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Bill Thompson

@wdt.bsky.social

1.1K followers 190 following 2 posts

Cognitive Scientist. Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley.

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Psychology 27%

Computer science 18%

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Julian Jara-Ettinger @julianje.bsky.social · 1d

Our paper in annual review of dev psych is out! It's a big-picture look at the development of social cognition from a computational perspective: compdevlab.yale.edu/docs/2025/an...

compdevlab.yale.edu

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Reposted by Hugo Mercier, Bill Thompson, Todd M. Gureckis

Mark Ho @markkho.bsky.social · 4d

I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓

The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠

Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏

codec lab

codec-lab.github.io

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com · 5d

Children can solve a difficult sorting task by spontaneously discovering efficient sorting algorithms. Older children outperform younger children, showing developmental growth in strategy use and problem-solving. @hw-yang.bsky.social‬‬
@celestekidd.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Children spontaneously discover efficient solutions to a difficult sorting task - Nature Human Behaviour

Children successfully solved a challenging sorting task by spontaneously discovering efficient sorting strategies, such as selection sort and shaker sort. Older children outperformed younger ones, demonstrating developmental progress in strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Joe Barnby @joebarnby.com · Sep 10

🤖After a fantastic debut in 2025, the Theory of Mind in AI workshop at AAAI is back for 2026!

We invite submissions on ToM in artificial & biological intelligence—across comp sci, cog sci, comp psych, psychiatry & more.

CFP 👉 tom4ai.github.io/AAAI2026/cal...

2025 procs 👉 arxiv.org/abs/2505.03770

Call for Papers - ToM4AI Workshop@AAAI 2026

tom4ai.github.io

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi, Bill Thompson

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · Mar 4

We are excited to advertise the Asian Cultural Evolution (ACE) seminar series! It's organized by Kenji Itao, Xinyue Pan & Wataru Toyokawa, and seminars will take place on the third Tuesday of odd-numbered months at 19:00 JST (18:00 Perth/Singapore/Beijing, 19:00 Tokyo/Seoul, 20:00 Sydney).

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Noga Zaslavsky @nogazs.bsky.social · Apr 24

Excited to share our new paper "Towards Human-Like Emergent Communication via Utility, Informativeness, and Complexity"
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
@rplevy.bsky.social

And looking forward to speaking about this line of work tomorrow at @nyudatascience.bsky.social!

Towards Human-Like Emergent Communication via Utility, Informativeness, and Complexity

Abstract. Two prominent, yet contrasting, theoretical views are available to characterize the underlying drivers of language evolution: on the one hand, task-specific utility maximization; on the othe...

direct.mit.edu

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Manuel Bohn @elmanubohn.bsky.social · Apr 10

I'm looking for a PhD Student at the intersection of Machine Learning and Developmental Psychology.

We study everyday experiences in children from 🇰🇪🇩🇪🇹🇷 and use ML models to quantify interactions.

4 years, fully funded, great team, beautiful location. Please share and apply!

tinyurl.com/2mafdyh4

Research Associate (m/f/d) Applying Machine Learning to Developmental Psychology

www.leuphana.de

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Elizabeth Mieczkowski @emiecz.bsky.social · Mar 26

We often assume that specialized roles improve performance in multi-agent systems, but when does specialization emerge based on a given task and environment? 🧵👇

⭐️ New preprint w/ Ruaridh Mon-Williams, @neilbramley.bsky.social, Chris Lucas, @natvelali.bsky.social & @cocoscilab.bsky.social

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi, Bill Thompson, David W. Lawson

Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · Mar 12

🚀COSMOS is BACK!!!💫 The Computational School on Modeling Social and collective behavior (COSMOS) will take place in RIKEN, Tokyo, between 29 Sept - 3 Oct, organised by me and fantastic @thecharleywu.bsky.social ! Application deadline: 25th April. For more details see 👉️ cosmossummerschool.github.io

COSMOS

The Computational Summer school on Modeling Social and collective behavior (COSMOS)

cosmossummerschool.github.io

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Viking Books @vikingbooks.bsky.social · Mar 11

ON SALE TODAY! 🧠💻

Christopher Summerfield's (@summerfieldlab.bsky.social) "brilliant" (@mustafasuleymanai.bsky.social) THESE STRANGE NEW MINDS charts the evolution of intelligent talking machines and helps us understand how they work and how we can use them.

Start reading now 👉 bit.ly/41WoPTB

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Reposted by Bill Thompson, Maurice R. Elphick

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · Mar 6

This year marks 360 years since the first edition
of #PhilosophicalTransactions, launching the world’s longest-running scientific journal. Join us as we take a 360° view of publishing, exploring its history, reflecting on its present impact, and imagining its future. royalsociety.org/journals/pub...

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Reposted by Nathan Nunn, Alex Mesoudi, Bill Thompson

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · Mar 6

We are please to release Transmissions Ep 1, featuring Dr Cristina Moya @hyperadapthyrax.bsky.social in conversation with Feryl Badiani @ferylbadiani.bsky.social

Cristina and Feryl chat about Cristina's work in Peru and discuss CE in human and non-human societies:

youtu.be/2otT0PkhPkw?...

Transmissions Episode 1 with Dr Cristina Moya

YouTube video by Cultural Evolution Society

youtu.be

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Professor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · Feb 20

🚨 Calling from #RoyalSocietyPublishing! 🚨
We are excited to share that the #BiologyLetters Early Career Researcher Competition is open for submissions until April 30, 2025!
Grand prize: £1000
2 runners-up: £500 each.
🔗 More details: royalsociety.org/journals/aut...

Biology Letters early career researcher Competition | Royal Society

Open for entries to early career researchers until 30 April 2025.

royalsociety.org

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Reposted by Nathan Nunn, Jonas R. Kunst, Lusine Grigoryan , and 1 more Nathan Nunn, Jonas R. Kunst, Lusine Grigoryan, Bill Thompson

Siri Leknes @sirileknes.bsky.social · Feb 19

There are currently three open faculty positions (all levels) in my department (Psychology)
Oslo is a lovely city, modestly sized (600k) but a capital, surrounded by forest and the fjord

We're also a stable democracy with high support of and trust in science

www.sv.uio.no/english/abou...

Jobs and vacancies - Faculty of Social Sciences

Read this story on the University of Oslo's website.

www.sv.uio.no

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Many Minds podcast @manymindspod.bsky.social · Feb 17

String figures have been part of human culture for millennia, perhaps since the Pleistocene. But why do we find them so captivating? What explains their universal appeal?

Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @roope.bsky.social!

Listen: manyminds.libsyn.com/string-theor...

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Reposted by Olivier Morin, Daniel Wilson, Bill Thompson

Jeremy Kendal @jeremykendal.bsky.social · Feb 17

Join us in Durham Anthropology - we’re hiring an Assistant Prof in Anthropology of Data Science. durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

Assistant Professor in Anthropology of Data Science (Research %26 Education) (ANT_01)

Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

durham.taleo.net

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Tobias Gerstenberg @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social · Feb 12

New paper in Psychological Review!

In "Causation, Meaning, and Communication" Ari Beller (cicl.stanford.edu/member/ari_b...) develops a computational model of how people use & understand expressions like "caused", "enabled", and "affected".

📃 osf.io/preprints/ps...
📎 github.com/cicl-stanfor...
🧵

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

alexhyafil.bsky.social @alexhyafil.bsky.social · Jan 30

Our Barcelona-based summer school, BAMB! (bambschool.org) just opened applications! Come join us: 15-24th July, to learn how to model behavioral data using RL, Bayesian, latent variable models, RNNs, DDMs & more! #BAMB2025

BAMB!

Course philosophy Our goal is to teach advanced techniques in model-based analysis of behavior (humans and other animals) to cognitive and computational neuroscientists at PhD and early career levels...

bambschool.org

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi, Bill Thompson

Björn Lindström @bjornlindstrom.bsky.social · Jan 30

💥Postdoc Opening! 💥We (@lucasmolleman.bsky.social & Piet van den Berg) seek a postdoc to study social learning and cultural evolution. We are looking for someone with math/computational modeling skills & interest in human behavior. Get in touch if you have any questions! shorturl.at/W6Qsb

Postdoktor i beräkningspsykologi/kognitionsvetenskap med fokus på social inlärning och kulturell evolution

Vill du bidra till medicinsk forskning av toppkvalitet? Gruppen Mechanisms of Social Behavior vid Karolinska Institutet i Stockholm söker en högt kvalificerad postdoktoral forskare för att ingå i

ki.varbi.com

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Siobhán Cully 🇺🇸 🐱🥼🤓🩼 @siobhancully.bsky.social · Jan 25

Fellowships for non-UK scientists who want to work in the UK for a spell:

royalsociety.org/grants/newto...

Newton International Fellowships | Royal Society

This fellowship is for non-UK scientists who are at an early stage of their research career and wish to conduct research in the UK.

royalsociety.org

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Gergely Neu @neu-rips.bsky.social · Jan 22

check this out: new postdoc program for AI-related research in Catalunya!

our group is looking to hire within this program, ideally to work on topics related to RL theory. in case you're interested, pls DM or email me.

(retweets appreciated!)

ramonllull-aira.eu/application

Ramon Llull AIRA Open Calls

Open Calls In our inaugural call scheduled for December 2024, we aim to select up to 17 exceptional postdoctoral fellows, with an additional 16 to be chosen in Call 2 in 2025. 20 December 2024 ...

ramonllull-aira.eu

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Many Minds podcast @manymindspod.bsky.social · Jan 13

New episode!! 🎙️🎙️

A conversation w/ @tanialombrozo.bsky.social about "learning by thinking."

We often learn from others or from the outside world. But other times new understanding bubbles up from inside our own minds. When does this happen? And how does it work?

Listen: disi.org/a-paradox-of...

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Reposted by Sendhil Mullainathan, David Lusseau, Dimitris Xygalatas , and 2 more Sendhil Mullainathan, David Lusseau, Dimitris Xygalatas, Bill Thompson, Gregor Wolbring

Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · Jan 8

An incredible opportunity for the right person:

The Santa Fe Institute is seeking applications for full-time resident faculty positions at all academic levels

For me, this has been the best possible job ever.

More info here: santafe.edu/about/jobs/r...

sfiscience

SFI seeks applications for full-time, 12-month resident faculty positions at all academic levels.

santafe.edu

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Gasper Begus @begus.bsky.social · Dec 19

Researchers in France! 🇫🇷

@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social France Fund is calling for proposals for seed money! All fields are welcome to apply. There are so many opportunities for collaboration that such grants can open!

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Andrew Lampinen @lampinen.bsky.social · Dec 18

If you're interested in working on multimodal understanding and generation — including things like understanding or generating figures with text — and work with my awesome collaborator Ishita Dasgupta & others, check out this job! boards.greenhouse.io/deepmind/job...

Research Scientist, Media Fusion

Mountain View, California, US

boards.greenhouse.io

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Bill Thompson @wdt.bsky.social · Dec 13

We have extended the deadline for this position to January 31st. Also, the start date is pretty flexible; if you're graduating next spring/summer and interested in the role, apply!

Bill Thompson @wdt.bsky.social · Nov 19

We have a postdoc position available in my lab at UC Berkeley, 2 years+, flexible start date, research focus is social reasoning and cultural evolution from a computational perspective. Deadline = November 29th. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04639

Postdoctoral Scholar Employee - The Computational Cognitive Science Laboratory -Psychology

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Natasha Jaques @natashajaques.bsky.social · Dec 11

Even though the Social RL lab only got started ~1 year ago, I’m super excited to announce that we have 10 people from the lab presenting their work at #NeurIPS2024. Delighted to officially introduce our lab: socialrl.cs.washington.edu! Thread with all our NeurIPS work below 👇

SocialRL Lab

We are the Social Reinforcement Learning Lab at the University of Washington.

socialrl.cs.washington.edu

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Reposted by Janne Hukkinen, Bill Thompson, Rebecca Bliege Bird

Roope Kaaronen @roopekaaronen.net · Dec 4

I am delighted to share our latest piece of research:

‘A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation’.

This was long in the works and is by far the largest project I’ve led to date.

A thread:

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

A huge phenetic tree visualising our global string figure dataset.

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

David Barner @drbarner.bsky.social · Nov 25

CogSci2025 poster has landed, in both “wow the future looks bright for CogSci” mode, and also “our theories will make you think and possibly write poetry mode”. @neilbramley.bsky.social @carenwalker.bsky.social @cogscisociety.bsky.social

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Reposted by Bill Thompson

Gasper Begus @begus.bsky.social · Nov 21

Symbolic operations (such as Merge) can self-emerge in connectionist models!

Our models take single words and start spontaneously concatenating words with at least partial compositionality.

We propose a neural mechanism behind compositional concatenation: disinhibition.

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