Collins is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. Among other contributions, she has shown that hierarchical prefrontal-basal-ganglia-thalamic loops contribute to flexible generalization and fast learning in humans. She uses innovative experimental design and computational modeling to study executive functions, learning and decision making. Collins has published extensively on the multiple neuro-cognitive systems that contribute to dynamic decision making jointly and has experience cross-species collaborative research.