Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Mark Ho

Pete Hitchcock @pf-hitchcock.bsky.social · 18h

We are hiring at Emory Psychology in Developmental!

Come join a wonderful department in a great city ☀️

apply.interfolio.com/173594

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 1d

Mark is doing really cutting edge work at the intersection of cognition, RL, probabilistic programming, and probably 5 other things. All 6 of the prospective graduate students on this platform should look into his group!

Mark Ho @markkho.bsky.social · 1d

I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓

The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠

Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏

codec lab

codec-lab.github.io

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Mark Ho @markkho.bsky.social · 1d

I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓

The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠

Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏

codec lab

codec-lab.github.io

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Thomas Serre @thomasserre.bsky.social · 14d

Brown’s Department of Cognitive & Psychological Sciences is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor, working in the area of AI and the Mind (start July 1, 2026). Apply by Nov 8, 2025 👉 apply.interfolio.com/173939

#AI #CognitiveScience #AcademicJobs #BrownUniversity

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Reposted by Mark Ho

emmie malone 🏳️‍⚧️ @emmiemalone.bsky.social · 16d

I’ve been training my whole life for this moment

A screenshot of an article published in popular science. It reads: “First known wild 'grue jay' hybrid spotted in Texas. Green and blue jays are crossing paths as temperatures rise.”

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Mark Ho @markkho.bsky.social · 20d

Congratulations Guy! 🎉🎉

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Russ Poldrack @russpoldrack.org · 21d

This great piece by @addyosmani.bsky.social resonates strongly with my recent experience using AI coding agents

The 70% problem: Hard truths about AI-assisted coding

A field guide and why we need to rethink our expectations

addyo.substack.com

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Reposted by Mark Ho

aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 26d

Come work with us! UC Irvine Cognitive Sciences is looking for a new Assistant Professor to join our team: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09896

I'm not on the committee, but happy to talk if you're interested.

Assistant Professor - Cognitive Sciences

University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

recruit.ap.uci.edu

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Víctor M. Verdejo @victormverdejo.bsky.social · 27d

Well yes! Sharing Thoughts is now published!! @oupphilosophy.bsky.social

With amazing fresh pieces from C Peacocke, I Dickie, G Longworth, F Recanati, J Pollock, M García-Carpintero, S Sawyer, S Prosser, L and F Schroeter, A Onofri, JL Bermúdez, R Goodman, A Gray.

academic.oup.com/book/60759

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Casey terHorst @ecoevolab.bsky.social · 29d

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

www.nsf.gov

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Sridhar Ramesh @radishharmers.bsky.social · Sep 5

I used to love computers. Computers reify math/logic into reality. Silicon Valley exists to chase money but at least it offered a living working on math/logic. Now not even that. Hard logic is old-fashioned. Silicon Valley is for vibe coding with $$$s in your eyes and little else.

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Isabelle Hoxha @isabellehoxha.bsky.social · Sep 3

Ever wondered why you keep going to that restaurant with stale fries? Is it because you went often in the past (perseveration) or because you remember past good experiences better (positivity bias)? Our study out in PNAS investigates the normative basis for these biases www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Evolving choice hysteresis in reinforcement learning: Comparing the adaptive value of positivity bias and gradual perseveration | PNAS

The tendency to repeat past choices more often than expected from the history of outcomes has been repeatedly empirically observed in reinforcement...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Mark Ho

todd gureckis @toddgureckis.bsky.social · Sep 3

me too!

Mark Ho @markkho.bsky.social · Sep 3

The TiCS issue featuring our paper on "A timeline of cognitive costs in decision-making" is now available online 😄

Honored to have been a part of this awesome interdisciplinary mega-collab led by Christin Schulze (UNSW Sydney)

www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

A timeline of cognitive costs in decision-making

Recent research from economics, psychology, cognitive science, computer science, and marketing is increasingly interested in the idea that people face cognitive costs when making decisions. Reviewing ...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Pete Hitchcock @pf-hitchcock.bsky.social · Aug 29

I'll be reviewing computational/cognitive and clinical psychology applications this year for the Translational Lab at Emory 💭🔬

Please share broadly and send applicants my way! 🔄

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Information for prospective graduate students

The Translational Lab will be reviewing applications this cycle! Prospective students can apply through Clinical Science or Cognitive and Computational Sciences in the Emory Psychology Department to ...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Rachit Dubey @rachitdubey.bsky.social · Sep 3

My lab at UCLA is hiring 1-2 PhD students this cycle!

Join us to work at the intersection of cognitive science and AI applied to pressing societal challenges like climate change.

More info about me: rachit-dubey.github.io

My lab: ucla-cocopol.github.io

Please help repost/spread the word!

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Mark Ho @markkho.bsky.social · Sep 3

The TiCS issue featuring our paper on "A timeline of cognitive costs in decision-making" is now available online 😄

Honored to have been a part of this awesome interdisciplinary mega-collab led by Christin Schulze (UNSW Sydney)

www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

A timeline of cognitive costs in decision-making

Recent research from economics, psychology, cognitive science, computer science, and marketing is increasingly interested in the idea that people face cognitive costs when making decisions. Reviewing ...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Mikey Pasek @mikeypasek.bsky.social · Aug 30

We’re hiring an assistant or associate professor to join our psychology department at the University of Illinois Chicago! We’re a vibrant research-active department in a great city, a diverse institution with a purpose-driven mission, and a fun place to work! #psychjobs

uic.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Assistant or Associate Professor - Clinical Psychology (Tenure Track)

Position SummaryTeach at the undergraduate and graduate level, advise students, conduct research in area of expertise, participate in the intellectual...

uic.csod.com

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Kristi Multhaup @kristimulthaup.bsky.social · Aug 31

Review of applications begins Sept 15 for this quantitative Psych position. Please share; TYIA!

Kristi Multhaup @kristimulthaup.bsky.social · Jul 28

Job alert! Please share with your networks that include quantitative psychologists. TY in advance! fa-exci-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Assistant Professor of Psychology

The Davidson College Psychology Department invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in Quantitative Psychology (area of research specialization open), beginning July 1, 202...

fa-exci-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Tom Schaul @schaul.bsky.social · Aug 27

Where do some of Reinforcement Learning's great thinkers stand today?

Find out! Keynotes of the RL Conference are online:
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Wanting vs liking, Agent factories, Theoretical limit of LLMs, Pluralist value, RL teachers, Knowledge flywheels
(guess who talked about which!)

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Chris Krupenye @chriskrupenye.bsky.social · Aug 20

When an animals' groupmates go out of sight, do they also go out of mind?

In a new paper in Proc B @royalsocietypublishing.org, Luz Carvajal and I show that a bonobo (Kanzi) can keep mental tabs on the whereabouts of multiple hidden social partners

royalsocietypublishing.org/eprint/4GI7G...

Mental representation of the locations and identities of multiple hidden agents or objects by a bonobo | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Humans are adept at navigating the social world in part because we flexibly map the locations and identities of agents around us. While field studies suggest primates can track individual conspecifics...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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Mark Ho @markkho.bsky.social · Aug 19

Interesting work that uses automatically generated “visual anagrams”!

tal boger @talboger.bsky.social · Aug 19

On the left is a rabbit. On the right is an elephant. But guess what: They’re the *same image*, rotated 90°!

In @currentbiology.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show how these images—known as “visual anagrams”—can help solve a longstanding problem in cognitive science. bit.ly/45BVnCZ

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Tom McCoy @rtommccoy.bsky.social · Aug 15

🤖 🧠 NEW PAPER ON COGSCI & AI 🧠 🤖

Recent neural networks capture properties long thought to require symbols: compositionality, productivity, rapid learning

So what role should symbols play in theories of the mind? For our answer...read on!

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05776

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The top shows the title and authors of the paper: "Whither symbols in the era of advanced neural networks?" by Tom Griffiths, Brenden Lake, Tom McCoy, Ellie Pavlick, and Taylor Webb.

At the bottom is text saying "Modern neural networks display capacities traditionally believed to require symbolic systems. This motivates a re-assessment of the role of symbols in cognitive theories."

In the middle is a graphic illustrating this text by showing three capacities: compositionality, productivity, and inductive biases. For each one, there is an illustration of a neural network displaying it. For compositionality, the illustration is DALL-E 3 creating an image of a teddy bear skateboarding in Times Square. For productivity, the illustration is novel words produced by GPT-2: "IKEA-ness", "nonneotropical", "Brazilianisms", "quackdom", "Smurfverse". For inductive biases, the illustration is a graph showing that a meta-learned neural network can learn formal languages from a small number of examples.

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Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · Aug 15

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!

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Mark Ho @markkho.bsky.social · Aug 10

“So we beat on, boats moving directly forward with the current, making excellent time to our clearly stated destinations, no longer crushed by the weight of our own protective shells or the insistence on moving sideways when forward was always an option.” 😂

Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · Aug 10

“Claude Opus 4.1, De-Carcinize the Great Gatsby” (That was the only prompt)

Pretty clever, actually.

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Reposted by Mark Ho

Noga Zaslavsky @nogazs.bsky.social · Aug 9

If you missed us at #cogsci2025, my lab presented 3 new studies showing how efficient (lossy) compression shapes individual learners, bilinguals, and action abstractions in language, further demonstrating the extraordinary applicability of this principle to human cognition! 🧵

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