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Tom Willems

@tomwillems.bsky.social

260 followers 930 following 0 posts

Postdoc at HenkeLab at University of Bern, interested in Memory, the Hippocampus & Consciousness.

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Jamie Cummins @jamiecummins.bsky.social · 24d

Can large language models stand in for human participants?
Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research.

One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.

THREAD 🧵

The threat of analytic flexibility in using large language models to simulate human data: A call to attention

Social scientists are now using large language models to create "silicon samples" - synthetic datasets intended to stand in for human respondents, aimed at revolutionising human subjects research. How...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Tom Willems

hakwan lau @hakwan.bsky.social · Sep 1

does someone good at coding & analysis want to work remotely w/ us in the coming few months (before end of 2025), as a paid consultant? project will be on neurofeedback (fMRI, ECoG, calcium imaging). we'll work towards developing the experiments & analysis pipelines together. if so pls DM me ur CV🧠📈

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Reposted by Tom Willems

Amir Zur @amirzur.bsky.social · Aug 6

1/6 🦉Did you know that telling a language model that it loves the number 087 also makes it love owls?

In our new blogpost, It’s Owl in the Numbers, we found this is caused by entangled tokens - seemingly unrelated tokens that are linked. When you boost one, you boost the other.

owls.baulab.info/

It's Owl in the Numbers: Token Entanglement in Subliminal Learning

Entangled tokens help explain subliminal learning.

owls.baulab.info

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Reposted by Hugo Mercier, Magnus Johansson, Ian Hussey , and 2 more Hugo Mercier, Magnus Johansson, Ian Hussey, Stefan M. Herzog, Tom Willems

Jamie Cummins @jamiecummins.bsky.social · Jul 7

New preprint commentary from me, @malte.the100.ci, and @ianhussey.mmmdata.io.

Cognitive dissonance in large language models is neither cognitive nor dissonant.

THREAD BELOW 🧵

osf.io/preprints/ps...

OSF

osf.io

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Reposted by Tom Willems

Joao Barbosa @jbarbosa.org · Feb 19

please retweet this ad for a tenured-research position in fMRI at ultra-high.

Join us!

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Reposted by Tom Willems

Malte Elson @malte.the100.ci · Dec 6

We read this paper in our journal club, and found it interesting and an illustrative contribution to statistical education. There were a few points that we think the authors could address to strengthen it. Full summary of our journal club on @pubpeer.com: pubpeer.com/publications...

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