Research output per year
Research output per year
Personal profile
Curriculum vitae
Benjamin Ultan Cowley is Professor of Learning in Humans and Machines at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, and a Docent (adjunct professor) of cognitive science at the Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki. He obtained a Bachelors in ICT from Trinity College Dublin in 2003, and defended his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, in 2009. Cowley obtained his habilitation at the University of Helsinki in 2015, was made Associate Professor there in 2020 and Professor in 2024.
Cowley leads the HiPerCog group, whose main research agenda centres on high performance cognition: the study of people learning to perform cognitively demanding tasks to a high level.
Education information
BA(Mod) Information and Communications Technology, Trinity College Dublin, IrelandPhD, Player Profiling and Modelling for Computer and Video Games, University of Ulster, Coleraine, N. Ireland
Education/Academic qualification
Human Computer Interaction, PhD, Player Profiling and Modelling for Computer and Video Games, School of Computing and Information Engineering, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland
5 Nov 2005 → 15 Dec 2009
Award Date: 15 Dec 2009
External positions
Specialist Research Scientist, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (TTL)
2 Apr 2014 → 30 Apr 2017
Fields of Science
- 6162 Cognitive science
- 113 Computer and information sciences
- software project management
- Machine learning
- 3112 Neurosciences
- 515 Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- attention
- 516 Educational sciences
Supervisor for doctoral programme
- Doctoral Programme in Education, Schooling, and Learning
- Doctoral Programme in Molecular and Cellular Systems of Life
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or
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ADHD symptoms across the population are explained by individual variability in brain criticality
Haque, H., Hirvonen, J., Wang, S. H., Simola, J., Morales-Muñoz, I., Cowley, B. U., Palva, M. & Palva, S., 20 Jul 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: Translational Psychiatry.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
Open Access -
Graph-Based Exploration for ARC-AGI-3 Interactive Reasoning Tasks
Rudakov, E., Shock, J. & Cowley, B. U., 8 Mar 2026. 8 p.Research output: Conference materials › Paper › peer-review
Open Access -
Learning in neurofeedback is heterogenous and does not guarantee ADHD symptom improvement
Kuznetsova, E., de Beus, R., Arnold, L. E., Rudakov, E. & Cowley, B. U., 27 Feb 2026, In: Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Mechanisms of Learning in Adults With ADHD During an Ecologically-Valid Visual Discrimination Task
Kuznetsova, E., Tammi, T., Postnova, N., Palomäki, J. & Cowley, B. U., Jan 2026, In: Journal of Attention Disorders. 30, 1, p. 38-56 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Death of backcountry winter-sports practitioners in avalanches: A systematic review and meta-analysis of proportion of causes of avalanche death
Rong, G., Ahonen, L. V., Pfuhl, G. & Cowley, B. U., 30 May 2025, In: PLOS global public health. 5, 5, 43 p., e0004551.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile
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AIWo: AiWo: Human-Centric AI-enabled Collaborative Fieldwork Operations
Cowley, B. U. (Project manager) & Rong, G. (Project manager)
01/06/2025 → 31/05/2027
Project: Business Finland
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Cowley: Kumppanuusmalli AiWo
Cowley, B. U. (Project manager) & Rong, G. (Participant)
01/06/2025 → 31/05/2027
Project: Business Finland
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AI Personality and Cognition (AiPerCog): AI learning from Humans in Games
Cowley, B. U. (Project manager), Ahonen, L. V. (Participant), Flores, P. I. (Participant), Kilpeläinen, S. K. (Participant), Postnova, N. (Participant), Rodionov, A. (Participant), Sun, J. (Participant), Wang, J. (Participant) & Wijaya, O. (Participant)
01/09/2023 → 31/08/2027
Project: Research Council of Finland: Academy Project
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GUESSED: Grappling with Uncertainty in Environments Signaling Spurious Experiential Decisions
Cowley, B. U. (Project manager)
01/01/2021 → 31/05/2025
Project: Research project
Activities
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MCC26 - 9th edition of International Conference on Motivational and Cognitive Control
Bayle, C. (Poster Presentation), Berg, A. (Poster Presentation) & Cowley, B. U. (Poster Presentation)
25 Aug 2026 → 28 Aug 2026Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organisation and participation in conferences, workshops, courses, seminars
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SysMus26 - 19th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology
Bayle, C. (Speaker: Presenter), Berg, A. (Speaker: Presenter), Makkonen, T. (Speaker: Presenter), Tervaniemi, M. (Speaker: Presenter) & Cowley, B. U. (Speaker: Presenter)
22 Jul 2026 → 24 Jul 2026Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organisation and participation in conferences, workshops, courses, seminars
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ESELS 2025: Emerging Scholars in Educational and Learning Sciences
Bayle, C. (Poster Presentation), Berg, A. (Poster Presentation) & Cowley, B. U. (Poster Presentation)
24 Oct 2025Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organisation and participation in conferences, workshops, courses, seminars
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NaMu25 (The Nature of Music – Inter- and transdisciplinary Perspectives on a Human Universal)
Bayle, C. (Poster Presentation), Berg, A. (Poster Presentation) & Cowley, B. U. (Poster Presentation)
10 Dec 2025 → 12 Dec 2025Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organisation and participation in conferences, workshops, courses, seminars
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RPPW20 - 20th Rhythm Perception and Production Workshop
Bayle, C. (Poster Presentation), Berg, A. (Poster Presentation) & Cowley, B. U. (Poster Presentation)
16 Jun 2025 → 19 Jun 2025Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organisation and participation in conferences, workshops, courses, seminars
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Equipment
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SEE/PLAE laboratory
Södervik, I. (Manager) & Cowley, B. U. (Manager)
Department of EducationFacility/equipment: Equipment