Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
It has been so so fun to think with some of my favorite scientists about what it means to understand!
What does it mean to understand language? We argue that the brain’s core language system is limited, and that *deeply* understanding language requires EXPORTING info to other brain regions.
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
What does it mean to understand language?
Language understanding entails not just extracting the surface-level meaning of the linguistic input, but constructing rich mental models of the situation it describes. Here we propose that because pr...
arxiv.org
November 26, 2025 at 5:08 PM
It has been so so fun to think with some of my favorite scientists about what it means to understand!
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
So, is "When Prophesy Fails"—the foundation of cognitive dissonance theory—debunked?
Unclear. The article making this claim is... odd.
It describes Festinger and Schachter as leftwing radicals, critiques the political slant of their funding, generally refers to their work as failed...
1/n
Unclear. The article making this claim is... odd.
It describes Festinger and Schachter as leftwing radicals, critiques the political slant of their funding, generally refers to their work as failed...
1/n
Wow - debunking “When Prophesy Fails” - the canonical foundation of cognitive dissonance theory onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
November 26, 2025 at 3:11 PM
So, is "When Prophesy Fails"—the foundation of cognitive dissonance theory—debunked?
Unclear. The article making this claim is... odd.
It describes Festinger and Schachter as leftwing radicals, critiques the political slant of their funding, generally refers to their work as failed...
1/n
Unclear. The article making this claim is... odd.
It describes Festinger and Schachter as leftwing radicals, critiques the political slant of their funding, generally refers to their work as failed...
1/n
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Y’all are reading this paper in the wrong way.
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
“Our findings challenge the conventional focus on low-dimensional coding subspaces as a sufficient framework for understanding neural computations, demonstrating that dimensions previously considered task-irrelevant and accounting for little variance can have a critical role in driving behavior.”
Neural dynamics outside task-coding dimensions drive decision trajectories through transient amplification
Most behaviors involve neural dynamics in high-dimensional activity spaces. A common approach is to extract dimensions that capture task-related variability, such as those separating stimuli or choice...
www.biorxiv.org
November 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Y’all are reading this paper in the wrong way.
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
#philsci #cogsky #CognitiveNeuroscience
@phaueis.bsky.social and I have had our paper, “Metabolic considerations for cognitive modeling,” accepted as a target article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
@phaueis.bsky.social and I have had our paper, “Metabolic considerations for cognitive modeling,” accepted as a target article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Metabolic considerations for cognitive modeling | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Metabolic considerations for cognitive modeling
www.cambridge.org
November 18, 2025 at 11:58 AM
#philsci #cogsky #CognitiveNeuroscience
@phaueis.bsky.social and I have had our paper, “Metabolic considerations for cognitive modeling,” accepted as a target article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
@phaueis.bsky.social and I have had our paper, “Metabolic considerations for cognitive modeling,” accepted as a target article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
The power of surprisal stems from the fact that (lexical) surprisal can —and will— parametrically reflect variation stemming from any domain or representational level of language. Why? Because words form patterns for many reasons! Semantics, syntax, frequency... Surprisal does not distinguish.
November 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
The power of surprisal stems from the fact that (lexical) surprisal can —and will— parametrically reflect variation stemming from any domain or representational level of language. Why? Because words form patterns for many reasons! Semantics, syntax, frequency... Surprisal does not distinguish.
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
something i noticed in preparing a class
November 14, 2025 at 2:01 PM
something i noticed in preparing a class
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
nice, will check it out! here's the link to save others the search ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu/article/id/7...
November 10, 2025 at 8:08 PM
nice, will check it out! here's the link to save others the search ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu/article/id/7...
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Delightful detail from the Roman “unswept floor” mosaic by Heraclitus, showing a mouse nibbling a walnut.
Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!
2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!
2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
November 10, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Delightful detail from the Roman “unswept floor” mosaic by Heraclitus, showing a mouse nibbling a walnut.
Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!
2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!
2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
can we all agree on a short designator to the paragraph "LLMs have proven surprisingly useful at (X), but are still not great at (Y), and we don't uite understand what's going on" and just move to using that?
Feels like it would save time/space for many papers to both Reader and Writer.
Feels like it would save time/space for many papers to both Reader and Writer.
November 9, 2025 at 10:33 PM
can we all agree on a short designator to the paragraph "LLMs have proven surprisingly useful at (X), but are still not great at (Y), and we don't uite understand what's going on" and just move to using that?
Feels like it would save time/space for many papers to both Reader and Writer.
Feels like it would save time/space for many papers to both Reader and Writer.
there was some discussion on here recently about the scientific legitimacy of cognitive dissonance research. as someone who has spent years investigating this literature, i wanted to make a thread to explain why pessimism is not justified by careful inspection of the evidence
1/
1/
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 8, 2025 at 11:58 PM
there was some discussion on here recently about the scientific legitimacy of cognitive dissonance research. as someone who has spent years investigating this literature, i wanted to make a thread to explain why pessimism is not justified by careful inspection of the evidence
1/
1/
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
The so-called debunking of “cult psychology” from the recent paper on When Prophecy Fails is misleading.
Check out the comments on this thread, where philosophers point out where the key premises of the book replicate in the vast majority of similar cults & a huge replication of dissonance theory.
Check out the comments on this thread, where philosophers point out where the key premises of the book replicate in the vast majority of similar cults & a huge replication of dissonance theory.
This is all p misleading IMO. I just saw this link so haven't read it yet (but will, though I also think lots of the retweets of this haven't read it as well, given its provenance). I don't see how this counters (eg) Dawson 1999 which goes through 13 millennial cults and finds 12 show the effect 1/n
November 6, 2025 at 5:12 PM
The so-called debunking of “cult psychology” from the recent paper on When Prophecy Fails is misleading.
Check out the comments on this thread, where philosophers point out where the key premises of the book replicate in the vast majority of similar cults & a huge replication of dissonance theory.
Check out the comments on this thread, where philosophers point out where the key premises of the book replicate in the vast majority of similar cults & a huge replication of dissonance theory.
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Good to see that some people are still reading the full paper and not only the abstract. I think Science would thank you if it can. :)
November 7, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Good to see that some people are still reading the full paper and not only the abstract. I think Science would thank you if it can. :)
oh you think i'm irrationally defending cognitive dissonance theory? almost like i'm... responding to counterevidence by rationalizing it away to hold on to my prior belief...?
November 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
oh you think i'm irrationally defending cognitive dissonance theory? almost like i'm... responding to counterevidence by rationalizing it away to hold on to my prior belief...?
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice.
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
November 6, 2025 at 2:55 PM
It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice.
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
I think some people have overcorrected in their scepticism towards psychology. There is plenty of dodgy stuff out there, but I too often see people willing to burn down entire fields after reading a tweet about another non-replication. Seems obvious cognitive dissonance is a real phenom.
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 4:28 PM
I think some people have overcorrected in their scepticism towards psychology. There is plenty of dodgy stuff out there, but I too often see people willing to burn down entire fields after reading a tweet about another non-replication. Seems obvious cognitive dissonance is a real phenom.
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
This is all p misleading IMO. I just saw this link so haven't read it yet (but will, though I also think lots of the retweets of this haven't read it as well, given its provenance). I don't see how this counters (eg) Dawson 1999 which goes through 13 millennial cults and finds 12 show the effect 1/n
November 6, 2025 at 2:37 PM
This is all p misleading IMO. I just saw this link so haven't read it yet (but will, though I also think lots of the retweets of this haven't read it as well, given its provenance). I don't see how this counters (eg) Dawson 1999 which goes through 13 millennial cults and finds 12 show the effect 1/n
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Now out in an issue! ~~ www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
November 6, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Now out in an issue! ~~ www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Looks great!! Love to see more scholarship on the Fodorian question of ‘How many games in town are there?’!
November 5, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Looks great!! Love to see more scholarship on the Fodorian question of ‘How many games in town are there?’!
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Is this something YOU ever ask yourself?
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
Brett Karlan, AI empiricism: the only game in town? - PhilPapers
I offer an epistemic argument against the dominance of empiricism and empiricist-inspired methods in contemporary machine learning (ML) research. I first establish, as many ML researchers and philosop...
philpapers.org
November 4, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Is this something YOU ever ask yourself?
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
British Philosophy of Mind: “Appearing-as as an Efficient Cause of Seeing-that”
American Philosophy of Mind: “New evidence for hierarchical structure in visual working memory”
American Philosophy of Mind: “New evidence for hierarchical structure in visual working memory”
November 4, 2025 at 4:37 PM
British Philosophy of Mind: “Appearing-as as an Efficient Cause of Seeing-that”
American Philosophy of Mind: “New evidence for hierarchical structure in visual working memory”
American Philosophy of Mind: “New evidence for hierarchical structure in visual working memory”
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning
Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when
academic.oup.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:14 PM
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
functionalism always wins
My commentary on @anilseth.bsky.social's BBS article: philpapers.org/rec/MICBOF. We should bet on functionalism.
Matthias Michel, Bet on functionalism - PhilPapers
I argue that there is currently no alternative to functionalism. Functionalism explains the differences between types of mental states. No biological theory does. Functionalist theories account for th...
philpapers.org
October 24, 2025 at 11:50 PM
functionalism always wins
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Seriously though it's insanely depressing for current PhD students, and is driving everyone to think they need to dump LLMs into their papers just to get a job. That's not what we want here.
October 24, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Seriously though it's insanely depressing for current PhD students, and is driving everyone to think they need to dump LLMs into their papers just to get a job. That's not what we want here.
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
New preprint written with the wonderful philosopher William Ramsey: Mental Representation Without Neural Representation: Understanding The Evidence osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
October 18, 2025 at 8:18 AM
New preprint written with the wonderful philosopher William Ramsey: Mental Representation Without Neural Representation: Understanding The Evidence osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Kevin Durant booing the OKC fans booing him
October 21, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Kevin Durant booing the OKC fans booing him