Join us in Vienna! We are looking for a #PhD student and a #Postdoc to investigate #innovation in great #apes: PhD ad: share.eva.mpg.de/index.php/s/... Postdoc ad: share.eva.mpg.de/index.php/s/... Application deadline: August 17th. Please share widely!

4k in APCs very well spent

Andy Luttrell@andyluttrell.bsky.social · 2w ago

When the author queries could be more specific...

I've always been puzzled by how a sample size of 2 would be completely unacceptable for empirical work, but the norm for peer-reviews... Is 2 significantly better than 0? Has this been tested?

Alejandro Montenegro@aemonten.bsky.social · 2w ago

"Here we show, in a large post-publication peer review database, that research assessment is driven more by differences between evaluators than by difference in the evaluated research. " arxiv.org/abs/2607.09783

This looks super interesting!

Victoria Bosch@initself.bsky.social · 2w ago

But a footnote to the term 'world model': What world does a world model represent? arxiv.org/abs/2604.17960

Excited to share our review in @cp-neuron.bsky.social with @lauriebayet.bsky.social and @mickbonner.bsky.social! We describe how implementing principles from child development can advance the mechanistic plausibility and capacities of AI models We packed A LOT into this review, here's a quick 🧵

Neuron@cp-neuron.bsky.social · 2w ago

EXCELLENT: The Netherlands new OA policy seems to be well thought through obc.copim.pub/when-scaling... Policy explicitly recommends redirection & reallocation of funds from existing ‘big deal’ budgets towards community-driven alternatives, incl university-led diamond OA & Netherlands Uni Presses

When 'scaling small' becomes national policy

The Netherlands' new open access strategy echoes the principles the Open Book Collective was built on - 'scaling small' and community-led publishing

obc.copim.pub

In Tye et al., 2024, one of the authors (I assume it was Fusi) says they were accused of ‘‘'turning cortex into a bowl of porridge'’ at a major meeting". To me, that's what a paradigm shifting sounds like. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Mixed selectivity: Cellular computations for complexity

Neurons capable of mixed selectivity enhance the brain’s computational capabilities by responding to various inputs in complex ways, beyond simple combinations. Here, we describe possible neural mecha...

cell.com

I went to ICIS in Panama last week, and the long trip back gave me time to think about how our field is doing and where it's heading. My general take is: there's not enough theoretical and methodological work in our field - but there's also reasons to be hopeful. A thread 🧵

New Preprint! We gave neural networks infant-like curiosity and let them free to explore. They grew brain-like architecture, followed human synaptic development, and even started to display compositional thought. So we think curiosity doesn't just come from a complex mind... it helps us build one 👇

Curiosity shapes brain-like architectures and functions

How does complex cognition emerge from simpler underlying processes? We show that two components are sufficient: infant-like curiosity and brain-like biophysical constraints jointly drive the emergenc...

biorxiv.org

#ICIS2026: Terrific symposium this morning on the motivations underlying persistence in infants and toddlers with @gracewujiameisun.bsky.social @jaeminhwang.bsky.social @francescopoli.bsky.social @amyneedham.bsky.social

Reform UK councillors have introduced a motion to rescind King's Lynn and West Norfolk's climate emergency declaration and deprioritise decarbonisation efforts The council were going to vote on it on Thursday But the meeting has been postponed due to extreme heat

Very cool work!

Nils Kolling@nilskolling.bsky.social · last mo.

New preprint alert! doi.org/10.64898/202... Throughout life, we are often told to persist in the pursuit of our long term goals. However, the most important factor to consider in the real world for whether to continue pursuit or abandon one's goal is knowing how much progress you are making.

Why do so many interventions target parents or children directly, enforcing the belief that they did something wrong? Is wealth redistribution the only valid intervention?

Scott Marek@smarek0502.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What matters most for childhood brain organization? We analyzed 649 variables. The answer: Socioeconomics (SES); with brain patterns pointing at sleep & stress as drivers. Even brain-IQ associations were better explained by SES. In Science today: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

If human editors can’t control who reviews science, it’s no longer peer review — it’s a rubber-stamp machine designed for volume and profit, not quality. I have no intention of attaching my name to it. So I’m out.

When we started working on Positron, we began by asking "what did we always want to do in RStudio, but couldn't"? Years of community upvotes on RStudio's issue tracker helped us form that wishlist. Here's how some big ideas made their way to Positron: opensource.posit.co/blog/2026-06...

RStudio's Top Feature Requests ... In Positron

Many of the most upvoted RStudio feature requests are already implemented in Positron, and we explore ten of them.

opensource.posit.co

#StatsPubs No matter how many times you read it, this paper on hierarchical GAMs keeps giving. Clear model explanations together with R code (mgcv). So useful! doi.org/10.7717/peer... Thanks for writing @ericjpedersen.bsky.social, D. Miller, @gsimpson.bsky.social @noamross.net

Why do brains generalize so well while today’s neural networks often fail outside their training data? Check this paper in @cp-neuron.bsky.social argues how neuroscience can guide better architectures & representations. Check the table below. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

If you want to keep up to date with super cool developmental research, give a follow to @milestoneslab.bsky.social!

Milestones of Neurocognitive Development Lab@milestoneslab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🦊🧠 Hello Bluesky! We are the Milestones of Neurocognitive Development Lab, a joint research group at @mpicbs.bsky.social and the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN). Led by Prof. Charlotte Grosse Wiesmann, we explore the neural and cognitive milestones of the developing mind!

What drives human curiosity? Is it a need to balance stimulation — or something we learn over time? In our 🚨 new preprint, we show that learning reinforces curiosity, especially for related content. osf.io/9bw6j_v2 w/ Jane Mok, @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social , Caroline Marvin, Daphna Shohamy 🧵👇

🚀 New vignette: Uncover "Context Effects" in mixed models. Stop blending within- & between-person effects. Learn to demean variables and formally test state vs. trait differences side-by-side with the #RStats #easystats {modelbased}📦 easystats.github.io/modelbased/a...

This, plus the subsequent commentary (link.springer.com/article/10.1...) are going in my Why cognitive science needs theory googledoc: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

*types the name of a long time collaborator into Outlook* Outlook: I'VE NEVER HEARD THIS NAME BEFORE

🚨 JOB alert: 📢 We are looking for a PhD student to work on our international @wellcometrust.bsky.social project on information gathering in OCD and Schizophrenia! If you have a background in computational psychiatry / neuroimnaging and speak German, apply here: devcompsy.org/wp-content/u...

a penguin is sticking his head out of a hole next to a job application

ALT: a penguin is sticking his head out of a hole next to a job application

media.tenor.com

The "publish or perish" culture must perish. Scientists need time to think. We just published our Slow Science Manifesto, where we argue that huge changes are needed in the way we fund, publish, and evaluate science. Read more and sign here: www.slow-science.com

Tax heavens do not receive enough hate. The rethoric of "oh if you increase taxation, billionaires will leave" only works because tax heavens exist. Treat tax heavens as a threat to democracy. Stop free trade and start heavy sanctions for tax heavens - then let's see who's gonna leave.

1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.

New preprint by @semihaktepe.bsky.social 🎉 We compare ANOVA/SDT/GLMM for binary judgments in 20 datasets of the truth effect. #lme4 Main conclusion: "GLMMs are a theoretically sound and practically robust method and thus superior for analyzing binary judgments in social and cognitive psychology.”

PsyArXivBot@psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Analyzing Binary Judgments: A Comparison of ANOVA, Signal Detection Theory, and Generalized Linear Mixed Models in the Context of the Illusory Truth Effect: https://osf.io/xn397

Online Now: The Reward Positivity signals a goal prediction error

The Reward Positivity signals a goal prediction error

The Reward Positivity (RewP) is an electroencephalogram (EEG) feature that emerges following performance feedback and is commonly understood to index both positive and negative reward-prediction error (RPE+ and RPE−, respectively) signals. In contrast to this dominant perspective, we argue that the RewP is an independent EEG feature that selectively responds to positive RPE and is superimposed on a common background signal. We further propose that the RewP signals a goal prediction error: it is elicited by abstract signals instead of by hedonic 'rewards'. This goal prediction error appears to be produced by a critic-like architecture that is associated with the actor–critic framework in reinforcement learning. This perspective emphasizes the role of the RewP in goal attainment and cognitive control as opposed to being a simple indicator of reward receipt.

dlvr.it

fMRI signals “up,” but neural metabolism might be going “down.” In our @natneuro.nature.com paper, we demonstrate that about 40% of voxels with robust BOLD responses exhibit opposite oxygen metabolism, revealing two distinct hemodynamic modes. rdcu.be/eUPO8 funds @erc.europa.eu #neuroskyence 🧵: