andrea e. martin
@andreaeyleen.bsky.social
::language, cognitive science, neural dynamics::
Lise Meitner Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics |
Principal Investigator, Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University |
http://www.andreaemartin.com/
lacns.GitHub.io
Lise Meitner Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics |
Principal Investigator, Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University |
http://www.andreaemartin.com/
lacns.GitHub.io
Pinned
Ode to the original language model, or:
Give me literally Anything* instead of Large Language Models (LLMs)
*(no predictive coding either!)
By Lady Byronadrea LLMartin 1/n
Give me literally Anything* instead of Large Language Models (LLMs)
*(no predictive coding either!)
By Lady Byronadrea LLMartin 1/n
Reposted by andrea e. martin
I don't know about you but the way my brain works is by analyzing the contents of the entire internet to make an educated guess about what word I should use next.
November 25, 2025 at 2:05 PM
I don't know about you but the way my brain works is by analyzing the contents of the entire internet to make an educated guess about what word I should use next.
Reposted by andrea e. martin
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by andrea e. martin
At last! Open Access version of the book on MIT's site. One for the syntax nerds. I argue we need to replace Merge, that there are no Phases, and that we need to rethink the basic theoretical typology of Islands. Feel free to download with abandon! 🐦🐦 #syntax direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
Mereological Syntax: Phrase Structure, Cyclicity, and Islands
An argument for replacing Chomsky’s set-theoretic Merge view of syntax with a theory of syntax based on mereological objects.Mereology is the study of part
direct.mit.edu
November 23, 2025 at 1:51 PM
At last! Open Access version of the book on MIT's site. One for the syntax nerds. I argue we need to replace Merge, that there are no Phases, and that we need to rethink the basic theoretical typology of Islands. Feel free to download with abandon! 🐦🐦 #syntax direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
Reposted by andrea e. martin
Are we really at a stage in public education where we consider it OK to have literally Google-branded schoolchildren whose learner identities are tied to being "responsible AI" users of private for-profit technologies?
November 22, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Are we really at a stage in public education where we consider it OK to have literally Google-branded schoolchildren whose learner identities are tied to being "responsible AI" users of private for-profit technologies?
Reposted by andrea e. martin
Reposted by andrea e. martin
some unexpected visitors this morning
November 20, 2025 at 3:49 PM
some unexpected visitors this morning
Reposted by andrea e. martin
🚨New publication!
I am extremely happy to share this new review article in elife on #Traveling_Waves!
@erc.europa.eu
@upcite.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
I am extremely happy to share this new review article in elife on #Traveling_Waves!
@erc.europa.eu
@upcite.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Traveling waves across scales: Different mechanisms but same canonical computation?
The review proposes a novel mechanistic distinction between first- and second-order traveling waves that subserves a same canonical computation by ordering neuronal processing to impose a computationa...
elifesciences.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:54 PM
🚨New publication!
I am extremely happy to share this new review article in elife on #Traveling_Waves!
@erc.europa.eu
@upcite.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
I am extremely happy to share this new review article in elife on #Traveling_Waves!
@erc.europa.eu
@upcite.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Reposted by andrea e. martin
More beautiful orchids from NW Sicily in April 2019 (those days before we'd ever heard of Covid). Ophrys bombyliflora, Ophrys tenthredinifera, Ophrys x fernandii, Orchis papilionacea. @europeanorchids.bsky.social
November 19, 2025 at 9:08 PM
More beautiful orchids from NW Sicily in April 2019 (those days before we'd ever heard of Covid). Ophrys bombyliflora, Ophrys tenthredinifera, Ophrys x fernandii, Orchis papilionacea. @europeanorchids.bsky.social
Reposted by andrea e. martin
This is a really interesting article about a horrifying distortion of sign language happening in the UK, and which its creators are now trying to export to other countries and their sign languages
Learn actual sign languages from Deaf people, not from hearing people making their own weird versions!
Learn actual sign languages from Deaf people, not from hearing people making their own weird versions!
I will not fight with people on Threads about Makaton. I will not fight with people on Threads about Makaton. I will not thebaffler.com/outbursts/si...
Signed Away | Sara Nović
The hearing world continues to pillage and caricature the deaf community—most recently with the proprietary, sign-based system Makaton.
thebaffler.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:18 PM
This is a really interesting article about a horrifying distortion of sign language happening in the UK, and which its creators are now trying to export to other countries and their sign languages
Learn actual sign languages from Deaf people, not from hearing people making their own weird versions!
Learn actual sign languages from Deaf people, not from hearing people making their own weird versions!
Reposted by andrea e. martin
Huge congrats to our lab's summer intern Aryanna Toomer from Howard University who won the undergraduate paper award at the Black in Neuro Conference -- invited to submit a paper on her work to Oxford Open Neuroscience as a freakin sophomore.
November 19, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Huge congrats to our lab's summer intern Aryanna Toomer from Howard University who won the undergraduate paper award at the Black in Neuro Conference -- invited to submit a paper on her work to Oxford Open Neuroscience as a freakin sophomore.
Reposted by andrea e. martin
Things that will get you kicked out of academia forever:
- taking maternity leave at the wrong time
- spending too much time with your kids
- reporting harassment
- not moving every 2-3 years
- taking a partner's job/preferences into account
- mouthing off before tenure
- taking maternity leave at the wrong time
- spending too much time with your kids
- reporting harassment
- not moving every 2-3 years
- taking a partner's job/preferences into account
- mouthing off before tenure
A guy makes ONE tiny mistake (has a years-long friendship with the world's worst sex trafficker; brags about sexually harassing colleagues; is racist; says women are stupid) and his whole LIFE is blown up (does slightly fewer speaking engagements; keeps teaching at #1 university)??!?!?!?!?!
So Harvard is keeping this guy, but Claudine Gay had to step down over ginned up plagiarism accusations and bad-faith accusations of anti-Semitism.
Got it.
Got it.
November 18, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Things that will get you kicked out of academia forever:
- taking maternity leave at the wrong time
- spending too much time with your kids
- reporting harassment
- not moving every 2-3 years
- taking a partner's job/preferences into account
- mouthing off before tenure
- taking maternity leave at the wrong time
- spending too much time with your kids
- reporting harassment
- not moving every 2-3 years
- taking a partner's job/preferences into account
- mouthing off before tenure
Reposted by andrea e. martin
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
November 17, 2025 at 7:20 PM
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
I just used the term “patriarchy maxxing” in a very normal conversation
November 17, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I just used the term “patriarchy maxxing” in a very normal conversation
Reposted by andrea e. martin
For maximum alpha, read this microblogged cognitive poetry jam at 1.25x on your cellular intelligence device:
Ode to the original language model, or:
Give me literally Anything* instead of Large Language Models (LLMs)
*(no predictive coding either!)
By Lady Byronadrea LLMartin 1/n
Give me literally Anything* instead of Large Language Models (LLMs)
*(no predictive coding either!)
By Lady Byronadrea LLMartin 1/n
November 17, 2025 at 6:07 PM
For maximum alpha, read this microblogged cognitive poetry jam at 1.25x on your cellular intelligence device:
Reposted by andrea e. martin
Now, we should think about what the questions are & how we can answer them.
An important question is: how is the brain capable of bootstrapping structure from statistics? And the reverse: does the brain refine probabilistic representations with structured knowledge, and if so, how does this work?
An important question is: how is the brain capable of bootstrapping structure from statistics? And the reverse: does the brain refine probabilistic representations with structured knowledge, and if so, how does this work?
a cartoon elephant with glasses says " i now have additional questions "
Alt: a cartoon elephant says "i now have additional questions "
media.tenor.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Now, we should think about what the questions are & how we can answer them.
An important question is: how is the brain capable of bootstrapping structure from statistics? And the reverse: does the brain refine probabilistic representations with structured knowledge, and if so, how does this work?
An important question is: how is the brain capable of bootstrapping structure from statistics? And the reverse: does the brain refine probabilistic representations with structured knowledge, and if so, how does this work?
Reposted by andrea e. martin
This means that any effects found for surprisal always leave room for the possibility of latent factors driving both the probabilities and the human responses, and do not allow any conclusions about which factors are involved (and why).
So... Now what?
(image by Noémie te Rietmolen)
So... Now what?
(image by Noémie te Rietmolen)
November 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
This means that any effects found for surprisal always leave room for the possibility of latent factors driving both the probabilities and the human responses, and do not allow any conclusions about which factors are involved (and why).
So... Now what?
(image by Noémie te Rietmolen)
So... Now what?
(image by Noémie te Rietmolen)
Reposted by andrea e. martin
By contrast, using a data-driven feature like surprisal as an explanation prevents us from looking at the influence from latent factors by reflecting variance that stems from these factors as a second-order variable.
November 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
By contrast, using a data-driven feature like surprisal as an explanation prevents us from looking at the influence from latent factors by reflecting variance that stems from these factors as a second-order variable.
Reposted by andrea e. martin
The problem with this power is that data-driven estimate will perform better than a theory-driven estimate. Because the data do not err, the theorizer does (@olivia.science & @andreaeyleen.bsky.social, 2021). These mistakes are awesome: they are opportunities to adjust our theory!
November 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
The problem with this power is that data-driven estimate will perform better than a theory-driven estimate. Because the data do not err, the theorizer does (@olivia.science & @andreaeyleen.bsky.social, 2021). These mistakes are awesome: they are opportunities to adjust our theory!
Reposted by andrea e. martin
The power of surprisal stems from the fact that (lexical) surprisal can —and will— parametrically reflect variation stemming from any domain or representational level of language. Why? Because words form patterns for many reasons! Semantics, syntax, frequency... Surprisal does not distinguish.
November 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
The power of surprisal stems from the fact that (lexical) surprisal can —and will— parametrically reflect variation stemming from any domain or representational level of language. Why? Because words form patterns for many reasons! Semantics, syntax, frequency... Surprisal does not distinguish.
Reposted by andrea e. martin
Surprisal is the ‘everything bagel/nothing burger’ of predictors—it has everything baked in, which is the problem.
November 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Surprisal is the ‘everything bagel/nothing burger’ of predictors—it has everything baked in, which is the problem.
Reposted by andrea e. martin
Many studies of naturalistic comprehension report that surprisal (often LLM derived) explains more of the variance in data than other predictors. Why is this? And why can it be problematic for our conclusions?
A 🧵 of takeaways from our paper doi.org/10.1007/s421... with @andreaeyleen.bsky.social
A 🧵 of takeaways from our paper doi.org/10.1007/s421... with @andreaeyleen.bsky.social
What’s Surprising About Surprisal - Computational Brain & Behavior
In the computational and experimental psycholinguistic literature, the mechanisms behind syntactic structure building (e.g., combining words into phrases and sentences) are the subject of considerable...
doi.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Many studies of naturalistic comprehension report that surprisal (often LLM derived) explains more of the variance in data than other predictors. Why is this? And why can it be problematic for our conclusions?
A 🧵 of takeaways from our paper doi.org/10.1007/s421... with @andreaeyleen.bsky.social
A 🧵 of takeaways from our paper doi.org/10.1007/s421... with @andreaeyleen.bsky.social
Reposted by andrea e. martin
I am gutted to learn of @sfdirewolf.bsky.social (Alice Wong’s) passing. She was always a warm friend, a wonderful spirit, and someone who fostered my own growth. She helped me see that, as a #disabled person with chronic illness, I matter—I am whole. I’ll be posting some of Alice’s work. ❤️ forever
November 15, 2025 at 11:37 AM
I am gutted to learn of @sfdirewolf.bsky.social (Alice Wong’s) passing. She was always a warm friend, a wonderful spirit, and someone who fostered my own growth. She helped me see that, as a #disabled person with chronic illness, I matter—I am whole. I’ll be posting some of Alice’s work. ❤️ forever
Reposted by andrea e. martin
Hello fellow nerds! The upcoming Australasian Mathematical Psych Conference (AMPC) is going to be on Feb 23-25, and they've just put out the call for abstracts.
Details below. This is one of my favourite conferences and this year it's in Singapore(!!) which should be awesome.
Details below. This is one of my favourite conferences and this year it's in Singapore(!!) which should be awesome.
November 13, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Hello fellow nerds! The upcoming Australasian Mathematical Psych Conference (AMPC) is going to be on Feb 23-25, and they've just put out the call for abstracts.
Details below. This is one of my favourite conferences and this year it's in Singapore(!!) which should be awesome.
Details below. This is one of my favourite conferences and this year it's in Singapore(!!) which should be awesome.
Reposted by andrea e. martin
This whole thing is out of control.
The Ecological Cost of AI Is Much Higher Than You Think - Truthdig
As the demands of AI grow, each generation of microchips requires more energy, minerals and water to produce, driving a ruinous cycle.
www.truthdig.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:51 AM
This whole thing is out of control.
Reposted by andrea e. martin
“AI is a backlash. AI is anti-worker.
I always feel the need to remind people that neither robots nor AI are coming for our jobs. But management probably is.”
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/ai-grief-obs...
I always feel the need to remind people that neither robots nor AI are coming for our jobs. But management probably is.”
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/ai-grief-obs...
AI Grief Observed
These remarks were delivered this evening at the Creatively Critical Tech Speaker Series at Illinois State University.
"There is no good way to say this."
These are the opening words of Yiyun Li’s l...
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:34 AM
“AI is a backlash. AI is anti-worker.
I always feel the need to remind people that neither robots nor AI are coming for our jobs. But management probably is.”
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/ai-grief-obs...
I always feel the need to remind people that neither robots nor AI are coming for our jobs. But management probably is.”
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/ai-grief-obs...