Dan Willingham
@dtwuva.bsky.social
Professor @UVa who's puttin' the funk back in functional brain imaging and the psycho in psychometrics. One study is just one study, folks.
Generative AI has been adopted in US workplaces more rapidly than PCs or the internet pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1...
January 26, 2026 at 9:49 AM
Generative AI has been adopted in US workplaces more rapidly than PCs or the internet pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Sending babies to nursery (daycare, for Americans) completely changes their microbiome www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Sending babies to nursery completely reshapes their microbiomes
Socializing at a young age helps to develop greater diversity in children’s microbiota, according to an analysis of baby-to-baby transmission of gut bacteria.
www.nature.com
January 22, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Sending babies to nursery (daycare, for Americans) completely changes their microbiome www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Executives say AI is a huge time-saver. Their employees disagree. (link is WSJ gift article) www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...
CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story.
How much time workers say the technology saves them on the job is vastly different from what executives report.
www.wsj.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:21 AM
Executives say AI is a huge time-saver. Their employees disagree. (link is WSJ gift article) www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...
It's not the case that children with dyslexia need identical instruction as typically developing kids, just a higher dose: Mark Seidenberg explains www.seidenbergreading.net/blog/oexqqvu...
That New Yorker article
The New Yorker article “Alphabet Soup” (Dec 29/Jan 5 issue) did a good job of conveying the complexity of dyslexia, the frustrations of dyslexics and their families, and the promise of schools such as...
www.seidenbergreading.net
January 21, 2026 at 10:20 AM
It's not the case that children with dyslexia need identical instruction as typically developing kids, just a higher dose: Mark Seidenberg explains www.seidenbergreading.net/blog/oexqqvu...
Contra predictions of a decade ago, physical bookstores and sales of paper books are doing well www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/b...
Dragons, Sex and the Bible: What Drove the Book Business This Year
www.nytimes.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:39 AM
Contra predictions of a decade ago, physical bookstores and sales of paper books are doing well www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/b...
Decades of lab evidence show spacing effect but S's self-report spaced study doesn't correlate w grades. Why? Bes E asked about study sessions, not whether same material was repeated in spaced sessions. When you ask that Q, you see predicted correlation. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
January 9, 2026 at 8:59 PM
Decades of lab evidence show spacing effect but S's self-report spaced study doesn't correlate w grades. Why? Bes E asked about study sessions, not whether same material was repeated in spaced sessions. When you ask that Q, you see predicted correlation. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
@mattbarnum.bsky.social with a sensible take on declining test scores...no one knows what's going on, and it's probably complicated. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/what-expla...
Here’s what we know, and don’t know, about declining test scores
Experts (and everyone else) have theories but no definitive answers just yet.
cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org
January 9, 2026 at 9:59 AM
@mattbarnum.bsky.social with a sensible take on declining test scores...no one knows what's going on, and it's probably complicated. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/what-expla...
Data from 117 grad programs at one university indicate that making applications GRE-optional did not increase diversity of applications. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
January 6, 2026 at 1:33 PM
Data from 117 grad programs at one university indicate that making applications GRE-optional did not increase diversity of applications. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
I'll no longer review for journals that use an editorial platform. If I provide free a service to publishers, I think
1) they should care about my convenience, and these platforms are a pain
2) the data use statement should simply say "we don't" but, predictably, it doesn't.
1) they should care about my convenience, and these platforms are a pain
2) the data use statement should simply say "we don't" but, predictably, it doesn't.
January 3, 2026 at 1:33 PM
I'll no longer review for journals that use an editorial platform. If I provide free a service to publishers, I think
1) they should care about my convenience, and these platforms are a pain
2) the data use statement should simply say "we don't" but, predictably, it doesn't.
1) they should care about my convenience, and these platforms are a pain
2) the data use statement should simply say "we don't" but, predictably, it doesn't.
New meta-analysis concludes that prequestions confer an advantage to content relevant to the prequestions, but the advantage does not bleed over to other content. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
December 23, 2025 at 9:21 PM
New meta-analysis concludes that prequestions confer an advantage to content relevant to the prequestions, but the advantage does not bleed over to other content. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
In the face of chatbot cheating, more professors turning to oral exams. Not really an option in my class of 350... www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
To AI-proof exams, professors turn to the oldest technique of all
A small but growing number of educators are experimenting with oral exams to circumvent the temptations presented by powerful AI platforms.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 12, 2025 at 12:50 PM
In the face of chatbot cheating, more professors turning to oral exams. Not really an option in my class of 350... www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
New American Educator article with Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social on what IQ scores mean. www.aft.org/ae/winter202...
December 12, 2025 at 10:37 AM
New American Educator article with Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social on what IQ scores mean. www.aft.org/ae/winter202...
New article with Eric Turkheimer: "What Do IQ Scores Mean?" www.aft.org/ae/winter202...
Ask the Cognitive Scientist: What Do IQ Scores Mean?
www.aft.org
December 10, 2025 at 3:01 PM
New article with Eric Turkheimer: "What Do IQ Scores Mean?" www.aft.org/ae/winter202...
B. F. Skinner: *shrugs*
www.pianistmagazine.com/blogs/i-taug...
www.pianistmagazine.com/blogs/i-taug...
'I taught an octopus piano' - the video the internet can't get enough of!
In one of the most bizarre, brilliant, and unexpectedly wholesome musical experiments of the year, Swedish musician and YouTuber Mattias Krantz has done the unthinkable: he spent six months teaching a...
www.pianistmagazine.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:10 PM
B. F. Skinner: *shrugs*
www.pianistmagazine.com/blogs/i-taug...
www.pianistmagazine.com/blogs/i-taug...
Math anxiety: meta analysis of longitudinal studies suggests a bi-directional relationship. Being bad at math makes you anxious when doing it AND being anxious about it impairs performance. psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
December 2, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Math anxiety: meta analysis of longitudinal studies suggests a bi-directional relationship. Being bad at math makes you anxious when doing it AND being anxious about it impairs performance. psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
Retractions in medical journals disproportionately less likely to include women authors. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
November 27, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Retractions in medical journals disproportionately less likely to include women authors. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Using PISA data from 73 countries, researchers estimated the extent to which growth mindset mediates the association of SES on achievement, and find results consistent w/ the picture of the last 10 years. It's a real effect. It's small. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 26, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Using PISA data from 73 countries, researchers estimated the extent to which growth mindset mediates the association of SES on achievement, and find results consistent w/ the picture of the last 10 years. It's a real effect. It's small. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Exercise improves academic performance in Norwegian college students (open) www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1...
November 24, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Exercise improves academic performance in Norwegian college students (open) www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1...
Every psychologist knows this feeling: you’re not mad that these two sections are adjacent. You’re grateful that they’re separate sections.
November 23, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Every psychologist knows this feeling: you’re not mad that these two sections are adjacent. You’re grateful that they’re separate sections.
Data from Peru: telling women they've met the exam cut-off to pursue a STEM major increases the probability they'll take it. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 19, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Data from Peru: telling women they've met the exam cut-off to pursue a STEM major increases the probability they'll take it. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Although it's commonly believed that left-handedness is associated with creativity...it's not. link.springer.com/article/10.3...
November 19, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Although it's commonly believed that left-handedness is associated with creativity...it's not. link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Really inspiring review of five decades of cardiac medicine that almost certainly kept Dick Cheney alive, his first heart attack was at age 37...and the importance of the US scientific infrastructure--currently under existential threat--to those miracles. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | The science that extended Dick Cheney’s life was a choice
The biomedical research engine will create more breakthroughs — if we keep it up and running.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Really inspiring review of five decades of cardiac medicine that almost certainly kept Dick Cheney alive, his first heart attack was at age 37...and the importance of the US scientific infrastructure--currently under existential threat--to those miracles. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Reposted by Dan Willingham
The circle of hell Dante forgot - Who Raised You - is teeming w people who put their bags on Amtrak seats. Their curse is to eternally battle NJ Transiters watching videos at full blast & those who trample tiny kids to deplane 30 sec sooner. Feels like a promising reality tv concept.
October 27, 2025 at 11:32 AM
The circle of hell Dante forgot - Who Raised You - is teeming w people who put their bags on Amtrak seats. Their curse is to eternally battle NJ Transiters watching videos at full blast & those who trample tiny kids to deplane 30 sec sooner. Feels like a promising reality tv concept.