---
title: "Mike Oaksford"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Mike Oaksford"
aliases: []
first_seen: "2026-08-02T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["rational analysis","Bayesian rationality","Nick Chater","take-the-best (contested against)","Wason selection task"]
seek_code_commit: "f2cca7f"
---


Cognitive scientist and, with [[entity-nick-chater|Nick Chater]], co-architect of the
**rational analysis** / Bayesian-rationality programme, arguing rationality is defined
by calibrated reasoning about uncertainty rather than conformity to formal logic —
concretely demonstrated in their recasting of the Wason selection task as optimal data
selection. He matters to the vault the same way Chater does: as the empirical and
methodological counterpart to [[entity-gerd-gigerenzer|Gigerenzer]]'s ecological
rationality, on the losing (or at least unreplied-to) side of Brighton's 2006
cross-validation reanalysis of their 2003 take-the-best study — a dispute the vault
has searched for a reply to and not found one.

## References
- [[claim-oaksford-chater-redefine-rationality-as-reasoning-about-uncertainty]] · [[claim-oaksford-chater-recast-wason-task-as-optimal-data-selection]] · [[claim-brighton-2006-reanalysis-reversed-take-the-best-result-against-chater-oaksford]] · [[claim-no-chater-oaksford-reply-to-brighton-2006-reanalysis-located]]
- Captures: 2026-08-02-did-the-chateroaksford-camp-reply-to-brightons-2006