Awwwww Yeah -- it's official

Absolutely thrilled to share the 🌟 FIRST PAPER 🌟 from ACORN Lab! 🐿️ I’m beyond proud of all-star grad student @heatherarobinson.bsky.social for this review of “exposome” effects on neurodevelopment & cognition! Paper here rdcu.be/ezUqx & thread below 👇 /1 #neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #devsky #cogdev

From farm to faculty. Writing home to his community in Minnesota, Prof Jim Magnuson explains that the powerhouse behind U.S. research is the infrastructure, paid by “indirect costs”. “This system has made U.S. science the strongest in the world.” 🧪🏠 www.hometownsource.com/county_news_...

Such a fun experience to travel down to Georgia and have our team of talented students show the summit attendees what the @langscistation.bsky.social is all about! It's been a few summers since I've had the pleasure of running studies with the LSS and it was lovely to reprise my role :)

Our conversation analysis software is now on CRAN! Reach out with any questions. We hope it’s useful for all you language and social interaction folks out there.

As you listen to a story, the meaning of each word you hear relates to the meaning of prior words. But how? We operationalized semantic distance, and identified brain regions that correspond to this rolling summary measure during naturalistic listening. #neuroscienceoflanguage

Check out our preprint (linked again here: osf.io/preprints/ps...) where we measured neural sensitivity to changes in semantic space while listening to a podcast. Not only do we look at word-to-word but larger chunks too (2-gram, 5-gram, 10-gram) to examine meaning construction at multiple levels.

In this new pub we ask whether a small rewards (cents) might get people to learn the phonetic details of talker more quickly (e.g. a s--sh shift). Answer: probably not. The fact that we got to title the paper "Cents and Shenshibility" was just a bonus. Explainer below!

New science alert!!! Myself, Shawn Cummings, Sahil Luthra, & @emilymyers.bsky.social tested whether monetary reward during talker-specific phonetic recalibration biased listeners to learn more about one talker vs another. The results are complicated? doi.org/10.3758/s13414-025-03048-z (1/thread)

The Society for the Neurobiology of Language meeting will be at Gallaudet University, September 12-14th. We have 4 outstanding keynotes (Fumiko Hoeft, Duane Watson, Carol Padden, Fatemeh Geranmayeh). Abstract submissions are open! Hope to see you there! #SNL2025 2025.neurolang.org/abstract-sub...

Thank you for the shout-out! We have an open-source model (osf.io/db79q/) for anyone who wants to start a lab digest -- it leads your writers through all the skills they need to learn about public science communication! Stay tuned for our 10th issue that will be released soon!

Researchers at Annenberg and @umdscience.bsky.social show that proposed NIH funding cuts lead to an estimated $16 billion in economic loss and 68,000 jobs lost nationwide. Learn about their project and view the interactive map here:

Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs. It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎

If you need a break, come visit our new Substack space where you can read articles that translate work in speech and hearing science, aphasia, caregiving, and more. It's a small drop in the bucket, but increasing the reach of critical knowledge feels worthwhile: thespokenworddigest.substack.com

Across the government, probationary employees and Schedule A workers—including individuals with severe physical, psychiatric, or intellectual disabilities, as well as veterans—are being let go.

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Look up the impact of NIH funding in your state: www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...

National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t... Story by @ericboodman.bsky.social

Ever been curious about what happens in your brain when there is a topic shift during listening? I thought so. @hannahmech.bsky.social has some answers for you. But also more questions?

In case you missed it at @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social's annual meeting - I worked with @jamiereillycog.bsky.social, @jpeelle.bsky.social, and @emilymyers.bsky.social to model changes in semantic distance during a podcast, which correlated with neural activity! drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fo...

Thanks to all who made the #psynom24 65th Annual Meeting in the Big Apple unforgettable! See you in Denver next year. buff.ly/49pjpD3

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to write up some of the amazing talks for @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social during this year's Annual Meeting. Check them out if you didn't get a chance to come (or missed a few talks)!

☀️ New preprint! ☀️ Cognitive tests from 23,000+ participants in 4 datasets show cyclical fluctuations across the calendar year, including a small but replicable “summer slide” where youth show worst performance after school vacation. t.ly/OMzgl #PsychSciSky #CogPsyc #CogDev #devpsy #CogSci Thread /1

Yes, come see me! I'm presenting Saturday evening (the 23rd) from 6:00-7:30!

A goal of mine for MANY YEARS has been to make plain language summaries and, where possible, #infographics of the papers coming out of the lab. Thanks to awesome undergrad RAs, here they come! Check back in as more get added! #aphasia #accessible #research www.neuralresearchlab.com/plainlang

I suppose now is as good a time as ever (welcome to BlueSky everyone!) to debut my new website. Check it out and feel free to contact me if your project or lab needs a logo! hmechtenberg.wixsite.com/hrmech

Come work with us! It's pretty great here, and we have an amazing graduate student and postdoc union that makes sure we get paid well and have awesome health insurance!

I presented during LingComm 2023 and had a wonderful time connecting with other passionate folks that want to bring linguistics and language science to more people! Highly recommend attending!!

This is a huge labor of love from our lab: grad students mentor the undergrads to write about language science topics & we release it as an accessible sci comm product. @hannahmech.bsky.social has put crazy amounts of thought into how to do this well. It is SLICK if I do say so. Share widely!

I am so proud to release the 2024 issue of The Spoken Word! Our magazine features articles written by undergraduate research students that tackle big issues in #aphasia, #languagescience, #representation, and more! Read the full issue here: myerslab.media.uconn.edu/wp-content/u...

We are extremely excited to announce our new publication highlighting the Language Science Station's approach to doing language research and engagement with the public. www.degruyter.com/document/doi... 1/5

Yes, please join us!! We have some cool new initiatives we want to introduce to all of you! :)

Check out this introduction to the Language Science Station, a research/outreach/good vibes program situated within the incomparable Planet Word museum in DC!

I’m pleased that our paper about doing language research in the wild is out! Done in collaboration with the intrepid Dr. Charlotte Vaughn and Jessy Orozco Contreras, we introduce the incredible @langscistation.bsky.social n . Read it here: degruyter.com/document/doi... @degruyterbrill.bsky.social

Happy to share new work from myself, Chris Heffner, @emilymyers.bsky.social , and Sara Guediche where we looked at the cerebellum’s sensitivity to word-level properties while listening to a podcast in an MRI. Spoiler alert: cerebellum cares about word-level statistics! doi.org/10.1162/nol_...

I definitely recommend any grad students apply for FREE MEMBERSHIPS to AAAS! I'm the early career representative for the Linguistics and Language Science section at AAAS, and can attest that 1) it looks good on CVs and 2) you will help make the world a better place. DM me if you have questions!

Such a joy to write up - I definitely recommend the paper if you are interested in combining #computational modeling, #developmental science, and adult behavioral work in your #cognitive #science studies!

What sets experts apart from novices when viewing surveillance footage? New work by Peng, Burling, Todorova, Neary, Pollick, and Lu uses eye-tracking and machine-learning analyses to take a closer look. Post by @hannahmech.bsky.social #psynomPBR bit.ly/3y3S76i

Fantastic paper, and a such privilege to be able to write it up for @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social! Check out both the post and the paper if you care about #inclusivity in cognitive science measures!

It was a fun, chaotic way to explore how to be all the different flavors of bad scientists! Feel free to DM me for the full presentation and cast of characters!

The deadline for the fantastic #comscicon24 #scicomm workshop has been extended to March 31st! If you are a graduate student based at a US or Canadian institution, please apply! It's an amazing chance to develop new skills in #scicomm and network with other folks in #STEM! Apply here: bit.ly/3uMJGv2

Hello! I'm helping organize an amazing science communication conference for graduate students - and I want to spread the word! Please distribute to any grad students in your orbit to apply (the application is super short) - here is a thread on what it is (1/🧵)

Does getting older always mean that our memories get worse? Maybe not, suggests new work by Marie Mazerolle, François Maquestiaux, and Lucas Rotolo in @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social. By combating stereotype threat, older adults can perform well on a memory task. Read more here in wp.me/p8IxYp-2uz

I'm happy to announce that I was selected to join the @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social digital content team as a science communication intern for the next 6 months! I'm very excited to get started! Check out the interview I did with them here: featuredcontent.psychonomic.org/interview-wi...

Join Cindy Blanco (Deputy Editor of Learning Content at Duolingo) and AAAS Section Z for "Never Too Late: How to Apply to Industry Jobs Today" Friday Feb 9, 3pm (EST) duolingo.zoom.us/j/9144331223... #psychscisky #neuroskyence #cognition #linguistics

The Language & Cognition PhD program at UConn is recruiting--consider applying, PhD aspirants! psychology.uconn.edu/phd/language...

Hello, I have some new science! @emilymyers.bsky.social, Cristal Giorio, and @uconnlablab.bsky.social and I asked whether people expend more effort when listening to clear or casual speech by measuring the size of their pupils. A brief 🧵. Read the full paper here: journals.lww.com/ear-hearing/...