Natalia Vélez
@natvelali.bsky.social
4.3K followers 180 following 57 posts
Cognitive scientist at Princeton, personally & scientifically interested in collaboration | science sketcher | thinking in non-English 🇵🇷
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natvelali.bsky.social
Sooo proud 🥰 I've so enjoyed discussing this paper with Bella throughout our projects together, glad to see it get the spotlight!
bellafascendini.bsky.social
Honored to contribute a Journal Club piece to @natrevpsychol.nature.com!

I explore Robert White's seminal "competence motivation" framework (1959) and why it remains relevant over 60 years later—from why toddlers insist on doing things themselves to designing intrinsically motivated AI. 🤖
natrevpsychol.nature.com
‘Motivation reconsidered’ reconsidered

Journal Club by Bella Fascendini

go.nature.com/3IwYftH
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
brialong.bsky.social
We’re recruiting a postdoctoral fellow to join our team! 🎉

I’m happy to share that I’ve opened back up the search for this position (it was temporarily closed due to funding uncertainty).

See lab page and doc below for details!
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
jbyoder.org
Really cool, conceptually simple approach here: cross-referencing grant proposal scores with literature citations and explicit acknowledgments in drug patents to identify patents linked to projects that wouldn't have been funded given a smaller budget
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
nsousanis.bsky.social
My statement on Ai from the mini-comic as syllabus i made for new class I'm teaching that starts tomorrow! It robs you of your decisions & struggles - and the joy of being surprised. We won’t to be robbed of our learning - this is essential. This & the full mini at post:
bsky.app/profile/nsou...
a snippet of a mini-comic, at top - straight line stretches from point A to B. Immediately below, same dot at A, then becomes a curving, meandering line that winds through the page and ends at a point with rays and a question mark emanating from it. Text reads: "Nothing can do this for you - for that robs you of experience and conflates answers with learning. Rather, it's all the decisions you make along the way, the mistakes, struggles, and surprises! These pathways you create - this is learning.
natvelali.bsky.social
Happy 3²/4²/5² to all who celebrate :)
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
timmonsroberts.bsky.social
Americans: it takes just a minute to submit a comment to the EPA asking them to preserve the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which finds carbon dioxide emissions to be dangerous to public health/welfare..it underpins all subsequent federal regulation of CO2 emissions www.regulations.gov/commenton/EP...
Regulations.gov
www.regulations.gov
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
ptoncompmemlab.bsky.social
Come work with us! @princetonneuro.bsky.social and the Department of Psychology at Princeton University are searching for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the area of human cognitive neuroscience, to be hired jointly in Psychology and Neuroscience: puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...
puwebp.princeton.edu
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
eriknook.bsky.social
We're hiring!!! Princeton Psych has an Assistant Prof search in cog neuro (joint with @princetonneuro.bsky.social). Apply apply apply! puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...
puwebp.princeton.edu
natvelali.bsky.social
Update: the buns are walking around the conference floor 👀
natvelali.bsky.social
We got too much dim sum! If you’d like egg custard tarts, sesame buns, or pork buns, come down to the lobby! :) #cogsci2025
natvelali.bsky.social
Thank you so much!! :)
natvelali.bsky.social
Fun fact: Nora was one of the very first speakers I ever sketched, back in 2018! :)
Notes from a 2018 talk by Nora Newcombe, arguing that there is not just one "spatial cognition" - spatial cognition instead spans spatial skills that involve working with our hands (e.g., tools, manipulating objects) and navigation
natvelali.bsky.social
Notes from @noranewcombe.bsky.social 's beautiful Rumelhart Prize "tasting menu" - congratulations Nora!!! #CogSci2025
Sketchnote of Nora Newcombe's Rumelhart Prize Talk, posing three questions and case studies for cognitive science: (1) innateness (with the geometric module as a case study), (2) representations (featuring cognitive maps vs. graphs), and (3) embodiment (featuring mental rotation)
natvelali.bsky.social
Tomorrow, P1-H-244 ☺️
cogscisociety.bsky.social
Because nothing says “ready to present” like literally wearing your findings at #CogSci2025

Ham Huang leveled up from poster session to superhero mode! 🦸
A smiling researcher at CogSci 2025 stands indoors wearing their scientific poster draped like a cape, with charts, graphs, and text visible on the fabric. The background shows a spacious conference hall with people walking and blurred architectural details. A research poster draped like a cape, showing charts, graphs, and text about collaborative memory and decision-making. The poster includes colorful data plots, grid diagrams, and sections labeled “Introduction,” “Results,” “Model Benchmark,” and “Conclusions.” The bottom includes the researcher’s contact information and social links
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
tbgphd.bsky.social
(please share widely!) With the start of August quickly approaching, I wanted to announce that the usual slack for fellow people on the Psych Academic Job Market for the coming cycle has been activated. If you are interested, feel free to fill out this form to join!
forms.gle/2DBgs8S1fktS...
Psych Academic Job Market Slack Interest Form
forms.gle
natvelali.bsky.social
Excited to see old friends and new science - see you in San Francisco! 🎉
velezcolab.bsky.social
The CoLab is headed to #CogSci2025!! 🥳 Here's where to find us!
A lineup showing upcoming talks and posters for the CoLab at CogSci 2025. 

Wednesday
Natalia Vélez: Understanding structural diversity in human collaboration
Metareasoning Workshop, Pacific H, 10:30-11:10am

Thursday
Huang Ham: Collaborative encoding of visual working memory
P1-H-244

Friday
Bonan Zhao (new PI!): Discovering hidden laws in innovation by recombination
P2-Z-231

Elizabeth Mieczkowski: A normative account of specialization: How task and environment shape role differentiation in collaboration
P2-M-133

Bella Fascendini: Are two-year-olds intrinsically motivated to explore their own competence?
Learning & Development 2, Salon 6, 1-2:30pm

Saturday
Renée Creppy (first-timer!): Children’s expectations of dominant and prestigious leaders
P3-C-40

Natalia Vélez: Thinking in teams
Invited Symposium: New Theoretical Directions in Cognitive Science
Salon 7, 2:15-3:45pm
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
robkendt.bsky.social
Alexandra Petri's writing has such punch to it, not only in terms of content but form. In her best stuff, you can *hear* her voice, and this is one of her best.
Are You Laughing Yet?
Everyone can say exactly what they want, free of the fear of censorship, except by the government.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Natalia Vélez
manymindspod.bsky.social
New episode!! 🎙️📣

A chat w/ @sheinalew.bsky.social & @dorsaamir.bsky.social about childhood across cultures.

Humans everywhere go through childhood—a time of learning, growth, and play. But this universal stage of life can look very different in different places.

Listen: disi.org/varieties-of...
natvelali.bsky.social
Totally! LaTeX/Overleaf still works best for my needs even with the occasional annoyance - e.g., mostly collaborative writing, mathematical typesetting, templates for grants/conferences, and text wrapping. I've heard good things about Typst, but it's impractical unless my collaborators also use it
natvelali.bsky.social
Nope, that’s what I do too!
natvelali.bsky.social
Overleaf is a huge timesaver for me for reference management - I find Zotero/Paperpile integration clunky in every app I’ve tried, and they don’t work well for collaborative writing
natvelali.bsky.social
I agree - unfortunately, this is math-heavy text, so it’s still the right tool for the job.
natvelali.bsky.social
It's somehow comforting that the line breaks in this post are messed up, too.