Brad Wyble
LightNews LightNews
banner
Brad Wyble
@bwyble.bsky.social
6.4K followers 4.1K following 1.7K posts
Academic, cognitive & vision scientist, computational modeller, cofounder @neuromatch Academy, He/His. This is a personal account.
Posts Replies Media Videos
In the 1940's would could buy a ring for 15 cents that had radioactive material and if you looked inside you could see the particles hitting a little screen.

*Stares sadly at the latest Happy Meal toy*

(btw one of these is for sale right now on ebay)
Image of the Lone Ranger Atomic ring that you could buy in Kix cereal
January 8, 2026 at 4:15 AM
such as when the top-two rows are in the first array and the bottom-two rows in the second. More complex patterns, like the one in the image here, had very little improvement over time. (the data shows the average of the simple/complex patterns) (16)
Illustration of data from a task in which there are two arrays of dots that do not overlap. Subjects get better at the task as the ISI increases from 200 to 1000 ms.
January 6, 2026 at 7:25 PM
However this flexibility is difficult for cognitive scientists because memory representations are highly contextual. It means that we might represent an array of colored squares as a set of separate objects, or instead as a single holistic representation. (12)
Illustration showing a memory of four colored squares being stored as four separate items or one holistic representation
January 6, 2026 at 7:20 PM
Or if we view the same scene with the goal of remembering the steering wheel, we might create a memory more that emphasizes the visual detail of wheel specifically, maybe including the Mercedes logo. (11)
Image of the same car dashboard but now remembered in a way that emphasizes the steering wheel
January 6, 2026 at 7:19 PM
We also assume that memory for one scene or object can be composed of several different *kinds* of representation. For example when we perceive this car dashboard we might build a memory containing a coarse-grained representation of the whole as well as memories of the familiar objects within. (10)
Illustration of how a picture of a car dashboard is converted into memory with multiple parts, both visual and conceptual
January 6, 2026 at 7:18 PM
For example when asked to visually imagine a D, rotating it, and adding 4 on top, subjects can report that the resulting shape is a sailboat (Finke et al. 1989). Memory stores ‘4’ and ‘D’, and then generative mechanisms reconstruct these as visual reconstructions into the perceptual hierarchy. (7)
Visual illustration of combining a D and 4 to create a sailboat
January 6, 2026 at 7:15 PM
We assume also that generative processing allows conceptual information to be reconstructed in a format akin to visual sensory representations that can be manipulated and re-processed by perceptual mechanisms. (4)
Conceptual illustration of how a verbal description such as “red car” could be projected through a generative hierarchical model to create a noisy visual instantiation.
January 6, 2026 at 7:11 PM
We assume that compositionality allows complex scenes or objects to be mentally decomposed into constituents that can be individually manipulated or recombined to form new forms. (3)
An illustration showing one possible compositional visual representation of a car including its components, its overall shape, and the most prominent color. In our framework, a memory representation could access some combination of any or all of these depending on the task.
January 6, 2026 at 7:07 PM
We recently published a theoretical review about how compositional and generative mechanisms in working memory provide a flexible engine for creative perception and imagery.

Pre-print:
osf.io/preprints/ps...

Paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Illustration of the hypothesized flows of information between perception, memory and cognitive control in a conceptual model of working memory. Stimuli attributes are processed to varying degrees of abstraction and parts of these representations can be loaded into working memory under the guidance of cognitive control. Familiar stimuli such as the letter B activate visually abstract representations while less familiar stimuli are limited to sensory representations. Information can be shifted both up and down levels of the perceptual hierarchy to build either more or less abstract representations of either perceived or imagined stimuli. Working memories can be shifted into or out of the hierarchy as needed.
January 6, 2026 at 7:04 PM
Journals discover that they can nag you about a review being late before it's actually late.
Screen shot of text complaining that a review for a paper was due on Dec 29, but it's currently Dec 28...
December 29, 2025 at 4:59 AM
What I expected, of course, is that memory for these passages would improve systematically from 0th order to full text, but that's not quite what happened:
Line graph showing how each of the 4 passage lengths (10,20,30,50 words) were recalled at each level of approximation (0,1,2,3,4,5,7,text). Accuracy increases steadily as the list of words gets shorter, and also increases as the approximation gets closer to text. However it hits a ceiling at the 5th level and does improve beyond that point.. It's just flat across 5,7 and text
November 13, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Examples of complete gibberish (which they call a 0th order approximation to english):
10: byway consequence handsomely financier bent flux cavalry swiftness weather- beaten extent 20: betwixt trumpeter pebbly complication vigorous tipple careen obscure attractive consequence expedition pane unpunished prominence chest sweetly basin awoke photographer ungrateful 30: crane therewith egg journey applied crept burnish pound precipice king eat sinister descend cab Idaho baron alcohol inequality Illinois benefactor forget lethargy fluted watchtower attendance obeisance cordiality dip prolong bedraggle 50: hammer neatly unearned ill-treat earldom turkey that valve outpost broaden isolation solemnity lurk far-sighted Britain latitude task pub excessively chafe competence doubtless tether backward query exponent prose resourcefulness intermittently auburn Hawaii unhabit topsail nestle raisin liner communist Canada debauchery engulf appraise mirage loop referendum dowager absolutely towering aqueous problem
November 13, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Examples of coherent prose of varying length:
10: the history of California is largely that of a railroad 20: more attention has been paid to diet but mostly in relation to disease and to the growth of young children 30: Archimedes was a lonely sort of eagle as a young man he had studied for a short time at Alexandria Egypt where he made a life-long friend a gifted mathematician 50: the old professor's seventieth birthday was made a great occasion for public honors and a gathering of his disciples and former pupils from all over Europe thereafter he lectured publicly less and less often and for ten years received a few of his students at his house near the university
November 13, 2025 at 5:13 PM
I changed my profile picture, which they are welcome to use in perpetuity, worldwide, in any manner.
Reads "This site's ToS is Gross"
September 17, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Prince of Persia was a groundbreaking game for its accurate character movement back in the late 80's. To do this, the creator videotaped his own brother running and jumping on the sidewalk and then did pixel mapping frame by frame as shown here at the Strong Museum of Play
Photo of the frames of a video of someone running and jumping for the game Prince of Persia.
September 7, 2025 at 11:31 PM
In our two experiments, we found, then replicated, an accuracy boost for displays containing related pairs in visual working memory. These results suggest that our functional understanding of object interactions facilitates working memory compression. >
August 28, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Our new study (Titled: Memory Loves Company) asks whether working memory hold more when objects belong together.

And yes, when everyday objects are paired meaningfully (Bow-Arrow), people remember them better than when they’re unrelated (Glass-Arrow). (mini thread)
August 28, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Happy Sad face Meme with text: "Outlook telling me that 55% of recipients have opened my email" on the top and "Outlook telling me that the average viewing time was 20 seconds" on the bottom
July 22, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Look at this interesting google trend graph for "attention". Those cycles peak in October and March of each year like clockwork. My guess is that these are Psych perception & cognition classes. Are there other explanations? @sbmost.bsky.social @bjbalas.bsky.social @benwolfevision.bsky.social
A blue line graph showing relative interest in the term "Attention" on google from 2004-2025 with a very rhythmic trajectory course
July 7, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Famous dril tweet that reads "Im not owned! Im not owned!" I continue to insist as I slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob
June 17, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Drawers? Why not a whole dresser?
A dresser full of cables.
May 22, 2025 at 10:05 PM
But it's just not doing a great job, still. And yet we're being forced to integrate into our jobs. Being upset seems completely reasonable.
Google's AI summary suggesting that Bob Dylan weighed between 6 and 7 pounds, and links to a reddit post where this is mentioned.
May 2, 2025 at 4:55 PM
New Preprint! Interested in learning about how working memory is subserved by both compositional and generative mechanisms? Read on!
Diagram showing how a perceptual hierarchy is bidirectionally connected to a working memory system and also cognitive processes
April 14, 2025 at 2:24 AM
I asked a friend with access to the new GPT image model to create a poster aggressively attacking my work on the attentional blink and it created this masterpiece. Perhaps we finally found a practical use for these models.
A poster that reads: "The attentional blink? More like the attentional myth. Brad Wyble wants you to believe your brain blinks and forgets the second target... But what if that's just bad science in disguise? Correlation isn't causation: Just because T2 drops in accuracy doesn't mean there's a blink, it could be interference, expectation or task design flaws. Alternative models exist: Have you head of the boost and bounce theory or object updating models? Brad conveniently doesn't mention them when pushing the blink. Cherry-picked data? Manyi AB studies rely on RSVP tasks that create the blink effect. real-world attention doesn't work in PowerPoint slides. Stop Blinking. Start Thinking. It's time to leave the Blink behind and demand a better model
March 27, 2025 at 2:26 PM
As a test of google, I searched for the attentional blink, which I know a lot about:

So much of this is wrong. It's not an inability to recognize, it's not that the T2 is "too soon" ( lag 1 sparing eliminates this).

Just really sad that simplistic and wrong takes are now presented as fact.
Google search results for the attentional blink presents this summary "The attentional blink (AB) is a temporary inability to recognize a second target that appears very shortly after the first. It's a result of the brain's limited capacity to process information. How it happens The brain is processing information from the first target The second target appears too soon for the brain to process it The brain is unable to allocate enough resources to process both targets How it's studied The AB paradigm presents stimuli like letters, numbers, or pictures in rapid succession Participants are asked to report if they saw the second target Real-world consequences The AB can have serious consequences in real-world situations, like when a driver is unable to notice a deer in the road Related concepts Repetition blindness: The difficulty of recognizing a second target that is the same as the first in a rapid serial visual presentation task"
January 17, 2025 at 7:22 PM