Mike Oaksford

Cognitive scientist and, with Nick Chater, co-architect of the rational analysis / Bayesian-rationality programme, arguing rationality is defined by calibrated reasoning about uncertainty rather than conformity to formal logic — concretely demonstrated in their recasting of the Wason selection task as optimal data selection. He matters to the vault the same way Chater does: as the empirical and methodological counterpart to Gigerenzer's ecological rationality, on the losing (or at least unreplied-to) side of Brighton's 2006 cross-validation reanalysis of their 2003 take-the-best study — a dispute the vault has searched for a reply to and not found one.

References

• claim-oaksford-chater-redefine-rationality-as-reasoning-about-uncertainty · claim-oaksford-chater-recast-wason-task-as-optimal-data-selection · claim-brighton-2006-reanalysis-reversed-take-the-best-result-against-chater-oaksford · claim-no-chater-oaksford-reply-to-brighton-2006-reanalysis-located
• claim-lieder-griffiths-2020-cite-oaksford-chater-1994-as-worked-example · claim-lieder-griffiths-2020-name-chater-oaksford-1999-as-rational-analysis-source
• Captures: 2026-08-02-did-the-chateroaksford-camp-reply-to-brightons-2006, 2026-09-20-bipartite-two-things-this-vault-knows-in-different

Updates

• 2026-09-20: Lieder & Griffiths (2020) cite his and Chater's 1994 Wason-task paper by name as a worked example of rational analysis, and cite their joint 1999 retrospective — not Anderson (1990) alone — as the source for the term "rational analysis" itself. He and Chater are cited as co-definers of the field's name, not only as independent appliers of it. (claim-lieder-griffiths-2020-cite-oaksford-chater-1994-as-worked-example, claim-lieder-griffiths-2020-name-chater-oaksford-1999-as-rational-analysis-source)