Evidence against syntactic encapsulation in “syntax-specialized” attention heads - now with the thread from Thomas!

Evidence against syntactic encapsulation in large language models onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Idan Blank (UCLA, psych) makes the complex intuitive if you want to learn how LLMs work, watch👇 newly posted to YouTube (no ads) www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMn...

Looking forward to #CogSci2025 ! Find us throughout the conference

📣 I'm looking for a postdoc to join my lab at NYU! Come work with me on a principled, theory-driven approach to studying language, learning, and reasoning, in humans and AI agents. Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/170656 And come chat with me at #CogSci2025 if interested!

Thrilled to announce our symposium, Cognitively Inspired Interpretability inn Large Neural Networks, at #CogSci2025 featuring @taylorwwebb.bsky.social, Ellie Pavlick, Jiahai Feng, Gustaw Opielka, ‪‪@claires012345.bsky.social‬, and Idan Blank!

Explaining “viewpoint diversity”, a senior faculty told me—a gay person—that if we don’t hire people who oppose living near gay people, we’ll never hire from countries where most people oppose gay rights, and that’s discrimination. How am I supposed to handle that?

Does training LLMs on word prediction result in human-like representation of thematic roles? Work by @josephdenning.bsky.social, Hannah Guo, and Bryor Snefjella who is no longer with us

1/x My NIH grant that would collect data to help *prevent suicidal thoughts and behaviors* among LGBTQ+ people was terminated today, along with many other LGBTQ+ focused grants. These terminations make no sense scientifically. Here's why:

Excited to introduce funROI: A Python package for functional ROI analyses of fMRI data! funroi.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ #fMRI #Neuroimaging #Python #OpenScience Work w @neuranna.bsky.social 🧵👇

New preprint “Monkey See, Model Knew: LLMs accurately predict visual responses in humans AND NHPs” Led by Colin Conwell with @emaliemcmahon.bsky.social Akshay Jagadeesh, Kasper Vinken @amrahs-inolas.bsky.social @jacob-prince.bsky.social George Alvarez @taliakonkle.bsky.social & Marge Livingstone 1/n

People talk a lot about objects, but what about the softness of a cushion, the greenness of an emerald, or the viscosity of oil? In our work just published @pnas.org, we shed light on how we make sense of the hundreds of materials around us. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

It's the *anti-DEI* drive now that has outsiders acting "like many faculty members' direct supervisor and telling them how and what to teach." DEI officials never reviewed syllabi or challenged course titles or targeted entire fields of scholarship. That's what the anti-DEI forces do.

Submit your discourse studies to this SI of Cortex. I’m co-editing with the fabulous @briellestark.bsky.social and @andreaeyleen.bsky.social. May 1 deadline.

Come work with me! We're hiring a 3-year Visiting Assistant Prof in Semantics, bonus if you can teach courses in other areas too. We're a small liberal arts college just outside Philly with a robust undergrad Ling dept. Full info at apply.interfolio.com/160957 Feel free to ping me with any Qs! 🐦🐦 🧪

Interested in a researcher position studying the neural and computational bases of adaptive and maladaptive decision-making, and their relationship to mental health? Our colleague Silvia Lopez-Guzman is hiring a Data Scientist/Data Analyst, read more at cdn-lab.github.io .

Registration for #Evolang2024 is now open! And in addition to a great regular program, we have 7 amazing workshops! evolang2024.github.io

We are now accepting submissions for HSP2024 at UMich! Deadline: Jan 8th. See the CfP for details.

My first post-doc, Bryor Snefjella, unexpectedly passed away last year. Before leaving the lab, he drew some punny sketches on the whiteboard. To commemorate him, I asked undergrad Faustine Wang to turn them into a poster, which we hung in the lab today. Rest in peace, friend.

Me applying for grants.

A video shows UCLA pro-Palestenian protestors hitting and punching a piñata of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. I despise that man, and yet... this is unacceptable.

Mac email search is the WORST system I've encountered. Can't even do simple string match.

First post and big news - I am starting as an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Georgia Tech in Jan 2024! www.language-intelligence-thought.net

Tenure/tenure-track faculty positions in NLP in CS. Looking for people in science of science! Super interdisciplinary dept, great place to work and grow, amazing location. Learn more jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta... Feel free to reach out and ask about the position and details.

The Department of Neuroscience at brown is looking to hire tenure track assistant professors in any field of neuroscience! Come join our inclusive community of scholars and educators! For details check out: apply.interfolio.com/132440

We have a job opening in AI and Education as part of an AI cluster hire at Boston University. If you're doing work at the intersection of AI and Education--very broadly defined--please apply! www.bu.edu/cds-faculty/...

Graduate programs: when you send faculty a link to upload rec letters please state the deadline in the email. Why do I even have to say this.

I will probably hire one PhD student for science of science and one to fit big models to neural data/ neuroAI. Relevant prior experience and love for nerding out/ building algorithms and math will be needed.

Excited to share with you a conversation that I had with Justine Boone on his podcast #LivingUntitled, about the relationship between language and thinking in humans and AI. Available on Apple / Google Podcasts and Spotify! www.livinguntitled.com #UntitledFuture

The pushback my colleagues and I get when proposing *any* small EDI-related action (not to mention big actions)... Why is everything a battle and why do we invoke fake "complexities" to challenge new ideas but never to question the status quo.

Going up for tenure as Spare Human for the cat. Pray for me.

We are hiring in Computational Cognitive Neuroscience at UIUC Psychology . Posting here too in case you missed it.

An info-theoretic account of language production by Richard Futrell

This account gives me A New Start (cue Tobias Funke), so: it will be a mix of science and all things theater (my true passion). You’re welcome and I’m sorry.

Are Large Language Models good at modeling how humans process language? A new Forum piece in TICS is a reminder that the question itself has different interpretations, each with its own consequences.