Nicholas A. Vest
@nicholasvest.bsky.social
59 followers 89 following 5 posts
@UWMadison PhD student studying numerical cognition (he/him)
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
seongminpark.bsky.social
🚨 We’re hiring! The Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Virginia Tech is looking for a postdoc to join our team studying the neural + computational mechanisms of structure learning and flexible cognition: ccnvt.github.io#positions
CCN Lab
ccnvt.github.io
nicholasvest.bsky.social
So excited to be at #MCLS2025 🌟🔢🐒
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
amiyake.bsky.social
Do you know of any recent papers reporting good data showing that group "averages" may not capture what's going on at the individual level? If so, please share here.

Example 1: Miller et al.'s 2002 imaging study showing reliable indiv. diffs in brain activation patterns vs. group average. (1/2)
The abstract for the 2002 Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience article by Miller et al., entitled "Extensive Individual Differences in Brain Activations Associated with Episodic Retrieval Are Reliable Over Time" A key result figure from the Miller et al. (2002) study (Figure 2), showing that the average brain activation results for the entire group are quite different from the activation patterns shown at the level of individual participants.
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
johnholbein1.bsky.social
Wow.

Look at how rapidly preregistration has become the norm in experimental economics.
nicholasvest.bsky.social
Grieving the potential loss of incredible undergraduate and graduate students - both recently admitted and current!
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
kristinalerman.bsky.social
NSF just cancelled ALL grants to Harvard researchers. That’s right - physics, astronomy, bio, CAREER - ALL. Professors won’t get paid. Postdocs won’t get paid. PhD students won’t get paid. This is insane!

If they can do this to Harvard, they can do this to your school.
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
alondra.bsky.social
“It found 90% of respondents think federal investment in STEM education is important for future economic prosperity, and the majority of respondents from both parties are concerned about policy changes that might make it harder for the U.S. to attract and retain top scientists.”
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
katestarbird.bsky.social
Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
cbhornburg.bsky.social
Jisun Kim is presenting work in collaboration with @gilliangrose.bsky.social, Tess Levinson, and @lkfazio.bsky.social. We received exciting news this week that the manuscript on this work was accepted - Congrats, Jisun! @mcls-official.bsky.social #PsychSciSky #Devpsych #Cogsci
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
flavinska.bsky.social
Hello #SCRD!☘️

Join our roundtable Friday on May 2 at 1:20 PM (Room 200E, level 2)

“Contributions of Research in majority world countries to the understanding of child development”
🇿🇦🇨🇱🇺🇸🇬🇧🇧🇷🇮🇪

#DevPsyc #CogSci
@srcdorg.bsky.social
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
katharinescott.bsky.social
Excited to see everyone at #SRCD2025! Come check out our symposium on children's books as a tool for parent-child ethnic-racial socialization on Friday at 11:30AM (Room 101E).
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
ebonawitz.bsky.social
If you're at SRCD please consider checking out these talks and posters featuring members of the CoCoDev lab and our awesome collaborators.
#SRCD2025
a list of various presentations from the Bonawitz lab at SRCD
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
ktvasq.bsky.social
Come check out the UChicago Social Kids Lab (PIs Katherine Kinzler and Alex Shaw) at #SRCD2025. My labmates have lots of exciting projects I can't wait to watch them present.
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
boghuma.bsky.social
Current NIH funding slump represents:
- Research labs closing
- PhD students abandoning their dreams.
- Trial participants left to their own devices mid study.
- A halt to scientific progress and innovation for cancer, chronic and infectious diseases.
- Minority health research terminated.
Etc.
Graph showing how much competitive federal research funding has slowed under current administration
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
wyomingwormboy.bsky.social
BTW. If you’re a scientist and are feeling hollowed out, depressed, fried, frustrated, confused, and simply exhausted by everything, I understand you. You are perfectly sane and you are not alone.
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
katestarbird.bsky.social
Attending a conference where researchers in my field (studying online misinformation and manipulation) are commiserating over all of our canceled grants, all in service of this: so this man and his regime of propagandists and conspiracy theorists can dictate (un)reality without challenge.
justinbaragona.bsky.social
This exchange is so very telling.

Trump repeatedly claims the photoshopped MS-13 on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's knuckles is real, Terry Moran keeps telling him it isn't, prompting Trump to say this:

"I never heard of you. I picked you. You’re not being very nice. He had MS-13 tattooed... Just say yes!"
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
amiyake.bsky.social
If you study numerical cognition/math education or teach math to children, check out the latest issue of "Psychological Science in the Public Interest," written by @nicolemmcneil.bsky.social, @numcog.bsky.social, & colleagues. This piece offers useful evidence-based teaching/policy recommendations.
Science Explains How Children Best Learn Math—And Yes, Timed Practice Helps
A new report shows that children learn arithmetic most effectively when instruction combines conceptual understanding and timed practice.
www.psychologicalscience.org
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
talialerner.bsky.social
All NIDA F31 diversity scholars officially losing their funding...

I barely have words.

Expected at this point but so so disappointing and unfair. We are effectively punishing some of America's best science students for telling the government they are from an underrepresented community.
nicholasvest.bsky.social
Interested in numerical cognitive development, school readiness, STEM education? Be sure to check out our work at #SRCD2025! 😀
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
mclstrainee.bsky.social
Reminder: If you're interested in being a speaker in our MCLS Trainee virtual session on participatory design in math cognition and learning research, applications are due in 2 weeks (on April 1)!
mclstrainee.bsky.social
#2: We are excited to announce a special virtual session on Participatory Design in math cognition and learning research! We are looking for trainees (undergraduate, graduate, or postdoctoral scholars) to give lightning talks (short, 5-7 minute presentations) about participatory design.
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
pardoguerra.bsky.social
I sincerely think that universities should suspend their productivity standards for scientists and ask them instead to hold town halls in schools, public libraries, museums, shopping malls, and anywhere else and communicate what is being lost with the collapse of the research ecosystem.
simsjames.bsky.social
“The ecosystem of research and the creation of new knowledge in universities has been so powerful for American prosperity, American freedom, American ingenuity. To have that disrupted by government overreach is a disaster for this country.” —Wesleyan University President Michael Roth on
@msnbc.com
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
alwaystheself.bsky.social
I'll share what I conveyed to a grad student recently:

There is much that remains unknown and out of our control right now. The future is extremely uncertain. Multiple job markets have already imploded. Focus on what you can control. Can you finish the dissertation? Then finish the dissertation.
Reposted by Nicholas A. Vest
tristansyates.bsky.social
Last year, I was overjoyed to receive an NIH NRSA fellowship to study toddler brains and caregiving effects on memory at Columbia. Last night, my grant was terminated.