I’m Merrick, a PhD candidate in cognitive science at the University of Melbourne supervised primarily by Frank, and co-supervised by Prof. Andrew Perfors. Broadly, we are investigating how people invent and deploy successful cognitive strategies, and how people flexibly adapt these strategies to achieve their goals under environmental constraints. Importantly, we investigate how people transmit the most successful strategies socially and pedagogically, driving cumulative cultural evolution.

I’m also interested in language production and evolution - how people formulate their thoughts into expressions, and how the patterns of such formulations change over time.

Outside of research, I spend my time watching movies, listening to music, reading books - I also like hiking, patting street cats, and I am the caretaker of many plants.