Uri Hertz
@urihertz.bsky.social
PI at the cog-sci dept at the university of Haifa. Social-cognitive-computational psychology, and sometimes neuroscience. www.socialdecisionlab.net
New paper at CL! Eye Tracking Based Cognitive Evaluation of Automatic Readability Assessment Methods TLDR: existing readability assessment methods (including LLMs) are poor predictors of reading ease. Paper: arxiv.org/pdf/2502.11150 Image: a readability formula from 1948 still in use
Moved by the Lightest Touch of Meaning: Even Minimal Significance Matters for Motivation From Childhood Yilin Liu and Fan Yang, Psych.Sci. doi.org/10.1177/0956... Children and adults strongly preferred artistic activities where their work would be saved over activities with no lasting existence.
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New Preprint Alert! With @jasonleng.bsky.social @ashenhav.bsky.social @shenhavlab.bsky.social “Characterizing the causes, dynamics, and consequences of choice deferral” osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵🧵🧵
Check out our newest preprint, led by @sheensu.bsky.social and with @jasonleng.bsky.social, on when and why people choose to put off choosing! ⚖️🗓️ osf.io/preprints/ps... Sheen summarizes the excellent work in the 🧵 below:
@sheensu.bsky.social · 2d agoNew Preprint Alert! With @jasonleng.bsky.social @ashenhav.bsky.social @shenhavlab.bsky.social “Characterizing the causes, dynamics, and consequences of choice deferral” osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵🧵🧵
Very excited to share this preprint from me, @emmatempleton.bsky.social, @lindseytepfer.bsky.social & @thaliawheatley.bsky.social! "Friends and strangers engage in distinct regimes of body motion synchrony during conversation" osf.io/preprints/ps...
People use trait impressions selectively: a generous person might volunteer help but not be great at trivia. In contrast, our new work finds reward learning leads people to see others through a generally positive lens, biasing widespread impressions and choices: www.hackellab.org/media/Harris...
hackellab.org
@kiraharris.bsky.social · 2w ago1/4 Why do we gravitate toward some people over others? I'm excited to share new work with Peter Mende-Siedlecki, @andyluttrell.bsky.social, and @leorhackel.bsky.social! We use perceptions of others' personality traits more in related contexts, but rewards elicit general positivity 🧵👇
Twelve quick tips for AI-assisted coding in science journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... - our latest by @ericwbridgeford.bsky.social with @thisisadax.bsky.social , Zijiao Chen, Zhicheng Lin, @hritz.bsky.social and @joachim.cidlab.com
Twelve quick tips for AI-assisted coding in science
While AI coding tools have demonstrated potential to accelerate software development, their use in scientific computing raises critical questions about code quality and scientific validity. In this pa...
journals.plos.org
🚨 new lab preprint! Research from @gordonfeld.bsky.social during his DFG personal fellowship to my lab many moons ago: Global structure of new relational knowledge networks is represented in retrosplenial complex, and node-distance in hippocampus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Excited to see this paper on learning about how to learn out in eLIFE, spearheaded by Jonas Simoens and the team from Ghent incl @sebraem.bsky.social @pieterverbeke.bsky.social and Tom Verguts)
Ghent Center for Cognitive Neuroscience@ghentccn.bsky.social · 2w agoTwo time scales of adaptation in human learning rates doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
1/ The world's songbirds sing in just 8 basic sounds. And where a bird lives decides which ones it uses. My first PhD paper is out now in @science.org (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6239) Here is what we found:
I'm really excited to share the results of a new study that @bjbalas.bsky.social and I have been working on this summer. This project was a bit of a labor of love. If you're interested in #chess, mental imagery, #aphantasia, or the value of a sabbatical, this is a 🧵 for you: 1/?
Clever Cat Plays Chess
ALT: Clever Cat Plays Chess
static.klipy.com
Nearly four years ago we asked ourselves, "what would it look like to have a field-leading, completely free reference work for cognitive science"? It's been so fun editing OECS with @asifamajid.bsky.social and @hbaum.bsky.social. I can't believe we have published 200 (!!) articles! oecs.mit.edu
Philip Laughlin@philiplaughlin.bsky.social · 2w agoToday's #OA spotlight is extra special. Just this week, @mitpress.bsky.social published the 200th article in our OPEN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE. Congrats to @mcxfrank.bsky.social & @asifamajid.bsky.social! We've come far since the 2023 @cogscisociety.bsky.social in Rotterdam! oecs.mit.edu
What keeps us posting on social media? [@georgiaturner.bsky.social, Gunschera, Subrahmanya, Salecha, Eichstaedt, Me & @orbenamy.bsky.social] www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New in Trends in Cognitive Sciences: misinformation isn't just about false beliefs. Led by Ullrich Ecker & co=authors Emily Spearing & Renee DiResta our piece argues the bigger threat is indirect—the erosion of shared epistemic standards doi.org/10.1016/j.ti... 🧵 1/10
Misinformation as strategy: Epistemic consequences and the undermining of shared truth
Misinformation influences cognition—shaping memory, beliefs, attitudes, reasoning, and decision-making. While intentionally disseminated misinformatio…
doi.org
out today! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Chaz Firestone@chazfirestone.bsky.social · last mo.You press ‘send’ on a high-stakes email but hesitate when lifting your finger. You make a chess move but linger on the piece before letting go. Familiar? In @pnas.org, Hanbei Zhou @ruizhegoh.bsky.social @ianbphillips.bsky.social & I show that response *duration* tracks confidence! shorturl.at/A9NVe
How do children’s exploration strategies change across development? New preprint with Azzurra Ruggeri, Silja Kessler, and @ericschulz.bsky.social: “Tiny Alchemists: The Developmental Emergence of Empowerment in Exploration” osf.io/preprints/ps... Paper summary below 1/6
A new research Article in the journal by Sherry Dongqi Bao and colleagues: www.nature.com/articles/s44... (in Press) @sherrydongqi.bsky.social @weijima.bsky.social
Decision reversals in sequential decision-making - Communications Psychology
People often make sequences of decisions to reach a goal. In such situations, when decisions can be undone, people act faster and undo to correct errors. Undoing is driven by both retrospective and pr...
nature.com
A reminder that author-paid publishing corrupts and degrades science. osf.io/preprints/os...
OSF
osf.io
🚨 Now out in @jamapsychiatry.com 🚨 Are people with depression less responsive to rewards on social media, just like in the lab? Actually…quite the opposite! 🧵 📄 Read the paper here: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
The Reinforcement Effect of Social Media Likes in Depression
This study investigates individual differences in the effect of social media likes on posting behavior and their association with and specificity to depressive psychopathology.
jamanetwork.com
In new #HNL work, we exploit detailed network mapping of 22,551 people in 174 villages in Honduras at two time points and show that richer individuals are on more cycles and that cycles are associated with village wealth. 2/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Network-cycle motif participation is associated with individual and collective wealth in Honduran villages - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Network-cycle motif participation is associated with individual and collective wealth in Honduran villages
nature.com
A novel and exciting approach to understanding cooperation. Linking compromise and responsibility attribution to risky decision-making in dyadic foraging | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Linking compromise and responsibility attribution to risky decision-making in dyadic foraging | PNAS
From hunting to financial planning, many decisions are made under risk and alongside social partners whose decisions and outcomes are coupled with ...
pnas.org
Officially out!! Resource-rational contractualism: A triple theory of moral cognition. Our vision for a unified theory of moral cognition, putting agreement-based processes at the core of morality. Now out in BBS, published alongside 27 commentaries and our response.
When we consider children in cultural evolution, we tend to cast them as recipients of adult culture. In our BBS target article, @sheinalew.bsky.social & I argued there's more: through 'peer cultures', children actively drive cultural adaptation. Our final paper + a rich set of responses is out now!
Children as agents of cultural adaptation | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Children as agents of cultural adaptation - Volume 49
cambridge.org
People shift political expression to fit the norms in the room People randomly assigned to liberal- or conservative- chat groups shifted their stance in the direction of the group revealing that social context is sufficient to alter political expression. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A recent study found that 76% of respondents trusted scientists, a proportion above teachers (73%) and well above that for journalists (54%) and government leaders (49%). But “Trust in science is politicized” particulalry with lower trust among Republicans www.nature.com/articles/d41...
New work on agency and memory by @xianl-explorer.bsky.social, Janice Chen, myself and others! Using choose-your-own-adventures, we found that agency doesn’t always improve memory. Instead, agency personalized memory ❄️ ❄️ — even when people read the same text. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🚨This preprint is now out in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... We combine a dyadic foraging paradigm w/ computational modeling + ABM to study how people navigate differing preferences, share responsibility for shared outcomes & what that means for the group! more in 🧵⬇️ @fearbrain.bsky.social
Ketika Garg@ketikagarg.bsky.social · 8mo ago🚨 Excited to end the year with a new preprint w/ Wenning Deng (not on bsky) and Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social 🎉 🎉 "Blame and Compromise During Risky Dyadic Foraging" osf.io/preprints/ps... Feedback is very welcome! Thread: 🧵 1/n
AI agents are valuable epistemic tools. They let us look under the hood of scientific research, lowering the cost of verifying (and implementing) good methodological practices. With @edgardubourg.bsky.social, we propose a step-by-step method for using them. osf.io/preprints/ps...
How do social networks become adaptive? From self-organisation and phase transitions to cultural learning, social networks are shaped by feedback between individual interactions and collective dynamics. Check my new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
AI agents are sensitive to nudges. Indeed, LLM's can be behaviorally brittle under subtle changes in choice architecture, even in the absence of adversarial settings. www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
