Building a Computational Science of Adaptive Intelligence & Agency
Connecting mechanisms across levels of analysis.
We study how adaptive intelligence and agency emerge, are sustained, and break down across neural, psychological, computational, and social systems – and how these processes shape learning, decision-making, reasoning, and mental health.
How do biological and artificial systems learn, decide, and adapt in the face of uncertainty, change, and partial control?
A confluence where streams of knowledge meet.
Connecting neural mechanisms, lived experience, computational models, and artificial systems.
Adaptive intelligence is not only about learning. It is about knowing when to persist, when to disengage, and when to change course. When these processes break down, people can become stuck in maladaptive patterns of avoidance, rumination, exhaustion, or loss of agency. The same challenge appears in artificial systems that must adapt to human goals without becoming brittle, misaligned, or opaque. NAIADEL brings together computational neuroscience, psychology, economics, and agentic AI to study the mechanisms that make adaptive agency possible.
NAIADEL develops experimental environments, computational models, and adaptive algorithms to generate theory and empirical evidence about how adaptive intelligence and agency emerge, break down, and recover.
Experimental games
Computational game environments that test how people and systems adapt under uncertainty, threat, changing goals, and hidden structure.
Assessments →Computational models
Mechanistic models of learning, control, and agency (from reinforcement learning, to sequential sampling models and meta-reasoning) that explain when systems persist, disengage, or change course.
Measurements →Adaptive AI systems
Adaptive algorithms and agent architectures that are grounded in neuroscience, psychology, and economics. They are designed to learn from interaction with human goals, values, and limits in mind.
Approaches →NAIADEL is committed to contribute to a growing ecosystem at the intersection of academia, industry, and public engagement: interdisciplinary science generates mechanism-based evidence, shared platforms make discovery scalable, and community engagement turns individual projects into a field.
Research
Interdisciplinary science on how adaptive intelligence and agency emerge, break down, and recover across minds, brains, behavior, and artificial systems.
Explore research →Platforms
Shared experimental environments, datasets, computational models, and adaptive algorithms for mechanism-based discovery and that connect human behavior with machine learning.
View platforms →Community
A fellowship of students, researchers, builders, clinicians, and partners advancing adaptive intelligence together.
Join the community →NAIADEL brings together people who want to develop a science of adaptive intelligence and agency. We study, model, build, and translate scientific insights into real-world applicable systems.
Students
Undergraduates, graduate students, post-baccs, and postdocs who want to learn mechanism-based science across cognition, neuroscience, computation, and AI.
Grow with us →Science Collaborators & Engineers
Researchers and clinicians interested in shared studies, datasets, models, and translational projects on adaptive intelligence, agency, and mental health.
Partner with us →Industry & Partners
Technology, health, and education partners working on human-AI co-adaptation, adaptive learning environments, digital phenotyping, and mechanism-based platforms.
Collaborate →Stay up to date with announcements, publications, and milestones from the lab.
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