If your position is that regime change should be forced on countries where the president does not respect democratic norms and regularly kidnaps opponents using an officially sanctioned paramiliatary, have I got news for you about your position on the United States

R.I.P. 2025 (2025 - 2025)

🔥 Can't wait!

📚 Now reading: Elgin, Catherine Z. (2017) True enough. Will be compiling some quotes and thoughts over time. Pin📍or bookmark this thread if you want to follow along. 1/🧵

Cannot WAIT to read this.

Princeton's AI Lab is advertising positions for AI Postdoctoral Fellows in two areas: studying natural and artificial minds, and designing, understanding or engineering large AI models. We are also searching for a Lead Research Software Engineer! ai.princeton.edu/ai-lab/emplo...

oh what fun it is to have this paper out :)

Nice thread describing our new study on why kids play

The Press and @openmindjournal.bsky.social are pleased to announce a partnership with Lyrasis through the Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP). Learn how your institution can support this initiative to continue providing the latest #cogsci research—free of charge—here: bit.ly/452nMma

fun pre-print for your start of week reading: "People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable" (by Hu, Sosa, and me) doi.org/10.31234/osf...

new: Eric Bigelow @ericbigelow.bsky.social suggests the 2 main ways of controlling LLMs (prompting & steering) can be understood as changing model beliefs (as in Bayesian belief updating) "Belief Dynamics Reveal the Dual Nature of In-Context Learning & Activation Steering" arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00617

my five year old had RSV when he was six months old and when we brought him to the pediatrician they were like yeah go directly to the hospital we’re calling ahead scariest few days of our lives from the bottom of my heart: all these people can go to hell

Students, staff, faculty turning to ChatGPT? That means they are being asked to do things they don't have the time, resources, support, etc to do.

Because the vaccine prevents chronic hepatitis B for which there is no cure and the lifelong treatment costs more than a single birth dose of the vaccine. Insurance companies recognize this is a no brainer. Brought to you by prevention beats treatment any day. www.cnn.com/2025/12/07/h...

Please consider supporting this important resource if it is easy and appealing for you. Here’s the link to donate (make sure it says you are giving to “Children Helping Science Platform Fund” specifically - if you get redirected just search to find correct fund). giving.mit.edu/search/node/...

There’s a fantastic developmental science resource called Children Helping Science, at MIT (childrenhelpingscience.com). Researchers run child studies online, Parents sign up & participate with their kids. CHS got an offer from an anonymous donor: matching gifts up to $100K through December!

The decision by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to downgrade its recommendations to protect infants from hepatitis B is a dangerous move that will harm children. Click here to read AAP's full statement: bit.ly/3Y9ZQJT

Congress is currently considering a piece of legislation that would effectively sever all scientific ties between the US and China. Unbelievable. You can read the AAU response here: www.aau.edu/key-issues/a...

My email spam box today 🤝 12-yr-old waiting for the late bus in the sleet "it's giving Tuesday" (thanks @apmackey.bsky.social for the inspiration)

📢 Applications are open for the 2026 #JacobsCIFARFellowship! A new partnership between the Jacobs Foundation and CIFAR supports early- & mid-career researchers advancing how children learn & develop worldwide. 🗓️ Apply by 2 February 2026 → cifarportal.smapply.io/prog/jacobs_...

I am so honored to be selected for the 2026-2028 cohort of @jacobsfoundation.bsky.social Research Fellows! I think this is my greatest example of perseverance -- this was my *7th* application and *3rd* time as a finalist!😱 Applications now open to join next year! jacobsfoundation.org/fellowships/...

Looking for a funded Ph.D. in #CogSci in an interdisciplinary, research-first program? Apply to CEU! cognitivescience.ceu.edu/admission Deadline February 4, 2026. Please share with any interested students! #PsychSciSky #DevPsych #CogPsych

🚨🚨🚨 Our 52nd Annual Meeting will be held from June 18–20, 2026 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, with a pre-conference on Mental Control and Agency held at JHU on June 17 🚨🚨🚨 We are currently inviting submissions of papers (talks and posters)!

Personal Statements, Addendum: some are written as if the applicant is a passive object that greater forces act on: "I was led to X | this moved me to Y | I become fascinated by Z" I encourage you to position your "journey" as an active choice, with you as the agent that makes the choices.

I am honored to be promoted to Professor of Education with tenure at the Harvard Graduate School of Education @harvardeducation.bsky.social !!! Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey. ❤️ www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/news/2...

Officially out in the current issue of Trends in Cognitive Sciences: "Physics versus graphics as an organizing dichotomy in cognition" www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Me: Sorry that I haven't gotten back to you on these paper edits -- I was too busy reading emails. Trainee: Oh, I know you get a lot of emails, no worries. Me: Oh, I'm not reading MY emails...

Me: Sorry that I haven't gotten back to you on these paper edits -- I was too busy reading emails. Trainee: Oh, I know you get a lot of emails, no worries. Me: Oh, I'm not reading MY emails...

In the cool and exciting band, I think.

I’ll take some good news www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Relevant also for tenure letter writers to consider... *cough

It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice. Caveats: -*-*-*-* 
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees 
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases

The great battle between dog and bed-cushion rages on. In terrible wars such as these, there are no victors.

Come to the workshop at BUCLD @bucld.bsky.social, and bring a pen ✍🏻 www.bu.edu/bucld/

Happy Halloween! If you have to be in a car, drive safely out there tonight, folks. Lots of kids and lions will be roaming the streets.

I love kids. I have two of them. They’re amazing. However, kids are the absolute least self aware, clumsiest little puffins on the planet. Please don’t drive tonight unless you have to, and if you do drive, drive super slow and pay 100% attention at all times. Happy Halloween! 🎃 👻 💀 #PublicHealth

MA residents: If SNAP goes away, your EBT card still lets you use HIP to get fruits/vegetables: mass.gov/info-details... You can still get Transitional/Emergency Economic Assistance: mass.gov/economic-ass... This hotline gives access to other meal/pantry programs: projectbread.org/foodsource-h...

In case you don't know already, the journal Open Mind has a Bluesky account that automatically posts new papers: @openmindjournal.bsky.social The journal is diamond open access (free to read, free to publish) thanks to the support of MIT Press, Harvard Library, & MIT Library.

We're excited to announce that Cognitive Science at Dartmouth is recruiting PhD students to work collaboratively with me, Steven Frankland, and Fred Callaway. Come study the principles and mechanisms that enable us to understand, plan, and act in the world! Info: sites.dartmouth.edu/cogscigrad/

academic paper titles :

there's a lot of interest in making AI more "human like" -- but what about the flip side? when real humans seem like robots/puppets/NPCs? nnnnnewwww pre-print: "The Development Of Sensitivity To Automatic Behavior" (by Bass, Bonawitz, & me) doi.org/10.31234/osf...

No Kings includes this guy

😍 Boston, you are beautiful. #NoKings

Thousands protesting here in Concord, MA -- No kings then, no kings now. Daisy joins the Democratic spirit.

This is gonna be fun. Build the FOMO. NoKings.org

New preprint! "Non-commitment in mental imagery is distinct from perceptual inattention, and supports hierarchical scene construction" (by Li, Hammond, & me) link: doi.org/10.31234/osf... -- the title's a bit of a mouthful, but the nice thing is that it's a pretty decent summary

eh, It wasn't that high up... and 4-year-olds can take it. 😜 But if you're looking for other good moments in the paper... I also recommend reading the acknowledgments closely.

Presenting .... SUPER DOG! Faster than a speeding ball! More powerful than a squeaker-toy! Able to leap medium-sized logs in a single bound!

In serious fall mood over here. 🍁🍂 Chestnuts, pumpkins, walks in the forest, please! youtu.be/DnKOzdEa80A?...

📣 Calling 2nd-year grad students and their mentors: You just abruptly lost the ability to apply for the NSF grad research fellowship. Join ~900 others (and growing!) in signing @omfishient.bsky.social's petition to reverse that. [Or reshare this petition if you're not directly impacted]