The Fusion of Mathematics and Cognitive Psychology

　　Dr. Yang Cheng-Ta graduated from the Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University (NTU) in 2009 under the guidance of Professor Yeh Yei-Yu and Professor Hsu Yung-Fong. As the winner of the 2021 Outstanding Research Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology and Professor of Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, his research interests include experimental and cognitive psychology, mathematical psychology, and cognitive neuroscience.  After graduation, he was appointed as an assistant professor at National Cheng Kung University. He was promoted to associate professor in 2013 and full professor in 2016. For his excellence in research and teaching, Professor Yang has received many international and domestic awards, such as the 2020 R. Duncan Luce Journal of Mathematical Psychology Outstanding Paper Award, Ta-You Wu Memorial Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology, and  Young Investigator Award of Academia Sinica. He was nominated as a Fellow of Psychonomic Society in 2017 and as a Distinguished Professor of National Cheng Kung University in 2019.   Last August, Professor Yang was seconded to the Taipei Medical University as Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

　　In the past five years, Professor Yang has published 27 international journal articles, one monograph on Systems Factorial Technology (SFT), two e-books on individual difference mathematical models, edited a special issue on sequential sampling models, contributed chapters to three monographs, and published more than 40 international conference papers. Professor Yang also cooperated with BenQ and Mango Games four times and completed one technology transfer.

　　Professor Yang's research has both academic and social application value. Professor Yang mainly researches the theory and application of Systems Factorial Technology. He joined the Mathematical Psychology Society since he was a doctoral student and has been studying Systems Factorial Technology for decades.  The Systems Factorial Technology is a response-time based inference tool for inferring the characteristics of information processing processes under decision making. With this technique, researchers are able to explore the dynamics of cognitive processes in a way that is not possible with traditional behavioral methods.

　　In the field of cognition, Professor Yang not only put forward innovative theoretical perspectives, but also developed new indicators to quantify the advantages of collective decision making. It is worth mentioning that Professor Yang proposed the innovation decision theory (relative salience hypothesis) with Systems Factorial Technology to explain the dynamic information processing of human decision making. Professor Yang's special contribution is that he combines cultural and social psychology with traditional experimental cognitive research, emphasizing the influence of environment on collective and individual decision-making processes, to demonstrate the importance of educational and cultural infiltration in the construction of cognitive processing strategies.

　　Professor Yang's research results can be applied to social and industrial applications, especially in the fields of education, health, medicine, and culture. He has developed techniques to accurately predict differences between individual and collective decision-making information processing to generate differentiated value, e.g., early clinical diagnosis, talent measurement, and educational training. Recently, Professor Yang has received grants from a string of major government projects, such as the National Institute of Health's Senior Mental Health Project and the Ministry of Education's Foresight Display Technology Project. He is also actively involved in cross-disciplinary cooperation to cultivate all-around cross-disciplinary talents for the benefit of society.

Figure 1 research team