About

Matt Jaquiery

I am a DPhil candidate in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, working with Nick Yeung at the ACC lab. I study advice taking and decision-making using behavioural and computational methods.

I did my masters’ (MRes Neuroscience) and BSc (Neuroscience with Cognitive Science) at the University of Sussex, with empirical dissertations on aphantasia and metacognition, and a philosophical dissertation on group minds in information integration theory.

Before becoming a scientist, I earned a BA in English Literature from the Open University. My key interests were 19th century novels and Shakespeare.

I left literature for science because I felt the need for empirical grounding for my arguments. Consequently, I am very interested in Open Science - both in the ways in which science fails to live up to the promise of empirical checks and in the ways it can be repaired. My most pressing philosophical question in Open Science is where the appropriate balance point lies between fully open, transparent, uneditorialised sharing of scientific work, and readily-digestible, amateur-friendly summaries (can’t we have both!?).

I have a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome, but am generally personable and enjoy collaborating with others.

Why ‘VerySmallDreams’?

Mostly it amused me that no one had registered the domain yet. But on a more serious note, I think too much is made of the hero narrative, especially in science, and most progress comes from people diligently working away on incremental improvements. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time… (attributed to Creighton Abrams).