María Alejandra Martínez
@malejandra.bsky.social
Born and raised in 🇨🇴 | developmental cognitive neuroscience phd student at stanford | #FirstGen |
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
Happy to introduce our 25 2025 Alumni Scholarship Recipients!!
This year we have launched our 2025 Alumni Scholarship Fund to support 1st year grad students, graduates of our GSMI program, to cover educational expenses in their 1st year of graduate school.
This year we have launched our 2025 Alumni Scholarship Fund to support 1st year grad students, graduates of our GSMI program, to cover educational expenses in their 1st year of graduate school.
December 10, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Happy to introduce our 25 2025 Alumni Scholarship Recipients!!
This year we have launched our 2025 Alumni Scholarship Fund to support 1st year grad students, graduates of our GSMI program, to cover educational expenses in their 1st year of graduate school.
This year we have launched our 2025 Alumni Scholarship Fund to support 1st year grad students, graduates of our GSMI program, to cover educational expenses in their 1st year of graduate school.
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
We are recruiting a lab manager/research assistant to start in early 2026! The successful candidate will conduct awake infant fMRI, meet cute babies, and join a fun team!
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
People – Scaffolding of Cognition Team
soc.stanford.edu
November 21, 2025 at 12:16 AM
We are recruiting a lab manager/research assistant to start in early 2026! The successful candidate will conduct awake infant fMRI, meet cute babies, and join a fun team!
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
The Milgram experiment but the guy in the white coat is a chef and he's assuring me that it's ok to add more butter
September 26, 2025 at 11:20 PM
The Milgram experiment but the guy in the white coat is a chef and he's assuring me that it's ok to add more butter
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
The rumors are true! #CCN2026 will be held at NYU. @toddgureckis.bsky.social and I will be executive-chairing. Get in touch if you want to be involved!
August 15, 2025 at 4:43 PM
The rumors are true! #CCN2026 will be held at NYU. @toddgureckis.bsky.social and I will be executive-chairing. Get in touch if you want to be involved!
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
Last month, I launched my lab at Ohio State. Our lab website is now live, and we're recruiting graduate students this cycle! If you're interested in the cognitive (neuro)science of learning & memory, please reach out!
www.momentslab.org
www.momentslab.org
Moments Lab
www.momentslab.org
September 19, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Last month, I launched my lab at Ohio State. Our lab website is now live, and we're recruiting graduate students this cycle! If you're interested in the cognitive (neuro)science of learning & memory, please reach out!
www.momentslab.org
www.momentslab.org
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
I’m hiring!! 🎉 Looking for a full-time Lab Manager to help launch the Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab at Stanford. We’ll use all-day language recording, eye tracking, & neuroimaging to study how kids & families navigate unequal structural constraints. Please share:
phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDWcqUYo
phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDWcqUYo
Research Coordinator, Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab in Graduate School of Education, Stanford, California, United States
The Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) seeks a full-time Research Coordinator (acting lab manager) to help launch and coordinate the Minds,.....
phxc1b.rfer.us
September 15, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I’m hiring!! 🎉 Looking for a full-time Lab Manager to help launch the Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab at Stanford. We’ll use all-day language recording, eye tracking, & neuroimaging to study how kids & families navigate unequal structural constraints. Please share:
phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDWcqUYo
phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDWcqUYo
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
I’ve been talking with the phenomenal NYTimes reporter @susandominus.bsky.social about my research since 2018, and her new book *The Family Dynamic* is finally out!
August 13, 2025 at 12:41 PM
I’ve been talking with the phenomenal NYTimes reporter @susandominus.bsky.social about my research since 2018, and her new book *The Family Dynamic* is finally out!
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
How is prefrontal neural activity refined as we age?
Out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com! This study, from Elizabeth Johnson, uncovers how subtle changes in neural 'noise' impact our attention, memory, and cognition through development.
Proud to have contributed!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com! This study, from Elizabeth Johnson, uncovers how subtle changes in neural 'noise' impact our attention, memory, and cognition through development.
Proud to have contributed!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 21, 2025 at 7:13 PM
How is prefrontal neural activity refined as we age?
Out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com! This study, from Elizabeth Johnson, uncovers how subtle changes in neural 'noise' impact our attention, memory, and cognition through development.
Proud to have contributed!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com! This study, from Elizabeth Johnson, uncovers how subtle changes in neural 'noise' impact our attention, memory, and cognition through development.
Proud to have contributed!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
New preprint!
tl;dr — We ran around late at night to record wild rats in NYC and figured out how to quantify their behavior and environment. 🧵
w/ Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, Emily Mackevicius
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
tl;dr — We ran around late at night to record wild rats in NYC and figured out how to quantify their behavior and environment. 🧵
w/ Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, Emily Mackevicius
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Computational Urban Ecology of New York City Rats
Urban rats are highly adaptable, thriving in the dynamic and often inhospitable conditions of modern cities. Despite substantial mitigation efforts, they remain an enduring presence in urban environme...
www.biorxiv.org
July 25, 2025 at 3:57 PM
New preprint!
tl;dr — We ran around late at night to record wild rats in NYC and figured out how to quantify their behavior and environment. 🧵
w/ Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, Emily Mackevicius
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
tl;dr — We ran around late at night to record wild rats in NYC and figured out how to quantify their behavior and environment. 🧵
w/ Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, Emily Mackevicius
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
Children are often cast as passive vessels into which we pour culture. But children create cultures of their own—vibrant ones with special properties.
Just one of the topics discussed in our recent episode with @dorsaamir.bsky.social & @sheinalew.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/varieties-of...
Just one of the topics discussed in our recent episode with @dorsaamir.bsky.social & @sheinalew.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/varieties-of...
July 24, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Children are often cast as passive vessels into which we pour culture. But children create cultures of their own—vibrant ones with special properties.
Just one of the topics discussed in our recent episode with @dorsaamir.bsky.social & @sheinalew.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/varieties-of...
Just one of the topics discussed in our recent episode with @dorsaamir.bsky.social & @sheinalew.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/varieties-of...
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
Thrilled to see our TinyRNN paper in @nature! We show how tiny RNNs predict choices of individual subjects accurately while staying fully interpretable. This approach can transform how we model cognitive processes in both healthy and disordered decisions. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Discovering cognitive strategies with tiny recurrent neural networks - Nature
Modelling biological decision-making with tiny recurrent neural networks enables more accurate predictions of animal choices than classical cognitive models and offers insights into the underlying cog...
doi.org
July 2, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Thrilled to see our TinyRNN paper in @nature! We show how tiny RNNs predict choices of individual subjects accurately while staying fully interpretable. This approach can transform how we model cognitive processes in both healthy and disordered decisions. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
🎈 Out now: 🎈
"The capacity limits of moving objects in the imagination"
(by Balaban & me)
of interest to people thinking about the imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, capacity limits, and more
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
"The capacity limits of moving objects in the imagination"
(by Balaban & me)
of interest to people thinking about the imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, capacity limits, and more
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM
🎈 Out now: 🎈
"The capacity limits of moving objects in the imagination"
(by Balaban & me)
of interest to people thinking about the imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, capacity limits, and more
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
"The capacity limits of moving objects in the imagination"
(by Balaban & me)
of interest to people thinking about the imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, capacity limits, and more
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
My paper with @stellalourenco.bsky.social is now out in Science Advances!
We found that children have robust object recognition abilities that surpass many ANNs. Models only outperformed kids when their training far exceeded what a child could experience in their lifetime
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
We found that children have robust object recognition abilities that surpass many ANNs. Models only outperformed kids when their training far exceeded what a child could experience in their lifetime
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Fast and robust visual object recognition in young children
The visual recognition abilities of preschool children rival those of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence models.
doi.org
July 2, 2025 at 7:38 PM
My paper with @stellalourenco.bsky.social is now out in Science Advances!
We found that children have robust object recognition abilities that surpass many ANNs. Models only outperformed kids when their training far exceeded what a child could experience in their lifetime
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
We found that children have robust object recognition abilities that surpass many ANNs. Models only outperformed kids when their training far exceeded what a child could experience in their lifetime
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
Incredibly excited and grateful to share that I’ll be starting a lab at The Ohio State University this(!) fall! My lab will study human learning and memory, with related interests in sleep, stress, and time perception. More info soon, but do get in touch if you’re interested in joining!
June 24, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Incredibly excited and grateful to share that I’ll be starting a lab at The Ohio State University this(!) fall! My lab will study human learning and memory, with related interests in sleep, stress, and time perception. More info soon, but do get in touch if you’re interested in joining!
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
How to cultivate collective intellectual humility
Being smart is knowing what you don’t know. From work meetings to book clubs, use these tips to boost your group’s thinking
psyche.co/guides/how-t...
via Liz Krumrei-Mancuso & @markalfano.bsky.social
Being smart is knowing what you don’t know. From work meetings to book clubs, use these tips to boost your group’s thinking
psyche.co/guides/how-t...
via Liz Krumrei-Mancuso & @markalfano.bsky.social
June 15, 2025 at 2:53 PM
How to cultivate collective intellectual humility
Being smart is knowing what you don’t know. From work meetings to book clubs, use these tips to boost your group’s thinking
psyche.co/guides/how-t...
via Liz Krumrei-Mancuso & @markalfano.bsky.social
Being smart is knowing what you don’t know. From work meetings to book clubs, use these tips to boost your group’s thinking
psyche.co/guides/how-t...
via Liz Krumrei-Mancuso & @markalfano.bsky.social
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
What about the social cerebellum during development we wondered? Here you find some cool insights on this awesome part of the brain! BIG thanks for the great work Katerina Manoli, and support from Charlotte Grosse Wiesmann and Frank van Overwalle 🧠🦋 rdcu.be/epKmZ
Functional recruitment and connectivity of the cerebellum is associated with the emergence of Theory of Mind in early childhood
Nature Communications - The cerebellum is heavily implicated in adult social cognition, but its role in Theory of Mind development remains unclear. Here, the authors show that children’s...
rdcu.be
June 6, 2025 at 2:09 PM
What about the social cerebellum during development we wondered? Here you find some cool insights on this awesome part of the brain! BIG thanks for the great work Katerina Manoli, and support from Charlotte Grosse Wiesmann and Frank van Overwalle 🧠🦋 rdcu.be/epKmZ
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
The first of many papers from the Memory and Forgiveness project is now out at the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Led by the indefatigable Gabriela Fernández Miranda, and with Matt Stanley, Sam Murray, and Leonard Faul, we systematically explored differences (1/n)
May 23, 2025 at 12:48 PM
The first of many papers from the Memory and Forgiveness project is now out at the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Led by the indefatigable Gabriela Fernández Miranda, and with Matt Stanley, Sam Murray, and Leonard Faul, we systematically explored differences (1/n)
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
The clearest ever images of the Sun’s corona reveal “raindrops” of dancing plasma.
Learn more: scim.ag/4jBtZKz
Learn more: scim.ag/4jBtZKz
June 2, 2025 at 5:59 PM
The clearest ever images of the Sun’s corona reveal “raindrops” of dancing plasma.
Learn more: scim.ag/4jBtZKz
Learn more: scim.ag/4jBtZKz
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
It’s out! Our article in Nature Human Behavior led by Yin Wang on the conceptual structure of human relationships across cultures and time. This work is breathtaking nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
The conceptual structure of human relationships across modern and historical cultures - Nature Human Behaviour
Cheng et al. explore the universality and cultural variability in how people understand human relationships, revealing a five-dimensional framework for relationship concepts across both modern and anc...
nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
March 13, 2025 at 12:04 PM
It’s out! Our article in Nature Human Behavior led by Yin Wang on the conceptual structure of human relationships across cultures and time. This work is breathtaking nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
Researchers in #ScienceAdvances have uncovered a previously unknown genetic branch of ancient hunter-gatherers local to the Colombian land bridge.
Learn more: scim.ag/4mEsGNL
Learn more: scim.ag/4mEsGNL
A 6000-year-long genomic transect from the Bogotá Altiplano reveals multiple genetic shifts in the demographic history of Colombia
The hunter-gatherer gene pool of the Bogotá Altiplano was replaced by Central American ancestry at least 2000 years ago.
scim.ag
June 2, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Researchers in #ScienceAdvances have uncovered a previously unknown genetic branch of ancient hunter-gatherers local to the Colombian land bridge.
Learn more: scim.ag/4mEsGNL
Learn more: scim.ag/4mEsGNL
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
New in Developmental Psychology, from Naoya Tani, @ingridsbrain.bsky.social, and @noranewcombe.bsky.social: The Limits of Agency: Young Children’s Memory May Not Benefit From Choice doi.org/10.1525/coll...
The Limits of Agency: Young Children’s Memory May Not Benefit From Choice
It is commonly claimed that curiosity, agency, and choice enhance learning and memory in children. However, the few studies that have investigated this in young children reveal mixed effects on memory...
doi.org
June 2, 2025 at 6:27 PM
New in Developmental Psychology, from Naoya Tani, @ingridsbrain.bsky.social, and @noranewcombe.bsky.social: The Limits of Agency: Young Children’s Memory May Not Benefit From Choice doi.org/10.1525/coll...
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
Check out my interview in the CNS newsletter about my graduate research on free recall in children 😊
"Sometimes when it seems like young children don’t remember something you ask them about, it may be more of an issue of cognitive search and verbal fluency than memory per se." Read a new Q&A with @susanbenear.bsky.social about the development of free recall:
#neuroscience #scicomm 🧪
#neuroscience #scicomm 🧪
How Was Your School Day?: Unpacking Free Recall in Young Children
A new paper finds that it can take some time for free recall to develop in young children, requiring multiple different cognitive skills.
www.cogneurosociety.org
May 29, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Check out my interview in the CNS newsletter about my graduate research on free recall in children 😊
Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
New in Nature MentalHealth! with Vrizzi, Najar, Lemogne, and @mael-lebreton.bsky.social
We tested whether behavioural and RL-based model parameters are test-retest reliable and predict mental health traits.
The result? Not really.
A cautionary tale for comp. psychiatry
doi.org/10.1038/s442...
We tested whether behavioural and RL-based model parameters are test-retest reliable and predict mental health traits.
The result? Not really.
A cautionary tale for comp. psychiatry
doi.org/10.1038/s442...
Behavioral, computational and self-reported measures of reward and punishment sensitivity as predictors of mental health characteristics - Nature Mental Health
Reinforcement learning task-based behavioral and computational measures displayed low test–retest reliability at the individual level. Also in contrast to self-assessed personality measures, behaviora...
doi.org
May 26, 2025 at 6:34 PM
New in Nature MentalHealth! with Vrizzi, Najar, Lemogne, and @mael-lebreton.bsky.social
We tested whether behavioural and RL-based model parameters are test-retest reliable and predict mental health traits.
The result? Not really.
A cautionary tale for comp. psychiatry
doi.org/10.1038/s442...
We tested whether behavioural and RL-based model parameters are test-retest reliable and predict mental health traits.
The result? Not really.
A cautionary tale for comp. psychiatry
doi.org/10.1038/s442...