Dr Ashley Luckman

I am Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Vision Sciences. My research uses quantitative methods, such as experiments and computational modeling, to investigate the cognitive processes underlying decision-making, particularly for decisions which involve risky or time delayed outcomes. I completed my PhD in Cognitive Psychology at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Prior to joining Leicester I was a lecturer in Behavioural Science at the University of Exeter Business School, after spending time as a postdoctoral researcher at Warwick Business School, and the University of Basel.

I am a member of the Health and Wellbeing (with Ageing) Research Group, and the Judgment and Decision making research group.

My research is mainly focused on understanding how people make multi-attribute decisions, i.e. decisions where the options people are choosing between differ from each other in multiple ways. A particular focus is how people make decisions which involve risks, or time delays. This includes an interest in understanding how people use and understand information about probabilities, and how they choose between different sources of information.

As well as an interest in understanding how people make decisions, including developing cognitive models of decision-making, I am also interested in methods for improving decision-making, such as "nudging".

Peng, J., Isoni, A., Luckman, A., Zeitoun, H., Vlaev, I., Eubanks, D., & Read, D. (2025). How facemasks shape trust in social interactions. PLoS One, 20(9), e0331918. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0331918

Ranyard, R., Montgomery, H., Luckman, A., & Konstantinidis, E. (2024). Violations of transitive preference: A comparison of compensatory and noncompensatory accounts. Psychological Review, 131(6), 1392–1410. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000502

Olschewski, S., Luckman, A., Mason, A., Ludvig, E. A., & Konstantinidis, E. (2024). The future of decisions from experience: Connecting real-world decision problems to cognitive processes. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 19(1), 82-102. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916231179138

Poon, N., Luckman, A., Isoni, A., & Mullett, T. L. (2023). A query theory account of the attraction effect. Cognition, 238, 105495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105495

Ballard, T., Luckman, A., & Konstantinidis, E. (2023). A systematic investigation into the reliability of inter-temporal choice model parameters. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 30(4), 1294-1322. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02241-7

Luckman, A., Zeitoun, H., Isoni, A., Loomes, G., Vlaev, I., Powdthavee, N., & Read, D. (2021). Risk compensation during COVID-19: The impact of face mask usage on social distancing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 27(4), 722–738. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000382

Luckman, A., Donkin, C., & Newell, B. R. (2020). An evaluation and comparison of models of risky intertemporal choice. Psychological Review, 127(6), 1097–1138. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000223

Luckman, A., Donkin, C., & Newell, B. R. (2018). Can a single model account for both risky choices and inter-temporal choices? Testing the assumptions underlying models of risky inter-temporal choice. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(2), 785-792. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1330-8

Luckman, A., Donkin, C., & Newell, B. R. (2017). People wait longer when the alternative is risky: The relation between preferences in risky and inter‐temporal choice. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 30(5), 1078-1092. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.2025

Luckman, A., Donkin, C., & Newell, B. R. (2015). Exploring the Concept of Utility: Are Separate Value Functions required for Risky and Inter-temporal Choice? Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 37.

I teach on the following Psychology Modules:

• Undergraduate:
  • PS1107: Psychological Research Skills 2 
  • PS2103: Practical Research Skills in Psychology 
  • PS2111: Information Processing and Cognition 
  • PS3107: Cognitive Horizons: Exploring brain and cognition
• Postgraduate:
  • PS7408: Investigating Psychology

I also supervise third-year (undergraduate), MSc and MRes dissertations/research projects.