Taylor Webb
@taylorwwebb.bsky.social
Studying cognition in humans and machines. Assistant Prof at Princeton Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WCmrJoQAAAAJ&hl=en
I'm recruiting PhD students this cycle! We study how the brain perceives, remembers, and predicts naturalistic experiences like movies and games, using computational tools to analyze behavioral and neural data 🧠 App deadline is 12/2/26 - see our lab pubs on our website www.dpmlab.org/pubs.html
Columbia Dynamic Perception and Memory Lab
dpmlab.org
Pleased to share my new preprint with @joshhmcdermott.bsky.social and Torsten Dau: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... ! It shows that many of the characteristic limits of human hearing emerge from perceptual representations optimized for everyday hearing behavior. [1/6]
biorxiv.org
New work by @msaddler.bsky.social with a striking finding: a wide range of human perceptual thresholds are replicated in a neural network optimized for real-world auditory tasks. Suggests that thresholds are determined by linear separability in task-optimized representations.
Mark R. Saddler@msaddler.bsky.social · 3d agoPleased to share my new preprint with @joshhmcdermott.bsky.social and Torsten Dau: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... ! It shows that many of the characteristic limits of human hearing emerge from perceptual representations optimized for everyday hearing behavior. [1/6]
Excited to be launching our new PhD program in Minds and Machines at UCL with co-Directors Tali Sharot and @nadinedijkstra.bsky.social To apply, find out more here: www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc... Our launch event is on Nov 10th, with a cracking lineup of speakers: luma.com/cikzcth0
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
Excited to see this work published! We find that the brain codes semantic relationships similar to contextual LLMs (like GPT2) but unlike LLMs, uses contrastive coding to prevent confusion of highly similar words. Many thanks to the reviewers and BCM neurosurgery team! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A population code for semantics in human hippocampus - Nature Neuroscience
Franch et al. show that human hippocampal neurons encode the meanings of the words we hear through distributed, context-sensitive population activity that mirrors some features of large language model...
nature.com
I am recruiting graduate students for UCI's PhD in Cognitive Sciences - www.cogsci.uci.edu/graduate/pro... The lab's focus is on how relational structure and combinatorial reasoning is implemented in human brains and large language models--and if they are similar.
GRADUATE PROGRAM
cogsci.uci.edu
New paper 🍼📄 ManyBabies 3 is out (open access, registered report in Developmental Science). 30 labs, 33 languages, 839 infants set out to replicate a textbook finding: 7-month-olds learn abstract rules from speech (@garymarcus.bsky.social et al., 1999). We didn’t find it. 🧵
New paper at babylm.github.io on "Relational Attention for Data-Efficient Language Modeling" with @ecekt.bsky.social and Jakub Dotlačil, building on the seminal work of @taylorwwebb.bsky.social , @awni.bsky.social and others. Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2609.20530. Code: github.com/abrsvn/babyl...
BabyLM 4 at EMNLP 2026
babylm.github.io
Do non-human primates have theory of mind? My new paper takes a new computational approach to this classic question. We implemented verbal theories of primates' mental representations as computational models. These models completed classic visual perspective-taking tasks.
Our paper “Confidence is detection-like in high-dimensional spaces” is now published in Open Mind, led by @wiktoriakozyra.bsky.social and @kevingoneill.github.io direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
Confidence Is Detection-Like in High-Dimensional Spaces
Abstract. Confidence estimates are often “detection-like”—driven by positive evidence in favour of a decision. This empirical observation has been interpreted as showing that human metacognition is li...
direct.mit.edu
This is a very interesting paper that makes some useful clarifications between different senses of learning, however I think it overstates the extent to which the nativism vs. empiricism debate stems purely from terminological confusion. (1/x)
Jake Quilty-Dunn@quiltydunn.bsky.social · 4w agoNew paper, co-authored with Justin Wood, in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social: The Nativist-Empiricist Debate Is Broken We argue that radical nativism and radical empiricism are compatible and, in some cases, both plausibly true. So something is wrong. 🧵 Author share link here, valid til Oct 31:
We're hiring! PNI is recruiting an assistant professor of neuroscience working with non-human primates in any area. Review begins Oct 19: apply.interfolio.com/192521 #NeuroJobs #Neuroskyence
🤖🧠NEW PAPER🧠🤖 (The result of an 8-year project!) LLMs seem very different from symbolic systems. Yet LLMs excel in symbolic domains (e.g., language/code/math). How do they do it? Our finding: LLM representations have implicit symbolic structure! Link in thread ⬇️ 1/n
![Overview of the paper.
Title: The Emergent Symbolic Structure of Artificial Neural Networks
Authors: Tom McCoy, Paul Soulos, Tal Linzen, Paul Smolensky
Left: Neural networks encode information in vectors (there is then an image of a vector), yet they excel at tasks long thought to require symbolic structure (there is then an image of a symbolic representation, specifically a syntax tree). How do LLMs do it?
Right: We find that LLM representations can be closely approximated with symbolic structures. This approximation lets us edit the structure of an LLM’s output by editing the structure of its internal representations, as shown. There is then an image of two edits to LLMs. In the first one, the original input is 3 + 6 * 8, with an answer of 51. But if we swap the positions of the 3 and the 6, the output becomes 30. In the second one, the original input is a Python command repeating the list [Z, U] three times, producing [Z, U, Z, U, Z, U]. But if we edit the input in a way that adds a Q at the end of the input, the output becomes [Z, U, Q, Z, U, Q, Z, U, Q].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bcsvlv7ubeagj5virdvatadd/bafkreic3zm2rpc4vtqrz2t3y4vcl3t2owp2sxay42vuh5zm5zkg4jhr64e)
Are brains and artificial neural networks converging onto universal representations? There is a seductive idea making the rounds in NeuroAI / machine learning: train systems well enough, and they all converge on the same representation of reality (i.e. a unique world model). We have thoughts™ 1/n
The Umwelt Representation Hypothesis: rethinking Universality
Recent studies reveal striking representational alignment between artificial neural networks (ANNs) and biological brains, leading to proposals that all sufficiently capable systems converge on univer...
cell.com
Our task-switching paper is now out at Current Biology! www.cell.com/current-biol... We find that that our brains reset to a task-neutral state between trials, providing flexibility when the upcoming task is uncertain. RNNs also learn this strategy, but only when trained to switch tasks.
We are hiring a full professor for "Intelligence in biological and artificial systems". If you don't know about the German system yet, let me tell you a little bit about working as a professor at the institute. Thread 👇
Tim Kietzmann @timkietzmann.bsky.social · 2mo ago📢 We are hiring a full professor in "Intelligence in Biological and Artificial Systems". Come join us at Germany's first and largest cognitive science program. Please share far and wide, and get in touch with any questions. www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/universit...
We’re recruiting a full-time lab manager to join the Shared Minds Lab at USC! This will be a great opportunity for someone who wants to get hands-on experience with research before starting a PhD program in psychology or neuroscience. More below:
The journal version is out! www.cell.com/trends-open/... AI is turning machine consciousness into a societal issue. Biological Naturalism (BN), the idea that only biological systems can be conscious, is gaining traction. We argue: either BN is untestable, or it is compatible with functionalism.
What biology can and cannot tell us about conscious AI
Progress in artificial intelligence is turning machine consciousness from a philosophical curiosity into a societal issue, and has led to criticism of the widespread computational functionalist framew...
cell.com
Adrien Doerig@adriendoerig.bsky.social · 4mo ago1/n New preprint: What biology can, and cannot, tell us about conscious AI arxiv.org/abs/2606.02121 With @ulysse-klatzmann.bsky.social
@arthurpr4t.bsky.social has a new preprint with important results on a famous psychophysical law (Weber's law). It isn't, in fact, a law, because it can be broken. A more fundamental principle (efficient coding) shows when and why Weber's law holds true. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Efficient coding makes and breaks Weber's law
Weber's law is a rare quantitative regularity in psychology, yet its origins remain debated. Here we provide causal evidence that it arises from the more fundamental principle of efficient coding. Thi...
biorxiv.org
New position piece w/ @tylerbonnen.bsky.social out now in COBS! We suggest that data augmentation is a useful framework for understanding hippocampal contributions to generalization, and offers a path towards more precise modeling: 1/
Very much looking forward to welcoming a new colleague! We're hiring at both ranks — the senior (Associate/Full) search is open too, applications due Oct 15: apply.interfolio.com/190696
@browncopsy.bsky.social · 2mo agoBrown University CoPsy is hiring an Assistant Professor! Research areas: AI & cognition, collective behavior, or brain health. Starting July 2027. Apply by Sept 15: apply.interfolio.com/190677
We're recruiting postdoc fellows in computational neuroscience for Brown's NIH T32 Training Program — brain & cognitive modeling from biophysics to AI, with connections to mental health & psychiatry. US citizens/PRs. Review begins Sept 1. @carneyinstitute @browncopsy apply.interfolio.com/190111
New paper from the BCM Neurosurgery research team! "Neural basis of compositional control" led by @assiachericoni.bsky.social and @justfineneuro.bsky.social ! 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Neural basis of compositional control - Nature
Behaviour of human participants in a prey-pursuit task reflects dynamic blending of goal-specific control policies, with hippocampus estimating latent states, anterior cingulate cortex orchestrating p...
nature.com
The Naturalistic Cognitive Computational Neuroscience Lab is launching at UT Austin and is looking for founding members at all levels, including lab manager, PhD students, and postdocs! #NeuroJobs We will study human brain🧠 and memory & attention, using fMRI and modeling. thesonglab.github.io
What role does Emergence play in Neural Networks? We find that learning emergent low-dimensional representations is key for out-of-distribution generalisation. New Preprint out with @neural-reckoning.org arxiv.org/abs/2607.10430
Emergent Generalization by Representation Learning in Artificial Neural Networks
Dimensionality reduction has proven powerful for identifying neural manifolds, which are low-dimensional structures underlying high-dimensional neural activity. These low-dimensional representations h...
arxiv.org
Then @jonkoenig.bsky.social will present a spotlight poster in the afternoon session ‘Trading Generalization for Working Memory Capacity in Neural Network Representations’ 2026.ccneuro.org/poster/?id=p...
Poster Presentation
2026.ccneuro.org
Taylor Webb@taylorwwebb.bsky.social · 2mo agoHappening today at #CCN @melodylizx.bsky.social will give a talk + spotlight poster ‘Data diversity drives the emergence of symbolic mechanisms in LLMs’ in the morning session 2026.ccneuro.org/contributed-...
Happening today at #CCN @melodylizx.bsky.social will give a talk + spotlight poster ‘Data diversity drives the emergence of symbolic mechanisms in LLMs’ in the morning session 2026.ccneuro.org/contributed-...
Contributed Talk Session
2026.ccneuro.org
Very excited to be involved with this much needed effort as a senior editor, a new journal focused on natural and artificial minds, please submit your work!
Minds, Machines, and Brains (MMB)@mmb-journal.bsky.social · 2mo agoHello world! 👋 We’re Minds, Machines, and Brains (MMB) 👤🤖🧠 a new open access journal from @mitpress.bsky.social exploring the principles of intelligence and cognition across natural and artificial minds. Submissions open this Fall! 🔗 direct.mit.edu/mmb
Happening this morning at #CCN poster session C, @zahmb.bsky.social will present ‘Mechanisms of Emergent Analogical Mapping’ 2026.ccneuro.org/poster/?id=p... please check it out if you’re at CCN!
Poster Presentation
2026.ccneuro.org
I'll be at CCN next week. Please get in touch if you want to chat about these positions.