Dr Suzy J Styles
@suzyjstyles.bsky.social
Developmental Psycholinguist. How do languages get into a person? And how do they make a difference? Brain Language and Intersensory Perception (BLIP Lab) at NTU Singapore. Teach: Cog Psych, An Ape’s Guide to Human Language, Lang in Perception & Thought
after much deliberation and giving AI the benefit of the doubt, Wikipedia editors have had enough of AI slop. New policy bans LLM generated content, periodt www.404media.co/wikipedia-ba...
Wikipedia Bans AI-Generated Content
“In recent months, more and more administrative reports centered on LLM-related issues, and editors were being overwhelmed.”
404media.co
“I shall send off the manuscript today or Monday. It is an extremely poor affair; I must say something & have nothing worth saying. Lock it up carefully, I hate it to that extent it would break my heart to write it again.” Charles Darwin captures the joy of academia in a letter to his daughter, 1871
We’ve been experimenting with the transparency toolkit from HeyGears to create optically clear models of radiolarians, microscopic single-celled marine organisms that build intricate glass skeletons with stunning geometric complexity. #sciart #3dprinting (Printer + materials provided by HeyGears)
An unaccounted for part of the economy is how much young people virulently hate AI, despite how aggressively it's being forced on them. They realize it's making their friends dumber and ruining the world and they want nothing to do with it. From the Penn student paper: www.thedp.com/article/2026...
Taking linguistic/grammatical diversity in the world's languages 🌏 serious is important because a too narrow perspective on how language works (in the brain), based on a few and in the grand scheme quite similar languages — English, German, Dutch, … — will miss a big part of the picture. 🖼️ 🧵4/
Issue 6: If an input violates the terms or acceptable uses, the user is solely liable. However, if an output violates the terms, the user is still solely liable! Apparently the provider can never be at fault. Even when they use automated black box filtering/detection invisible to users. 11/
I appreciate @seanhollister.bsky.social 's reporting here about the latest step Google is taking in their quest to destroy the information ecosystem and disempower information seekers: www.theverge.com/tech/896490/... 🧵>>
Google Search is now using AI to replace headlines
Let us know if you see more.
theverge.com
This thread is superb and why we must not let AI win
Dr Suzy J Styles@suzyjstyles.bsky.social · 7mo agoLet’s talk ✨constructive friction✨ in educational design! Yes, many students adopt AI as a rational response to assessment where thinking isn’t required for success @wonkhe.bsky.social But let’s talk about cases where friction makes something hard to do, and the by-product is learning! 🧵
What I like here is that the solution comes from the students themselves "multiple low-stakes attempts rather than single high-pressure performances, conversations rather than presentations, uncapped formative practice that builds confidence, and peer explanation normalised as a routine activity"
Wonkhe@wonkhe.bsky.social · 7mo agoNEW on Wonkhe: Students aren't confused about AI – they're making rational choices in a system that has removed the incentives to learn. Jim Dickinson and Mack Marshall preview findings from new research on learning in an age of AI buff.ly/4TKftU3
Imagine being Hodgson's typesetter. He rocks up with his manuscript. "Any footnotes in this guv?" "Um. Just a couple." Then after he's gone, you open it and see this stuff. Academics: however naughty you think you are with footnotes you are a SPECK IN THE EYE of John Hodgson. 16/22
Let’s talk ✨constructive friction✨ in educational design! Yes, many students adopt AI as a rational response to assessment where thinking isn’t required for success @wonkhe.bsky.social But let’s talk about cases where friction makes something hard to do, and the by-product is learning! 🧵
Wonkhe@wonkhe.bsky.social · 7mo agoNEW on Wonkhe: Students aren't confused about AI – they're making rational choices in a system that has removed the incentives to learn. Jim Dickinson and Mack Marshall preview findings from new research on learning in an age of AI buff.ly/4TKftU3
A very very interesting thread on how individual mental experiences cannot be fit in a "one size fits all" description or paradigm. With tantalizing breadcrumbs on how there are multiple spectrums (biological, cultural and personal) lurking here as we map out the varieties of mental experience. 🧵
Dr Suzy J Styles@suzyjstyles.bsky.social · 7mo agoOnce a year I ask my students to imagine a red star. It’s cognitive psychology and we are about to talk about whether “imagery” is the same or different from “perception”, but first, I like to check in on what our class experience when we imagine something. Friends, the results NEVER disappoint!
I first realised I was aphantasic after a psych undergrad and a PhD in cognitive neuro (studying visual ST memory no less). I got in an argument in the pub with someone who has extremely vivid imagery. I kept saying, no you just think it’s visual in nature (😳) - it’s just a visual representation!
The number of times I've heard people say try not to think of a pink elephant - as if that's hard 😆 My one superpower as someone with aphantasia, definitely not picturing a pink elephant over here
Dr Suzy J Styles@suzyjstyles.bsky.social · 7mo agoOnce a year I ask my students to imagine a red star. It’s cognitive psychology and we are about to talk about whether “imagery” is the same or different from “perception”, but first, I like to check in on what our class experience when we imagine something. Friends, the results NEVER disappoint!
Is mental imagery a single process? Our meta-analysis of 46 fMRI studies suggests not. We find a key divide between object imagery (visualizing an object in rich detail) and spatial imagery (mentally transforming objects). This split mirrors the ventral and dorsal streams of vision
The one that blew my mind was finding out that someone I know doesn't think in language. How is that possible?
Dr Suzy J Styles@suzyjstyles.bsky.social · 7mo agoOnce a year I ask my students to imagine a red star. It’s cognitive psychology and we are about to talk about whether “imagery” is the same or different from “perception”, but first, I like to check in on what our class experience when we imagine something. Friends, the results NEVER disappoint!
They are gathering data on prosopagnosia, using the Cambridge Face Memory Test, which is available on the Birkbeck University website, but it only works on a browser. www.psyc.bbk.ac.uk/mobile.php
Psychology Experiments: Mobile Device
psyc.bbk.ac.uk
Star (shape) and Star (astronomical) are both welcome here. The imagery scale simply asks about how vivid the image is, rather than which kind sounds like you added rich details like solar flares that weren’t mentioned in the prompt, so that aligns best with the ✨ hyperphantasia ✨ end of the scale
I think there's a very important lesson in this for educators. I always mention aphantasia when I'm doing sessions on adaptive teaching. Quite a lot of people don't even realise they have it.
Dr Suzy J Styles@suzyjstyles.bsky.social · 7mo agoOnce a year I ask my students to imagine a red star. It’s cognitive psychology and we are about to talk about whether “imagery” is the same or different from “perception”, but first, I like to check in on what our class experience when we imagine something. Friends, the results NEVER disappoint!
awhile ago someone asked for feedback on a paper where the whole thesis was "aphantasia is a made-up concept used to pathologise normal people and romanticise genius bc of course nobody ACTUALLY sees things and pretending like some special people do is just putting them on a pedestal"
I'm really bad. I have no static visual imagery in my head at all. I can see movement though. So if I think of how I would draw a star I can visualise a basic star being drawn. People always pop up on these discussions and say 'no one with aphantasia can be an artist' and yah sucks boo to those guys
Dr Suzy J Styles@suzyjstyles.bsky.social · 7mo agoOnce a year I ask my students to imagine a red star. It’s cognitive psychology and we are about to talk about whether “imagery” is the same or different from “perception”, but first, I like to check in on what our class experience when we imagine something. Friends, the results NEVER disappoint!
There used to be a lot of arguments about that on art forums years ago! (I think before aphantasia became widely known?) It was always a hopeless shouting match between people who couldn’t see images in their mind insisting that those of us who could must be delusional and not really seeing things
I used to think I was the type who visualized fully in great detail. Recently, I realized that it’s more like a detailed image with blind spots, almost like I can’t “look” at the image directly, but can see it in the periphery or sometimes, conversely, like I’m scanning it through tunnel vision.
Wait like literally actually see it? I think I’m not an imager.
It’s me! I always thought these descriptions were just romanticization.
Dr Suzy J Styles@suzyjstyles.bsky.social · 7mo agoHere’s my deal. Somewhere between 5% and 15% of my class have no (or very little) imagery. There is a whole chapter of the textbook that describes effects that make zero sense to a LARGE chunk of our students! I can’t teach this subject ‘straight’ without addressing this gap first.
Omg I imagined a legit star burning in deep space!
I need this but for whether or not people have internal dialogue and/or hear voices in their heads
Dr Suzy J Styles@suzyjstyles.bsky.social · 7mo agoOnce a year I ask my students to imagine a red star. It’s cognitive psychology and we are about to talk about whether “imagery” is the same or different from “perception”, but first, I like to check in on what our class experience when we imagine something. Friends, the results NEVER disappoint!
Once a year I ask my students to imagine a red star. It’s cognitive psychology and we are about to talk about whether “imagery” is the same or different from “perception”, but first, I like to check in on what our class experience when we imagine something. Friends, the results NEVER disappoint!
