How can LLMs advance the cognitive sciences? @ruimata.bsky.social and I put together a review on how LLMs can help us address five long-standing problems in cognitive science (e.g., disciplinary silos or lack of generalizability). 🔗 arxiv.org/2511.00206

🚨 New preprint - Advancing Cognitive Science with LLMs Excited to share this new preprint together with Rui Mata. We review how 🤖 LLMs can help address long-standing problems in cognitive science, highlighting opportunities and pitfalls. 🔗 Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2511.00206

🚨 New preprint - Advancing Cognitive Science with LLMs Excited to share this new preprint together with Rui Mata. We review how 🤖 LLMs can help address long-standing problems in cognitive science, highlighting opportunities and pitfalls. 🔗 Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2511.00206

We have a new preprint: osf.io/preprints/so... What have we learned about social media - the constantly moving target of empirical research - over the past decade?

Join one of Europe’s largest and best psychology departments in one of the world’s most liveable cities. We offer competitive conditions. Further information: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Tenure-T... (deadline for applications: December 12, 2025)

🚨 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...

🚨 New publication: How to improve conceptual clarity in psychological science? Thrilled to see this article with @ruimata.bsky.social out. We discuss how LLMs can be leveraged to map, clarify, and generate psychological measures and constructs. Open access article: doi.org/10.1177/0963...

🚨 New preprint and online tool 🚨 Thrilled to share new work, mapping the 🗺️ landscape of behavioral reinforcement learning using an 🤖 LLM-powered bibliometric approach. We built an online tool so you can explore the landscape yourself. Online tool: mpib.berlin/vFVqU Preprint: osf.io/6c2va_v1

🚨 New preprint: What does the research landscape of behavioral reinforcement learning look like 🌍? We developed an LLM-powered bibliometric analysis to characterize article clusters, investigate their connections, and examine the distribution of topics across the landscape. osf.io/6c2va_v1

🚨 New preprint 🚨 Analyzing the academic trajectories of 78,216 psychology researchers, we demonstrate a persistent gender attrition gap, with women psychologists dropping out of academia at consistently higher rates than men psychologists. Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2510.13273

🚨 Doctoral positions 🚨 The IMPRS LIFE is looking to fill up to three PhD positions. If you’re interested in working at @arc-mpib.bsky.social with me on topics related to large language models, semantic networks, and aging, please reach out! Apply by Nov 30: www.imprs-life.mpg.de/11840/how-to...

🚨 New article 🚨 Excited to share this article, presenting a full tutorial on mouse tracking and other movement tracking techniques in psychological research, with examples from our R package mousetrap. Paper: link.springer.com/article/10.3... R package: pascalkieslich.github.io/mousetrap/in...

Keynote speakers: @tuckerdrob.bsky.social @foswald.bsky.social Ellen Hamaker Hands-on workshops by: @tedmond.bsky.social & @ukuvainik.bsky.social (genomic analyses) @dirkwulff.bsky.social (LLMs in personality research) www.ecp22edinburgh.org/programme

🚨 New preprint 🚨 What are the reasons underlying human choice in the face of risk? Excited to share new work with Kamil Fulawka and Ralph Hertwig, establishing #LLMs as a scalable solution to uncovering the reasons behind people's choices from free text reports. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

🚨 New article 🚨 How to measure semantic #networks of individuals reliably? Excited to share this article, led by @aeschbach.bsky.social and with @ruimata.bsky.social. Based on simulations, we provide recommendations on designing and interpreting behavioral studies. Article: lnkd.in/dhWiwEBU

New semantic network paper in @plosone.org with @ruimata.bsky.social at @unibas.ch and @dirkwulff.bsky.social at @arc-mpib.bsky.social! We ran large-scale simulations to test how well common behavioral tasks measure a person's semantic network. doi.org/10.1371/jour...

🚨 New publication 🚨 Excited to see this published in Findings of #ACL2025, led by @zakashussain.bsky.social. We critically evaluate claims that #LLMs are "just next token predictors" or "just machines" and call for a more measured discussion on LLM cognition. aclanthology.org/2025.finding...

Excited to see our Centaur project out in @nature.com. TL;DR: Centaur is a computational model that predicts and simulates human behavior for any experiment described in natural language.

🚨 PhD position (75%, TV-L E13) at LMU Munich! Join our DFG funded META REP project on heterogeneity & replicability in psychology. Work on meta analysis, simulations, modeling in R/Python. 📅 Apply by July 15 🔗 shorturl.at/939tP 🔗 shorturl.at/2bRLD 👇🧵

Happy to have concluded another iteration of our 5-day open LLMs course, together with @zakashussain.bsky.social. If you are interested in LLMs for behavioral and social sciences, check out our... Tutorial: doi.org/10.3758/s134... Open materials: github.com/zak-Hussain/...

🚨 New preprint 🚨 How to improve risk communication? In this new piece, spearheaded by ‪@kevinetiede.bsky.social‬, we argue that traditional risk communication often fails to convey experiential dimensions of risk, and that experiential simulations can help fill this gap. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

🚨 Postdoc position in India 🚨 Work with Kavitha Ranganathan and me to explore the potential of LLMs for improving risk communication. The position (Senior Research Fellow) includes a research stay and affiliation [email protected] at @mpib-berlin.bsky.social.

🚨 New preprint 🚨 Excited to share this work with Dorothée Bentz, where we map the landscape of contamination OCD triggers and analyze individual differences in trigger importance and relatedness. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

We still have 2 slots available for contributed talks at our CounseLLMe workshop for @hhaiconference.bsky.social : sites.google.com/unitn.it/cou... Join us in Pisa, deadline May 6!

How to improve conceptual clarity in psychology? Excited to share a new preprint with @ruimata.bsky.social, discussing approaches based on large language models as possible solutions. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

🚨Job Alert (Deadline: Apr. 30)🚨 We're seeking a Student Research Assistant to support the ongoing research in all phases of the scientific process. See the link for more details! @dirkwulff.bsky.social, @mpib-berlin.bsky.social www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/2016979/2025...

Extreme stances about AI and LLMs in particular (be them deflationary or inflationary) are very likely wrong, valid and certainly not good for an healthy debate. But where do they come from? We (with @giadapistilli.com) argue that common cognitive biases may play a role: osf.io/preprints/ps...

PNAS is explicit that “The purpose of peer review is not to demonstrate the reviewer’s proficiency in identifying flaws” Is this your skill set? Review for us at @error.reviews instead where this explicitly is the necessary skill set. error.reviews www.pnas.org/reviewer

How can we reduce conceptual clutter in the psychological sciences? @ruimata.bsky.social and I propose a solution based on a fine-tuned 🤖 LLM (bit.ly/mpnet-pers) and test it for 🎭 personality psychology. The paper is finally out in @natrevpsych.bsky.social: go.nature.com/4bEaaja

Excited to share the materials for our course on open LLMs for science of science research @zakashussain.bsky.social and I offered at the recent meeting of @euroscisci.bsky.social at @lmumuenchen.bsky.social. github.com/zak-Hussain/...

Do LLMs think? Excited to share our updated preprint critically discussing two "Justaic" stances claiming that LLMs lack cognition because they are "just" next-token predictors or "just" machines. Led by @zakashussain.bsky.social and with @ruimata.bsky.social . osf.io/preprints/os...

🚨 Applications for the 22nd Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality are now open! 🌐 Join us in Berlin @mpib-berlin.bsky.social from June 17–25, 2025 to explore "Decision Making in a Digital World". ✏️ Application deadline is March 9 - more info at 👇!! www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/research/res...

In our latest article, published in @pnas.org and led by @marcelbinz.bsky.social and Stephan Alaniz, we got together four diverse groups of scientists to reflect on how LLMs should affect science. From treating them like co-authors to using other tools instead, many interesting arguments emerged.

The potential of LLMs in social & behavioral science is enormous—but how can we leverage them? Zak Hussain & I just taught a 5-day course at #GSERM Ljubljana on this. Check out our open materials (cc-by-sa) on using open LLMs with @hf.co. github.com/Zak-Hussain/...

🌟🧠💪📝 #BOOSTING: Empowering citizens with behavioral science New, freely available paper in Annual Review of Psychology. PDF: tinyurl.com/boosting2025 For more: scienceofboosting.org @arc-mpib.bsky.social @mpib-berlin.bsky.social @annualreviews.bsky.social #policy #behavioralscience 1/ 🧵👇

New content: Aeschbach, S., Mata, R., & Wulff, D. U. (2025). Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoR. Journal of Cognition, 8(1): 3, pp. 1–20.DOI: doi.org/10.5334/joc.... #psychscisky

Our tutorial on mapping mental representations with free associations and the associatoR R package was published this week in @jcgntn.bsky.social! With @ruimata.bsky.social at @unibas.ch and @dirkwulff.bsky.social lff.bsky.social at @arc-mpib.bsky.social. Read open access: doi.org/10.5334/joc....

🚨 New preprint 🚨 Excited to share this preprint led by Zak Hussain (with @ruimata.bsky.social and Ben Newell), comparing the semantic contents of embedding models from text, brain, and behavior data using the psychNorms metabase: github.com/zak-hussain/... Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2412.04936

🚨 New article 🚨 Can experienced-based simulations help communicate financial risks? Replicating and extending past work, this article with Tomás Lejarraga and Kavitha Ranganathan concludes that the benefits of experienced-based simulations are limited. Article: doi.org/10.1017/jdm....

🚨 New article 🚨 Analyzing over 1,000,000 sampling decisions, @spektor.bsky.social and I show how people are adaptive explorers who reduce multiple types of uncertainty and leverage prior expectations and meta-knowledge about their decision environment. Open access article: lnkd.in/dWdSvQSq

🚨 Job alert 🚨 One more week to apply for two positions (PhD and Postdoc) at @arc-mpib.bsky.social on using LLMs to improve generalizability in the behavioral and social sciences. The positions are fully funded for three years. Apply by October 13! Thank you for sharing!

🚨 Job alert 🚨 I am looking for a PhD and Postdoc to join @arc-mpib.bsky.social and work with me on using LLMs to improve the generalizability in the behavioral and social sciences. The positions are fully funded for three years. Apply by October 13! Thank you for sharing!

🚨 New preprint 🚨 I am excited to share a piece advocating a greater reliance on open LLMs in the behavioral and social sciences. Despite the availability of open alternatives (via @huggingface.bsky.social), these fields continue to favor closed models. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/os...

I am thrilled to share that @dfgpublic.bsky.social is financing my project "Addressing the generalizability crisis with large language models" as part of @meta-rep.bsky.social. I will soon announce 3-year PhD and Postdoc positions at @arc-mpib.bsky.social. Please share and reach out if interested.

🚨 New article 🚨 Open LLMs are powerful and reproducible alternatives to closed models like GPT or Gemini. This tutorial shows how LLMs work and how to apply open LLMs in behavioral science research using @huggingface.bsky.social. Article: doi.org/10.3758/s134... Repo: github.com/Zak-Hussain/...

🚨New preprint🚨 Are LLMs "just" next-token predictors? In this opinion piece, Zak Hussain, @ruimata.bsky.social, and I argue for more nuanced discussions of LLM cognition. Please share your feedback. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/os...

🚨Open course materials🚨 Excited to share open materials (cc-by-sa) for a 1-week course on using open-source LLMs in social and behavioral science using the @huggingface.bsky.social ecosystem that my student Zak and I finished today at #GSERM Uni St. Gallen. github.com/Zak-Hussain/... .

🚨New article🚨 Excited to see this article, led by Zak Hussain, finally out. We present a large data set of risk perception and show that generalizable embeddings from free associations and text can rival and improve the psychometric paradigm. epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10....

🚨Updated preprint🚨 Very excited to share this updated preprint with @ruimata.bsky.social. Now using a fine-tuned LLM predicting personality item correlations with MAE = .068. The model is freely available at @huggingface.bsky.social huggingface.co/dwulff/mpnet... Preprint osf.io/preprints/ps...

I am happy to share a preprint of a tutorial with @ruimata.bsky.social and @dirkwulff.bsky.social on analyzing free associations using our new R package associatoR! Have a look... 📄 at the preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf... 💻 at the R package: github.com/samuelae/ass...