Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Jessy Li @jessyjli.bsky.social · 5h

🚨 Does your LLM really understand code -- or is it just really good at remembering it?
We built **PLSemanticsBench** to find out.
The results: a wild mix.

✅The Brilliant:
Top reasoning models can execute complex, fuzzer-generated programs -- even with 5+ levels of nested loops! 🤯

❌The Brittle: 🧵

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Mark Ho @markkho.bsky.social · 14h

We’re hiring!

@sucholutsky.bsky.social and I are seeking a postdoc and RA for a project on trust in AI systems with folks at NYU, Princeton, BU, and Cornell

Positions open until filled. Apply soon! Please share 🔁

postdoc: apply.interfolio.com/175495

RA: apply.interfolio.com/175497

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

apply.interfolio.com

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Maria Ryskina @mryskina.bsky.social · 7h

⭐ A thread for some cool recent work I learned about at #COLM2025, either from the paper presentations or from the keynotes!

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Tobias Gerstenberg @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social · 12h

🚨New Preprint: We develop a novel task that probes counterfactual thinking without using counterfactual language, and that teases apart genuine counterfactual thinking from related forms of thinking. Using this task, we find that the ability for counterfactual thinking emerges around 5 years of age.

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Jadyn Park @jadynpark.bsky.social · 16h

Out now in @nathumbehav.nature.com! We applied graph theoretic analyses to fMRI data of participants watching movies/listening to stories. Integration across large-scale functional networks mediates arousal-dependent enhancement of narrative memories. Open access link: rdcu.be/eKKAw

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Stanford AAUP @stanfordaaup.bsky.social · 8h

As we’ve said before, no university should sign on to this compact, certainly not our own. @gjmartin.bsky.social and other Stanford AAUP colleagues explain why in this editorial👇

From the Community | We must refuse the 'Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education'

Associate professor Greg Martin writes on behalf of the Stanford's AAUP chapter to condemn the White House's compact on higher education.

stanforddaily.com

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Shea (she/her) @solarshea.bsky.social · 12h

Calling for solidarity against "the compact for academic excellence in higher education" ‼️

@stanfordaaup.bsky.social
@stanforddaily.com.web.brid.gy
@aaup.org
#SaveHigherEd

stanforddaily.com/2025/10/12/f...

From the Community | We must refuse the 'Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education'

Associate professor Greg Martin writes on behalf of the Stanford's AAUP chapter to condemn the White House's compact on higher education.

stanforddaily.com

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Stanford AAUP @stanfordaaup.bsky.social · 23d

The plan for NSF is to demote its director to an advisory role to what a former senior figure compared to a Soviet political commissar.

Also, greatly reduce the role of rotators from academic departments to consolidate administration power.

This is a disaster for science and innovation.

Under Trump, NSF faces worst crisis in its 75-year history

Political directives have undermined agency's independence and record of supporting the best basic research

www.science.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Elliot Murphy @elliot-murphy.bsky.social · 8h

arxiv.org/abs/2510.05141

To model human linguistic prediction, make LLMs less superhuman

When people listen to or read a sentence, they actively make predictions about upcoming words: words that are less predictable are generally read more slowly than predictable ones. The success of larg...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 5d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Jia-Hou (JH) Poh @jiahou-poh.bsky.social · 1d

How does motivation shape learning and memory? In a new review w @ralisonadcock.bsky.social, we propose that under different motivational ‘moods', neuromodulators set distinct neural contexts to determine information processing and memory formation.
doi.org/10.1146/annu...
#psychscisky #neuroskyence

Motivation as Neural Context for Adaptive Learning and Memory Formation

Our memories shape our perception of the world and guide adaptive behavior. Rather than a veridical record of experiences, memory is selective. An accumulating body of work suggests that motivational ...

www.annualreviews.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Stefano Palminteri @stepalminteri.bsky.social · 20h

Very cool study showing that "apparent" asymmetric update in reinforcement learning can emerge from Bayes optimal principles by Prakhar Godara in @pnas.org

www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Apparent learning biases emerge from optimal inference: Insights from master equation analysis | PNAS

Recent studies [S. Palminteri, G. Lefebvre, E. J. Kilford, S. J. Blakemore, PLoS Comput. Biol. 13, e1005684 (2017); G. Lefebvre, M. Lebreton, F. Me...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

spooky addy, @addyct.bsky.social · 13d

two figurines on a white background. one side is labeled Labubu, with your typically furry Labubu figure. the other side is Lakiki, and it's fur has been photoshopped to be spiky.

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Cambridge University Press - Linguistics @cambup-linguistics.cambridge.org · 12d

"A compelling and thought-provoking analysis of human sociality and the origins of language."

The Interaction Engine by Stephen C. Levinson (@mpi-nl.bsky.social), Out Now & #OpenAccess

https://cup.org/4nusznG

#OA #Linguistics #LangSky 🐦🐦

Abstract painting of two people gesturing

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Ann-Sophie Barwich @smellosopher.bsky.social · 20d

Wohoo: @gjseverino.bsky.social's paper is accepted w minor revs in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences!

"Social Contingency in Embodied Neural Networks relies on Co-Constructed Dynamical Mechanisms"
Follow him + his insanely creative modeling research!

Link to paper forthcoming

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social · 1d

Kudos to Sally Kornbluth/MIT for rejecting the government’s attempt at corrupting higher ed. Others should quickly follow suit. Even the folks at Cato agree—this isn’t a tough call!

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 1d

Princeton is requiring #SAT scores again for admission because test scores predict student success
But using SAT scores also increases social mobility!
Rich students (top 1%) benefit immensely when there are no test scores because they have legacy & non-academic points (which don't predict success)

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Robert Hawkins @rdhawkins.bsky.social · 1d

just finished steve levinson's new book! it's a beautifully articulated argument for social interaction as the evolutionary niche which made language possible, rather than the other way around. progress in linguistics depends on a stronger science of interaction.

www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

The Interaction Engine

Cambridge Core - Semantics and Pragmatics - The Interaction Engine

www.cambridge.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d

I am an enormous fan of @glupyan.bsky.social he is the cognitive scientist I wanted to be. I'm content enough with who I am now to just be terrifically happy whenever I find he's written something on a question that most people just aren't thinking clearly about.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

Frontiers | Linguistically Modulated Perception and Cognition: The Label-Feedback Hypothesis

How does language impact cognition and perception? A growing number of studies show that language, and specifically, the practice of labeling, exerts rapid a...

www.frontiersin.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 2d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Morten H. Christiansen @mh-christiansen.bsky.social · 2d

Human language acquisition and use is fundamentally interactive. By contrast, LLMs are generally assumed to be passive learners that merely soak up vast amounts of data, like a sponge. In this opinion piece, we argue that the picture is more nuanced 1/2

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

LLMs highlight the importance of interaction in human language learning

Recent years have seen large language models (LLMs) achieve impressive performance with core linguistic abilities. This can be taken as a demonstration that, contrary to long-held assumptions about in...

www.degruyterbrill.com

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Meltem Yucel @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social · 3d

Parents of 0- to 12-year-olds, come do science with us!

We run short, game-like studies with kids. We offer in-person and online options, flexible scheduling (weekdays & weekends), and sessions that are fun for children and easy for caregivers.

Moral Minds Lab - CHILDatabase Signup

redcap.link

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 4d

This is one of those papers that just deserves a post every now and then. Half a century old, with a message still relevant today: Cognition won't be understood one variable at the time.

You Can't Play 20 Questions with Nature and Win, by Allen Newell (1973) www.coli.uni-saarland.de/~crocker/doc...

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Ana Marasović @anamarasovic.bsky.social · 4d

📣Tomorrow at #COLM2025:

1️⃣ Purbid's 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 at 𝐒𝐨𝐋𝐚𝐑 (𝟏𝟏:𝟏𝟓𝐚𝐦-𝟏:𝟎𝟎𝐩𝐦) on catching redundant preference pairs & how pruning them hurts accuracy; www.anamarasovic.com/publications...

2️⃣ My 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 at 𝐗𝐋𝐋𝐌-𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧-𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 (𝟏𝟐𝐩𝐦) on measuring CoT faithfulness by looking at internals, not just behaviorally

1/3

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Cognitive Science Group @cogscigroup.bsky.social · 4d

Our spotlight article on Goueytes et al. (2025) study is now online at Trends in Neurosciences: "Pre- and post-decision signals of certainty in changing minds", by P. Barttfeld, @ncomay.bsky.social, I. Embon & @guillermosolovey.bsky.social www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

Pre- and post-decision signals of certainty in changing minds

In a recent study, Goueytes and colleagues combined computational modeling with intracranial recordings to dissect the neural basis of confidence and changes of mind. They reveal a temporally organize...

www.cell.com

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