Fernanda Ferreira
@fernandaedi.bsky.social
Psycholinguist @UCDavis. Made in Portugal, raised in Canada, living in California. Author of "Psycholinguistics: A Very Short Introduction" from Oxford University Press, coming out January 23, 2025.
Pinned
With lots of new people and followers, thought I’d give my bio:
I’m 2-times an immigrant (🇵🇹—>🇨🇦, 🇨🇦—>🇺🇸), grew up in Winnipeg, 1st-gen. I’m a prof at UCDavis where I study language processing and teach amazing students. Love progressive politics, science, commuter cycling, running, and Jane Austen.
I’m 2-times an immigrant (🇵🇹—>🇨🇦, 🇨🇦—>🇺🇸), grew up in Winnipeg, 1st-gen. I’m a prof at UCDavis where I study language processing and teach amazing students. Love progressive politics, science, commuter cycling, running, and Jane Austen.
This is so true, and it highlights how annoying it is that outlets like the New York Times and The Atlantic obsessively fixate on the Ivies. Most U.S. students attend public universities, and those institutions change lives at a scale the Ivies can’t touch.
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 5:44 PM
This is so true, and it highlights how annoying it is that outlets like the New York Times and The Atlantic obsessively fixate on the Ivies. Most U.S. students attend public universities, and those institutions change lives at a scale the Ivies can’t touch.
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
Psych dept hiring is SO trend-based. In the 80s, connectionism was all the rage; in the early naughts, you had to do cognitive neuroscience; and today it’s all AI. Some of this is our own attraction to methods over theory, and a lot of it is a response to administration-defined financial priorities.
psych departments post a faculty job that has nothing to do with AI challenge
November 21, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Psych dept hiring is SO trend-based. In the 80s, connectionism was all the rage; in the early naughts, you had to do cognitive neuroscience; and today it’s all AI. Some of this is our own attraction to methods over theory, and a lot of it is a response to administration-defined financial priorities.
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
psych departments post a faculty job that has nothing to do with AI challenge
September 10, 2025 at 11:02 AM
psych departments post a faculty job that has nothing to do with AI challenge
”He will continue teaching.”
This tells you all you need to know about how little universities—even ones that are considered elite—care about their teaching mission.
This tells you all you need to know about how little universities—even ones that are considered elite—care about their teaching mission.
Larry Summers tells @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social
he’s stepping back from all public commitments in light of his messages with Epstein, saying he is “deeply ashamed” and hopes “to rebuild trust and repair relationships.”
He will continue teaching.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
he’s stepping back from all public commitments in light of his messages with Epstein, saying he is “deeply ashamed” and hopes “to rebuild trust and repair relationships.”
He will continue teaching.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
November 18, 2025 at 2:59 PM
”He will continue teaching.”
This tells you all you need to know about how little universities—even ones that are considered elite—care about their teaching mission.
This tells you all you need to know about how little universities—even ones that are considered elite—care about their teaching mission.
What should I do with a student who blatantly cheated on an exam, and now that I’m trying to speak with him to allow him to explain himself rejects all the meeting times I offer, then only suggests alternate times after 6pm or on weekends?
November 15, 2025 at 3:32 PM
What should I do with a student who blatantly cheated on an exam, and now that I’m trying to speak with him to allow him to explain himself rejects all the meeting times I offer, then only suggests alternate times after 6pm or on weekends?
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
Misinformation *is* central to democratic problems today, but the solution is *not* to correct such epistemic failures directly. Instead, we must address them at their roots, in social identity.
Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.
blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.
blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
The Problem is Epistemic. The Solution is Not. | Blog of the APA
Doubts about the wisdom of the masses are as old as philosophy itself. Yet interest in democracy’s “epistemic” merits has surged in the last decade—and it is no mystery why. Democracy is collapsing ar...
blog.apaonline.org
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Misinformation *is* central to democratic problems today, but the solution is *not* to correct such epistemic failures directly. Instead, we must address them at their roots, in social identity.
Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.
blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.
blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
There’s growing evidence that something was going seriously wrong in the classic early work on cognitive dissonance
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:06 PM
There’s growing evidence that something was going seriously wrong in the classic early work on cognitive dissonance
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
As always, we are powered by the Janeway systems platform, hosted by
@escholarship.bsky.social
of the University of California, copyedited by our Editorial Assistant Sandy Chung, copyedited and typeset by Silicon Chips, and supported by the psycholinguistics community!
@escholarship.bsky.social
of the University of California, copyedited by our Editorial Assistant Sandy Chung, copyedited and typeset by Silicon Chips, and supported by the psycholinguistics community!
November 13, 2025 at 3:21 PM
As always, we are powered by the Janeway systems platform, hosted by
@escholarship.bsky.social
of the University of California, copyedited by our Editorial Assistant Sandy Chung, copyedited and typeset by Silicon Chips, and supported by the psycholinguistics community!
@escholarship.bsky.social
of the University of California, copyedited by our Editorial Assistant Sandy Chung, copyedited and typeset by Silicon Chips, and supported by the psycholinguistics community!
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
It's almost Thanksgiving time around these parts! And we're thankful and delighted to announce the publication of another article in Glossa Psycholinguistics...
November 13, 2025 at 3:21 PM
It's almost Thanksgiving time around these parts! And we're thankful and delighted to announce the publication of another article in Glossa Psycholinguistics...
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
'Exploring the Timing of Online Processing of Locative Constructions With Spanish Copulas Ser and Estar' by Aguilar, López-Cortés & Demestre is now available on our site:
escholarship.org/uc/item/31q9...
escholarship.org/uc/item/31q9...
Exploring the Timing of Online Processing of Locative Constructions With Spanish Copulas Ser and Estar
Author(s): Aguilar, Miriam; López-Cortés, Natalia; Demestre, Josep | Abstract: This study investigates how the semantic restrictions of Spanish copulas (ser and estar) impact the online processing of ...
escholarship.org
November 13, 2025 at 3:21 PM
'Exploring the Timing of Online Processing of Locative Constructions With Spanish Copulas Ser and Estar' by Aguilar, López-Cortés & Demestre is now available on our site:
escholarship.org/uc/item/31q9...
escholarship.org/uc/item/31q9...
Some say this is a boomer email style that arises from a lack of understanding of tech. It’s not. This style is specific to a certain type of elite who wants you to know they‘re too busy to waste time on trivial things like punctuation and capitalization, and it’s your job to decode their text.
Insights from Larry Summers
"I observed that half the IQ In world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population..."
"I observed that half the IQ In world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population..."
November 13, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Some say this is a boomer email style that arises from a lack of understanding of tech. It’s not. This style is specific to a certain type of elite who wants you to know they‘re too busy to waste time on trivial things like punctuation and capitalization, and it’s your job to decode their text.
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
November 13, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
In recognition of Neil Young's 80th birthday, here he is in Grade 10 at Kelvin High School in Winnipeg.
November 12, 2025 at 9:29 PM
In recognition of Neil Young's 80th birthday, here he is in Grade 10 at Kelvin High School in Winnipeg.
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
⚠️ New paper! Why do words sound so similar? In an agent-based model + communication game, we show that production/comprehension pressures trade off to shape lexicon structure.
In @cognitionjournal.bsky.social w/ @simonkirby.bsky.social & Jenny Culbertson.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
In @cognitionjournal.bsky.social w/ @simonkirby.bsky.social & Jenny Culbertson.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The lexicon adapts to competing communicative pressures: Explaining patterns of word similarity
Cross-linguistically, lexicons tend to be more phonetically clustered than required by the phonotactics of the language; that is, words within a langu…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:59 AM
⚠️ New paper! Why do words sound so similar? In an agent-based model + communication game, we show that production/comprehension pressures trade off to shape lexicon structure.
In @cognitionjournal.bsky.social w/ @simonkirby.bsky.social & Jenny Culbertson.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
In @cognitionjournal.bsky.social w/ @simonkirby.bsky.social & Jenny Culbertson.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
I've never received so many requests for letters of recommendation. I'm averaging 1-2 a day, most from students who took one of my 300+ enrollment classes. Anyone else seeing this, and is this a recession effect - the job market is bad so students are choosing to do postgrad work to wait it out?
November 8, 2025 at 8:51 PM
I've never received so many requests for letters of recommendation. I'm averaging 1-2 a day, most from students who took one of my 300+ enrollment classes. Anyone else seeing this, and is this a recession effect - the job market is bad so students are choosing to do postgrad work to wait it out?
Your moment of zen
November 7, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Your moment of zen
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
12 Hangry Men.
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE MUST CREDIT: Lunch for jurors in the “sandwich guy” trial are a variety of sandwiches, according to a source familiar with lunch.
November 6, 2025 at 5:34 PM
12 Hangry Men.
I’ve waited my entire adult life to hear a speech from an American politician like the one Mamdani gave last night.
November 5, 2025 at 3:14 PM
I’ve waited my entire adult life to hear a speech from an American politician like the one Mamdani gave last night.
I feel like I can breathe again
November 5, 2025 at 5:28 AM
I feel like I can breathe again
Not often you read an obituary that’s better than poetry
All day, many of you have been asking for a Cheney obituary from me. Get ready:
His Works Completed, Dick Cheney, Mass Murderer of Iraqis and American Democracy, Dies
As much as the Trumpists claim to disavow the War on Terror, they walk a path paved by the most powerful vice president in U.S. history.
www.thenation.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Not often you read an obituary that’s better than poetry
I predict Zoran Mamdani will make an excellent mayor, not only because of his progressive policies, although those are great, but because his entire campaign has projected an extraordinary level of competence and skill. After all, governing is problem solving.
November 3, 2025 at 2:27 PM
I predict Zoran Mamdani will make an excellent mayor, not only because of his progressive policies, although those are great, but because his entire campaign has projected an extraordinary level of competence and skill. After all, governing is problem solving.
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
I wrote a thing on episodic memory and systems consolidation. I hope you all enjoy it and/or find it interesting.
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
Episodic memories are highly dynamic and change in nonlinear ways over time. This dynamism is not captured by existing systems consolidation theories …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:56 PM
I wrote a thing on episodic memory and systems consolidation. I hope you all enjoy it and/or find it interesting.
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
Nothing in teaching gives me anxiety like trying to get across the Baddeley & Hitch working memory model. Any tips to make it intuitive to undergrads? especially the episodic buffer?
October 23, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Nothing in teaching gives me anxiety like trying to get across the Baddeley & Hitch working memory model. Any tips to make it intuitive to undergrads? especially the episodic buffer?
Reposted by Fernanda Ferreira
We are thrilled to announce that the Italian Agency for the Evaluation of Research has given our journal a rating of “A” for Linguistics publications. This is a major milestone for our journal! Thanks to
@escholarship.bsky.social
, Valentina Bambini, and Federico Frau for their support!
@escholarship.bsky.social
, Valentina Bambini, and Federico Frau for their support!
October 21, 2025 at 6:31 PM
We are thrilled to announce that the Italian Agency for the Evaluation of Research has given our journal a rating of “A” for Linguistics publications. This is a major milestone for our journal! Thanks to
@escholarship.bsky.social
, Valentina Bambini, and Federico Frau for their support!
@escholarship.bsky.social
, Valentina Bambini, and Federico Frau for their support!