Alicia Chen
@aliciamchen.bsky.social
PhD student @ MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences
aliciamchen.github.io
aliciamchen.github.io
Reposted by Alicia Chen
What does it mean to understand language? We argue that the brain’s core language system is limited, and that *deeply* understanding language requires EXPORTING info to other brain regions.
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
What does it mean to understand language?
Language understanding entails not just extracting the surface-level meaning of the linguistic input, but constructing rich mental models of the situation it describes. Here we propose that because pr...
arxiv.org
November 26, 2025 at 4:26 PM
What does it mean to understand language? We argue that the brain’s core language system is limited, and that *deeply* understanding language requires EXPORTING info to other brain regions.
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
Human speech is continuous, and many meaning spaces (like color) are continuous too. Yet we use discrete words like “blue” and “green” that carve these spaces into categories.
In our new paper, we ask: How do people turn continuous spaces into structured, word-like systems for communication? (1/8)
In our new paper, we ask: How do people turn continuous spaces into structured, word-like systems for communication? (1/8)
Discrete and systematic communication in a continuous signal-meaning space
Abstract. Human spoken language uses a continuous stream of acoustic signals to communicate about continuous features of the world, by using discrete forms
academic.oup.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Human speech is continuous, and many meaning spaces (like color) are continuous too. Yet we use discrete words like “blue” and “green” that carve these spaces into categories.
In our new paper, we ask: How do people turn continuous spaces into structured, word-like systems for communication? (1/8)
In our new paper, we ask: How do people turn continuous spaces into structured, word-like systems for communication? (1/8)
Reposted by Alicia Chen
39th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing
March 26-28, 2026
hsp2026.org
MIT, Cambridge MA, USA.
email: [email protected]
Special session: Language and thought in minds and machines
Submission deadline: December 12 2025
(Real deadline; no extension)
March 26-28, 2026
hsp2026.org
MIT, Cambridge MA, USA.
email: [email protected]
Special session: Language and thought in minds and machines
Submission deadline: December 12 2025
(Real deadline; no extension)
39th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing
hsp2026.org
October 5, 2025 at 12:51 PM
39th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing
March 26-28, 2026
hsp2026.org
MIT, Cambridge MA, USA.
email: [email protected]
Special session: Language and thought in minds and machines
Submission deadline: December 12 2025
(Real deadline; no extension)
March 26-28, 2026
hsp2026.org
MIT, Cambridge MA, USA.
email: [email protected]
Special session: Language and thought in minds and machines
Submission deadline: December 12 2025
(Real deadline; no extension)
Reposted by Alicia Chen
(1)💡NEW PUBLICATION💡
Word and construction probabilities explain the acceptability of certain long-distance dependency structures
Work with Curtis Chen and Ted Gibson
Link to paper: tedlab.mit.edu/tedlab_websi...
In memory of Curtis Chen.
Word and construction probabilities explain the acceptability of certain long-distance dependency structures
Work with Curtis Chen and Ted Gibson
Link to paper: tedlab.mit.edu/tedlab_websi...
In memory of Curtis Chen.
tedlab.mit.edu
August 5, 2025 at 1:26 PM
(1)💡NEW PUBLICATION💡
Word and construction probabilities explain the acceptability of certain long-distance dependency structures
Work with Curtis Chen and Ted Gibson
Link to paper: tedlab.mit.edu/tedlab_websi...
In memory of Curtis Chen.
Word and construction probabilities explain the acceptability of certain long-distance dependency structures
Work with Curtis Chen and Ted Gibson
Link to paper: tedlab.mit.edu/tedlab_websi...
In memory of Curtis Chen.
Reposted by Alicia Chen
New perspective paper (w/ @sedaakbiyik.bsky.social, Joseph Outa, & @minjaek.bsky.social ) in @natrevpsychol.nature.com ⚽💭🧠👶 : www.nature.com/articles/s44...
How physical information is used to make sense of the psychological world - Nature Reviews Psychology
Reasoning about minds and reasoning about physical objects are governed by two distinct systems. In this Perspective, Liu et al. review research from developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscienc...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:14 PM
New perspective paper (w/ @sedaakbiyik.bsky.social, Joseph Outa, & @minjaek.bsky.social ) in @natrevpsychol.nature.com ⚽💭🧠👶 : www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by Alicia Chen
New paper announcement! journals.lww.com/greenjournal...
The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology is an unusual place for me to publish… Let me tell you the story of this paper.
The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology is an unusual place for me to publish… Let me tell you the story of this paper.
journals.lww.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:47 PM
New paper announcement! journals.lww.com/greenjournal...
The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology is an unusual place for me to publish… Let me tell you the story of this paper.
The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology is an unusual place for me to publish… Let me tell you the story of this paper.
Reposted by Alicia Chen
My Lab at the University of Edinburgh🇬🇧 has funded PhD positions for this cycle!
We study the computational principles of how people learn, reason, and communicate.
It's a new lab, and you will be playing a big role in shaping its culture and foundations.
Spread the words!
We study the computational principles of how people learn, reason, and communicate.
It's a new lab, and you will be playing a big role in shaping its culture and foundations.
Spread the words!
August 17, 2025 at 11:52 AM
My Lab at the University of Edinburgh🇬🇧 has funded PhD positions for this cycle!
We study the computational principles of how people learn, reason, and communicate.
It's a new lab, and you will be playing a big role in shaping its culture and foundations.
Spread the words!
We study the computational principles of how people learn, reason, and communicate.
It's a new lab, and you will be playing a big role in shaping its culture and foundations.
Spread the words!
Reposted by Alicia Chen
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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1/n
August 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
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! 🧵
1/n
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Reposted by Alicia Chen
🚨Out in PNAS🚨
with @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social & @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social
Punishment, even when intended to teach norms and change minds for the good, may backfire.
Our computational cognitive model explains why!
Paper: tinyurl.com/yc7fs4x7
News: tinyurl.com/3h3446wu
🧵
with @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social & @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social
Punishment, even when intended to teach norms and change minds for the good, may backfire.
Our computational cognitive model explains why!
Paper: tinyurl.com/yc7fs4x7
News: tinyurl.com/3h3446wu
🧵
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
tinyurl.com
August 8, 2025 at 2:04 PM
🚨Out in PNAS🚨
with @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social & @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social
Punishment, even when intended to teach norms and change minds for the good, may backfire.
Our computational cognitive model explains why!
Paper: tinyurl.com/yc7fs4x7
News: tinyurl.com/3h3446wu
🧵
with @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social & @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social
Punishment, even when intended to teach norms and change minds for the good, may backfire.
Our computational cognitive model explains why!
Paper: tinyurl.com/yc7fs4x7
News: tinyurl.com/3h3446wu
🧵
Reposted by Alicia Chen
Super excited to have the #InfoCog workshop this year at #CogSci2025! Join us in SF for an exciting lineup of speakers and panelists, and check out the workshop's website for more info and detailed scheduled
sites.google.com/view/infocog...
sites.google.com/view/infocog...
July 22, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Super excited to have the #InfoCog workshop this year at #CogSci2025! Join us in SF for an exciting lineup of speakers and panelists, and check out the workshop's website for more info and detailed scheduled
sites.google.com/view/infocog...
sites.google.com/view/infocog...
Reposted by Alicia Chen
As always, CogSci has a fantastic lineup of workshops this year. An embarrassment of riches!
Still deciding which to pick? If you are interested in building computational models of social cognition, I hope you consider joining @maxkw.bsky.social, @dae.bsky.social, and me for a crash course on memo!
Still deciding which to pick? If you are interested in building computational models of social cognition, I hope you consider joining @maxkw.bsky.social, @dae.bsky.social, and me for a crash course on memo!
#Workshop at #CogSci2025
Building computational models of social cognition in memo
🗓️ Wednesday, July 30
📍 Pacifica I - 8:30-10:00
🗣️ Kartik Chandra, Sean Dae Houlihan, and Max Kleiman-Weiner
🧑💻 underline.io/events/489/s...
Building computational models of social cognition in memo
🗓️ Wednesday, July 30
📍 Pacifica I - 8:30-10:00
🗣️ Kartik Chandra, Sean Dae Houlihan, and Max Kleiman-Weiner
🧑💻 underline.io/events/489/s...
July 18, 2025 at 1:56 PM
As always, CogSci has a fantastic lineup of workshops this year. An embarrassment of riches!
Still deciding which to pick? If you are interested in building computational models of social cognition, I hope you consider joining @maxkw.bsky.social, @dae.bsky.social, and me for a crash course on memo!
Still deciding which to pick? If you are interested in building computational models of social cognition, I hope you consider joining @maxkw.bsky.social, @dae.bsky.social, and me for a crash course on memo!
Reposted by Alicia Chen
So excited our paper is now out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social! Huge thanks to our editor and reviewers 🧠 Their thoughtful suggestions inspired Experiments 3 & 4, including a striking inverse correlation between idleness judgments and speed-up predictions
“People Evaluate Idle Collaborators Based on their Impact on Task Efficiency”
📢 New paper from: Elizabeth Mieczkowski, Cameron Rouse Turner, Natalia Vélez, & Tom Griffiths
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
TL;DR: Sometimes it's acceptable not to help with group work 🧵👇
📢 New paper from: Elizabeth Mieczkowski, Cameron Rouse Turner, Natalia Vélez, & Tom Griffiths
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
TL;DR: Sometimes it's acceptable not to help with group work 🧵👇
July 18, 2025 at 5:10 PM
So excited our paper is now out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social! Huge thanks to our editor and reviewers 🧠 Their thoughtful suggestions inspired Experiments 3 & 4, including a striking inverse correlation between idleness judgments and speed-up predictions
Reposted by Alicia Chen
🎤 "Your #CogSci presentation was quite good this year."
How flattered or offended will you be? The answer may depend on whether you speak British or American English 🇺🇸🇬🇧. Our new #CogSci2025 paper reveals systematic differences in how different cultures interpret the same words.
How flattered or offended will you be? The answer may depend on whether you speak British or American English 🇺🇸🇬🇧. Our new #CogSci2025 paper reveals systematic differences in how different cultures interpret the same words.
July 6, 2025 at 4:13 AM
🎤 "Your #CogSci presentation was quite good this year."
How flattered or offended will you be? The answer may depend on whether you speak British or American English 🇺🇸🇬🇧. Our new #CogSci2025 paper reveals systematic differences in how different cultures interpret the same words.
How flattered or offended will you be? The answer may depend on whether you speak British or American English 🇺🇸🇬🇧. Our new #CogSci2025 paper reveals systematic differences in how different cultures interpret the same words.
Reposted by Alicia Chen
If you’ll be at #CogSci2025, consider (or at least consider considering) attending our @cogscisociety.bsky.social workshop on meta reasoning
🤔🤨🧐
We’ll be discussing problem selection through various lenses represented by a great lineup of speakers!
🤔🤨🧐
We’ll be discussing problem selection through various lenses represented by a great lineup of speakers!
Meta-reasoning @ CogSci
Workshop Description
People are general purpose problem solvers. We obtain food and shelter, manage companies, solve moral dilemmas, spend years toiling away at thorny math problems, and even adopt a...
sites.google.com
June 24, 2025 at 2:01 AM
If you’ll be at #CogSci2025, consider (or at least consider considering) attending our @cogscisociety.bsky.social workshop on meta reasoning
🤔🤨🧐
We’ll be discussing problem selection through various lenses represented by a great lineup of speakers!
🤔🤨🧐
We’ll be discussing problem selection through various lenses represented by a great lineup of speakers!
Reposted by Alicia Chen
Thrilled to announce our new publication titled 'Decoding predicted future states from the brain's physics engine' with @emiecz.bsky.social, Cyn X. Fang, @nancykanwisher.bsky.social, @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
(1/n)
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
(1/n)
Decoding predicted future states from the brain’s “physics engine”
Using fMRI in humans, this study provides evidence for future state prediction in brain regions involved in physical reasoning.
www.science.org
June 17, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Thrilled to announce our new publication titled 'Decoding predicted future states from the brain's physics engine' with @emiecz.bsky.social, Cyn X. Fang, @nancykanwisher.bsky.social, @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
(1/n)
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
(1/n)
Reposted by Alicia Chen
If you are attending #CogSci2025 I hope you will consider attending our pre-conference workshop on July 29 - "Putting it Together: Interactions Between Domains of Cognition"
sites.google.com/view/cogsci2...
sites.google.com/view/cogsci2...
Domain Interactions | CogSci 2025
Organizers
sites.google.com
May 20, 2025 at 9:18 PM
If you are attending #CogSci2025 I hope you will consider attending our pre-conference workshop on July 29 - "Putting it Together: Interactions Between Domains of Cognition"
sites.google.com/view/cogsci2...
sites.google.com/view/cogsci2...
Reposted by Alicia Chen
The first big talk I have given since starting my lab in 2023! 🧠 👶 💻📊Thank you @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social for the invitation and recording. Feedback welcome!
New in the Kempner Institute Seminar Series: @shariliu.bsky.social of Johns Hopkins University presents her research elucidating the computations that enable brains to make sense of living agents and inanimate objects.
youtu.be/xojTiQC9uIc
#psychology #neuroscience #devpsych
youtu.be/xojTiQC9uIc
#psychology #neuroscience #devpsych
Integration Between Social and Physical Intelligence in the Human Mind and Brain with Shari Liu
YouTube video by Kempner Institute at Harvard University
youtu.be
May 2, 2025 at 3:44 PM
The first big talk I have given since starting my lab in 2023! 🧠 👶 💻📊Thank you @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social for the invitation and recording. Feedback welcome!
Reposted by Alicia Chen
Excited to share our new paper "Towards Human-Like Emergent Communication via Utility, Informativeness, and Complexity"
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
@rplevy.bsky.social
And looking forward to speaking about this line of work tomorrow at @nyudatascience.bsky.social!
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
@rplevy.bsky.social
And looking forward to speaking about this line of work tomorrow at @nyudatascience.bsky.social!
Towards Human-Like Emergent Communication via Utility, Informativeness, and Complexity
Abstract. Two prominent, yet contrasting, theoretical views are available to characterize the underlying drivers of language evolution: on the one hand, task-specific utility maximization; on the othe...
direct.mit.edu
April 24, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Excited to share our new paper "Towards Human-Like Emergent Communication via Utility, Informativeness, and Complexity"
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
@rplevy.bsky.social
And looking forward to speaking about this line of work tomorrow at @nyudatascience.bsky.social!
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
@rplevy.bsky.social
And looking forward to speaking about this line of work tomorrow at @nyudatascience.bsky.social!
Reposted by Alicia Chen
We often assume that specialized roles improve performance in multi-agent systems, but when does specialization emerge based on a given task and environment? 🧵👇
⭐️ New preprint w/ Ruaridh Mon-Williams, @neilbramley.bsky.social, Chris Lucas, @natvelali.bsky.social & @cocoscilab.bsky.social
⭐️ New preprint w/ Ruaridh Mon-Williams, @neilbramley.bsky.social, Chris Lucas, @natvelali.bsky.social & @cocoscilab.bsky.social
March 26, 2025 at 6:05 PM
We often assume that specialized roles improve performance in multi-agent systems, but when does specialization emerge based on a given task and environment? 🧵👇
⭐️ New preprint w/ Ruaridh Mon-Williams, @neilbramley.bsky.social, Chris Lucas, @natvelali.bsky.social & @cocoscilab.bsky.social
⭐️ New preprint w/ Ruaridh Mon-Williams, @neilbramley.bsky.social, Chris Lucas, @natvelali.bsky.social & @cocoscilab.bsky.social
Reposted by Alicia Chen
The Saxe Lab @ MIT is hiring! We seek one lab manager to start in summer 2025. Research in our lab focuses on social cognition (learn more on saxelab.mit.edu).
Please apply at: tinyurl.com/saxe2025 (Job ID 31993).
Review of applications starts on March 24, 2025.
Sharing appreciated. Thank you!
Please apply at: tinyurl.com/saxe2025 (Job ID 31993).
Review of applications starts on March 24, 2025.
Sharing appreciated. Thank you!
Saxelab Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at MIT |
saxelab.mit.edu
March 3, 2025 at 6:32 PM
The Saxe Lab @ MIT is hiring! We seek one lab manager to start in summer 2025. Research in our lab focuses on social cognition (learn more on saxelab.mit.edu).
Please apply at: tinyurl.com/saxe2025 (Job ID 31993).
Review of applications starts on March 24, 2025.
Sharing appreciated. Thank you!
Please apply at: tinyurl.com/saxe2025 (Job ID 31993).
Review of applications starts on March 24, 2025.
Sharing appreciated. Thank you!
Reposted by Alicia Chen
New Daedalus issue on the science of caregiving. In our paper, we ask, how might infants experience caregiving? Writing this paper with Christina Steele,
@alisongopnik.bsky.social and @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social was incredibly fun. Our paper and the other awesome pieces here:
www.amacad.org/daedalus
@alisongopnik.bsky.social and @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social was incredibly fun. Our paper and the other awesome pieces here:
www.amacad.org/daedalus
Daedalus Home
Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
www.amacad.org
February 13, 2025 at 5:06 PM
New Daedalus issue on the science of caregiving. In our paper, we ask, how might infants experience caregiving? Writing this paper with Christina Steele,
@alisongopnik.bsky.social and @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social was incredibly fun. Our paper and the other awesome pieces here:
www.amacad.org/daedalus
@alisongopnik.bsky.social and @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social was incredibly fun. Our paper and the other awesome pieces here:
www.amacad.org/daedalus
Reposted by Alicia Chen
(1/9) Excited to share my recent work on "Alignment reduces LM's conceptual diversity" with @tomerullman.bsky.social and @jennhu.bsky.social, to appear at #NAACL2025! 🐟
We want models that match our values...but could this hurt their diversity of thought?
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2411.04427
We want models that match our values...but could this hurt their diversity of thought?
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2411.04427
February 10, 2025 at 5:20 PM
(1/9) Excited to share my recent work on "Alignment reduces LM's conceptual diversity" with @tomerullman.bsky.social and @jennhu.bsky.social, to appear at #NAACL2025! 🐟
We want models that match our values...but could this hurt their diversity of thought?
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2411.04427
We want models that match our values...but could this hurt their diversity of thought?
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2411.04427
Reposted by Alicia Chen
🚨 Now accepting commentary proposals!! 🚨Thrilled to share that our paper --- "Resource-rational contractualism: A triple theory of moral cognition" --- was accepted for publication at Behavioral and Brain Sciences and is open for commentary!
February 12, 2025 at 8:20 PM
🚨 Now accepting commentary proposals!! 🚨Thrilled to share that our paper --- "Resource-rational contractualism: A triple theory of moral cognition" --- was accepted for publication at Behavioral and Brain Sciences and is open for commentary!
Reposted by Alicia Chen
Reposted by Alicia Chen
Very excited to share this preprint! The project started with me rambling to Sam how I believe people keep uncertainty in mind and explore internally, and ended up with a halloween-themed experiment and a cool model :) It is a very rewarding experience and I have learned so much from Sam and Fred!
People use uncertainty to negotiate the explore-exploit trade-off in reinforcement learning. Do they do something similar during mental planning? This is what @haoxuefan.bsky.social, with me and @fredcallaway.bsky.social, has shown:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
December 24, 2024 at 9:26 PM
Very excited to share this preprint! The project started with me rambling to Sam how I believe people keep uncertainty in mind and explore internally, and ended up with a halloween-themed experiment and a cool model :) It is a very rewarding experience and I have learned so much from Sam and Fred!