Jiahao Zhu

Jiahao Zhu

Research Master's Student in Behavioural Science
Radboud University, Nijmegen

I study how decision-makers adapt to stochastic environments through continuous interaction. My work bridges computational cognitive modelling, risky decision-making, and dynamic systems—using tools like hierarchical Bayesian statistics, state-space models, and particle filters.

Dynamic Modelling of Latent Risk-Taking using Particle Filters

Master's Thesis · Radboud University · 2025 – present

Challenging the assumption of risk-taking as a static trait. Developed a computational pipeline using Auxiliary Particle Filters to recover individual trial-by-trial trajectories of latent risk sensitivity.

Automatic and Motivational Avoidance in Academic Worry

Research Project Co-Lead · Radboud University · 2024 – 2025

Engineered a continuous joystick-based Approach-Avoidance Task in PsychoPy with millisecond precision to investigate cognitive mechanisms underlying academic anxiety.

Emotion Labeling Through the Lens of Predictive Coding

Position Paper (Course Project) · Radboud University · 2024

Proposed a predictive coding account to reconcile conflicting evidence on whether naming emotions dampens or intensifies them. Argued that prediction uncertainty is the key mechanism, modulated by label-experience intensity mismatch and labeling freedom.

Emotional Co-Expressions: A Network Perspective

Research Project Lead · Sun Yat-sen University · 2022 – 2024

Applied NLP to extract sentiment from 53,000+ crowdfunding texts. Constructed a novel Emotional Co-expression Network framework to quantify structural properties of emotional information.