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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 2h

Princeton is requiring #SAT scores again for admission because test scores predict student success
But using SAT scores also increases social mobility!
Rich students (top 1%) benefit immensely when there are no test scores because they have legacy & non-academic points (which don't predict success)

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Robert Hawkins @rdhawkins.bsky.social · 1h

just finished steve levinson's new book! it's a beautifully articulated argument for social interaction as the evolutionary niche which made language possible, rather than the other way around. progress in linguistics depends on a stronger science of interaction.

www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

The Interaction Engine

Cambridge Core - Semantics and Pragmatics - The Interaction Engine

www.cambridge.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d

I am an enormous fan of @glupyan.bsky.social he is the cognitive scientist I wanted to be. I'm content enough with who I am now to just be terrifically happy whenever I find he's written something on a question that most people just aren't thinking clearly about.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

Frontiers | Linguistically Modulated Perception and Cognition: The Label-Feedback Hypothesis

How does language impact cognition and perception? A growing number of studies show that language, and specifically, the practice of labeling, exerts rapid a...

www.frontiersin.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 1d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Morten H. Christiansen @mh-christiansen.bsky.social · 20h

Human language acquisition and use is fundamentally interactive. By contrast, LLMs are generally assumed to be passive learners that merely soak up vast amounts of data, like a sponge. In this opinion piece, we argue that the picture is more nuanced 1/2

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

LLMs highlight the importance of interaction in human language learning

Recent years have seen large language models (LLMs) achieve impressive performance with core linguistic abilities. This can be taken as a demonstration that, contrary to long-held assumptions about in...

www.degruyterbrill.com

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Meltem Yucel @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social · 2d

Parents of 0- to 12-year-olds, come do science with us!

We run short, game-like studies with kids. We offer in-person and online options, flexible scheduling (weekdays & weekends), and sessions that are fun for children and easy for caregivers.

Moral Minds Lab - CHILDatabase Signup

redcap.link

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 2d

This is one of those papers that just deserves a post every now and then. Half a century old, with a message still relevant today: Cognition won't be understood one variable at the time.

You Can't Play 20 Questions with Nature and Win, by Allen Newell (1973) www.coli.uni-saarland.de/~crocker/doc...

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Ana Marasović @anamarasovic.bsky.social · 3d

📣Tomorrow at #COLM2025:

1️⃣ Purbid's 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 at 𝐒𝐨𝐋𝐚𝐑 (𝟏𝟏:𝟏𝟓𝐚𝐦-𝟏:𝟎𝟎𝐩𝐦) on catching redundant preference pairs & how pruning them hurts accuracy; www.anamarasovic.com/publications...

2️⃣ My 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 at 𝐗𝐋𝐋𝐌-𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧-𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 (𝟏𝟐𝐩𝐦) on measuring CoT faithfulness by looking at internals, not just behaviorally

1/3

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Cognitive Science Group @cogscigroup.bsky.social · 3d

Our spotlight article on Goueytes et al. (2025) study is now online at Trends in Neurosciences: "Pre- and post-decision signals of certainty in changing minds", by P. Barttfeld, @ncomay.bsky.social, I. Embon & @guillermosolovey.bsky.social www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

Pre- and post-decision signals of certainty in changing minds

In a recent study, Goueytes and colleagues combined computational modeling with intracranial recordings to dissect the neural basis of confidence and changes of mind. They reveal a temporally organize...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Dawei Bai @daweibai.bsky.social · 3d

Happy to share that our BBS target article has been accepted: “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Julian Jara-Ettinger @julianje.bsky.social · 3d

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 Robert Hawkins

Kohitij Kar @kohitij.bsky.social · 3d

🧠 New preprint!
Recognition-trained ANNs miss a key dimension of IT coding: memorability. Jointly optimizing for both recognition and memorability yielded more brain-like visual models.
Another step toward multi-goal modeling of the ventral stream.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 3d

Another oral talk, this one by @stellali.bsky.social, discussing "PrefPalette: Personalized Preference Modeling with Latent Attributes."

Communities prefer different kinds of responses, which prioritize specific values. Aggregating preferences over communities would lose that signal.

#COLM2025

PrefPalette: Personalized Preference Modeling with Latent Attributes

Personalizing AI systems requires understanding not just what users prefer, but the reasons that underlie those preferences - yet current preference models typically treat human judgment as a black bo...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 3d

Now we're hearing a talk by @valentinhofmann.bsky.social about "Fluid Language Model Benchmarking."

Computerized adaptive testing is used for humans (like the GRE). This work adopts Item Response Theory from education to measure benchmark characteristics.

#COLM2025

Fluid Language Model Benchmarking

Language model (LM) benchmarking faces several challenges: comprehensive evaluations are costly, benchmarks often fail to measure the intended capabilities, and evaluation quality can degrade due to l...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Razia Sahi @raziasahi.bsky.social · 4d

Managing emotions is not easy - we often get by with a little help. In the NEW Social Interaction and Emotion Lab at Rutgers-Newark, we’ll study how social interactions regulate emotion using experiments, naturalistic data, and multi-modal approaches. ✨ Now recruiting! ✨🙌 Learn more: raziasahi.com

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 4d

Early evidence that AI agents in a guessing game develop emergent coordination and specialized roles, especially when assigned personas & prompted to consider other agents’ actions. There was no significant increase in accuracy but higher goal-directed behavior & teamwork. arxiv.org/abs/2510.05174

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

annecollins.bsky.social @annecollins.bsky.social · 4d

@jennifersenta.bsky.social's paper is now published!
Check it out here!
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Dual process impairments in reinforcement learning and working memory systems underlie learning deficits in physiological anxiety

Author summary Individuals with anxiety may have difficulties with learning, memory, and attentional control. Computational studies investigating the specific learning processes that are impaired in a...

journals.plos.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Hahrie Han @hahrie.bsky.social · 4d

Totally, completely flabbergasted. #MacFellow

hub.jhu.edu/2025/10/08/h...

Johns Hopkins political scientist Hahrie Han receives MacArthur genius grant

Han, who studies political organizing and collective action and who has led the university's SNF Agora Institute since 2019, among 22 individuals to receive coveted MacArthur Foundation recognition

hub.jhu.edu

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 4d

sign and share and join AAUP actionnetwork.org/petitions/tr...

Trump Higher Ed Compact 2025

We stand for education—for science, for students and for freedom—and against this backward, anti-American policy. We call on university leaders, faculty, staff and students to unite in rejecting the T...

actionnetwork.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Joshua Conrad Jackson @joshcjackson.bsky.social · 4d

🚨Historical Psych Pre-Conference🚨

We have a great lineup of speakers for the #SPSP2026 edition!

Submit your poster or data blitz abstract by Oct. 23 (link below!). Open to folks from any career stage

Any research on psychological change or historical context of social psych is welcome!

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Kyle Mahowald @kmahowald.bsky.social · 5d

UT Austin Linguistics is hiring in computational linguistics!

Asst or Assoc.

We have a thriving group sites.utexas.edu/compling/ and a long proud history in the space. (For instance, fun fact, Jeff Elman was a UT Austin Linguistics Ph.D.)

faculty.utexas.edu/career/170793

🤘

UT Austin Computational Linguistics Research Group – Humans processing computers processing humans processing language

sites.utexas.edu

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Brandon Woo @brandonwoo.bsky.social · 5d

New paper in Open Mind, with @emmayu23.bsky.social, Megan Richardson, and @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social! We find that by 6 years of age, children think that close friends know the content of each other’s minds.

direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...

@openmindjournal.bsky.social

Developing Intuitions That Close Friends Know the Content of Each Other’s Minds

Abstract. To maintain and develop close relationships, people need to accurately represent the minds of their social partners. Although studies have characterized many aspects of children’s intuitive ...

direct.mit.edu

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 5d

Great piece in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social on why AI won't solve the loneliness epidemic:

"presenting AI as a scalable solution to the loneliness epidemic risks overlooking the structural and societal roots of the problem and may allow us to abdicate our responsibility as a society."

Can AI really help solve the loneliness epidemic?

Advances in artificial intelligence offer an enticing solution to a global problem: perhaps interacting with large language models (LLMs) can help all…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 5d

Why do some ideas spread widely, while others fail to catch on?

Our new review paper on the PSYCHOLOGY OF VIRALITY is now out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social (it was led by @steverathje.bsky.social)

Read the full paper here: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Nancy Kanwisher @nancykanwisher.bsky.social · 5d

I wanted to share my reasons why I think it is of paramount importance to attend a No King’s protest on October 18, and to make the case to everyone you know to do the same.
a thread...
www.nokings.org

No Kings

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

www.nokings.org

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