Thomas Hills, Prof.
College of Arts and Sciences
Visiting Scholar
Biography
Professor Thomas T. Hills received his B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Arizona, and his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Utah. He then worked as a postdoc at the University of Texas in Austin and Indiana University before working as a Research Scientist in the Cognitive and Decisions Sciences group in the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He then took a position as an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, UK, in the Department of Psychology. He was promoted to Professor in 2014.
- Language, Memory, and Development Across the Lifespan
- Network Science
- Complex Systems
- Human Decision Making
- Information Search
- Cognitive Science
- Director of the Behavioural and Data Science MSc, University of Warwick
- Network Analysis
- Natural Language Processing
- Computational Modeling
- Negotiation and Difficult Conversations
- Hills, T. (2025). Cognitive network enrichment not degradation explains cognitive aging and links crystallized and fluid intelligence. Psychological Review. Advance online publication.
- Haebig, E., West, S., Jimenez, E., Hills, T., Cox, C. (2025). Network analysis of autistic language learners along the wmall world spectrum. Autism Research, 18, 1580-1594.
- Hills, T. (2025). An entropy modulation theory of creative exploration. Psychological Review, 132, 239-251.
- Malthouse, E., Pilgrim, C., Sgroi, D., and Hills, T. (2025). Luck framing supports the avoidance of collective disaster when inequalities in vulnerability exist. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 104, 102592.
- Hills, T. (2025). Behavioural network science: Language, mind, and society. Cambridge University Press.
- Jeong, D. & Hills, T. (2024). Age-related diversification and specialization in the mental lexicon: Comparing aggregate and individual-level network approaches. Cognitive Science, 11, 1-24.
- Pilgrim, C., Sanborn, A., Malthouse, E., & Hills., T. (2024). Confirmation bias emerges as an approximation to Bayesian reasoning. Cognition, 245, 105693.
- Pilgrim, C., Guo, W., & Hills, T. (2024). The rising entropy of English in the attention economy. Nature Communications Psychology, 2, 70.
- Li, Y., Breithaupt, F., Hills, T., Lin, Z., Chen, Y., Siew, C. S. Q., and Hertwig, R. (2023). The struggle for life among words: How cognitive selection affects language change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121, e2220898120.
- Malthouse, E., Pilgrim, C., Sgroi, D., & Hills, T. (2023). When fairness is not enough: the disproportionate contributions of the poor in a collective action problem. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152, 3229-3242.
- Stella, M., Hills, T., & Kenett, Y. (2023). Using cognitive psychology to understand GPT-like models needs to extend beyond human biases. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120, e2312911120.
- 2008-2011: Research Scientist, Psychology Department, University of Basel
- 2005-2008: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychology, Indiana University
- 2003-2005: Postdoctoral Researcher, College of Natural Sciences, University of Texas at Austin
- 2003: Ph.D., Department of Biology, University of Utah
- Draca, M., (PI)., et al., & Hills, T. (2024). CAGE Research Centre. Grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, UK.
- Grossman, I., (PI) et al., & Hills, T. (2024). Wisdom across cultures beyond traditional decision-making paradigms. Grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
- Hills, T. (PI), Hills, C., Gallagher, E. (2024). University of Warwick and Best at Digital—Exploring the efficacy of behavioural boosts in corporate training. Grant from Innovate UK.
- Turrini, P. (PI) & Hills, T. (2023). Promoting social good using social networks. Grant from the Leverhulme Trust.
- Jagiello, R. & Hills, T. (2018) Annual best paper award for Risk Analysis.
- Hills, T. (2017). Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute.
- Hills, T. (2017). Research Fellow of the Royal Society.
