It’s that time of the year… We’re running experiments testing comprehension of elements that appear in comics. This one still needs participants, so if you’ve experience with reading comics and would like to help science (or lovely thesis students), here is the link: jatos.uvt.nl/publix/run?c...

So we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...

To what extent do pragmatic cues from disfluencies inform our predictions of spoken language during naturalistic language processing?. New paper by Eleanor Huizeling & al. with Peter Hagoort doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.018

Want to do an experimental PHD on the evolution of human language? Only one more week left to submit your application!

Limor Raviv 🐘🤗🦒🍄🦄@limorraviv.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'm hiring! 📢 Fully funded 4-year PhD position in Language Evolution using Communication Games at @mpi-nl.bsky.social. Come work with me on how different social pressures shape the evolution of new communication systems in the lab! Deadline for application is May 18th! share.google/fGTKbFS4v4Gb...

Nieuw artikel over Poëzie en kunstmatige intelligentie: www.aup-online.com/content/jour... (Open-access versie hier: research.tilburguniversity.edu/en/publicati...)

Proud supervisor moment 😊

Another reason to stop eating chickens

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 6mo ago

“Humans across multiple languages spontaneously associate the nonwords kiki & bouba with spiky & round shapes, respectively...We tested the bouba-kiki effect in baby chickens. Similar to humans, they spontaneously chose a spiky shape when hearing a kiki sound & a round shape when hearing a bouba.”😲🧪

Wil je promoveren op jongeren die wél lezen in tijden van digitalisering en ontlezing? Ik zoek twee promovendi binnen mijn Vidi-project 'Anatomy of the #Bookish'! Solliciteren kan tot 1 maart. www.ru.nl/werken-bij/v...

Promovendus: literaire cultuur onder jongeren | Radboud Universiteit

Als Promovendus in literaire cultuur onder jongeren werken bij Faculteit der Letteren? Bekijk hier de vacature!

ru.nl

"Ich askid ChatGPT." Well *Ich* askid the stones, and the forest, and the starres, and the mountaynes, and what thei seyde was learninge, and dreames, and growinge thinges, and makinge art, and a worlde wher we talke to each othir and care about each othir.

I take an abolitionist stance toward LLMs. And I do not use the word lightly. In academic circles, there is often an a priori rejection of "absolutist" arguments as illegitimate, "unscientific" or "counterproductive". Sometimes abolition *is* the correct stance. That shouldn't be controversial.

In our new paper Line Kruse shows that The Demonstrative Choice Task (DCT) can be used to predict depression across a number of languages. dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

This and that in depression: Cross-linguistic semantic effects

Demonstratives (in English “this” and “that”) are pivotal to human communication, facilitating joint attention and the establishment of a common ground of reference. All languages have at least two fo...

dx.plos.org

I was mesmerized by the idea that something static can convey not only motion but also temporality, and I decided to test it empirically. It wasn’t an easy task, as the way our data was organized didn’t make it straightforward. But now, here is our paper! ♥️ www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Neil Cohn@neilcohn.bsky.social · 11mo ago

New paper alert! Work by @cogirmak.bsky.social explores the motion events in 300+ comics from around the world, revealing subtle underlying features of different types of motion cues: "Whoosh! visual depictions of direction, speed, and temporality" www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

"Discourse genre predicts demonstrative use in text: Experimental evidence from Dutch and Mandarin" 📢New paper from: David Peeters, Suzanne Schuurman, Tianning Zhai, Emiel Krahmer, Yan Gu, & Alfons Maes www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Discourse genre predicts demonstrative use in text: Experimental evidence from Dutch and Mandarin

In written language, demonstratives such as this and that allow writers to produce coherent texts and readers to build up a consistent mental model of…

sciencedirect.com

A new study presents experimental evidence, from both Dutch and Mandarin, that discourse genre is the main predictor of writers’ demonstrative use in text.

In written language, demonstratives such as 'this' and 'that' allow writers to produce coherent texts and readers to build up a consistent mental model of the message that is conveyed. But what makes a writer decide to use one demonstrative (e.g., this) over another (e.g., that)?

Do traffic lights eat pizza?

Can AIs suffer? Big tech and users grapple with one of most unsettling questions of our times

As first AI-led rights advocacy group is founded, industry is divided on whether models are, or can be, sentient

theguardian.com

Some new insights about demonstratives: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Discourse genre predicts demonstrative use in text: Experimental evidence from Dutch and Mandarin

In written language, demonstratives such as this and that allow writers to produce coherent texts and readers to build up a consistent mental model of…

sciencedirect.com

If your university still exists and you are teaching from our book - please know we now have 140 multiple choice exam questions ready for use, to be found on the companion website for teachers (or drop me an email) 🤓

Beating stress: Evidence for recalibration of word stress perception. Final version by Ronny Bujok, @davidpeeters.bsky.social , Antje S. Meyer & Hans Rutger Bosker doi.org/10.3758/s13414-025-03088-5

Beating stress: Evidence for recalibration of word stress perception - Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

Speech is inherently variable, requiring listeners to apply adaptation mechanisms to deal with the variability. A proposed perceptual adaptation mechanism is recalibration, whereby listeners learn to ...

doi.org

Hello & HAPPY FRIDAY, as promised an open letter by my lovely colleagues and myself. Everybody, feel free to sign this even if you are not NL-based and ‼️ share ‼️ (anonymous signature is poss): Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia openletter.earth/open-letter-...

📣 "Universities are not spokespersons for the AI industry...we need to resist being coopted and corrupted...We need to increase Critical AI Literacy in students, in scientists & in other professionals. This is the role that universities are duty bound to play in times of planetary crises"📣

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · last yr.

Critical AI Literacy: Beyond hegemonic perspectives on sustainability open.substack.com/pub/rcsc/p/c...

Delighted to announce the publication of a collaborative effort, co-led by @limorraviv.bsky.social @mpi-nl.bsky.social, showcasing the ways in which researchers have made language evolution an empirical issue: A handbook of experimental approaches to the fascinating problem of language evolution 🧪

Today we strike! My first day off since 2017 - Thanks @eppobruins.bsky.social

1.2 billion in cuts to higher ed & science in this year’s budget. Who knows what the next one brings? Plus: attacks on 🇳🇱 academia’s international character & suggestions that gov't should have more instruments to steer course offering in higher ed. 🟥 Protest! 10 April, 12.30, Willemsplein, Tilburg!

Auke van Eijsden@aukevaneijsden.bsky.social · last yr.

De Eerste Kamer stemt voor de onderwijsbegroting van minister Bruins (NSC), waarin voor 1,2 miljard euro wordt bezuinigd. Naast de coalitiepartijen stemden ook CDA, SGP, CU, FVD, Ja21 en 50Plus voor.

Very excited to announce that a collaborative art project aimed at "reclaiming the commons" is now open for contributions! These are not good times, and so I needed an outlet for creating, sharing, and fostering hope. This is my modest attempt at that. You're all invited🌻 outsidemywindow.org

Outside My Window

Reclaiming the commons one window at a time

outsidemywindow.org

Join us in London! The Language and Cognition Lab (with @fourtassi.bsky.social, Yan Gu) is looking for a Research Fellow for 4-years to work on how children and adults from different cultures learn in social interaction. Ad is here (www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMN891/r...). DM if you have any question!

Research Fellow in Social Learning at UCL

Discover Research Fellow in Social Learning jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

jobs.ac.uk

If your university still exists and you are teaching from our book - please know we now have 140 multiple choice exam questions ready for use, to be found on the companion website for teachers (or drop me an email) 🤓

Let's talk about this Nature piece in more detail. I've rarely read something so anti-scientific anywhere short of the National Review. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Three AI-powered steps to faster, smarter peer review

Tired of spending countless hours on peer reviews? An AI-assisted workflow could help.

nature.com