"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/...

Progression without progress

Progress in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to advance scientific discovery has made it increasingly realistic to envision automated “end-to-end science” (ETES) systems: integrated pipelines t...

science.org

In a new preprint w/ @tianqizhan.bsky.social & @smfleming.bsky.social, we developed a new measure of metacognitive bias (over/under confidence in individual decisions)! doi.org/10.31234/osf...

New peer-reviewed paper w/ @mheilbron.bsky.social, @predictivebrain.bsky.social & Jakub Szewczyk! Pre-onset brain encoding has been taken as evidence that brains–like LLMs–predict upcoming words. We show that the same signatures arise in systems that cannot predict. (elifesciences.org) (1/8)

Wow, hello Bluesky! We're the Brisbane Experimental Psychology Student Initiative (BEPSI) We host monthly meetings with fresh research (cog, dev, comp, clin, neuro, forensic, psychophys) followed by wholesome networking (summer lawn bowls, so good) 1st meeting Weds 27th Feb 4pm - more soon! 🧠🤗

Love to see myself represented in media

Just submitted my PhD thesis on perceptual and post-perceptual influences in serial dependence! Next week I'll be on a remote island having precisely 0 thoughts, and in September I'll be back at UNSW to start an exciting postdoc looking at metacognition in face identity judgements 👀🔍

Rich voters demanded to remain in their right-wing electorate instead of the Labour-held electorate next door, where their votes would be more effectual. They had a chance to gerrymander and chose to save their inflated property values, which I think is beautiful thespinoff.co.nz/politics/11-...

Heartwarming: well-to-do Aucklanders finally get a political win

Balmoral residents insisted they were from Epsom, not grotty Mt Albert, and they spammed the Electoral Commission with complaints until it agreed.

thespinoff.co.nz

Interested in a cognitive neuroscience #postdoc down under? Come work with me at @marcsinstitute.bsky.social on an ARC Linkage Project aimed at understanding how people perceive objects in the Powerhouse Museum's digitised collection. Applications closing 13 August! 📅 seek.com.au/job/86079413

Postdoc position in cognitive psychology or cognitive development, University of Geneva, Switzerland Applications are invited for a postdoc position in cognitive psychology or cognitive development. Application deadline: 11 August 2025

New paper @ JOV! With Matt Oxner, Frank Schumann and David Carmel. 🧠 Perception of ambiguous motion is shaped by recent visual experience - but does this differ across the visual field? Yes! Full open access paper here (Gastrell et al., 2025, Journal of Vision): 🔗 doi.org/10.1167/jov.... 🧵

I've learned a lot of things at #VSS2025, but mostly that you can place an ad in the actual ocean

The fact that I get sick at every conference is divine punishment for the handfuls of free pens I take every day and is unrelated to spending ~20 hours on packed planes followed by several days in packed seminars

I'll be presenting my poster about decisions and perception in serial dependence at #VSS2025 this afternoon (26.325). See you there if you'd like to chat about contextual modulation, decision confidence, or how incredibly humid it is outside 😓🏖️🧠

Bita Moghaddam@bita137.bsky.social · last yr.

FDA plans to phase out animal testing requirement for drug testing and replace it with “AI-based computational models of toxicity” and organoid toxicity testing www.fda.gov/news-events/...

I’m sorry but if your students use AI to write papers and you use AI to grade them zero school is happening. You are running together on a hamster wheel

Joseph Rezek@rezekjoe.bsky.social · last yr.

Why even have a brain, any ideas, any ability to express them, any kind of communication with other people, any desire to solve problems or invent anything, any reason to learn, any use for your eyes or your heart, or any reason to teach or create

Extremely disappointing & cowardly. The American Psychological Association is rescinding diversity requirements. Not due to any actual mandate from the federal government, but only because it may *someday* face pressure from the government www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/h...

Under Pressure, Psychology Accreditation Board Suspends Diversity Standards

As the Trump administration threatens to strip accrediting bodies of their power, many are scrambling to purge diversity requirements.

nytimes.com

Interesting move after February's email in which we were assured that "VSS remains strong, independent, and committed to... the diversity of our community"

Hey @vssmtg.bsky.social, do you no longer support diversity and inclusion? Looks like your policies were quietly removed from your website? #VSS2025 #VSS

William James's take on psychophysics is *incredible*. Worth reading the whole quote. #psychSciSky #philsky #VisionScience "But psychology is passing into a less simple phase. Within a few years what one may call a microscopic psychology has arisen in Germany, carried on by experimental methods,

Out now in AP&P!

Joey Saito@jsaito25.bsky.social · last yr.

Effects of perceptual and decisional uncertainty on serial dependence in orientation perception link.springer.com/article/10.3...