How do multilingual babies acquire their languages? In Africa, multilingualism is the norm. In our new study with 9-11 month old Ghanaian babies learning up to 5 languages simultaneously, we found that they were able to recognize words in text passages in Akan, one of their languages.

Über unsere experimentelle Feldstudie mit Babys in Metro Manila! Tagalog lernende Babys unterscheiden Sprachlaute spät. 👇

In a study of professors, women got 378 new work requests over 4 weeks vs 118 for men. Women spent more time on service, advising & teaching; men on research. Orgs should track who is taking extra duties & ensure they are rewarded and distributed fairly. www.forbes.com/sites/kimels...

It's official: As of today, I am tenured professor at the University of Potsdam, Germany.

If you receive an invitation to review a manuscript, it will be very helpful if you hit the link to decline if you do not want to do it. Takes 5 seconds, and the editor will not wait for no reason. If you can spare another minute, please enter reviewer suggestions. BIG THANKS if you already do!

There’s more than one way to be bilingual. If you’ve ever understood your family’s language but struggled to speak it back—you’re not alone. This video challenges narrow definitions of fluency and makes space for the kind of bilingualism that often goes unrecognized. www.youtube.com/shorts/Qk8yV...

I'm THRILLED that our book is out. This book, with other 60 contributors from across the globe (!!!) is a love letter to the science we want to do, and a how-to guide for how to do it. Please read it and share it!

Are dance & infant-directed song human universals? Like many people, I've long thought so. But in a new paper in Current Biology, Kim Hill & I report that the Northern Aché (Paraguay) lacked both behaviors, likely losing them after cultural collapse. Open-access link: www.cell.com/current-biol...

At @journalautism.bsky.social we are recruiting! Thanks to a massive increase in submissions over recent years, we are dramatically expanding our team to appoint FIVE new editors! See details of the role and how to apply here, by May 23rd. journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/PD...

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

Decided to speak out on the state of our union. Just published in the Philadelphia Inquirer eedition.inquirer.com/infinity/art...

Interview met de Zwitserse media. www.thunertagblatt.ch/gendern-holl...

Join us as an Associate Professor in Developmental Psychology. my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

Science is under threat in the US. @elife.bsky.social have commissioned a series of articles discussing the implications and what we can do. The first three articles are now live. More to follow: elifesciences.org/articles/106... elifesciences.org/articles/106... elifesciences.org/articles/106...

The next two articles in our Science under threat series offer personal accounts from the perspective of undergraduates and patients. elifesciences.org/articles/106... elifesciences.org/articles/106... The homepage for the collection is here: elifesciences.org/collections/...

@katievonholzen.bsky.social I immediately thought of you when I read about this word learning study with cats. Top of things: pupil dilations you can see with your own eye, and decent effects! You should open a cat lab! www.science.org/content/arti...

🗣️ Want to learn a new language? Skip the subtitles! A study found adults tuned into a new language's rhythm after just 5 minutes - but written text disrupted this ability. 🔗 www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #SciComm 🧪 #LanguageLearning

There are days in life that shake you. I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at Columbia University & academic career... 1/🧵

"On October 8, 1931, a law went into effect requiring every Italian university professor to sign an oath pledging their loyalty to the government of Benito Mussolini. Out of over 1,200 professors in the country, only 12 refused. All of them were immediately fired." www.chronicle.com/article/what...

The current administration is straight up censoring the scientific record by requiring authors to alter an already-accepted research paper because it uses banned words such as "gender" and "equitable" and presents data broken down by sexual orientation.

Why do we not remember being a baby? One idea is that the hippocampus, which is essential for episodic memory in adults, is too immature to form individual memories in infancy. We tested this using awake infant fMRI, new in @science.org #ScienceResearch www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Appeal by the International Academic Community in Support of Serbian Students & Professors - you can sign it, too: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

🚨 We’re hiring! 🚨 A postdoc position is available at my lab (npa.iit.it) in Rome! Join us to explore: 🎵 Neural bases of musicality (humans, infants, macaques) 💃🕺 Dance & joint music-making 🤝 Spontaneous social behavior ⬇️ Apply through the link below! ⬇️

If this doesn't feel like fascism to you because things are still mostly normal at work and school and the vacation is still planned, congratulations you've just learned what fascism is like. It is insidious. It will initially target only the most vulnerable — people who probably aren't like you.

A reminder for these times.

I currently have two fully-funded PhD opportunities in my lab - both providing a chance to work on the incredible LEAF data set that we have been collecting the last couple of years (220 children followed longitudinally from 10-30 months on measures of attention and early EF). Please share!

Es ist die Stunde für Europa. Wenn sich das europäische Projekt je zu beweisen hatte, dann jetzt.

Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President Zelenskyy. We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.

Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.

More class in his pinky than Trump has shown his entire life.

Press release about our new study in German : Wieviele Sprachen kann man gleichzeitig lernen? How many languages can we learn at the same time? www.uni-potsdam.de/de/nachricht...

I wrote this for my US friends and colleagues, but also for all of us. Lessons from the past. open.substack.com/pub/verakemp...

Did you ever wonder how on earth it is possible for people in Africa to speak up to 12 languages fluently? Our new study 🎉shows that the seeds of multilingualism in Africa are planted early. Infants 👶growing up in Ghana hear between 2 and 6 languages on a regular/daily basis. 1/3 ☺️

How we're feeling today... Join us to #standupforscience2025 on March 7th—and share any sign ideas you have below! 👇

Amazing *free* online course on conducting child language research in understudied communities: Expanding Research in Language Development (WERLD). By the incredible Marisa Casillas with a line up of fabulous guest lecturers. chatterlab.uchicago.edu/werld2025/

Applications for the ninth summer school on statistical methods for linguistics and psychology close on April 1, 2025. Every year people contact me saying they missed the call, so here it is again :) vasishth.github.io/smlp2025/

Would you like to work at Max Planck Society tenured? A new round of the Lise Meitner Excellence Program for #tenuretrack group leaders opened today - pls consider applying! The program aims to recruit and promote exceptionally qualified female scientists. mpg.de/lise-meitner-e…#LiseMeitnerGroupsps

Question: Do students at your universities have an attendance requirement to pass seminars?

We seek german speaking U.S. scientists to discuss the tougher working conditions under the Trump administration. Research funding is being cut, and political interference is rising. How does this impact your work? #Science #Research #USA #WorkingConditions #TrumpAdministration

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition is looking for a new Co-Editor-in-Chief! We are looking for someone with expertise in experimental linguistics and psycholinguistics and a focus on the linguistic side of bilingualism research. See www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Our department has just announced a new permanent associate professor position in developmental psychology, come join us at @uio.no! www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

It’s WILD how quickly February 10th is approaching!! Don’t forget to submit your abstract for WILD2025 to join us in San Sebastián @bcbl.bsky.social this June www.bcbl.eu/events/wild/...

New @opensciencenl.bsky.social call! Do you want to contribute to transparency and reliability in research? Open Science NL offers funding for replication studies across all disciplines. Apply by 6 March 2025, with budgets of up to €200,000. #openscience www.openscience.nl/en/news/new-...

Alice Weidel nennt Universitäten "queer-woke Kaderschmieden" und sagt: "Wir schließen alle Gender Studies und schmeißen alle diese Professoren raus". Die Naturwissenschafts-Community muss sich hier klar auf die Seite der Geistes- & Sozialwissenschaft stellen. Das ist ein Angriff auf alle. (Thread)

Dr. Anwar Alkhudidi will present the first LangVIEW seminar of 2025, telling us about "Children’s Development of the Arabic Emphatic Consonants; An Acoustic Investigation" on Jan 29th, 7:30 PM IST/ 3 PM CET/ 9 AM ET. plymouth.zoom.us/j/9834282843... Meeting ID: 983 4282 8439 Passcode: 995354

A study on sample diversity in > 5500 psycholinguistic studies "find that representation of Global South researchers & contexts has grown, but this growth is centered in a handful of countries, and Africa and Southeast Asia remain severely underrepresented." www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"A study of federally funded research projects in the United States estimated that principal investigators spend on average about 45% of their time on administrative activities related to applying for and managing projects rather than conducting active research" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Tip from a journal editor: if you are late on a review, ask for an extension so we know when to expect it and so we can adjust those annoying auto reminders. I almost always would rather have a late review than no review.

This week my PhD student Monica Vanoncini defended her thesis. In her fascinating work she investigated mother-infant coregulation and its links with language development. She applied fancy methods simultaneously measuring physiological and neurophysiological signals in mothers and their babies. 1/2