Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴
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wamsleylab.bsky.social
Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴
@wamsleylab.bsky.social
2.9K followers 1.1K following 930 posts
Cognitive neuroscientist, runs a sleep lab. Studying sleep, dreaming, memory and rest. Uses EEG, interested in open science, women in STEM. 🧠📈😴 Frustrated with the higher-education industrial complex. Luddite-adjacent. #AAUP. Views are my own.
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wamsleylab.bsky.social
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The undersigned are the MIT Student Body President, Brown Undergraduate Council of Students, UPenn Undergraduate Executive Board, Dartmouth College Student Body Vice President, UVA Student Council President, Vanderbilt Student Gov., and U Arizona Student Body President. On October 1st, 2025, the White House sent the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education to our seven universities, outlining expectations universities must meet to continue receiving federal benefits. Although the compact’s full implications remain unclear, the document outlines unprecedented expectations universities must meet to receive federal benefits. This could systemically alter the mission of higher education and erode the independence that has long defined our universities. We must not allow these attempts to control what can be taught, studied, or spoken on our campuses. Our universities represent the full spectrum of American higher education, from liberal arts colleges to leading research institutions. As students, this directly impacts us, and thus, our voices must be heard. We know firsthand that institutional autonomy is instrumental to the perpetuation of innovation and progress. As the Compact itself acknowledges, “American higher education is the envy of the world and represents a key strategic benefit for our Nation,” yet the document undermines the very principles that make this statement true. Our administrations have been presented with a false choice between their commitments to knowledge and education and our access to the resources that sustain them. To preserve our status as world leaders in education, we must remain true to the foundation of academic freedom that has propelled us forward. As student representatives, we stand in united opposition to the outlined conditions. We call on our community of students, faculty, alumni, and leadership to reaffirm our commitment to reject political interference and federal overreach. Academic freedom is not negotiable.
October 14, 2025 at 11:37 AM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Bill Murray in Ghostbusters in the scene where he says "Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!"
October 8, 2025 at 12:23 AM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Would you agree to FORMALLY SURVEY THE IDEOLOGIES OF FACULTY IN EVERY DEPARTMENT OF YOUR COLLEGE, and to "transform or abolish" any that "belittle" "conservative ideas"?

That's what Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence." demands.

#edusky #academicsky

www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...
" Signatories commit themselves to revising governance structures as necessary to create such an environment, including but not limited to transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas. Given the importance of academic freedom to the marketplace of ideas, signatories shall adopt a policy protecting academic freedom in classrooms, teaching, research, and scholarship. Such policies also shall recognize that academic freedom is not absolute, and universities shall adopt policies that prevent discriminatory, threatening, harassing, or other behaviors that abridge the rights of other members of the university community. Signatories commit to rigorous, good faith, empirical assessment of a broad spectrum of viewpoints among faculty, students, and staff at all levels and to sharing the results of such assessments with the public; and to seek such a broad spectrum of viewpoints not just in the university as a whole, but within every field, department, school, and teaching unit. "
October 4, 2025 at 12:00 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Provost at Angelo State: “recent events at universities across Texas have underscored the importance of understanding compliance responsibilities related to student instruction.” He instructed faculty to review syllabi to remove any “outdated or noncompliant language” #academicsky

bit.ly/4nVJC1W
A big billboard that says "COMPLY"
September 30, 2025 at 12:11 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Here is a map of universities that have fired or suspended faculty/staff for their speech on social media since September 10th. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

This is a purge, and the SE is ground zero.

bit.ly/3VvMqXn

#academicsky #edusky
A map of the USA, showing the location of where 40 faculty and staff have been fired from. The majority of institutions doing this are in the southeast.
September 23, 2025 at 1:37 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Academic Freedom is over at Texas A&M.

Talking about transgender people in a lit class is now a fireable offense.

The content of ALL courses will now be "audited" to ensure "they align with the course descriptions". (Only a fool would believe that rationale).

#academicsky
#edusky
Texas A&M System Chancellor Glenn Hegar commended the professor's removal and said he and the Board of Regents would extend the audit of courses to all schools in the A&M System. In its own statement, the Board of Regents aid it would "not tolerate actions that damage the reputation" of its institutions.
September 10, 2025 at 12:34 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Excellent visual explainer article on the flaws of David Geier's anti-vax pseudoscience.

Will have my psych research methods class read this -- hammers home the real-world meaning of poorly designed controls, lax ethics, bias, replication.

#metasci

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Image from the article, in cartoon style, showing Geiers plucking children out of a line to receive vaccines.
September 6, 2025 at 12:16 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Most faculty are liberal (at Harvard, 63%).

So what?
This is not a problem.

Politics do not need to be evenly balanced at Universities. Why would they be? More professors are liberal, more bankers are conservative. Get over it.

The argument for efforts to increase racial diversity...

1/2
Survey results from Harvard Crimson survey showing that about 63% of faculty at Harvard describe themselves as liberal or very liberal. This is down from about 82% in 2022.
September 4, 2025 at 11:58 AM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Just a reminder that #NSF grant contracts now require certification that your institution do not engage in "discriminatory equity ideology".

Defined in EO 14190, this includes apparent bans on mere BELEIF in white privilege and systemic racism.

Are you ok with this? I'm not ok with this.
(ii) An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race, color, sex, or national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously; (iii) An individual’s moral character or status as privileged, oppressing, or oppressed is primarily determined by the individual’s race, color, sex, or national origin; (iv) Members of one race, color, sex, or national origin cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to their race, color, sex, or national origin; (v) An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race, color, sex, or national origin, bears responsibility for, should feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of, should be discriminated against, blamed, or stereotyped for, or should receive adverse treatment because of actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin, in which the individual played no part; (vi) An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race, color, sex, or national origin, should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion; (vii) Virtues such as merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race, color, sex, or national origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex, or national origin; or (viii) the United States is fundamentally racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory.
August 30, 2025 at 1:12 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Our lab is starting a new study on dreaming
🚨GREAT NEWS!🚨: YOU may be eligible to participate!

If interested, follow this link to a screening survey: furman.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

#SleepPeeps #psychscisky #cogsci 🧠🟦
Furman Sleep Lab Participate in Dream Research! Why do you dream? Help us find out via a remote 10-day survey. Participants will receive up to $75 on completion of the study. Sign up here: https://furman.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_574ifz2NqDP9oJU and email sleepandcognitionlab@gmail.com with any questions.
August 27, 2025 at 7:12 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Best use I can think of for LLMs is to put one into a Furby.
Why has that not happened yet?
Its a Furby looking creepy.
August 23, 2025 at 11:08 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
catbird.
August 18, 2025 at 12:01 AM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
How did my cat Remi get in your house?
It's a cat lying on it's back that looks exactly like the cat OP posted.
August 14, 2025 at 12:10 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
August 6, 2025 at 7:03 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
***🚨 New Paper 🚨***

Both #sleep and eyes-closed waking rest improve memory. But sleep also increases FALSE recall in some paradigms.

Q: Does eyes-closed rest similarly increase false recall?

A: No.

Free access link:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lYgb3qNaA...

#sleeppeeps #psychscisky 🧠🟦
August 5, 2025 at 1:27 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Just received this suspicious request from an #NSF email address I have never gotten email from before.

It requests a specifically formatted reply with 2-3 sentences on how my grant relates to the 6 new MAGA "priority" areas.

1/x
@marisakabas.bsky.social @jeremymberg.bsky.social
🧠🟦
#academicsky
We are sending this message to you as ________Program awardee since July 2015. As you should be aware, NSF is focusing on a handful of Administration research priorities: Artificial intelligence Quantum information science Biotechnology Nuclear energy Translational science National security/national defense Many of you may see your work as connecting to one or more of these priorities but those connections are not always reflected in your annual reports. So please help us out! If your work can be seen as situated within, or applicable to, any of the above areas (defined broadly), please send us an email with a short description (2-3 sentences) of that connection, preferably this week. This should be focused on the current work, training, and outcomes of your NSF award from the program. Please email___________ and in the email subject line, please reference your NSF award number, and the priority areas mentioned in the body of the email (e.g., NSF XXXXXXXX, Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology). Please do not use abbreviations for the priority areas in the subject line. For Collaborative Projects, only one email response is needed, but please include both NSF award numbers in the subject line. If you have had multiple _________awards since 2015, please send separate emails for each award. Please don’t ignore this request. We are trying to clarify the role of our sciences within these new priorities. If we need more information, we will reach out to you individually. If your work does not connect to any of these priorities, that’s fine- NSF also remains “…committed to awarding grants and funding all areas of science and engineering to promote the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity and welfare and secure the national defense.” (https://www.nsf.gov/updates-on-priorities). Please do not respond to this email if your work does not connect to any of the above priorities.
July 11, 2025 at 3:21 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
The situation is different for non-profit... but at the largest for-profit journals, it's SO clear that this money just pads their obscene profit margins -- publishers like Elsevier have WAY high corporate profit.

chart source: bit.ly/4leULKi
#scipub #academicsky
Chart shows profit margin for Elsevier is 38%, for Springer-Nature is 27%... this is in comparison to companies like Apple (25%), Amazon (5%)... There are non-publishing companies like Microsoft with big margins (34%), but overall the chart shows that academic publishing companies have surprisingly large profits when compared to more "famous" large companies that are household names. "Source" line says "yahoo finance, RELX investor presentations, Spring Nature Annual Reports
July 3, 2025 at 12:54 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Where is the money going? In the case of for-profit publishers it's very clear:

Your open access fees fund corporate profit margins.

Profit margins for large academic publishers can far exceed those of household names like Amazon and Apple.

chart source: bit.ly/4leULKi
#scipub #academicsky
Chart shows profit margin for Elsevier is 38%, for Springer-Nature is 27%... this is in comparison to companies like Apple (25%), Amazon (5%)... There are non-publishing companies like Microsoft with big margins (34%), but overall the chart shows that academic publishing companies have surprisingly large profits when compared to more "famous" large companies that are household names. "Source" line says "yahoo finance, RELX investor presentations, Spring Nature Annual Reports
July 3, 2025 at 12:49 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Congratulations!
What a great feeling. 🎉
(But yeah, what a time to be crossing this milestone... 😓)

In honor, here's my daughter holding the sign she made me:
A kid holding a sign that says "Happy Ten Yer"
July 1, 2025 at 10:06 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Wow, republicans could really stand to work on their data visualization skills. 🫤

(Also basic arithmetic... and a few other things)

#dataviz
June 29, 2025 at 8:18 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
oops, here's with alt text:
A screenshot from the "Gemini" AI tool's landing page. A header says "College students now get free access to our best AI model in the Gemini App. Learn More [w/ link]"
June 29, 2025 at 12:58 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
#Capitalism routinely produces the exact opposite of what would most benefit us.

A better system would restrict young students from AI tools while they learn to use their own brains, give free access later.

(Yes, I am aware of all your counterarguments. They are wrong. 😆)

#Edusky #Academicsky
June 29, 2025 at 12:51 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Judge Young is an 84-year-old Reagan appointee and former Army captain.
Photo of Judge Young -- he is an elderly white man posing in front of a wall of encyclopedias, wearing glasses, a suit, and a stern expression. He doesn't look especially "woke".
June 17, 2025 at 12:19 AM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Massive turnout for #NoKings protest here in Greenville, South Carolina. All types of people were there, united by speakers who talked about defending the constitution and civil rights.

By FAR the biggest rally I've seen in our area. Local newspaper said 5,000 people.

photo credit: Fox Carolina
Overhead shot of big crowd at Unity Park in Greenville SC
June 14, 2025 at 5:58 PM
wamsleylab.bsky.social
Show him these two charts.

And then ask him why he is pulling back on the measles vaccine.

And how he sleeps at night when anyone can clearly see that his actions will cause children to die.
June 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM