Courtesy UC Santa Barbara

Jonathan Schooler Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara and director of the Memory Emotion Thought and Awareness (META) lab at UCSB. He earned his BA from Hamilton College in 1981 and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1987. His research on human cognition explores topics that intersect philosophy and psychology, such as how fluctuations in people’s awareness of their experience mediate mind-wandering and how exposing individuals to philosophical positions alters their behavior. A former holder of a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, he is a fellow of various scientific organizations, on the editorial board of a number of psychology journals and the recipient of major grants from both the United States and Canadian governments as well as several private foundations.  His research is featured in major media outlets such as BBC Horizon, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Nature Magazine. Some of the research and ideas discussed in this essay were recently covered in an episode of tbe Science Channel’s “Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman” entitled “Do we have free will?”.