Björn Lindström
@bjornlindstrom.bsky.social
📤 966
📥 440
📝 80
Researching (social) learning and cultural evolution at Karolinska Institute, Sweden
pinned post!
Thrilled that our paper on the mechanisms underlying social learning strategies is out! First big paper from my
@erc.europa.eu
&
@kawresearch.bsky.social
funded group. More to come! I'm currently looking to recruit two post docs, get in touch if you find this line of research interesting.
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4 months ago
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Alex Mesoudi
4 days ago
Come and do a PhD at Exeter with me and Chico Camargo (Computer Science) on human-genAI coevolution "Leveraging Natural Language Processing for Data-Driven Agent-Based Modelling of Online Cultural Dynamics"
www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recr...
More details here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
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https://www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recruitmentsites/documents/studentshipprojects/Leveraging_Natural_Language_Processing_for_Data-Driven_Agent-Based_Modelling_of_Online_Cultural_Dynamics_-_Camargo_-_Ecology_and_Conservation-1.pdf
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Johan Lind
5 days ago
For this reason, we wrote this comment, published yesterday.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
We reason that 1) their data supports rather than rejects the sequence hypothesis, as monkeys and chimps did not perform with any precision in these sequential tasks. 7/n
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Philipp Kanske
7 days ago
Join us for this talk by
@janhaaker.bsky.social
on "A functional view on how we respond to others’ pain: Empathy, threat learning and neuropeptides" 11 November, 1pm CET
tu-dresden.de/mn/psycholog...
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Charley Wu | hiring PhDs/Postdocs
13 days ago
Just 1 week to apply! 4 year
@erc.europa.eu
funded PhD position working in an interdisciplinary team to study
#culturalEvolution
as a process of reuse, recombination, and creative re-engineering of past solutions. Details 👉
hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur...
🙏Please share!
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Dirk Wulff
20 days ago
🚨 New preprint 🚨 Are reinforcement learning models complete accounts of decisions from experience if they ignore explicit memory? In this new preprint, we show that people indeed form robust explicit memory representations that flexibly guide later decisions. 🔗 Preprint:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
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Paul Smaldino
21 days ago
Re-posting this because I really like it and I think we need to understand identity from a functionalist perspective more than ever.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Joe Bak-Coleman
25 days ago
I'm excited to finally have a preprint of this paper up, a few years in the making. In it we argue that industry-driven manipulation of social media research is well underway and that norms and institutions in the field are ill-prepared to resist tech's influence.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
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Charley Wu | hiring PhDs/Postdocs
29 days ago
Fully-funded 4-year
#PhD
in Cultural Evolution! Join my
@erc.europa.eu
project exploring how compression & compositionality drive cultural innovation:
hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur...
Apply by Nov 12! Maybe of interest to folks from
#COSMOS2025
or
@eslr.bsky.social
? Please feel free to share! 🙏
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ERC funded PhD position on Cultural Evolution
ERC funded PhD position on Cultural Evolution posted on October 16, 2025 We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual for a ful...
https://hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCulturalEvolution.html
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Stefano Palminteri
30 days ago
Very thought-provoking post by
@prakhargodara.bsky.social
. Is confirmation bias/positivity bias a statistical "ghost" of model specification? Specifically not including temporally decaying learning rates? The evidence suggests this is not the case and here is why (1/n)
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How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone? Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social
&
@ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘
arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
about 1 month ago
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Dominik Deffner
about 1 month ago
Which processes underlie collective intelligence in naturalistic human groups? In new work led by Valerii Chirkov, we show that payoff selectivity is key in transforming a group of individuals into an intelligent collective 🤝🧠
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7n...
Preprint:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
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First-Person Perspective of the Voluntary Payoff-Sharing (VP) Condition
YouTube video by Valerii Chirkov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7nzh4vF4o
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Richard McElreath 🐈⬛
about 1 month ago
"Dunbar's Number" is a zombie that lives forever in the science press it seems. Estimates of Dunbar's Number with 95% intervals, for a range of model specifications (from
doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
):
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Julian Jara-Ettinger
about 1 month ago
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...
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https://compdevlab.yale.edu/docs/2025/annurev-devpsych-111323-112016.pdf
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Mark Ho
about 1 month ago
I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓 The CoDec Lab @ NYU (
codec-lab.github.io
) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠 Applications through Psych (
tinyurl.com/nyucp
) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
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codec lab
https://codec-lab.github.io/
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Mark Haselgrove
about 1 month ago
Am slowly making my way through this paper. And it is an impressive body of work by a collection of great researchers. However, I have a couple of problems with it... 1/n
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Lena Frischlich
about 2 months ago
The result of this super cool work with Henrik Olsson,
@abhishekr0y.bsky.social
,
@hdschulze.bsky.social
, Stan Rhodes, and Alison Mansheim can now be found online - and we hope you like it as much as we do 😍https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-025-00053-z- Core ideas also summarized below 🔽
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The complexity of misinformation extends beyond virus and warfare analogies
npj Complexity - The complexity of misinformation extends beyond virus and warfare analogies
https://rdcu.be/eI0Dm
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Dan Mirea
about 2 months ago
🚨Out now in
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
🚨 We explore the use of cognitive theories/models with real-world data for understanding mental health. We review emerging studies and discuss challenges and opportunities of this approach. With
@yaelniv.bsky.social
and
@eriknook.bsky.social
Thread ⬇️
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Alejandro Pérez Velilla
about 2 months ago
I am happy to announce that our project on risk and social learning is now in press at Psychological Review. Several new additions and revisions thanks to detailed feedback from colleagues and anonymous reviewers.
osf.io/preprints/so...
@psmaldino.bsky.social
@babeheim.bsky.social
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Joshua Conrad Jackson
about 2 months ago
🚨New preprint🚨
osf.io/preprints/ps...
In a sample of ~2 billion comments, social media discourse becomes more negative over time Archival and experimental findings suggest this is a byproduct of people trying to differentiate themselves Led by
@hongkai1.bsky.social
in his 1st year (!) of his PhD
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Petter Holme
about 2 months ago
New paper in NHB 📄🚨 We ran extensive experiments to show that making the rules of some canonical economic games looser, makes people more cooperative
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Social networking agency and prosociality are inextricably linked in economic games - Nature Human Behaviour
Jia et al. experimentally show that when individuals can tailor their actions to each neighbour—a freedom termed social networking agency—they display higher levels of cooperation, trust and fairness in economic games.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02289-0
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Brandon C Davidson
2 months ago
🚨 New Preprint 🚨 Prolonged Isolation is associated with an increased behavioural sensitivity to ‘Likes’ on social media. 🧵 Social media rewards are inherently social—but does posting change during social isolation, when in-person social rewards are limited? It turns out, yes!
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xavier roberts-gaal
2 months ago
We often hear from reviewers: "what about demand effects?" So we developed a method to eliminate them. Something weird happened during testing: We couldn’t detect demand effects in the first place! (1/8)
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Sheina Lew-Levy
2 months ago
@durhampsych.bsky.social
current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised! 3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution 2 to work with
@drboothroyd.bsky.social
on examining school-based body image interventions. Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
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Fees and Funding - Durham University
https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/psychology/postgraduate-study/funding/
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Gaia Molinaro
2 months ago
📢 New preprint! How do humans learn from arbitrary, abstract goals? We show that, when goal spaces can be compressed, costly working-memory processes give way to internalized reward functions, enabling efficient goal-dependent reinforcement learning.
@annecollins.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2509.06810
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Reward function compression facilitates goal-dependent reinforcement learning
Reinforcement learning agents learn from rewards, but humans can uniquely assign value to novel, abstract outcomes in a goal-dependent manner. However, this flexibility is cognitively costly, making l...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.06810
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Joshua Conrad Jackson
2 months ago
@helenamiton.bsky.social
and I have a new paper out:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Past theories focus on how we evolve complex technologies (jet engines), but neglect cultural innovations that help us operate these technologies (pilot checklist) Paper has tons of examples and new theory!
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David Schultner
4 months ago
🎊 New paper out! In this
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
Forum, we (with
@lucasmolleman.bsky.social
and
@bjornlindstrom.bsky.social
) summarize how reward learning can lead to adaptive social learning. We also explore the broader consequences for cultural evolution:
www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
🚄
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Isabelle Hoxha
3 months ago
Ever wondered why you keep going to that restaurant with stale fries? Is it because you went often in the past (perseveration) or because you remember past good experiences better (positivity bias)? Our study out in PNAS investigates the normative basis for these biases
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Evolving choice hysteresis in reinforcement learning: Comparing the adaptive value of positivity bias and gradual perseveration | PNAS
The tendency to repeat past choices more often than expected from the history of outcomes has been repeatedly empirically observed in reinforcement...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2422144122
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Tom Schaul
3 months ago
Where do some of Reinforcement Learning's great thinkers stand today? Find out! Keynotes of the RL Conference are online:
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Wanting vs liking, Agent factories, Theoretical limit of LLMs, Pluralist value, RL teachers, Knowledge flywheels (guess who talked about which!)
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Will Oremus
3 months ago
The funny thing is animals actually can suffer and we slaughter them by the billions but sure let’s have an existential panic over whether a software program screams when we turn it off
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Simon Columbus
3 months ago
⚡ Autumn 2025 Cooperation Colloquia ⚡ We are excited to announce the next run of Cooperation Colloquia. With
@talbotmandrews.bsky.social
,
@setayeshradkani.bsky.social
,
@kris-smith.bsky.social
,
@alexmesoudi.com
, & more. Every second Friday, 15:00 CE(S)T Sign up here:
list.ku.dk/postorius/li...
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manvir singh
3 months ago
Why do societies reliably develop strikingly similar traditions like dance songs, hero stories, shamanism & justice institutions? In a new BBS target article, I propose a theory for such "super-attractors" + cultural evolution more broadly. Now open for commentary:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
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Petter Törnberg
3 months ago
🚨 PhD Position at the University of Amsterdam 🚨 Join my team as a computer scientist / computational social scientist working on LLMs, social media, and politics. We offer freedom, impact, and an inspiring environment at one of Europe's leading universities. 🔗
werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
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Vacancy — PhD Position on Improving Social Media Using Large Language Models
The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the University of Amsterdam is inviting applications for a fully funded PhD position in the NWO VIDI project "Improving Social Media Using L...
https://werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies/phd-position-on-improving-social-media-using-large-language-models-netherlands-14252
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Johan Lind
3 months ago
A bit late on this, but here we explore how cultural information can guide development of behavior & cognitive skills just like genes. Can cultural evolution result in teaching trajectories that promote incremental acquisition of complex tasks?
#culturalevolution
#developmentalpsychology
#modelling
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Tim Waring
3 months ago
🧠 Want to integrate cultural evolution into your course using award winning materials created by the field's experts, and get paid $2000 to do it? 💵 🚨 The Cultural Evolution Society is seeking applications for the ACE Teaching Innovation Awards. 🔖 Apply here:
vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
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Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.
https://vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_50v5Kia9wT57578
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James Winters
3 months ago
🚨🚨 New preprint 📜 with Mathieu Charbonneau (
@matcharbonneau.bsky.social
): Modelling the emergence of open-ended technological evolution (
arxiv.org/abs/2508.04828
). Feedback welcomed!
#Evolution
#Technology
#Culture
#OpenEnded
#TechnologicalEvolution
#CulturalEvolution
🧵: 1/29
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Modelling the emergence of open-ended technological evolution
Humans stand alone in terms of their potential to collectively and cumulatively improve technologies in an open-ended manner. This open-endedness provides societies with the ability to continually exp...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.04828
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Catherine Molho
3 months ago
📣 New registered report in
@nathumbehav.nature.com
with Ivan Soraperra,
@jonathanschulz.bsky.social
, and Shaul Shalvi:
rdcu.be/eAcMA
With data from 7,978 participants in 20 countries, we find that information about negative externalities promotes prosociality, especially in guilt-prone individuals.
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Guilt drives prosociality across 20 countries
Nature Human Behaviour - This Registered Report of 7,978 people in 20 countries found that guilt and information about consequences drive prosocial behaviour. Guilt-prone individuals gave more when...
https://rdcu.be/eAcMA
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Ricard Solé
3 months ago
What is emergence? This is one of the most central ingredients of complexity, and a challenging one to formalize. Here's a paper by
@seanmcarroll.bsky.social
& Achyth Parola that attempts to classify different forms of emergence.
@manlius.bsky.social
@sfiscience.bsky.social
arxiv.org/pdf/2410.15468
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Mathieu Charbonneau
6 months ago
New paper out in Topics in Cognitive Science! "Open-Ended Technological Evolution: The Co-Evolution of Invention and Cognitive Technologies" 🧵
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
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Open‐Ended Technological Evolution: The Co‐Evolution of Invention and Cognitive Technologies
Open-ended technological evolution is the result of the co-evolution of invention and cognitive technologies that enhances our cognitive capabilities and generates a feedback loop of ever-expanding t....
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/tops.70012
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Igor Grossmann, PhD
3 months ago
1/10 Finally out in Proceedings B
@royalsociety.org
! This took a while—big scope, many hands. We started with a worry: maybe Solomon’s paradox (
doi.org/10.1177/0956797614535400
) is “too obvious.” If stepping back helps wise choices, surely everyone does it… right?
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Stefano Palminteri
3 months ago
5/ 🏛 Part 3 – RL in public policy Despite being central in education, therapy & even marketing, RL is oddly underused in behavioral public policy compared to “nudges” or “boosts.” We argue history & misconceptions are partly to blame.
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Manikya Alister
3 months ago
We know that a consensus of opinions is persuasive, but how reliable is this effect across people and types of consensus, and are there any kinds of claims where people care less about what other people think? This is what we tested in our new(ish) paper in
@psychscience.bsky.social
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Deadline tomorrow!
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3 months ago
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Deadline on Monday the 11th! Exciting project for people interested in social learning / cultural evolution.
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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Jean-François Bonnefon
3 months ago
We need data, not guesses, on how future tech may reshape behavior & society. Our new paper with
@azimshariff.bsky.social
and
@iyadrahwan.bsky.social
out in
@nature.com
spells out a framework we call the ❝science fiction science method❞ (sci-fi-sci) +
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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The science fiction science method - Nature
The ‘science fiction science’ method simulates future technologies and collects quantitative data on the attitudes and behaviours of participants in various future scenarios, with the aim of predictin...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09194-6
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💥New postdoc position! 💥 Join us to explore how people learn from each other—and how that drives cultural evolution. Run experiments, build computational models & collaborate across Europe w.
@lucasmolleman.bsky.social
📍 Stockholm More info:
shorturl.at/CY4wk
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Postdoctoral Researcher in psychology/cognitive science with focus on social learning and cultural evolution
Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research? The Mechanisms of Social Behavior lab at the Karolinska Institutet (PI: Björn Lindström) in Stockholm, Sweden is seeking a highly qualified
https://shorturl.at/CY4wk
5 months ago
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Companion piece in
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
to our recent
@nathumbehav.nature.com
paper, in which we put our "Social feature learning" model of social learning strategies in context.
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4 months ago
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Amit Goldenberg
4 months ago
🔖 NEW PAPER ALERT 🔖 Out in PNAS – we used equation discovery algorithms to improve models of human reinforcement learning. Led by the wonderful Kyle Lafollette with an amazing team Yanni Yuval
@roeyschurr.bsky.social
and
@d-melnikoff.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
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PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2413441122
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Yi Zhang
4 months ago
🥳Excited to share that our new paper is live at Psychological Science
@psychscience.bsky.social
! We show that Pavlovian learning can grow empathy for another person. 🧵👇
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Alberto Acerbi
4 months ago
Finally an interesting attempt to clean up the mess of social learning strategies! I’ll read after holidays :)
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David Schultner
4 months ago
If you want to read more about the nuts and bolts of our reward learning account of social learning—the Social Feature Learning (SFL) model—check out our recent
@nathumbehav.nature.com
paper:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Feature-based reward learning shapes human social learning strategies - Nature Human Behaviour
This research advances a mechanistic reward learning account of social learning strategies. Through experiments and simulations, it shows how individuals learn to learn from others, dynamically shapin...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02269-4
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