Ben Ambridge
@ambridge.bsky.social
Prof of Psychology/Child Language, University of Manchester. Author of PSY-Q, Are You Smarter than a Chimpanzee? and The Stories of Your Life
Another @jstordaily.bsky.social popular-Psychology post lead-authored by one of my Psychology undergrads - here, Maliha Idow daily.jstor.org/face-value-c...
Face Value: Can You Spot a Cheater at First Glance? - JSTOR Daily
Looking for love this holiday season? Science suggests first-glance impressions may offer tiny signals about personality, trust, and even cheating tendencies.
daily.jstor.org
February 11, 2026 at 9:58 AM
Another @jstordaily.bsky.social popular-Psychology post lead-authored by one of my Psychology undergrads - here, Maliha Idow daily.jstor.org/face-value-c...
Most years, one or two of the students on my Psychology in the Real World course pitch a popular psychology blog post to @jstordaily.bsky.social - Here's the most recent, by Aabhya Parnami daily.jstor.org/love-is-blin...
Love Is Blind … but Are Your Hormones? - JSTOR Daily
Do women’s attraction to certain faces really change across the menstrual cycle? A long-running theory meets modern data.
daily.jstor.org
February 11, 2026 at 9:57 AM
Most years, one or two of the students on my Psychology in the Real World course pitch a popular psychology blog post to @jstordaily.bsky.social - Here's the most recent, by Aabhya Parnami daily.jstor.org/love-is-blin...
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
The journal "Language Development Research" is now an official journal of the IASCL! LDR's intended audience is all researchers and professionals with an interest in language development and related fields. Read more on our website: www.childlanguage.org/ldr
February 11, 2026 at 8:01 AM
The journal "Language Development Research" is now an official journal of the IASCL! LDR's intended audience is all researchers and professionals with an interest in language development and related fields. Read more on our website: www.childlanguage.org/ldr
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
“If you do a power calculation it’s probably going to tell you that - for this between-subjects design- you’re gonna need like a minimum of 150 participants PER GROUP”
“If you do a power calculation it’s probably going to tell you that - for this between-subjects design- you’re gonna need like a minimum of 150 participants PER GROUP”
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"Please check the information booklet you received at the start of the course. The answer to your question is there". (I had this stored as a stock email signature when I was teaching very large classes)
"Please check the information booklet you received at the start of the course. The answer to your question is there". (I had this stored as a stock email signature when I was teaching very large classes)
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"Well it was definitely worth a shot. Let's try submitting to a different journal and hopefully they will send it out for review."
"Well it was definitely worth a shot. Let's try submitting to a different journal and hopefully they will send it out for review."
February 8, 2026 at 12:22 PM
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
“If you do a power calculation it’s probably going to tell you that - for this between-subjects design- you’re gonna need like a minimum of 150 participants PER GROUP”
“If you do a power calculation it’s probably going to tell you that - for this between-subjects design- you’re gonna need like a minimum of 150 participants PER GROUP”
My latest book, about how we interpret real-life events using plots from movies, TV and novels, is now out in paperback: amzn.eu/d/0jiK7RoY. To celebrate, I talked about the book with my favourite writer Joel Golby on his podcast, Joel Golby's Book Club - shows.acast.com/joel-golbys-...
February 4, 2026 at 11:21 AM
My latest book, about how we interpret real-life events using plots from movies, TV and novels, is now out in paperback: amzn.eu/d/0jiK7RoY. To celebrate, I talked about the book with my favourite writer Joel Golby on his podcast, Joel Golby's Book Club - shows.acast.com/joel-golbys-...
Good of Frontiers to send me a reminder to post my annual plea to my child language colleagues: DON’T SUBMIT TO OR REVIEW FOR FRONTIERS OR MDPI JOURNALS!
January 30, 2026 at 8:17 PM
Good of Frontiers to send me a reminder to post my annual plea to my child language colleagues: DON’T SUBMIT TO OR REVIEW FOR FRONTIERS OR MDPI JOURNALS!
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
ManyLanguages is on two social platforms:
✨ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1107...
✨ Bluesky (this page): bsky.app/profile/many...
Follow us to stay in the loop, join discussions, and help us spread the word about Big Team Science.
✨ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1107...
✨ Bluesky (this page): bsky.app/profile/many...
Follow us to stay in the loop, join discussions, and help us spread the word about Big Team Science.
January 30, 2026 at 10:26 AM
ManyLanguages is on two social platforms:
✨ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1107...
✨ Bluesky (this page): bsky.app/profile/many...
Follow us to stay in the loop, join discussions, and help us spread the word about Big Team Science.
✨ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1107...
✨ Bluesky (this page): bsky.app/profile/many...
Follow us to stay in the loop, join discussions, and help us spread the word about Big Team Science.
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
‘It is clearer than ever that recent claims [by the Bible Society] of a wide scale Christian revival, whether misinformation or disinformation, need to be retracted... everyone has the obligation to be rigorous in their presentation of data in the public realm and the claims they make for it.’
Gen Z churchgoing is actually still declining, new British Social Attitudes Survey shows
New analysis of recently published British Social Attitudes Survey data by Humanists UK has shown that churchgoing, including among Gen Z, has continued its long-term decline. The findings are consist...
humanists.uk
January 29, 2026 at 6:51 PM
‘It is clearer than ever that recent claims [by the Bible Society] of a wide scale Christian revival, whether misinformation or disinformation, need to be retracted... everyone has the obligation to be rigorous in their presentation of data in the public realm and the claims they make for it.’
When setting up @langdevres.bsky.social I wrote into the rules that while special issues are welcome, all papers must be reviewed by a regular Action Editor - some people have been puzzled by that, but this is why it’s vital!
We've got ISSUES. Literally.
We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?
arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563
A 🧵 1/n
We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?
arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563
A 🧵 1/n
January 26, 2026 at 8:51 AM
When setting up @langdevres.bsky.social I wrote into the rules that while special issues are welcome, all papers must be reviewed by a regular Action Editor - some people have been puzzled by that, but this is why it’s vital!
Sorry to blow my own trumpet here, but I've just added all 17 of our empirical studies of the acquisition of under-researched languages to the new @iasclchildlang.bsky.social repository. Huge thanks to all the PhDs/Postdocs/RAs/Collaborators who made them all possible! www.zotero.org/groups/60446...
Zotero | Your personal research assistant
www.zotero.org
January 22, 2026 at 2:20 PM
Sorry to blow my own trumpet here, but I've just added all 17 of our empirical studies of the acquisition of under-researched languages to the new @iasclchildlang.bsky.social repository. Huge thanks to all the PhDs/Postdocs/RAs/Collaborators who made them all possible! www.zotero.org/groups/60446...
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
This is a belated post about our paper in @poqjournal.bsky.social.
We analyzed 100 survey experiments fielded by TESS (tessexperiments.org), using only information from the proposals to identify intended hypotheses.
Here are some of the things we learned:
We analyzed 100 survey experiments fielded by TESS (tessexperiments.org), using only information from the proposals to identify intended hypotheses.
Here are some of the things we learned:
An Audit of Social Science Survey Experiments
Abstract. Survey experiments have become a popular methodology for causal inference across the social sciences. We study the efficacy of survey experiment
doi.org
January 14, 2026 at 7:17 PM
This is a belated post about our paper in @poqjournal.bsky.social.
We analyzed 100 survey experiments fielded by TESS (tessexperiments.org), using only information from the proposals to identify intended hypotheses.
Here are some of the things we learned:
We analyzed 100 survey experiments fielded by TESS (tessexperiments.org), using only information from the proposals to identify intended hypotheses.
Here are some of the things we learned:
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
The recently accepted ManyLanguages project CLAPS - A Crosslinguistic Approach to Passive Semantics led by @ambridge.bsky.social is looking to fill four key leadership roles (Analysis Lead, Scaling Coordinator, Translation Coordinator, Ethics Coordinator). ⏰Deadline: 30th Jan.
January 13, 2026 at 5:47 PM
The recently accepted ManyLanguages project CLAPS - A Crosslinguistic Approach to Passive Semantics led by @ambridge.bsky.social is looking to fill four key leadership roles (Analysis Lead, Scaling Coordinator, Translation Coordinator, Ethics Coordinator). ⏰Deadline: 30th Jan.
I was surprised to see this as I’ve had reviewers strongly object when I’ve claimed in papers that LLMs store exemplars. So was I right all along? Or is there a sense in which what they’re doing isn’t quite “storing exemplars” per se? It certainly sounds like it!
New research presents the most compelling evidence yet that generative AI directly stores and reproduces material used to train it—a finding that could have massive legal consequences for the tech industry, Alex Reisner reports.
AI’s Memorization Crisis
Large language models don’t “learn”—they copy. And that could change everything for the tech industry.
bit.ly
January 12, 2026 at 4:07 PM
I was surprised to see this as I’ve had reviewers strongly object when I’ve claimed in papers that LLMs store exemplars. So was I right all along? Or is there a sense in which what they’re doing isn’t quite “storing exemplars” per se? It certainly sounds like it!
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
It is unclear to me how much traction Glossa: a journal of general linguistics is getting on BlueSky. I am thinking of switching communication about new papers to LinkedIn, which gives better insight into the # of views garnered. Give us a like if you want Glossa to stay on the Blue side of things.
December 29, 2025 at 7:34 PM
It is unclear to me how much traction Glossa: a journal of general linguistics is getting on BlueSky. I am thinking of switching communication about new papers to LinkedIn, which gives better insight into the # of views garnered. Give us a like if you want Glossa to stay on the Blue side of things.
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Verily, it’s a total mystery why this might be a more salient issue in the assortative mating process nowadays 🤔🧐🤷♂️
December 31, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Verily, it’s a total mystery why this might be a more salient issue in the assortative mating process nowadays 🤔🧐🤷♂️
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Is one of your goals for 2026 to write more? One question I get all the time is, "How do you make time to write?" So, here is my unsolicited writing advice for the new year:
December 31, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Is one of your goals for 2026 to write more? One question I get all the time is, "How do you make time to write?" So, here is my unsolicited writing advice for the new year:
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Call it “mutual” and suddenly people get it.
‘Mutual free movement’ for UK and EU citizens supported by 84% of Brits, in stunning new poll
Omnisis poll suggests opposition to free movement was based on lack of awareness and the UK government failing to enforce the rules
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
December 28, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Call it “mutual” and suddenly people get it.
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
What can 40 years of song lyrics tell us about society?
I analysed the lyrics of 1,600 pop songs going back to 1985.
Our music appears to be getting gloomier, less future-looking and more self-obsessed
1/6
I analysed the lyrics of 1,600 pop songs going back to 1985.
Our music appears to be getting gloomier, less future-looking and more self-obsessed
1/6
December 28, 2025 at 11:55 AM
What can 40 years of song lyrics tell us about society?
I analysed the lyrics of 1,600 pop songs going back to 1985.
Our music appears to be getting gloomier, less future-looking and more self-obsessed
1/6
I analysed the lyrics of 1,600 pop songs going back to 1985.
Our music appears to be getting gloomier, less future-looking and more self-obsessed
1/6
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Language Development Research, Volume 5, Issue 3 is now available for download on the LDR website. Thank you to all of our contributors!
Wishing everyone a joyous New Year!
ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu/issue/101/in...
Wishing everyone a joyous New Year!
ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu/issue/101/in...
December 27, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Language Development Research, Volume 5, Issue 3 is now available for download on the LDR website. Thank you to all of our contributors!
Wishing everyone a joyous New Year!
ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu/issue/101/in...
Wishing everyone a joyous New Year!
ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu/issue/101/in...
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Very excited to share the first empirical paper from LEVANTE: we describe the LEVANTE core tasks, a set of nine open source tasks for measuring learning and development in kids ages 5-12 years.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵
December 18, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Very excited to share the first empirical paper from LEVANTE: we describe the LEVANTE core tasks, a set of nine open source tasks for measuring learning and development in kids ages 5-12 years.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Thom Scott-Phillips presents a novel analysis of people's spontaneous intuitions about sentence acceptability "grounded in theoretical and empirical knowledge from cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and evolutionary approaches to the mind." cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/ca...
Why Do Humans Have Linguistic Intuition?
| Cadernos de Linguística
cadernos.abralin.org
December 18, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Thom Scott-Phillips presents a novel analysis of people's spontaneous intuitions about sentence acceptability "grounded in theoretical and empirical knowledge from cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and evolutionary approaches to the mind." cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/ca...
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
The United Kingdom is coming back to Erasmus+ 🇪🇺🇬🇧
We have concluded negotiations for the United Kingdom’s association to Erasmus+ in 2027, making further steps in our renewed EU-UK Strategic Partnership.
More ↓
link.europa.eu/vf3vJk
We have concluded negotiations for the United Kingdom’s association to Erasmus+ in 2027, making further steps in our renewed EU-UK Strategic Partnership.
More ↓
link.europa.eu/vf3vJk
December 17, 2025 at 1:39 PM
The United Kingdom is coming back to Erasmus+ 🇪🇺🇬🇧
We have concluded negotiations for the United Kingdom’s association to Erasmus+ in 2027, making further steps in our renewed EU-UK Strategic Partnership.
More ↓
link.europa.eu/vf3vJk
We have concluded negotiations for the United Kingdom’s association to Erasmus+ in 2027, making further steps in our renewed EU-UK Strategic Partnership.
More ↓
link.europa.eu/vf3vJk
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
If you value journalism, you have to pay for it. In the past, you would have bought a newspaper or a magazine. In the online world, you need to subscribe or it will eventually disappear under a tide of AI slop and adverts. @manchestermill.bsky.social is one of many local quality sources. Subscribe!
An amazing opportunity to subscribe to the Mill, a local Manchester newspaper that does the proper reporting and investigating, for basically ‘give what you can’ prices!
manchestermill.co.uk/r/3359d2b6?m...
manchestermill.co.uk/r/3359d2b6?m...
Join The Mill
Manchester's quality newspaper, delivered via email.
manchestermill.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 9:11 AM
If you value journalism, you have to pay for it. In the past, you would have bought a newspaper or a magazine. In the online world, you need to subscribe or it will eventually disappear under a tide of AI slop and adverts. @manchestermill.bsky.social is one of many local quality sources. Subscribe!
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Language Development Research is now accepting submissions for a special issue on Multimodal Directive-Response Trajectories in Children's Language Socialization w/ Guest Editor: Alan Rumsey (Australian Nat'l Uni). Read more here: ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu & here: www.childlanguage.org/latestbulletin
December 2, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Language Development Research is now accepting submissions for a special issue on Multimodal Directive-Response Trajectories in Children's Language Socialization w/ Guest Editor: Alan Rumsey (Australian Nat'l Uni). Read more here: ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu & here: www.childlanguage.org/latestbulletin
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Semantics and Statistics in the Formation of Causatives in Hijazi Arabic: Data From Semantic Ratings, Grammatical Acceptability Judgments and Computational Modeling. New in developmental psychology from Khadeejah Alaslani, Ronnie Wilbur, and @ambridge.bsky.social doi.org/10.1525/coll...
Semantics and Statistics in the Formation of Causatives in Hijazi Arabic: Data From Semantic Ratings, Grammatical Acceptability Judgments and Computational Modeling
The aim of the present study was to investigate the possibility that Hijazi Arabic – like other languages previously studied – uses morphosyntactic marking to differentiate events of more- versus less...
doi.org
November 18, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Semantics and Statistics in the Formation of Causatives in Hijazi Arabic: Data From Semantic Ratings, Grammatical Acceptability Judgments and Computational Modeling. New in developmental psychology from Khadeejah Alaslani, Ronnie Wilbur, and @ambridge.bsky.social doi.org/10.1525/coll...