Robert Goldstone received a B.A. degree from Oberlin College in 1986 in cognitive science, and a Ph.D. in psychology from University of Michigan in 1991. Since 1991, Robert Goldstone has been a professor in the psychological and brain sciences department and cognitive science program at Indiana University. His research interests include concept learning and representation, perceptual learning, collective behavior, and computational modeling of human cognition. He has developed and empirically tested neural network models that simultaneously learn new perceptual and conceptual representations, with the learned concepts both affecting and being affected by perception. He has developed computational models of how groups of people compete for resources, cooperate to solve problems, exchange information and innovations, and form coalitions. He has also developed neural network models that automatically construct translations between the conceptual systems of two time slices of the same person, two people, two languages, or two cultures.

He was awarded two American Psychological Association (APA) Young Investigator awards in 1995 for articles appearing in Journal of Experimental Psychology, the 1996 Chase Memorial Award for Outstanding Young Researcher in Cognitive Science, a 1997 James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award, the 2000 APA Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of Cognition and Human Learning, and a 2004 Troland research award from the National Academy of Sciences. He was the editor of Cognitive Science from 2001-2005, and associate editor of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review from 1998-2000. He was elected as a fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists in 2004. In 2006 he became the director of the Indiana University Cognitive Science Program. He was awarded the title of Chancellor's Professor in 2006.