Zachary Horne

Lecturer

  • Department of Psychology
  • School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

Room S15, Psychology Building

City
7 George Square, Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 9JZ

Availability

  • I am happy to arrange meetings by appointment. Please e-mail me at Zachary.Horne@ed.ac.uk to arrange a convenient day and time.

Background

I'm a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. I joined the School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences in 2020. Before starting at Edinburgh, I was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University from 2018 to 2020. I completed my PhD in psychology at the University of Illinois in 2017, a PhD in philosophy of science at the University of Illinois in 2015, and a Bachelors in philosophy at Arizona State University in 2010. 

CV

PDF icon 118178.pdf

Qualifications

PhD psychology, 2017 - University of Illinois

PhD philosophy of science, 2015 - University of Illinois

BA in philosophy, 2010 - Arizona State University

Undergraduate teaching

Natural Language Processing for Psychologists

Data Analysis in R 2

Postgraduate teaching

Psychological Research Skills

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

Artemis Deligianni - Natural Language Processing Center for Doctoral Training

Andrew Zelny - Philosophy

 

 

Research summary

My research investigates belief change and the formation of beliefs, especially about science and morality. I'm particularly interested in how scientists generate explanations for unfamiliar phenomena and how laypeople generate arguments to support their views. I address these issues using a range of methods including behavioral studies with adults and children, data mining and machine learning techniques, surveys of experts, and Bayesian statistical modeling.  I also maintain an interest in advising students working at the intersection of psychology and philosophy (specifically students interested in philosophy of science or formal epistemology). 

Current research interests

Psychology of scientific explanation; Cognitive development and intuitive theories; Philosophy of Science; Formal epistemology; Argument generation; Attitude change; Large-scale naturally occurring data

Current project grants

Weaponised Pasts: The Evolution Of Heritage-based Hostility On Social Media -- Leverhulme Trust