Duane Watson
duanegwatson.bsky.social
Duane Watson
@duanegwatson.bsky.social
Professor, psycholinguist
Reposted by Duane Watson
Is there really ever a time where 'utilized' is a better word than 'used'? (I mean, obviously if you're a writer getting paid by the letter)
November 9, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Duane Watson
In a new paper, Mike Tanenhaus and I articulate the rationale behind different experimental tasks in the visual world paradigm and give recommendations for future studies. “Rethinking task importance in the Visual World Paradigm“ (Brain Research, in press). pure.mpg.de/rest/items/i...
pure.mpg.de
September 25, 2025 at 12:13 PM
We finally worked tomato-tomato into a title. Check out a new paper on dialectal variation and phonological encoding! (With wonderful colleagues Brett Myers, Cass Jacobs, and Andrés Buxó-Lugo).
My colleague Brett Myers, myself, Andrés Buxó-Lugo, and @duanegwatson.bsky.social have finally published our paper on how dialectal variation impacts phonological sequencing! We find that overlap still slows down production when your vowels differ from others': www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Tomato-tomahto: Phonological representations vs. surface-level features in speech planning
Speakers often lengthen the duration of a word when it shares initial phonological segments with a previously uttered word (e.g.,candy and candle). On…
www.sciencedirect.com
May 2, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
The SPARK Society supports scholars of color in the cognitive sciences.

Learn about the SPARK Society and get involved if you can! www.sparksociety.org

You can also help the SPARK Society achieve their mission by donating at buy.stripe.com/3cs03h1be38D...
April 21, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
We are stronger together! Our society has always been about community building. We will continue. We will support each other.
Unfortunately, the NSF grant that supports our work has been terminated. This is a setback, but our mission has not changed. We will continue to work hard on making cognitive science a more inclusive field. Stay tuned for upcoming events.
April 21, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
the SPARK society has been an essential lifeline for me as a young academic of color. more than ever we have to protect things like this!!!
Unfortunately, the NSF grant that supports our work has been terminated. This is a setback, but our mission has not changed. We will continue to work hard on making cognitive science a more inclusive field. Stay tuned for upcoming events.
April 21, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
Unfortunately, the NSF grant that supports our work has been terminated. This is a setback, but our mission has not changed. We will continue to work hard on making cognitive science a more inclusive field. Stay tuned for upcoming events.
April 21, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
I'll be presenting data from a project run in parallel to the one presented in @vrtliceralde.bsky.social's talk yesterday, this time exploring how individual differences in 10- to 15-year-olds affect language processing. Work with @duanegwatson.bsky.social.

Poster session 2 at #hsp2025 today!
March 28, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Duane Watson
Learned today that @duanegwatson.bsky.social and I have been awarded NSF funding to investigate the effects of reading exposure on second language processing! I can’t put into words my gratitude to all the people at NSF who continue to do the good work. Feeling especially proud to be #firstgen 🍾
March 13, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Reposted by Duane Watson
There's lots I can't control right now but I did create a fun escape room/puzzle box activity as a review for my undergrad social cognition class and watching them race through the puzzles today brought me joy 😍 1/
February 10, 2025 at 9:52 PM
My personal relaxing youtube alternatives to doom scrolling:

1) people chopping wood, preferably in Alaska.
2) EV road trips
3) espresso making content
4) hog hunting in Australia (they’re invasive).

What are yours?
February 9, 2025 at 3:13 AM
All of those suggestions to circle back in the new year are now circling back.
January 7, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Reposted by Duane Watson
Great piece by @manvir.bsky.social!
An estimated 1.5 billion people—roughly one in every five human beings—speak English, making it the most widely used language in the history of humanity. Some researchers worry about what we’re losing with its expansion.
How Much Does Our Language Shape Our Thinking?
English continues to expand into diverse regions around the world. The question is whether humanity will be homogenized as a result.
www.newyorker.com
December 31, 2024 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
In the latest PSPI, @sflusberg.bsky.social and his team provide a comprehensive review of framing-effects research, including describing a survey of common framing effects and a taxonomy of linguistic framing techniques.
Unraveling the Power and Influence of Language
The study of framing effects is a multidisciplinary line of research that investigates when, how, and why language influences those who receive a message and how it impacts their response. This scienc...
www.psychologicalscience.org
December 23, 2024 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
They call it winter “break” because it breaks the parents
Day 2 of Winter Break. Infighting has broken out among the ranks. Routine is absent. Pent up excitement makes for many conflicts. Despite a year of planning, rations inexplicably running low. Morale of leadership is waning with the thought of an additional 2 weeks of siege. Unclear how long we last.
December 22, 2024 at 11:33 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
Out now - National Academies consensus report on Understanding and Addressing Misinformation About Science 🧪

It was a privilege to serve as one of the 15 committee members from a wide range of scientific disciplines who put this report together. Quick 🧵1/

www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/und...
December 19, 2024 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
Linguists! We're hiring an Assistant Professor (tenure track) in phonology (secondary specializations welcome) at McGill linguistics, deadline January 13. Come work with us!

mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...
Assistant Professor
Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply. If you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at ...
mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
December 12, 2024 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
✨i'm hiring a lab manager, with a start date of ~September 2025! to express interest, please complete this google form: forms.gle/GLyAbuD779Rz...

looking for someone to join our multi-disciplinary team, using OPM, EEG, iEEG and computational techniques to study speech and language processing! 🧠
Google Forms: Sign-in
Access Google Forms with a personal Google account or Google Workspace account (for business use).
forms.gle
December 13, 2024 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Duane Watson
I promise one day I’ll have a bunch of science thoughts to post, but right now I want to show you the cat tower I’m working on! It started as a simple frame 🧵1
December 6, 2024 at 1:51 AM
Wow. Now do gesture research.
December 2, 2024 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Duane Watson
It’s interesting that we have discourse all the time on how LORs are the most biased sources for things like grad admissions, but they seem to be what’s mitigating the effects of bias in people’s subjective evaluations of objective metrics
2/ Language in external letters of support mitigated this problem - so letter writers, do your job! "These results demonstrate that emphasizing URM women candidates’ scholarship in the P&T process could help mitigate the double standard they face in academia."
December 2, 2024 at 1:34 AM
Reposted by Duane Watson
"Race did not appear to influence the typical first step of the review process [dept. vote]... [but]...when the college committees were evaluating faculty with lower h-indices, evidence of bias against Black & Hispanic scholars surfaced - especially for women" 1/
www.science.org/content/arti...
Racial bias can taint the academic tenure process—at one particular point
Black and Hispanic professors fare worse when voters include colleagues who are less familiar with their work, new study finds
www.science.org
December 2, 2024 at 1:22 AM
Reposted by Duane Watson
Women are under-represented at senior levels in #academia globally, & across all #science 🧪 disciplines, as shown by these "scissor-shaped curves" ✂️

So how can we ever achieve #gender #equality?

We discuss various strategies in this #Cell Commentary

#WomeninSTEM

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
🧵 1/
November 25, 2024 at 12:38 PM
This was me designing a survey when I was an undergrad.
sweet new likert just dropped
November 30, 2024 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Duane Watson
Why is Tokyo so fashionable? Some theories. 🧵
November 27, 2024 at 6:43 AM