---
title: "Mike Oaksford"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Mike Oaksford"
aliases: []
first_seen: "2026-08-02T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["rational analysis","Bayesian rationality","Nick Chater","take-the-best (contested against)","Wason selection task"]
seek_code_commit: "f2cca7f"
---


Cognitive scientist and, with [[entity-nick-chater|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 [[entity-gerd-gigerenzer|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]])