Adam Morris

Postdoc in Psychology at Princeton University
PhD in Psychology from Harvard University

I study the hidden underbelly of decision making.

Think of a choice you made recently: to tell a lie, or call an old friend, or turn down a date. Why did you do it? I study the intricate processes underlying people's choices. In my research, I use experiments and computational models to tackle questions like: How do our thought patterns become habitual? Why do some possibilities come to mind and not others? Can we improve people's ability to introspect on their choice processes?

My work has been published in top journals and conferences, and I've won several awards for both my research and teaching. I have extensive experience leading complex research projects; designing behavioral experiments; analyzing and modeling data; and communicating results.

Research

My research uses behavioral experiments and computational modeling to characterize the cognitive processes underlying people's decision-making. One strand of my work has shown how receiving rewards and punishments can instill "habits of thought", and lead people to repeat thought patterns even when they no longer make sense. For instance, using reinforcement learning models from machine learning, my research explored how people often persist in selecting certain goals or calling certain options to mind after being rewarded for them, even when those rewards change in future contexts. I've also explored why some social behaviors (like punishing wrongdoers) can become intrinsically rewarding; how reinforcement learning helps explain when and why people follow social norms; and how judging the causes of past events might guide people's planning towards future outcomes. (My full CV can be found here.)

In my postdoc, I've been investigating people's awareness of their own choice processes. The standard view in cognitive science is that accurate introspection into higher-order mental processes is unreliable or impossible; people cannot reliably tell you the truth of why they do the things they do. Yet, practitioners of "mental training" techniques -- mindfulness practices, cognitive therapies, self-awareness methods, and so on -- routinely report substantial improvement in their ability to accurately discern their own mental life, and people's self-reported introspective ability predicts numerous aspects of well-being. Are they right? Is introspection a skill that varies across people or can be trained? I've developed objective measures of introspection ability, and found that people indeed vary widely in their introspective acuity, with many people able to report complex internal choice processes with high accuracy -- and this ability predicts higher-quality choices. Moreover, LLMs can do the same thing -- and their ability improves with training. I am currently testing whether humans can be trained to introspect better, and whether this training can be used to improve their decision-making and well-being.

Here's a selection of my papers:

Introspective access to value-based choice processes

Morris, A., Carlson, R. W., Kober, H., & Crockett, M.J. (2025). Introspective access to value-based multi-attribute choice processes. Nature Communications, 16, 3733.

Invisible gorillas in your mind: Internal inattentional blindness and the prospect of introspection training

Morris, A. (2025). Invisible gorillas in your mind: Internal inattentional blindness and the prospect of introspection training. Open Mind, 9, 606-634.

Self-Interpretability: LLMs can describe complex internal processes that drive their decisions, and improve with training

Plunkett, D., Morris, A., Reddy, K., Morales, J. (under review). Self-Interpretability: LLMs can describe complex internal processes that drive their decisions, and improve with training.

Habitual control of goal selection in humans

Cushman, F., & Morris, A. (2015). Habitual control of goal selection in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(45), 13817-13822.

Evolution of flexibility & rigidity in retaliatory punishment

Morris, A., MacGlashan, J., Littman, M. L., & Cushman, F. (2017). Evolution of flexibility and rigidity in retaliatory punishment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201704032.

A common framework for theories of norm compliance

Morris, A., & Cushman, F. (2018). A common framework for theories of norm compliance. Social Philosophy and Policy, 35(1), 101-127.

Generating options and choosing between them rely on different forms of value

Morris, A., Phillips, J., Huang, K., & Cushman, F. (2021). Generating Options and Choosing Between Them Depend on Distinct Forms of Value Representation. Psychological Science, 09567976211005702.

Habits: model-free RL or action sequences?

Morris, A., & Cushman, F. (2019). Model-free RL or action sequences?. Frontiers in Psychology, 10.

Skills

  • Research. I have 10+ years of experience leading complex psychological research projects from conception to publication. I am highly skilled at conducting literature reviews, synthesizing evidence, developing computational models, designing and executing human behavioral experiments, and disseminating results.
  • Data science. I also have extensive experience with all aspects of data science: sourcing, cleaning, visualizing, analyzing, and fitting computational models to data. For an example of a complex data analysis pipeline I've developed, see here.
  • Programming. I am fluent in R, Python, MATLAB, Javascript, and SQL. You can see an example of some of my programming here.
  • Communication. I am an excellent writer, public speaker, and teacher. I have won several awards for my teaching, and you can see an example of my writing here.

Mentoring, Equity, and Accessibility

I care a lot about teaching & mentoring. I also care a lot about making higher education more equitable and accessible. These two things feel related to me; though structural change is ultimately what is needed to open the ivory gates, in the short term mentorship and guidance are social goods that I am in a position to share.

If you are trying to get into psychology research and are seeking guidance, here's some resources I know of:

  • Here is a list of websites which aggregate job postings for research assistants, lab managers, and so on (hat tip to Kirstan Brodie for this list).
  • Project SHORT is a nonprofit offering free mentorship for people applying to PhD programs or research assistant positions.
  • Harvard's PPREP program is another program offering free mentorship for people applying to PhD programs or research assistant positions, with a focus on applicants from underrepresented minority groups.
  • Application Statement Feedback Program provides "fast, constructive feedback and editing support for the research/personal statements of PhD applicants in psychology, with an emphasis on underrepresented minorities and/or those who are not ‘in the know.’".
  • Polygence is an organization connecting high school students with mentors to help them lead independent research projects.
  • Emerging Investigators is a peer-reviewed science journal which publishes research by middle and high school students, supporting them with mentorship along the way.
  • Picking Brains is a website that compiles stories of how professors got into neuroscience, to showcase the myriad winding paths people take to find their way into academia.
  • Psychin' Out is a "a global hub of programming and resources to break underrepresented aspiring psychologists into PhD programs".
  • Here are my favorite tutorials on R, jsPsych, and model comparison.
  • I'm thinking of running occasional virtual info / Q&A sessions for people who have questions about getting into psychology research. If that interests you, please sign up for our mailing list for updates.
  • You can also feel free to reach out to me directly (although I may sometimes be slow to respond). See "About Me" for my contact info.
Finally, I am striving to be responsible & accountable when I am in positions of power/authority over others. If you want to give me any feedback (positive or negative) about how I am doing, please don't hesitate to contact me. And if you want to give feedback anonymously, you can submit it through here.

About Me

I grew up in a suburb of New Jersey, did my undergrad in psychology at Brown University, my PhD in psychology at Harvard, and have been a postdoc at Princeton since 2022. From a young age, I thought a lot about introspection and how to understand myself; when I was ten, I confidently declared to my parents that I had identified my five basic personality flaws. I had Tourette's as an adolescent, and the experience shaped my understanding of myself and of how self-awareness might affect well-being. While doing my PhD, I discovered an enclave of people practicing relational meditation, and followed the white rabbit into a world of meditators, cloistered gurus, social-technology developers, and secretive world-savers. I soon found myself in a circling immersion in Boston, an invitational retreat in San Francisco, a board room at NYU, a Buddhist monastery in Vermont, and more. These experiences have inspired much of my research.

When I'm not thinking about introspection, you might find me hiking in the mountains, folk dancing, cuddling with my cats, or singing in the park.

You can contact me at thatadammorris at gmail.com.