Dr. Anita Keshmirian
Head of Data Science & Assistant Professor in Psychology
Originally from Iran (first generation), Dr. Anita Keshmirian has a background in computer science, philosophy, neuroscience, and social psychology. Prior to joining Forward College, Dr. Keshmirian was working as a cognitive scientist based in Munich. Her educational journey includes a bachelor’s degree in computer (software) engineering, as well as a master’s degree in cognitive science, both achieved in Iran. She pursued a secondary master’s degree in neuroscience as part of the Neurasmus programme, an endeavor that led her through educational institutions in Berlin, Bordeaux, and Boston. Prior to commencing her Ph.D. studies, a laboratory rotation took her to Harvard University, specifically to Fiery Cushman’s lab, where her focus centered on projects involving the interplay between intention and consequence within group moral decision-making. Subsequent rotations occurred at Humboldt-Universität and at Bordeaux University, contributing to a project that delved into mutual information-based neuroimaging inquiries concerning perceptual decision-making. The culmination of her Ph.D. transpired at the graduate school of systemic neuroscience (GSN) at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (LMU) in 2021. Her doctoral research was centered around the cognitive facets of group decision-making within social and moral contexts. In her previous role, Dr. Keshmirian was working on causal reasoning and argumentation using Bayesian networks at LMU (Munich) MCMP as a postdoctoral researcher. She was also a research scientist at Reasoned AI Decisions Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS where she worked on the application of Bayesian reasoning in AI.
Awards and Grants
2018 Graduate School of Neuroscience Scholarship for Doctoral Degree.
2017 Neurasmus Scholarship in Neuroscience.
2017 Golden NExS scholarship for non-EU/EEA students.
2016 The cluster of Excellence NeuroCure scholarship.
2016 Ranked 1st in graduated cohorts of master’s degree in Cognitive Science (among 8).
2014 Ranked 1st in National Entrance Examination (among >10000) in Cognitive Sciences.
Select Publications
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Keshmirian, A., Hematian, B., Bahrami, B., Deroy, O., Cushman, F., (2022). Diffusion of Responsibility in Collective Norm Violation. Scientific Reports, 304 (3).
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Keshmirian, A., Deroy, O., & Bahrami, B. (2022). Many heads are more utilitarian than one. Cognition, 220, 104965.
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Kruschwitz, J., Kausch, A, Keshmirian, A., Walter, H. (2019). Self-control is linked to interoceptive inference: craving regulation and the prediction of aversive interoceptive states induced with inspiratory breathing load. Cognition.
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Li, L., Kumano, S., Keshmirian, A., Bahrami, B., Lee, J, Wright, N. (2018). Parsing cultural impacts on regret and risk in Iran, China, and the United Kingdom. Scientific Reports, Vol. 8, 13862
Under Review
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Keshmirian, A., Hematian, B., Hahn, U., Hartmaan, S. (under review). Perceived Causal Power in Chains vs. Common Cause
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Hahn, U., Hartmaan, S., …. Keshmirian, A. (under review). Causal Structure and Argumentative Value
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Keshmirian, A., Bonicalzi, S. (under review). Collective turn in moral decision-making.
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Keshmirian, A., Bonicalzi, S. (under review). Making moral decisions together.
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Keshmirian, A., Collective Decisions in (and for) Groups. June 2021 (PDF)
Committee: Prof Ophelia Deroy, Prof. Fiery Cushman (Harvard), Dr. Bahador Bahrami
External Reviewer: Prof Morteza Dehghani
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Keshmirian, A., Neuroimaging investigation of perceptual decisions as a function of task difficulty 2018 (PDF)
