Senior lecturer in psychology, Kingston University.
Overview
Gaelle is a cognitive psychologist specialising in the field of judgement and decision-making. She lectures on cognitive processes, (ie the mental processes underpinning communication, problem-solving and decision-making) and cognitive ergonomics (the study of how efficient people are in analysing, planning and making decisions in their work environment).
Says Gaelle: "On any given day, people are exposed to a large volume of information from a range of media. This proliferation of 'news' compound the sense that definite answers are few and far between. Yet often even where people do not know for sure what the case is, or what the future will bring, they must still act, make decisions, choose between alternatives, or sometimes simply communicate the uncertainty surrounding future outcomes."
She goes on to explain that ideally, we should be able to communicate and interpret risks objectively, reason appropriately with uncertain facts, make optimal and informed decisions based on information that is available to us, and make consistent choices based on our personal preferences.
But in reality, the communication of risks is often problematic, our reasoning under uncertainty can be flawed and our decisions and preferences can be swayed depending on our state of mind or the context in which they are made.
"Therefore better understanding of how we face and deal with uncertainty in our daily lives is key to help us cope better with our modern environment," she adds.
"My research thus strives to contribute to the psychology of risk and uncertainty and the psychology of decision-making. My focus is on how individuals reason about, judge, communicate, or make decisions under uncertainty."
She currently sits on the executive board committee of the European Association for Decision Making, where she is also the newsletter editor of the EADM Bulletin and the association's website administrator. Gaelle will chair the association's next conference which will be held at Kingston University during the summer of 2011. (http://spudm23.eadm.eu)
Her work has been published in such international journals as Cognition, Memory & Cognition, Acta Psychologica and Psychological Science.
Research
Juanchich, Marie , Teigen, Karl H. and Villejoubert, Gaelle (2010) Is guilt 'likely' or 'not certain'? Contrast with previous probabilities determines choice of verbal terms.
3 Acta Psychologica, 135(3), pp. 267-277. ISSN (print) 0001-6918
Martinez, Frederic , Le Floch, Valerie , Gaffie, Bernard and Villejoubert, Gaelle (2010) Reports of wins and risk taking: an investigation of the mediating effect of the illusion of control.4 Journal of Gambling Studies, ISSN (print) 1050-5350 (In Press)
Villejoubert, Gaelle , Almond, Louise and Alison, Laurence (2009) Interpreting claims in offender profiles: the role of probability phrases, base rates and perceived dangerousness.5 Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(1), pp. 36-54. ISSN (print) 0888-4080
Bonnefon, Jean-Francois , Feeney, Aidan and Villejoubert, Gaelle (2009) When some is actually all: scalar inferences in face-threatening contexts.6 Cognition, 112(2), pp. 249-258. ISSN (print) 0010-0277
Villejoubert, Gaelle (2007) Les aides graphiques peuvent-elles nous aider a mieux raisonner avec les probabilites [Can graphical aids help improve probabilistic reasoning?].7 Les Annales de la Fondation Fyssen, 22, pp. 32-43. ISSN (print) 0980-157X
Bonnefon, Jean-Francois and Villejoubert, Gaelle (2007) Modus Tollens, Modus Shmollens: contrapositive reasoning and the pragmatics of negation.8 Thinking & Reasoning, 13(2), pp. 207-222. ISSN (print) 1354-6783
Maule, J. and Villejoubert, G. (2007) What lies beneath: reframing framing effects.9 Thinking & Reasoning, 13(1), pp. 25-44. ISSN (print) 1354-6783
Bonnefon, Jean-Francois and Villejoubert, Gaelle (2006) Tactful, or doubtful? Expectations of politeness explain the severity bias in the interpretation of probability phrases.10 Psychological Science, 17(9), pp. 747-751. ISSN (print) 0956-7976
Hilton, Denis , Villejoubert, Gaelle and Bonnefon, Jean-Francois (2005) How to do things with logical expressions: creating collective value through co-ordinated reasoning.11 Interaction Studies, 6(1), pp. 103-117. ISSN (print) 1572-0373
Villejoubert, Gaelle and Mandel, David R. (2002) The inverse fallacy: an account of deviations from Bayes's theorem and the additivity principle.12 Memory & Cognition, 30(2), pp. 171-178. ISSN (print) 0090-502X
Book Section
Vallee-Tourangeau, Frederic and Villejoubert, Gaelle (2010) Information relevance in pseudodiagnostic reasoning.13 In: Ohlsson, S. and Catrambone, R., (eds.) Cognition in flux: proceedings of the 32nd annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, U.S.A. : Cognitive Science Society. pp. 1172-1177.
Villejoubert, Gaelle and Le Floch, Valerie (2010) Jugement et prise de decision: etat de l'art et methodes d'aides a la decision en milieu professionnel. [Judgment and decision-making: field overview and decision aids methods in professional settings].14 In: Morchain, P. and Somat, A., (eds.) La psychologie sociale: applicabilite et applications. Grenoble, France : Presses Universitaires de Grenoble. pp. 189-214. ISBN 9782753510616
Villejoubert, Gaelle and Vallee-Tourangeau, Frederic (2010) The psychology of risk management.15 In: Boecker, K., (ed.) Rethinking risk measurement and reporting: uncertainty, Bayesian analysis and expert judgement. London, U.K. : Risk Books. ISBN 1906348405
Villejoubert, Gaelle (2009) Are representativeness judgments automatic and rapid? The effect of time pressure on the conjunction fallacy.16 In: Taatgen, N. , van Rijn, H. , Schomaker, L. and Nerbonne, J., (eds.) Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, U.S.A. : Cognitive Science Society. pp. 2980-2985. ISBN 9780976831853
Gourdon, Amelie and Villejoubert, Gaelle (2009) A comparison of children and adults' judgements and decisions based on verbal uncertainty statements.17 In: Taatgen, N. , van Rijn, H. , Schomaker , L. and Nerbonne , J., (eds.) Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, U.S.A. : Cognitive Science Society. pp. 1121-1126. ISBN 9780976831853
Juanchich, Marie and Villejoubert, Gaelle (2009) How do speakers choose uncertainty phrases to express guilt probabilities?18 In: Taatgen, N. , van Rijn, H. , Schomaker , L. and Nerbonne , J., (eds.) Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin,U.S.A. : Cognitive Science Society. pp. 2717-2722. ISBN 9780976831853
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Areas of expertise