Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Chaz Firestone @chazfirestone.bsky.social · 1d

This is a big one! A 4-year writing project over many timezones, arguing for a reimagining of the influential "core knowledge" thesis.

Led by @daweibai.bsky.social, we argue that much of our innate knowledge of the world is not "conceptual" in nature, but rather wired into perceptual processing. 👇

Screenshot of a paper abstract:

“Core knowledge” refers to a set of cognitive systems that underwrite early representations of the physical and social world, appear universally across cultures, and likely result from our genetic endowment. Although this framework is canonically considered as a hypothesis about early emerging conception — how we think and reason about the world — here we present an alternative view: that many such representations are inherently perceptual in nature. This “core perception” view explains an intriguing (and otherwise mysterious) aspect of core-knowledge processes and representations: that they also operate in adults, where they display key empirical signatures of perceptual processing. We first illustrate this overlap using recent work on “core physics”, the domain of core knowledge concerned with physical objects, representing properties such as persistence through time, cohesion, solidity, and causal interactions. We review evidence that adult vision incorporates exactly these representations of core physics, while also displaying empirical signatures of genuinely perceptual mechanisms, such as rapid and automatic operation on the basis of specific sensory inputs, informational encapsulation, and interaction with other perceptual processes. We further argue that the same pattern holds for other areas of core knowledge, including geometrical, numerical, and social domains. In light of this evidence, we conclude that many infant results appealing to precocious reasoning abilities are better explained by sophisticated perceptual mechanisms shared by infants and adults. Our core-perception view elevates the status of perception in accounting for the origins of conceptual knowledge, and generates a range of ready-to-test hypotheses in developmental psychology, vision science, and more.

6 46 110

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Dawei Bai @daweibai.bsky.social · 1d

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]👇

3 33 79

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Julian Jara-Ettinger @julianje.bsky.social · 1d

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

2 14 45

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

noam chompers @noamchompers.bsky.social · 1d

i'm joking—from this nice paper
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How to show that a cruel prank is worse than a war crime: Shifting scales and missing benchmarks in the study of moral judgment

Moral judgment is central to both everyday life and cognitive science, but how can it be studied with quantitative precision? By far the most direct a…

www.sciencedirect.com

1 1 5

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 1d

Aw :’))

1

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 1d

I spent like 5 minutes arguing with a philosopher this summer at SPP because I said it was crazy that you see perceptual nonlinearities in moral judgment since morality doesn’t have any physical correlate for a sensory receptor to transduce, and he said “yes it does.” Philosophers rule lmao

noam chompers @noamchompers.bsky.social · 1d

smh @vladchituc.bsky.social endorses moral subjectivism. disappointing

2 1 8

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 4d

CHATGPT: I understand where you're coming from. You worked really hard to get here, and now it's time to enjoy the fruit of your labors.

ISILDUR: So I should keep it? Elrond says I shouldn't

CHATGPT: The ring is precious. Sometimes friends don't have your best interests at heart.

ISILDUR: true

41 2.9K 10K

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Katie Gates @kgates.bsky.social · 7d

UNC is hiring in Quantitative Psychology! Assistant Professor (tenure-track). Please share widely! Find details here: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

a logo for the carolina tar heels with a ram head

ALT: a logo for the carolina tar heels with a ram head

media.tenor.com

1 24 31

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

David Pizarro @peez.bsky.social · 9d

We're hiring!

Felix Thoemmes @felixthoemmes.bsky.social · 9d

Come work with me at Cornell University. We are hiring an open-rank tenure-track professor in social / developmental with a focus on relationship science and human bonding.

academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30665

Cornell University, Psychology

Job #AJO30665, WDR-00055302 Open Rank, Tenure-Track Faculty Position, Psychology, Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

2 7

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 11d

Ever wonder how habituation works? Here's our attempt to understand:

A stimulus-computable rational model of visual habituation in infants and adults doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

This is the thesis of two wonderful students: @anjiecao.bsky.social @galraz.bsky.social, w/ @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social

conceptual schema for different habituation models

1 27 69

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Posit @posit.co · 10d

The new ggplot2 4.0.0 is here! 🎉

This major update includes a foundational rewrite of S7 and user benefits such as smarter labeling and a revamped theming system.

Check the details: www.tidyverse.org/blog/2025/09...

BONUS: Join the release party on Oct 3, 3pm ET. bit.ly/join-gg-extenders

#RStats

3 34 92

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 12d

The importance of benchmarks and 'magnitude estimation' techniques for accurate modeling of moral judgments. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How to show that a cruel prank is worse than a war crime: Shifting scales and missing benchmarks in the study of moral judgment

Moral judgment is central to both everyday life and cognitive science, but how can it be studied with quantitative precision? By far the most direct a…

www.sciencedirect.com

3 11

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

Thrilled to announce a new paper out this weekend in
@cognitionjournal.bsky.social.

Moral psychologists almost always use self-report scales to study moral judgment. But there's a problem: the meaning of these scales is inherently relative.

A 2 min demo (and a short thread):

1/7

1 10 32

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Jorge Morales @jorge-morales.bsky.social · 11d

🚨🚨🚨 The Subjectivity Lab is looking for a lab manager! The position is available immediately. We want someone who can help coordinate our large sample fMRI study, plus other behavioral work. Because *gestures at everything* the job was approved only now (ends in June 2026). Great opportunity! 🧵 1/4

Laboratory Technician

About the Opportunity SUMMARY The Subjectivity Lab, directed by Jorge Morales, and housed in the Department of Psychology at Northeastern University is excited to invite applications for a full-time L...

northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

2 29 22

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Cognition @cognitionjournal.bsky.social · 11d

"How to show that a cruel prank is worse than a war crime: Shifting scales and missing benchmarks in the study of moral judgment"

📢New paper from: @vladchituc.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, & Brian Scholl

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

Thrilled to announce a new paper out this weekend in
@cognitionjournal.bsky.social.

Moral psychologists almost always use self-report scales to study moral judgment. But there's a problem: the meaning of these scales is inherently relative.

A 2 min demo (and a short thread):

1/7

2 2

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

Marlene Berke @marleneberke.bsky.social · 11d

Psychophysics meets moral psych! In the best possible way!

I worry what this means for clinical research and patient reported outcomes, which often measure things like pain on a very simple 1-10 scale, often without clear anchoring.

Such important work by
@vladchituc.bsky.social!

5 11

Reposted by Vlad Chituc

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 15d

Distributed range adaptation in human parietal encoding of numbers https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.25.675916v1

1 6

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

Bonus: these scenarios are obviously and intentionally exaggerated, and it's not clear how widespread these problems are in the actual moral psych literature. But if you're interested in using these methods (or would like to be involved in a large-scale replication project) please reach out!

2

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

I love this paper, and I'm thrilled that it's finally out. You can read it at the following link for the next month or so, and for free on my site anytime after that

Journal: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lrB72Hx2-...

Preprint: vladimir-chituc.squarespace.com/s/Chituc-EtA...

7/7

vladimir-chituc.squarespace.com

1 2

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

We should hope that the measures used by our discipline can reveal something as obvious as the fact that a college prank (however cruel) is not nearly as bad as murder. But only one method consistently does this: magnitude estimation.

6/7

1

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

So while self-report ratings only show that a war crime is worse than a prank when scenarios are presented together (or within-subjects), you get the obvious difference with magnitude estimation whether you're rating the scenarios together or apart (between-subjects).

5/7

1

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

So how can we avoid this? Use a psychophysical method called "magnitude estimation" (where you make ratio judgments in reference to a benchmark stimulus): e.g. if stealing a wallet is a 10, then something twice as bad would be a 20, half as bad would be a 5, and so on.

4/7

1

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

This is obvious for everyday adjectives—if I say I have a small house and a big dog, you know I'm not saying that the latter is larger than the former.

And the same holds true for immorality.

(Also: this project has my favorite joke that I've ever snuck into a paper).

3/7

1

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

To state the obvious: college students don't really think a cruel prank is worse than an internationally recognized war crime. Instead, the words "very immoral" just mean very different things in these very different contexts.

2/7

1

Vlad Chituc @vladchituc.bsky.social · 12d

Thrilled to announce a new paper out this weekend in
@cognitionjournal.bsky.social.

Moral psychologists almost always use self-report scales to study moral judgment. But there's a problem: the meaning of these scales is inherently relative.

A 2 min demo (and a short thread):

1/7

1 10 32