Benedek Kurdi

@benedek.bsky.social

Experimental psychologist studying social learning and memory, assistant professor @psychillinois.bsky.social, SAB chair @projectimplicit.bsky.social, AE at JEP:G & @openmindjournal.bsky.social, immigrant, 🏳️‍🌈, he/him

Iván Szelényi (1938-2026), a towering figure in sociology, one of the finest global intellectuals Hungary and Eastern Europe has ever produced, has died. Rest in peace and solidarity. 1/6

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Nearly four years ago we asked ourselves, "what would it look like to have a field-leading, completely free reference work for cognitive science"? It's been so fun editing OECS with @asifamajid.bsky.social and @hbaum.bsky.social. I can't believe we have published 200 (!!) articles! oecs.mit.edu

Philip Laughlin@philiplaughlin.bsky.social · 2w ago

Today's #OA spotlight is extra special. Just this week, @mitpress.bsky.social published the 200th article in our OPEN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE. Congrats to @mcxfrank.bsky.social & @asifamajid.bsky.social! We've come far since the 2023 @cogscisociety.bsky.social in Rotterdam! oecs.mit.edu

Congratulations to the “Project Implicit,” which received🏆2026 SIPS Mission Award! Project Implicit offers online tests to millions of participants, uses those tests to document implicit and explicit biases, and shares massive open datasets to power discoveries in psychology and beyond.

Project Implicit

Project Implicit runs on small donations, most under $5. That’s what keeps the tests online, the data public, and the science accessible to anyone around the world who is interested in learning about…

implicit.harvard.edu

Are the mental contents underlying implicit evaluations accessible to conscious introspection? Prior studies show high predictive accuracy, leading to a growing consensus that people can introspectively access their implicit biases. New paper out in JPSP! 🧵🧵🧵

The tide is turning against a major idea in social psychology: that implicit evaluations reflect mental content that lies beyond conscious awareness. This view is being reconsidered in light of mounting evidence that people can predict their own implicit evaluations with high accuracy. However, there are reasons to question whether such predictive accuracy reflects introspective access. First, prior studies have relied almost exclusively on familiar targets (e.g., racial groups), allowing predictions to be informed by background knowledge (e.g., knowing that a group is stigmatized) rather than introspection. Second, implicit and explicit evaluations have been highly correlated in prior work, enabling accurate predictions simply by assuming that implicit evaluations mirror explicit ones. Here, we report eight experiments (five pre-registered; N = 6,794) designed to minimize these nonintrospective routes to predictive accuracy. We introduced participants to novel targets and shifted implicit and explicit evaluations of these targets in opposite directions, rendering explicit evaluations an unreliable cue. Under these conditions, predictive accuracy ranged from low to nonexistent; participants frequently anticipated shifts in their implicit evaluations in the opposite direction of the actual change. These results generalized across two learning paradigms (impression formation and attribute conditioning), two implicit evaluation measures (Implicit Association Test and evaluative priming task), and between-participant and within-participant designs. We consider multiple interpretations of these findings, including the possibility that implicit evaluations reflect mental content that is largely or even entirely inaccessible to conscious awareness.

Looking to work with a postdoc. Prior experience with fMRI and computational modeling required, interest in psychiatry desired. Fellowship provides three years salary plus independent travel/equipment funds. Send CV and 2-3 manuscripts (preprints OK).

Are the mental contents underlying implicit evaluations accessible to conscious introspection? Prior studies show high predictive accuracy, leading to a growing consensus that people can introspectively access their implicit biases. New paper out in JPSP! 🧵🧵🧵

The tide is turning against a major idea in social psychology: that implicit evaluations reflect mental content that lies beyond conscious awareness. This view is being reconsidered in light of mounting evidence that people can predict their own implicit evaluations with high accuracy. However, there are reasons to question whether such predictive accuracy reflects introspective access. First, prior studies have relied almost exclusively on familiar targets (e.g., racial groups), allowing predictions to be informed by background knowledge (e.g., knowing that a group is stigmatized) rather than introspection. Second, implicit and explicit evaluations have been highly correlated in prior work, enabling accurate predictions simply by assuming that implicit evaluations mirror explicit ones. Here, we report eight experiments (five pre-registered; N = 6,794) designed to minimize these nonintrospective routes to predictive accuracy. We introduced participants to novel targets and shifted implicit and explicit evaluations of these targets in opposite directions, rendering explicit evaluations an unreliable cue. Under these conditions, predictive accuracy ranged from low to nonexistent; participants frequently anticipated shifts in their implicit evaluations in the opposite direction of the actual change. These results generalized across two learning paradigms (impression formation and attribute conditioning), two implicit evaluation measures (Implicit Association Test and evaluative priming task), and between-participant and within-participant designs. We consider multiple interpretations of these findings, including the possibility that implicit evaluations reflect mental content that is largely or even entirely inaccessible to conscious awareness.

I'm starting a lab at the University of Notre Dame! 🎉🍀🧠 Doors open Jan 2027. I'm most excited to meet my future students (recruiting psych grad students for 2027!), help grow a budding neuroscience area, and head home to the midwest after many years away. Please reach out! @notredame.bsky.social

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Some of the first work related to my ERC is now available as a preprint 👉 arxiv.org/pdf/2606.20623 We model the learning of real-world melodies as resource-constrained inference over generative programs, with new implications for Rate-distortion theory: learning changes what is cheap to encode! 🧵👇

Hanqi Zhou@hanqizhou.bsky.social · last mo.

Most models of learning ask what you can represent. We think the real bottleneck is what you can afford to find, since searching for a good representation is itself expensive. New preprint w/ @davidnagy.bsky.social, Peter Dayan & @thecharleywu.bsky.social 🧵👇

How does amount of counterattitudinal information influence whether and how much attitudes change? Rydell et al. (2007) found that implicit evaluations changed slowly and incrementally, whereas explicit evaluations changed abruptly in response to counterattitudinal info.

A plot showing incremental implicit evaluation change in response to 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 counterattitudinal statements.A plot showing abrupt explicit evaluation change in response to 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 counterattitudinal statements.

How does amount of counterattitudinal information influence whether and how much attitudes change? Rydell et al. (2007) found that implicit evaluations changed slowly and incrementally, whereas explicit evaluations changed abruptly in response to counterattitudinal info.

A plot showing incremental implicit evaluation change in response to 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 counterattitudinal statements.A plot showing abrupt explicit evaluation change in response to 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 counterattitudinal statements.

🌵🏜️🌵 Out now in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social with @rbhui.bsky.social! If your advisor sends you an unclear email, do you interpret it as good or bad? 😏😱 In a new paper, we show how people make inferences about this type of ambiguous feedback during learning. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Ambiguity and confirmatory reward learning

We tend to interpret feedback in ways that confirm our pre-existing beliefs. Such confirmatory tendencies are often viewed as cognitive flaws, but mig…

sciencedirect.com

I'll be recruiting PhD students (2027 entry) and a postdoc to join the lab at Berkeley. Interests: • continuous person perception in interactive contexts • impression management and its biases • social perception in digital spaces Get in touch if there's overlap. Very excited for this next chapter!

Our lab (w/ @patrickgbissett) is hiring a full-time research coordinator to work with us on cognitive control, dense fMRI, computational modeling, and human-AI interaction. Designed for post-bacs looking to start a Ph. D in ~2 years. Please repost. phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDNLbWAG

Social Science Research Coordinator (Hybrid Opportunity) in School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford, California, United States

Professor Russ Poldrack’s lab is seeking a new full-time Research Coordinator. The RC will work closely with and report directly to Dr. Patrick...

phxc1b.rfer.us

Collabra: Psychology is seeking a new senior editor for the clinical section and new associate editors for the social section. If you are interested in either of these positions and you believe you are qualified, please fill out the application form before 30 April 2026! forms.gle/DgM3484SuLVD...

Application Form Senior Editor Clinical/Associate Editor Social Section Collabra: Psychology

Starting from 1 July 2026, Collabra: Psychology is on the look-out for a new senior editor for the clinical section as well as several new associate editors for the social section. If you are interest...

forms.gle