Senior Research Scientist,
Human Centered Design & Engineering
Co-Director, CoSSaR

• ssavelli@uw.edu
• Sieg Building, Room 216, Box 352315, Seattle, WA 98195

Sonia Savelli is a senior cognitive research scientist at the University of Washington, Center on Collaborative Systems for Security, Safety & Regional Resilience (CoSSaR) who studies the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms and processes that are relevant to applied decision-making under uncertainty and under risk. Her research on weather-related decision-making investigates how providing individuals with probabilistic information helps to inform their decisions; increases trust in the forecast and information sources; and improves confidence in their decisions. Dr. Savelli uses a mixed-method approach in her research utilizing cognitive-ethnographic work based on observations and surveys to gain an understanding of the context, background knowledge and goals with which people approach critical decisions, and experimental methods that incorporate realistic decisions often with actual monetary rewards to test specific questions.