If you’re at #cogsci2026, please come see presentations by some of the great folks collaborating with the Language and Cognition Lab at Stanford!

Meet Husna Ayoubi, a 2026 NeURO Fellow! In the Gwilliams @lauragwilliams.bsky.social Speech Neuroscience Lab, Husna researches how the brain processes written language using advanced neuroimaging techniques. A Psychology major @stanford.edu, she's drawn to neuroscience, language, & brain function.

We updated our – free, open source, Rasch-compliant – receptive vocabulary test (oREV) to also include verbs. If you are looking for a task to measure vocabulary/language in German with children 3-8, look no further! Paper: osf.io/preprints/ps... Task: devpsy.web.leuphana.de/orev-vn/

1st published paper alert ⚠️ in which @mcxfrank.bsky.social and I ask: How robust is the “shape bias”? a phenomenon that has been central to theories of early word learning: If a child hears a new word for an object, they often extend it to other objects with the same shape. tinyurl.com/JCL-shapebias

I had just started in a new country, language, and field when I entered his language development class. With 0 background before it, I left wanting a lifelong career in it. I will always remember a brilliant scientist, an inspiring teacher, and a kind human. www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/202...

In Memoriam: Peter Gordon

Gordon, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Education died on June 7 at the age of 69

tc.columbia.edu

"No human musician could stay in time counting as slowly as these whales do."

The Cold War’s Accidental Whale Observatory

Built to track enemy submarines, the Navy’s underwater listening network inadvertently revealed that whales may be singing across entire oceans.

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

We've known that socioeconomics (SES) matters for the 🧠. New & 🤯 is that SES drowns out all other brain associations, incl. IQ. If you train an algorithm to predict IQ from brain data, it's still way better at predicting SES. Science Mag: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @smarek0502.bsky.social 👀🧵👇

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/...

Nature spoke to a variety of scientists, from highly adept coders to complete beginners, who are using AI to stretch the limits of the coding they can do. Many use AI-assisted coding in their work, and some are intentionally testing its limits. #Academicsky 🧪

How to vibe code in science: early adopters share their tips

Using AI coding tools can speed up your work, but there are plenty of pitfalls.

go.nature.com

I just published A leap of faith, and evidence? medium.com/p/a-leap-of-...

A leap of faith, and evidence?

A believing scientist

medium.com

I totally agree, science is not a simple optimization problem, or at least not in the form conceived by most existing systems. @battleday.bsky.social and I wrote about this recently from a somewhat different perspective (emphasizing the 'problem problem'): gershmanlab.com/pubs/Battled...

Melanie Mitchell@melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"Science is not simply a sequence of tasks that can be optimized....The scientific system thrives on inefficiency: redundant efforts, failed attempts, and divergent paths. These are not costs to be eliminated but sources of discovery." Excellent essay! ⬇️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

(1/5) The paired (sign-flip) permutation test fails under cross-validation. The swap procedure assumes fold-averaged statistics are exchangeable under the null — but they're positively correlated, not independent. The result: inflated FPR. Slide explains the mechanics. 2/N

Just wrote a new blogpost trying to summarize my thoughts on the question of how and whether to use AI for research in psychology and cognitive science: babieslearninglanguage.blogspot.com/2026/04/usin...

The Cognitive Tools Lab at Stanford (cogtoolslab.github.io) is recruiting two new research staff members to join in AY 26-27. Full-Time Lab Manager: forms.gle/UVwfx5wbY9Km.... IRiSS Predoc Researcher: iriss.stanford.edu/predoc/2026-.... Please share widely in your networks, thank you!!

In a Working Scientist profile, conservation researcher Anne Poelina speaks with Nature Careers about giving first authorship to a source with deep knowledge about water, the river itself. 🌍 🧪

Why I made a river my co-author

Anne Poelina gives first authorship to a source with deep knowledge about water — the river itself.

go.nature.com

I just published Allah/God: Why is he a ‘he’? medium.com/p/allah-god-...

Allah/God: Why is he a “he”?

“All praise to him,” I was talking to a friend who was confused about what to feel about non-muslims using the word “Allah” to refer to…

medium.com

Many of us are worried about AI. Many are also interested in what it can tell us about the human mind. Can we separate out our concerns and our scientific curiosity? A topic discussed in our latest episode, w/ @glupyan.bsky.social & @mcxfrank.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/what-can-ai-...

"… higher education must develop students into fluent, intelligent, and ethical users of #AI and work to ensure that the benefits of AI reach broadly across communities," writes Marie Lynn Miranda in a new #ScienceEditorial. https://scim.ag/4dvOxot

open.substack.com/pub/thisweek...

Five Trends that will Shape Urban Africa in 2026

Uncovering the politics of African urbanization

open.substack.com

Can i add, having a very informal 1-1 chat with Barbara Tversky that lasted for 2 hours, to my CV?

Full thread above, but in summary: When we imagine we re-activate brain regions used during perception, an idea called "sensory reinstatement". However, our results suggest this overlap is actually in transmodal association networks, not sensory areas. Perception culminates in transmodal networks

Media release at www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/new...

Brainwave study sheds light on cause of ‘hearing voices’

A study of the way people process inner and outer speech is the first tangible evidence of a key theory about schizophrenia’s drivers.

unsw.edu.au

I agree. For me, at first, Academia was very much an identity and a calling. Years later, after some experience of terrible university management, it is "a job". Some other reflections (which turned out to be about workload management, and ways of working)

As Andy thoughtfully explains, certain technologies may be new, but our psychology isn't, and decades of psychology research can be used to explain questions like what goes viral online and why people enjoy sycophantic chatbots.

Honored to give the opening plenary @affectscience.bsky.social this year on AI & mental health! I shared what we’re learning at Flourish Science about bridging the gap between science and the real world. SAS has been my favorite conference since grad school, so this was especially meaningful ❤️

Language, Intelligence & Thought lab is looking for a lab manager! This is a 2-year postbac position that will allow you to gain experience in human neuroscience, cognitive science, and AI research prior to applying to PhD programs. Express interest here: forms.gle/npXEGUjGUbp5...

"Western listeners usually find music in major keys happy and in minor keys sad. By contrast, Papua New Guinean listeners felt no difference in happiness between major and minor keys, and Pakistani listeners found minor keys happier than major ones" www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Music is not a universal language — but it can bring us together when words fail

Societies, animals and even machines have music in common. Our varied experiences of it might tell us about the origins of language.

nature.com

“Understanding deep evolutionary origins of music & language requires inclusive & equitable collaborations across cultures & disciplines, weaving together Indigenous knowledge & the humanities with natural & social sciences.” Informative engaging essay by @patrickesavage.bsky.social in @nature.com.🧪

Music is not a universal language — but it can bring us together when words fail

Societies, animals and even machines have music in common. Our varied experiences of it might tell us about the origins of language.

nature.com

Beyond Self Worth: Social Worth as a Foundation of Subjective Well-being in Sub-Saharan Africa: https://osf.io/k8hwg

👩🏾‍🔬🐝🌌 Want to write popular science articles about your research for small-town newspapers in the U.S. to boost trust in science and support science literacy? Science Homecoming @sciencehomecoming.bsky.social has the information, tools, and volunteers to help you. www.sciencehomecoming.com

New article out exploring great ape name recognition! We find partial evidence that zoo-living chimps & bonobos know each other's names 👀 Huge thanks to Animal Behavior and Cognition (a great open-access journal) & co-authors for your collaboration!🎉🐵 unsvr1.com/web/abc/work...

Do Great Apes Know Each Other's Names? Probing Great Ape Comprehension of Social Vocal Labels — Animal Behavior and Cognition

unsvr1.com