and how does this relate to decisions to share the data?
-[[Media:Davis,_A._Surprises,_Error,_and_Data_Sharing_in_Foresight_and_Hindsight.pdf‎ | (pdf)]]
-*[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/The_psychology_of_empirical_data_sharing:_Coherence%2C_Correspondence_and_Performance|The Psychology Of Empirical Data Sharing: Coherence, Correspondence And Performance]]
+Davis, A., Fischhoff, B. (2013). Communicating uncertain experimental evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. In Press. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23895447]
-[[Media:Davis,_A._Surprises,_Error,_and_Data_Sharing_in_Foresight_and_Hindsight.pdf‎ | Incentives, Error, and Data Sharing]]
-===Human Altruism===
+*[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/Error_Models_and_Data_Sharing_in_Hindsight| Notebook]]
-How do humans behave when they can prevent harm to others by incurring it on themselves?
+*[http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/14819 Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses]
-[[Media:Breedingorchids.pdf| Breeding Orchids]]
+====Incentives, Error, and Data Sharing ====
+Do incentives undermine decisions to share data when error in the data is possible?
+*[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/The_psychology_of_empirical_data_sharing:_Coherence%2C_Correspondence_and_Performance| Notebook]]
+*[[Media:Davis,_A.,_Incentives,_Error,_and_Data_Sharing.pdf‎‎ | Manuscript pdf]]
+*[http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/18699 Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses]
-*[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/Breaking_Bads| Breaking Bads]]
+====Backdating Causal Theories ====
+How do we evaluate theories that were not considered beforehand?
+*[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/Backdating| Notebook]]
+*[[Media: | Manuscript pdf]]
+*[http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/20318 Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses]
-===Human Behavior and Electricity Consumption===
+====In the Problem Pit====
-What are the cognitive and motivational factors involved in understanding one's electricity consumption?
+How can laypeople be involved in solving scientific problems?
-[[Media:Breedingorchids.pdf| Breeding Orchids]]
+*[http://openwetware.org/wiki/User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/In_the_Problem_Pit Notebook]
+*[[Media: | Manuscript pdf]]
+*[http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/20523 Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses]
-*[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/In-Home_Displays| Setting a Standard for Pilot Studies]]
+===Human Altruism===
-*[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/In-Home_Displays| In-Home Displays]]
+How do humans behave when they can prevent harm to others by incurring it on themselves?
-*[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/Nudgers_and_Nudgees| Nudgers and Nudgees]]
-*[http://wpweb2.tepper.cmu.edu/energy-behavior/ CMU Energy and Behavior Group]
-===Methodology of Psychology===
-How can prescriptive approaches to scientific research help our cognitive and social limitations?
-I'm writing a book.  Not sure what to call it yet.  I'll make it available, for free, and I'd very much appreciate comments, critiques, suggestions or whatever.  Since it is free, if you feel inclined to show your gratitude to me financially, I suggest donating to kiva.org or your favorite charity.
-[[Media:Breedingorchids.pdf| Breeding Orchids]]
+====Generosity Across Contexts ====
+Are we more altruistic when preventing harm to others?
+*[[User:Alexander_L._Davis/Notebook/Breaking_Bads| Notebook]]
+*[[Media:Generosity_across_contexts-10-27-2011.pdf‎  | Manuscript pdf]]
+*[http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/14831 Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses]
-===Human and Artificial Intelligence===
+====Are Preferences for Harming Others Rational? ====
-How can human performance be elucidated by comparing it to modern artificial intelligence methods.  For examaple, how does human knowledge representation compare to an ontology?  Applications include drug discovery.
+Are choices to inflict harm on ourselves or others consistent with the generalized axiom of revealed preferences?
+*[[User:| Notebook]]
+*[[Media:]]
 ===The File-Drawer Problem (Dissertation)===
 Do we share data when we should?
-[[Media:File-DrawerProblem.pdf|The File-Drawer Problem]]
+*[[Media:Davis,_A.,_The_File-Drawer_Problem-Final.pdf‎ |The File-Drawer Problem]]
+*[http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/18786 Materials, Data, Statistical Analyses]
-==Courses I want to make==
-===[http://openwetware.org/wiki/Template:Research101/2012 Research101]===
-My take on everything you need to know to complete an experimental research project.
-===Other===
-Adaptive pretesting: Adaptive design for pretesting: How can we use adaptive design to develop very strong experiments efficiently? We may want to test our auxiliary assumptions 'online' until they converge into a reasonable risk level.
-Stats for Social Sciences: Rest assured there will be no p-values. Cohen et al, applied regression
-Advanced Stats: Rest assured there will be no p-values. Cosma's Class; Bayesian Data Analysis; Gelman and Hill;
-Intro to Cognitive Psychology: Human thinking, reasoning, perception, etc.
-Intro to Social Psychology: Motivation, social cognition, etc.
-Intro to Experimental Economics: Real human behavior in microeconomics and game theory. Kagel and Roth: Handbook of Expeirmental Economics; Plott and Smith: Handbook of experiment economics results
-Computer Science for Social Sciences: Python, Octave, R; Stats; Complexity Theory; Sipser: Introduction to the theory of computation
-Decision Theory: Raiffa; Levi? Seidenfeld; Savage; Ramsey; Berger: Statistical Decision Theory and Bayesian Analysis; Gilboa: Theory of decision under uncertainty; Pratt and Raiffa: Statistical Decision Theory; Kadane (2011; pg. 1-4) has a nice demonstration of how to be a dutch bookie.
-Behavioral Decision Research: Normative, Descriptive, Prescriptive; Poulton; K&T; von Winterfeldt and Edwards; Raiffa and Tversky: Decision-Making; Gigerenzer: Adaptive Thinking
-Game Theory: Von Neumann and Morgenstern; Luce and Raiffa: Games and Decisions
-Behavioral Game Theory: Camerer: Behavioral Game Theory; Builds on Decision Theory with empirical evidence. Prereqs: Decision theory; stats
-Computational Cognitive Science: Covers three of the most successful computational models: ACT-R; Church; Connectionist; Anderson: How can the mind exist?
-Psychology of Science: Herb Simon; Gorman; Klahr; Wason; Klayman and Ha;Carruthers, Stich and Siegal: The cognitive basis of science
-Philosophy of Science: Peirce; Carnap; Wittgenstein; Quine; Duhem; Lakatos; Kuhn; Popper; Van Bovens and Hartmann; Mayo; Suppes;
-Machine Learning: MacKay: information theory, inference and learning algorithms; Hastie, Tibshirani and Friedman: The elements of statistical learning; Bishop: Pattern recognition and Machine Learning
-==Publications==
+==Other Publications==
 <!-- Replace the PubMed ID's ("pmid=#######") below with the PubMed ID's for your publications.  You can add or remove lines as needed -->
 <biblio>