Dan Mirea
@danmirea.bsky.social
220 followers 250 following 23 posts
PhD candidate at Princeton Psych. Studying mental health, technology, reinforcement learning, language. He/they 🏳️‍🌈🇷🇴
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danmirea.bsky.social
🚨Out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social 🚨

We explore the use of cognitive theories/models with real-world data for understanding mental health.

We review emerging studies and discuss challenges and opportunities of this approach.

With @yaelniv.bsky.social and @eriknook.bsky.social

Thread ⬇️
Reposted by Dan Mirea
frabraendle.bsky.social
What influences whether people have fun with a task?

Our paper “Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations and success influence enjoyment in video games” with @thecharleywu.bsky.social and @ericschulz.bsky.social now in Scientific Reports!

rdcu.be/eI069

Paper summary below 1/4
Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations, and success influence enjoyment in video games
Scientific Reports - Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations, and success influence enjoyment in video games
rdcu.be
Reposted by Dan Mirea
steverathje.bsky.social
🚨 New preprint 🚨

Across 3 experiments (n = 3,285), we found that interacting with sycophantic (or overly agreeable) AI chatbots entrenched attitudes and led to inflated self-perceptions.

Yet, people preferred sycophantic chatbots and viewed them as unbiased!

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Thread 🧵
Abstract and results summary
Reposted by Dan Mirea
colinwhoy.bsky.social
I strongly believe modeling behavior will be critical for understanding mental health well enough to develop new interventions, but the gap between task-based and naturalistic behavior is MASSIVE. Some great ideas here for bridging that gap!
danmirea.bsky.social
🚨Out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social 🚨

We explore the use of cognitive theories/models with real-world data for understanding mental health.

We review emerging studies and discuss challenges and opportunities of this approach.

With @yaelniv.bsky.social and @eriknook.bsky.social

Thread ⬇️
Reposted by Dan Mirea
nicolecrust.bsky.social
Such an important topic: computational psychiatry at the nexus of lab-based understanding (eg of reinforcement learning and mood) and measures of real-world behavior and mental health conditions.

(Scroll to the bottom for a link open to all).
danmirea.bsky.social
🚨Out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social 🚨

We explore the use of cognitive theories/models with real-world data for understanding mental health.

We review emerging studies and discuss challenges and opportunities of this approach.

With @yaelniv.bsky.social and @eriknook.bsky.social

Thread ⬇️
Reposted by Dan Mirea
shawnrhoadsphd.com
📢 My lab at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine is considering graduate student applications this fall

We welcome applicants interested in using computational modeling & fMRI to study social connection

🗓️ Deadline: December 1, 2025
🔗 Learn more: sinclaboratory.com/apply

#comppsychiatry #socialneuro
danmirea.bsky.social
Thank you so much for sharing!!
danmirea.bsky.social
Some to-dos for the field:
- identify amenable types of real-world data
- integrate them into data-collection pipelines alongside lab-based tasks
- assess links to mental health
- assess lab-based versus real-world convergent validity of parameters
- expand models to accommodate real-world data
danmirea.bsky.social
…and challenges of this approach:
⚠️ Noisy data
⚠️ Analytical complexity
⚠️ Data collection burden
⚠️ Ethical considerations

It remains to be seen whether real-world data can better computational psychiatry.
danmirea.bsky.social
Finally, we explore opportunities:
👍 Testing the generalizability of in-lab computational psychiatry findings to every-day life
👍 Incorporating linguistic behavior into cognitive models using LLMs (see figure)
danmirea.bsky.social
We also provide a (non-exhaustive) taxonomy of cognitive processes paired with modeling frameworks and types of real-world data that could be used to probe them:
danmirea.bsky.social
We review recent studies that probe cognition using real-world behavior, primarily in a reinforcement learning framework.

Some of these have uncovered novel links to mental health (e.g. linking depression to blunted reactivity to positive prediction errors, or higher sensitivity to social rewards)
danmirea.bsky.social
By real-world data we mean any data that reflect a person’s every-day behavior. We distinguish 3 types:
- experience sampling data (active, self-report)
- passive sensing data (e.g. geolocation, physiology, social proximity)
- digital-behavior data (e.g. social media, texting, phone/app navigation)
danmirea.bsky.social
Computational psychiatry often relies on behavior in cognitive tasks, which are simpler, less engaging and often less social than real-world environments.

By contrast, real-world data have intrinsic ecological validity and allow the continuous assessment of cognition and its variation over time.
danmirea.bsky.social
🚨Out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social 🚨

We explore the use of cognitive theories/models with real-world data for understanding mental health.

We review emerging studies and discuss challenges and opportunities of this approach.

With @yaelniv.bsky.social and @eriknook.bsky.social

Thread ⬇️
danmirea.bsky.social
Thanks so much Angela!
danmirea.bsky.social
Thanks for sharing Ondrej!! 🙂
Reposted by Dan Mirea
bcdavidson.bsky.social
🚨 New Preprint 🚨

Prolonged Isolation is associated with an increased behavioural sensitivity to ‘Likes’ on social media.

🧵

Social media rewards are inherently social—but does posting change during social isolation, when in-person social rewards are limited?

It turns out, yes!
Reposted by Dan Mirea
parnianrafei.bsky.social
🚨 New paper alert!
Do time constraints reveal habitual behaviour? 🤔 We directly compared two major paradigms in the habit research field (Outcome Devaluation vs Response Remapping) under identical training and forced-response conditions 🧠 ⏲️ ⌨️

preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
Reposted by Dan Mirea
clairegillan.bsky.social
In our preprint "Limited evidence for reduced learning rate adaptation in anxious-depression, before or after treatment", led by @stephsuddell.bsky.social and Lili Zhang, we fail to find a robust association between anxious-depression and learning rate adaptation
osf.io/preprints/ps...