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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 4d

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 · 10h

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 · 2h

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 · 11d

"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 · 19d

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 · 17h

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 · 18h

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 · 18h

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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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Morten H. Christiansen @mh-christiansen.bsky.social · 1d

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 · 2d

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 · 3d

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 · 3d

📣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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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Dawei Bai @daweibai.bsky.social · 3d

Happy to share that our BBS target article has been accepted: “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Julian Jara-Ettinger @julianje.bsky.social · 3d

Our paper in annual review of dev psych is out! It's a big-picture look at the development of social cognition from a computational perspective: compdevlab.yale.edu/docs/2025/an...

compdevlab.yale.edu

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Kohitij Kar @kohitij.bsky.social · 3d

🧠 New preprint!
Recognition-trained ANNs miss a key dimension of IT coding: memorability. Jointly optimizing for both recognition and memorability yielded more brain-like visual models.
Another step toward multi-goal modeling of the ventral stream.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 4d

Another oral talk, this one by @stellali.bsky.social, discussing "PrefPalette: Personalized Preference Modeling with Latent Attributes."

Communities prefer different kinds of responses, which prioritize specific values. Aggregating preferences over communities would lose that signal.

#COLM2025

PrefPalette: Personalized Preference Modeling with Latent Attributes

Personalizing AI systems requires understanding not just what users prefer, but the reasons that underlie those preferences - yet current preference models typically treat human judgment as a black bo...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 4d

Now we're hearing a talk by @valentinhofmann.bsky.social about "Fluid Language Model Benchmarking."

Computerized adaptive testing is used for humans (like the GRE). This work adopts Item Response Theory from education to measure benchmark characteristics.

#COLM2025

Fluid Language Model Benchmarking

Language model (LM) benchmarking faces several challenges: comprehensive evaluations are costly, benchmarks often fail to measure the intended capabilities, and evaluation quality can degrade due to l...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Razia Sahi @raziasahi.bsky.social · 4d

Managing emotions is not easy - we often get by with a little help. In the NEW Social Interaction and Emotion Lab at Rutgers-Newark, we’ll study how social interactions regulate emotion using experiments, naturalistic data, and multi-modal approaches. ✨ Now recruiting! ✨🙌 Learn more: raziasahi.com

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Reposted by Robert Hawkins

Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 4d

Early evidence that AI agents in a guessing game develop emergent coordination and specialized roles, especially when assigned personas & prompted to consider other agents’ actions. There was no significant increase in accuracy but higher goal-directed behavior & teamwork. arxiv.org/abs/2510.05174