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Lauren Girouard, PhD

@laurengh.bsky.social

3.2K followers 850 following 82 posts

NSF SBE Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard and UMich • Interdisciplinary researcher studying what kids think about AI • Science Communicator • R Stats nerd • Passionate about Pedagogy • FirstGen 🏳️‍🌈 • On the academic job market!

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Nov 16

Hello! A little bit of a re-introduction since there’s an influx of new faces (yay!) here. I’m an NIH/NSF postdoc at University of Michigan currently studying children’s health-related usage of generative AI chatbots with Drs. Susan Gelman, Ying Xu, and Jenny Radesky.

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Reposted by Lauren Girouard, PhD

R-Ladies Boston @rladiesboston.bsky.social · 3d

Hello! R-Ladies Boston is hosting a #dataviz virtual round robin where we show off some cool figures we made or working on! Come join us for a fun time! www.meetup.com/rladies-bost...

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · 5d

10 MORE DAYS! I would love to see some #DISI #CogDev #SciComm submissions come through!

Cognitive Science Society @cogscisociety.bsky.social · 14d

Times is running out! ⏳

Submit your 5-min video for the CogSci Mind Challenge by Oct 17 📅

Question: How do different minds (humans, animals, AI) learn language, if at all?

💰Prizes up to $1000!
👉 Don’t miss it: cognitivesciencesociety.org/cogsci-mind-...

#CogSciMindChallenge

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · 6d

A friend of mine gave my website a refresh and now it is so pretty. More features to come, but for now you can see my basic overview at laurengirouard.com. So spiffy!

an elderly woman says you can google it

Alt: an elderly woman says you can google it

media.tenor.com

Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · 9d

Started my own little rejection collection for this job cycle and it officially has its first entry. Hopefully I’ll get to balance it out in the coming weeks. And if not, more pizza for me! ;)

Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · 27d

Really great read from @biblioracle.bsky.social this morning.

open.substack.com/pub/bibliora...

Are Platforms Making Us Evil?

Working my way through Nicolas Carr via the lens of teaching.

open.substack.com

Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Aug 26

Denver is quite possibly my favorite place on earth, I’ll have my eyes peeled!

Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Aug 26

It’s job market season & I’m back on the market for the first time since leaving grad school. It’s quite gratifying to give my materials a full refresh & see how much I’ve grown as a scholar. If you’re looking for a cog/dev researcher who maybe also loves a stats class, you know where to find me! 😉

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Aug 20

The second half of my dissertation is officially in press at Child Development. I hear I’ve successfully avoided the curse of carrying your dissertation around for years. These studies have some of my favorite findings from my time in graduate school, so I can’t wait to see them out in the world!

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Reposted by Lauren Girouard, PhD

Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) @improvingpsych.org · Aug 19

Due to a recent influx of problematic submissions, PsyArXiv has switched to pre-moderating its content. If your submitted preprint had not yet been approved, it will be temporarily inaccessible to the public (you can still view your preprint when logged into your OSF account). #PsychSciSky

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Reposted by Lauren Girouard, PhD

mark brandt @mjbsp.bsky.social · Aug 19

The Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships at NSF are no more?

But hopefully I misunderstand?

www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

screenshot of SBE fellowship webpage with words "archive" circled in red.

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Reposted by Lauren Girouard, PhD

samuel mehr @mehr.nz · Aug 9

music lessons don't make kids smarter, but many people have assumed that music lessons would have near-transfer effects, e.g. improving aspects of auditory perception

big new study led by Andrew Oxenham says "nope".

music lessons make kids better at music & that's good enough reason to do 'em !

Large-scale multi-site study shows no association between musical training and early auditory neural sound encoding - Nature Communications

Widely cited studies have claimed that musical training is associated with enhanced neural encoding for sound at early stages of the auditory system. Results from this large-scale multisite study do n...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Lauren Girouard, PhD

Natalia Vélez @natvelali.bsky.social · Aug 1

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)

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jul 28

I’m back from #DISI25 in Scotland just in time to fly to #cogsci2025 in SF and I would love to connect while there! I’m moderating the Science Communication Luncheon and presenting a poster on virtuous ignorance and digital voice assistants on Friday morning. If you see me, please say hello!

Reposted by Lauren Girouard, PhD

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Jul 13

Only a small % of people engage in toxic activity online, but they’re responsible for a disproportionate share of hostile or misleading content on nearly every platform

Because super-users are so active, they dominate our collective impression of the internet www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Are a few people ruining the internet for the rest of us?

Why does the online world seem so toxic compared with normal life? Our research shows that a small number of divisive accounts could be responsible – and offers a way out

www.theguardian.com

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jul 11

Summer in St Andrew’s, Scotland? Not half bad. I’m here for the rest of the month as part of a summer fellowship on diverse intelligences, and it’s never a bad thing to work on a research project with a good view.

Coastline with seaweed growth and rock formation

A rare sunny day on a classic collegiate quad with accompanying stone bell tower

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jul 5

Words cannot express how much I love everything Michigan has to offer. Especially when what it has to offer is cherries. And what a gem Traverse City is! #Michigan #GoBlue

Lauren’s hand clutches ripe Michigan Montamore and Black Cherries in front of a banner for the 99th annual Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan.

The clear blue green waters of Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan on the 4th of July

A traverse bay view with a hint of beach and clear blue water dotted with white sailboats, framed by piney greenery.

Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jun 29

I feel like orca loofahs has @sarahmackattack.bsky.social written all over it.

Reposted by Lauren Girouard, PhD

MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · Jun 24

The Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (OECS) now features over 100 published articles! Editors-in-Chief @mcxfrank.bsky.social & @asifamajid.bsky.social share their vision for this open, online reference developed to guide the next generation of exploration in cognition & intelligence:

A conversation with the editors of the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science

Editors-in-Chief Michael C. Frank and Asifa Majid share their vision for the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science as it surpasses 100 published articles.

mitpress.mit.edu

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jun 27

Please, it’s so so good!

Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jun 27

I can’t wait to add this to my weekly routine!

Crystal Lewis @cghlewis.bsky.social · Jun 24

Welcome to the first issue of RDM Weekly, a weekly roundup of Research Data Management resources!

To kick off this newsletter, I will be doing a drawing for 1 free @rfortherestofus.com course for anyone who subscribes by Friday! Winner will be notified via email.

open.substack.com/pub/rdmweekl...

RDM Weekly - Issue 001

A weekly roundup of Research Data Management resources.

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Lauren Girouard, PhD

Sacha Altay @sachaltay.bsky.social · Jun 27

🚨 Now out in Nature Human Behaviour 🚨

We show that following the news on WhatsApp or Instagram (N = 3,395 🇫🇷🇩🇪) increases current affairs knowledge, participants’ ability to discern true from false news stories, awareness of true news stories, as well as trust in the news.

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jun 20

In fact, some of my research currently in data collection is pointing towards that messaging about the pitfalls of AI *is* having an impact on teen’s willingness to trust it in certain domains.

Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jun 20

I think that’s what makes this ‘breakup letter’ with ChatGPT from a teen author compelling. She realized she did not want the shortcuts or malaise that she realized came with AI reliance.

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jun 20

Excellent point! As you’ll note, I make no prescriptions about teaching, learning, or cog development writ large as they relate to a single letter written by a teen (I confess I like my ns > 1). I simply thought it was lovely to see a teen respond to their own misgivings with such aplomb

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Lauren Girouard, PhD @laurengh.bsky.social · Jun 20

Just a gentle reminder that kids and teens are sometimes more capable of evaluating their own feelings on technology than we give them credit for. What a beautiful encapsulation of issues teens are facing with AI. {GIFT ARTICLE}

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/l...

We Need to Chat(GPT)

www.nytimes.com

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