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Rebecca Zhu

@rebeccazoo.bsky.social

Post-doc in Psychology at Stanford studying children's acquisition of symbolic systems

13 Posts728 Follower302 Folgt
Bria Long@brialong.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The Visual Learning Lab is hiring TWO lab coordinators! Both positions are ideal for someone looking for research experience before applying to graduate school. Application deadline is Feb 10th (approaching fast!)—with flexible summer start dates.

Rebecca Zhu@rebeccazoo.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Now in press at Topics in Cognitive Science! We review children's understanding of different kinds of visual media across contexts, and argue that this work has important implications for childhood learning and assessment tools @cogscisociety.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Cross‐Contextual Variability in Children's Early Understanding of Visual Media

This article investigates when and how children come to understand various kinds of visual media (e.g., pictures, videos, scale models), and how early experience might contribute to variation in the ....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Mike Frank@mcxfrank.bsky.social · last yr.

Do children understand all types of visual media in the same way? "Cross-contextual diversity in children’s early understanding of visual media" - a new review paper led by Rebecca Zhu: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Table 1 from paper: recognition and reference evidence for perception of different types of visual media by infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
WeRateDogs@weratedogs.com · 9mo ago

My goodness. Please don’t send in ghosts. They are very frightening. We only rate dogs. Thank you... 12/10 (IG: theodore.goldenvelt)

ahh! a small fluffy ghost sits on a hardwood floor staring directly at us. but actually... the longer we take it in, the more cute the ghost becomes. one could even mistake this little guy for a golden retriever puppy wearing a sheet with eye, ear, and mouth holes cut out of it. even though he gave us a fright, we would still pet this ghost puppy.
Jessica Sommerville@jessicas.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 Postdoc Opportunity!!! The Toronto Early Cognition Lab (@UofT) is hiring a postdoc to study early optimism in infants & young children. Work w/ multi-method approach, amazing undergrads & grads. Start: Fall 2025 or later. Details: jessica.sommerville@utoronto.ca RTs appreciated 💫

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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · last yr.

Sometimes when I am having a bad day I remember that after my TED talk in 2016 this woman mobbed me afterwards and threw herself on me with the hugest hug saying "Oh my god you were incredible and inspirational I want to BE you" It was Cher

Mike Frank@mcxfrank.bsky.social · last yr.

We're still accepting apps for our research scientist position with LEVANTE (levante-network.org). This position is ideal for folks wanting to be the interface between a cool scientific project and an awesome team of software developers. Think of it as a technical product manager, but for science!

We are seeking a Research Scientist for a large-scale project on developmental data collection with children ages 2-12 called LEVANTE (Learning Variability Network Exchange). LEVANTE is a global research network to improve our understanding of variability in learning and development through coordinated data collection. The project is funded by the Jacobs Foundation; learn more at http://levante-network.org. This position is a mix of scientific work and work with a software development team: we are looking for someone to act as the interface between the scientific goals of the project and our team of ~6 software engineers who work to implement different aspects of our web platform including researcher management, tasks and surveys, and data processing. We expect the role to be ideal for someone with technical experience from their scientific work and an interest in building good tools for other scientists through software development. This position is appropriate for recent PhD grads and candidates with postdoctoral experience; exact title and compensation will be relative to experience post-PhD. The RS will contribute to – and have the opportunity to lead on – research products including papers and presentations. The LEVANTE team is a large and lively group pushing the boundaries of cross-cultural developmental measurement through a combination of technical innovation and psychometrics. The RS will also be part of the Language and Cognition Lab at Stanford, a broad interdisciplinary group interested in using data to understand human development. Requirements for the position include: - some kind of scientific software development experience (examples include developing experiments, computational models, or complex data analyses) - theoretical knowledge of psychology or a related discipline (e.g., cognitive science, neuroscience), ideally doing behavioral measurements of some kind - project management experience on a technical or scientific project with multiple participants Additional optional qualifications include: - experience with modern database-backed web applications - experience with measure development or psychometrics - R data analysis experience Applicants should submit a current CV, a short (~1 page) coverletter stating their qualifications for the position, and a link to a github account (preferred) or other code sample.
Rebecca Zhu@rebeccazoo.bsky.social · 2y ago

New year, new paper! 4- and 5-year-olds can represent abstract relations (i.e., sameness and difference) predicated on an abstract dimension (i.e., kind membership) in a relational match-to-sample task. Moreover, noun label training facilitates task performance. direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...

Preschoolers Represent Abstract Relations Predicated on Kind Membership

Abstract. Recent work demonstrates that U.S. preschoolers can represent the abstract relational concepts same and different when these abstract relational concepts are predicated upon perceptual dimen...

direct.mit.edu

Rebecca Zhu@rebeccazoo.bsky.social · 2y ago

New registered report out in Developmental Science! We find a positive relation between urban western Kenyan toddlers’ picture experience and their performance on a picture-based word learning task, but no relation in a similar rural sample. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The Development of Picture Comprehension Across Early Environments: Evidence From Urban and Rural Toddlers in Western Kenya

Early childhood researchers frequently use learning materials and assessments involving pictures, across different cultures and contexts. However, there is variation in when and how children across c...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Mike Frank@mcxfrank.bsky.social · 2y ago

Do you like building great tools for behavioral measurement? We are seeking a Research Scientist to act as the tasks lead and engineering manager for a large-scale project on developmental data collection with children ages 2-12 called LEVANTE: levante-network.org.

This position is a PhD-level position, with the expectation that the RS will contribute to – and have the opportunity to lead on – research products including papers and presentations. The RS will also be part of the Language and Cognition Lab at Stanford, a broad interdisciplinary group interested in using data to understand human development. Ideal qualifications/experiences for the position include: - creating behavioral experiments (ideally for children), with attention to the small details of the participants' experience in the experiment - psychological measurement and/or psychometrics (including item response theory and/or adaptive testing) - software development using version control and project management software - web-development, including javascript/HTML/CSS, cloud-based hosting, and modern frameworks (e.g., react.js) - experience working with teams and an orientation towards managing a small team of engineers working on the project (e.g. scrum)
Rebecca Zhu@rebeccazoo.bsky.social · 2y ago

New paper with Mariel Goddu, Lily Zihui Zhu, and @alisongopnik.bsky.social, now out at Open Mind! In three experiments, we show that 4- and 5-year-olds can understand metaphors based on abstract, functional similarities. direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...

Preschoolers’ Comprehension of Functional Metaphors

Abstract. Previous work suggests that preschoolers often misunderstand metaphors. However, some recent studies demonstrate that preschoolers can represent abstract relations, suggesting that the cogni...

direct.mit.edu

Dorsa Amir@dorsaamir.bsky.social · 2y ago

📣 Now hiring for two positions at the (newly minted) Mind & Culture Lab at Duke University! I'm seeking a full-time lab manager & a full-time postdoctoral associate to join the team, ideally this August (flexible). See below for more information and QR codes to access the application portals.

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Mike Frank@mcxfrank.bsky.social · 2y ago

Hey cognitive development folks - anyone tried having 5-8 year olds do online tasks with either mouse/trackpad responses or arrow key responses? Do you have an opinion on the issues with either? Trying to design tasks for kids on different platforms (inc. computer as well as tablet).