Can predictive coding serve as the architecture for linguistic predictability during reading? 🧠 Out now in Frontiers in Cognition (special issue: Spotlight on Women in Neural Networks and Cognition), the great Allyson Copeland (not on bsky) breaks down the evidence across 4 PC hypotheses.

Frontiers | Evaluating the compatibility of predictive coding as a model of linguistic predictability effects in reading

Emerging work suggests that the computational architecture of predictive coding (PC), widely studied in visual perception, may be an appropriate model for un...

frontiersin.org

Meat proxy (noun): “A person who forwards AI-generated text, code, or other output without reading, understanding, or validating it. The person acts only as a relay between the AI system and the intended recipient.” [sfisms.org]

Meat proxy

A person who forwards AI-generated text, code, or other output without reading, understanding, or validating it. The person acts only as a relay between the AI system and the intended recipient.

sfisms.org

Brilliant paper! 🧠 ⚡️ Surprisal is not a theory arxiv.org/abs/2607.20208

surprisal is Not a Theory

Surprisal Theory is often characterized as a computational-level explanation per (Marr, 1982). We argue in this work that, even though a computational level narrative has been used to support "represe...

arxiv.org

“Somewhere along the way, we've forgotten the computer is just a metaphor for the brain. A powerful metaphor but still a metaphor. We always get into trouble when we confuse a metaphor with the thing itself – the map with the territory.” Lucid piece by @anilseth.bsky.social on LLMs & consciousness.🧪

Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts | Anil Seth

Despite Anthropic’s claims, Claude is no more likely to achieve sentience than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricane, says Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and compu...

theguardian.com

Some research fields have a type of paper that basically asks: "What if a more expensive but less reliable machine can do [this] instead?"

The need for positive data is the original sin of science. To exist in science, you need grants. To get grants, you need to publish papers. To publish papers, you need positive data. This leads to null data staying in file drawers, and false or misleading positive data being published.

How to join zillions of lexical norms to each word in your language sample the easy way: a quick tutorial and demo reilly-lab.github.io/Jamie_JoinLe...

We received the an invitation from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS) for CNS members who are faculty to join a discussion on 4/10 about federal science funding: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... This is in response to the the President's budget request for FY27. 1/

Looking inside and beyond eye fixations in reading Opinion by Elizabeth R. Schotter & Brennan R. Payne Free access before May 17: tinyurl.com/bde7p834

The game is to destroy academia and take control of universities. Throttling science funding is just one more move in the broader assault against #highered. Fight back. Don't give in. Don't give up. #AAUP #Standupforscience 5/5

STAND UP FOR SCIENCE

Science activists and allies mobilizing to save science, health and democracy itself from the Trump administration's dismantlement and privatization.

standupforscience.net

How do we read faster than our brains process each word? Out now in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, @lizschotter.bsky.social and I explore how co-registering eye-tracking and EEG helps solve this paradox by looking "beyond" the individual fixation to probe dynamic coupling between the brain and eyes.

Looking inside and beyond eye fixations in reading

Co-registration of neural and behavioral measures is key in developing a holistic understanding of reading. However, researchers must study not only n…

sciencedirect.com

📢 BREAKING! TiCS just published a paper by @lamalab.bsky.social and me that synthesizes co-registration (and related) studies of reading that resolve the apparent paradox that the eyes move faster through the text than the brain can understand it!

Trends in Cognitive Sciences@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Online Now: Looking inside and beyond eye fixations in reading

Online Now: Looking inside and beyond eye fixations in reading

Looking inside and beyond eye fixations in reading

Co-registration of neural and behavioral measures is key in developing a holistic understanding of reading. However, researchers must study not only neural effects inside fixations, early enough to initiate saccade decisions, but also later effects that are linguistically driven. Furthermore, researchers must not only use co-registration to allow for naturalistic reading but also to look beyond individual fixations to examine the coupling between temporally extended neural language processing and saccade decisions. Such an approach has revealed that saccade decisions are triggered at an intermediate point of lexical processing, followed by complete recognition and integration of a word into its context. This account can resolve the apparent paradox that the eyes can move through text faster than the brain understands it.

dlvr.it

How do we read faster than our brains process each word? Out now in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, @lizschotter.bsky.social and I explore how co-registering eye-tracking and EEG helps solve this paradox by looking "beyond" the individual fixation to probe dynamic coupling between the brain and eyes.

Looking inside and beyond eye fixations in reading

Co-registration of neural and behavioral measures is key in developing a holistic understanding of reading. However, researchers must study not only n…

sciencedirect.com

How does the brain comprehend when listening gets tough (e.g., acoustic challenge, hearing loss)? Even when semantic retrieval and syntactic integration are impaired, listeners still prioritize prediction. Young adults: osf.io/preprints/ps... Older adults w/ hearing loss: osf.io/preprints/ps...

surely we can teach the children how to ethically use this product designed for unethical use by unethical people

free video for intro lectures on auditory perception

Although the reporting requirements are over for basic experimental studies in humans, the principle of making research plans and results public and accessible is “a good one that we should all continue to work on,” Jeremy Wolfe says. By @callimcflurry.bsky.social #neuroskyence bit.ly/4kpaBCC

NIH scraps policy that classified basic research in people as clinical trials

The policy aimed to increase the transparency of research in humans but created “a bureaucratic nightmare” for basic neuroscientists.

bit.ly

There's good evidence that talking is declining. I explore the cognitive and social consequences of this shift in the Washington Post. wapo.st/4pz96CG

Opinion | Gen Zers aren’t talking — and it could cost them

The problem runs deeper than social awkwardness.

wapo.st

Our first eye movement and eeg coregistration project from the lab. Allyson Copeland's (not on bsky) excellent thesis work examining prediction and plausibility violations in natural reading. Parafoveal n400s, frontal positivities, and LPCs. Check it out! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

<em>Psychophysiology</em> | SPR Journal | Wiley Online Library

With a natural reading co-registration paradigm, we demonstrate the first contextually graded parafoveal N400 effect and foveal anterior positivity to unexpected targets within a highly constraining ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Check out our new paper in CABN (special issue on neuroscience of effort). @sarahdoesscience.bsky.social shows that acoustic challenge modulates aperiodic activity in younger and older listeners, effects correlated with hearing loss and distinct from alpha modulations.

Sarah Woods@sarahdoesscience.bsky.social · 11mo ago

My article is officially out today!! We are using aperiodic neural activity to index listening effort in older and younger adults. rdcu.be/ePrmm

One last reminder that I’m recruiting a graduate student through the Cognition & Neural Science area @utah.edu this Fall! The lab uses MRI to study healthy cognitive aging across the adult lifespan and will start assessing factors that moderate cognitive aging (air pollution, cardiovascular health).

Jenna Merenstein@jmerenstein.bsky.social · last yr.

Yay, thanks so much for sharing this! 🥳 I am excited to be starting my new lab this Fall! I’ll be reviewing applications this cycle for 1-2 graduate students to start in Fall 2026. More information about applications can be found here: psych.utah.edu/graduate/

Imagine working in a restaurant where the boss tells you the job performance is based only on tables served. But then every shift you are scheduled to the stockroom, the dishwashing station, and occasionally to like, trim the hedges outside. Anyway. I'm an associate professor...

🚨Our paper `Reclaiming AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science' is now forthcoming in the journal Computational Brain & Behaviour. (Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...) Below a thread summary 🧵1/n #metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy

There is time to urge a change to the current #GRFP solicitation ( #NSF 25-547 ): reverse the eligibility restrictions and ensure applicants (including 2nd year PhD students) have a fair chance in the competition. Feel free to sign and share this open petition: laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

A statistical error known as pseudoreplication appears in more than half of recent mouse studies on neurological disorders, according to a new study. Peter Kind and Constantino Elfetheriou tell Lauren Schenkman why researchers should pay attention. www.thetransmitter.org/pseudoreplic...

Sounding the alarm on pseudoreplication: Q&A with Constantinos Eleftheriou and Peter Kind

Most studies of neurological disorders in mice erroneously treat multiple samples from a single animal as independent replicates, according to a new analysis. But scientists and journals can take…

thetransmitter.org

President Trump’s FY26 budget for #NSF will slash funding for the agency by 56.9% and funding for Social, Behavioral, and Economic sciences by 67.6% These cuts will end US STEM leadership, weaken national security, and set-back individual prosperity and well-being.

The President's Budget request as released yesterday will gut scientific research. Why should you care? 1) Science is fundamentally a jobs program. Many 100,000s are employed to do science and work for you, the US taxpayer.

Devastating...

Emily Kracht@emikracht.bsky.social · last yr.

Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences is getting hit with a 67.6% cut, worse than other programs within NSF. Funding for archaeologists comes from the division for Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, which is facing a 77.3% cut. It appears every post doc program has been 100% cut.

I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!! Has a take action toolkit with: 1. Press outreach templates 2. Social media toolkit 3. Elected official outreach 4. Talking points Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come. www.savensf.com