Curriculum Vitæ
Chris R. Sims, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
Drexel University
Stratton Hall 119
3141 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Telephone: (215) 553–7170
Email: Chris.Sims@drexel.edu
Education
2009
Ph.D., Cognitive Science. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Thesis: Internal models of embodied dynamics: A computational theory of
learning in routine interactive behavior.
Advisor: Wayne D. Gray
2005
M.S., Cognitive Science. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Advisor: Wayne D. Gray
2003
B.S., Computer Science. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Academic Appointments
2013–Present
Assistant Professor, Applied Cognitive & Brain Sciences
Department of Psychology
Drexel University
2009–2013
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, University of Rochester
Advisors: David C. Knill & Robert A. Jacobs
2003–2009
Research Assistant, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Advisor: Wayne D. Gray
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Sims, C. R., Neth, H., Jacobs, R. A., & Gray, W. D. (2013). Melioration as rational choice:
Sequential decision making in uncertain environments. Psychological Review, 120(1),
139–154.
Sims, C. R., Jacobs, R. A., & Knill, D. C. (2012). An ideal observer analysis of visual working
memory. Psychological Review, 119(4),. 807–830.
Myers, C. W., Gray, W. D., & Sims, C. R. (2011). The insistence of vision: Why do people look
at a salient stimulus when it signals target absence? Visual Cognition, 19(9) 1122–1157.
Sims, C. R., Jacobs, R. A., & Knill, D. C. (2011). Adaptive allocation of vision under competing
task demands. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(3), 928–943.
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Gray, W. D., Sims, C. R., Fu, W., & Schoelles, M. (2006). The soft constraints hypothesis: A
rational analysis approach to resource allocation for interactive behavior. Psychological
Review, 113(3), 461–482.
Gray, W. D., Schoelles, M., & Sims, C. R. (2005). Adapting to the task environment: Explorations in expected value. Cognitive Systems Research, 6(1), 27–40.
Manuscripts Under Review or In Preparation
Orhan, E., Sims, C. R., Jacobs, R. A., & Knill, D. C. (Under review). The adaptive nature of visual
working memory. Manuscript in preparation.
Sims, C. R., Jacobs, R. A., & Knill. D. C. (Under review). Untangling Visual Attention and Visual
Working Memory Capacity for Multi-Feature Objects. Manuscript under review.
Peer Reviewed Conference Papers
Sims, C. R., Jacobs, R. A., & Knill, D. C. (2011). An ideal observer model of visual short-term
memory predicts human capacity–precision tradeoffs. In L. Carlson, C. Hoelscher, & T. F.
Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
(pp. 190–195). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Brudzinski, M., Sims, C. R., Gray, W. D., & Schoelles, M. (2010). Visual similarity is ObViS. In
S. Ohlsson & R. Catrambone (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 848–852). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Sims, C. R., & Gray, W. D. (2008). Adaptation to embodied dynamics: Evidence from Bayes’
Ball. In Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 135–
140). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society
Neth, H., Sims, C. R., & Gray, W. D. (2006). Melioration dominates maximization: Stable suboptimal performance despite global feedback. In Proceedings of the 28th Annual Meeting of
the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 627–632).
Neth, H. & Sims, C. R., & Gray, W. D. (2005). Melioration despite more information: The role
of feedback in stable suboptimal performance. In 49th Annual Conference of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (pp. 357–361). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Neth, H., Sims, C. R., Veksler, V. D., & Gray, W. D. (2004). You can’t play straight TRACS and
win: Memory updates in a dynamic task environment. In K. D. Forbus, D. Gentner, & T.
Regler (Eds.). Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual meeting of the cognitive science society
(pp. 1017–1022). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Conference Presentations and Abstracts
Sims, C. R., Jacobs, R. A., & Knill, D. C. (2011). An ideal observer analysis of visual short-term
memory: Evidence for flexible resource allocation. Journal of Vision, 11(11) 1242.
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Sims, C. R., Knill, D. C., & Jacobs, R. A. (2010). The optimal allocation of visual working memory: Quantifying the relationship between memory capacity and encoding precision. Journal
of Vision, 10(7) 737.
Sims, C. R., & Fajen, B. R. (2007). A reinforcement learning model of visually guided braking.
Journal of Vision, 7(9) 151.
Neth, H., Sims, C. R., & Gray, W. D. (2007). Melioration vs. maximization: Feedback-driven
models of adaptive behavior. In Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic
Society. Long Beach, CA: Psychonomic Society.
Sims, C. R., & Gray, W. D. (2006). Adaptive task representations using competitive learning. In
Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems. Boston,
MA: Boston University.
Gray, W. D., Schoelles, M. J., & Sims, C. R. (2005). Cognitive metrics profiling. In 49th Annual
Conference of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (pp. 1144–1148). Santa Monica,
CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Sims, C. R., & Gray, W. D. (2005). Interactive behavior at the sticking point: The curious persistence of apparently inefficient interactive routines. In Proceedings of the 12th Annual
ACT-R Workshop.
Gray, W. D., Schoelles, M. J., & Sims, C. R. (2004). Learning to choose the most effective strategy: Explorations in expected value. In M. C. Lovett, C. D. Schunn, C. Lebiere & P. Munro
(Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Cognitive Modeling–ICCM2004
(pp. 112–117). Pittsburgh, PA.
Sims, C. R. & Gray, W. D. (2004). Episodic versus semantic memory: An exploration of models of memory decay in the serial attention paradigm. In M. C. Lovett, C. D. Schunn, C.
Lebiere, & P. Munro (Eds.). In Proceedings of the 6th international conference on cognitive
modeling—ICCM 2004 (pp. 279-284). Pittsburgh, PA.
Invited Lectures and Talks
2012-12-14. Department of Psychology, Drexel University
2012-11-29. Department of Psychology, Syracuse University
2012-11-27. Institute for Cognitive Science, University of Colorado–Boulder
2012-06-03. Invited presentation for the 28th Symposium of the Center for Visual Science,
University of Rochester
2012-02-27. Invited presentation for a special workshop on visual working memory at the 2012
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) conference, Snowbird, Utah
2010-11-03. Cognitive Science Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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Awards and Fellowships
2009–2010
NIH and Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester: Post-doctoral
training fellowship
2008
Glushko-Samuelson Foundation: Student travel fellowship to attend the
Thirtieth Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
2008
National Science Foundation: Student travel fellowship to attend the 26th
Symposium of the Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester
2006
National Science Foundation: Travel fellowship to attend the Tenth
International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston Univesity
Teaching Interests
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Learning & Memory
Judgment & Decision-making
Cognitive Modeling
Bayesian statistics
Selected Research Interests
Learning and decision-making under uncertainty
Visual memory and perceptual expertise
Sensorimotor control and motor learning
Computational models of cognition
Ad-hoc Reviewing
Psychological Review, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,
PLoS Computational Biology, Cognitive Science Society conference
Professional Affiliations
Cognitive Science Society
Vision Science Society
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society