1\ Can you make this Roman-numeral equation true by moving exactly one matchstick?
How do we predict what others will do next? 🤔
We look for patterns. But what are the limits of this ability?
In our new paper at CCN 2025 (@cogcompneuro.bsky.social), we explore the computational constraints of human pattern recognition using the classic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors 🗿📄✂️
Excited to share our new publication, “Measuring Naturalistic Speech Comprehension in Real Time”!
➡️ rdcu.be/fa3hk #psynomBRM
w/ @kriesjill.bsky.social, Shiven Gupta, Maria Papworth Burrel, & @lauragwilliams.bsky.social
🧵1/11
1/ New preprint! Reasoning models often require hundreds of task examples and thousands of rollouts to improve on a task. How can they learn more from much less?
Introducing CORE: contrastive self-reflection for rapid, sample-efficient, and interpretable self-improvement 🧵
My final project from grad school is out now in Dev Psych! Mombasa County preschoolers were more accurate on object-based than picture-based vocabulary assessments, whereas Bay Area preschoolers were equally accurate on object-based and picture-based assessments.
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
One of the first studies from my PhD is out now in JEP:G 🥳We tested whether people can infer the truth from teachers who were either helpful, misleading, or randomly sampling. With Keith Ransom and @perfors.net
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
Now up as a reviewed @elife.bsky.social preprint: "Continuous developmental changes in word recognition support language learning across early childhood" elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
Using data from ~2000 kids ages 1-6, we quantify links between word recognition and early vocabulary growth!
Now out in Cognition, work with the great @gershbrain.bsky.social @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social on formalizing self-handicapping as rational signaling!
📃 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lo8f2Hx2-...
In neuroscience, we often try to understand systems by analyzing their representations — using tools like regression or RSA. But are these analyses biased towards discovering a subset of what a system represents? If you're interested in this question, check out our new commentary! Thread:
When people form conventions in reference games, how easy are they for outsiders to interpret? (for values of "outsider" that include naïve humans and vision-language models) Check out @vboyce.bsky.social's poster today at #CogSci2025 to find out.
paper: escholarship.org/uc/item/16c4...
Author(s): Boyce, Veronica; Prystawski, Ben; Tan, Alvin Wei Ming; Frank, Michael C. | Abstract: When are in-group linguistic conventions opaque to non-group members (teen slang like "rizz") or general...
Really excited about this project, and thanks so much to my wonderful collaborators @gershbrain.bsky.social @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social for making this happen! Some main takeaways in thread 🧵 (1/5)
Yang Xiang
It was such a pleasure to work on this project with Yang and Sam! 🙏
The paper develops a signaling theory of self-handicapping, tests it in two novel experiments, and shows how it explains some earlier findings, too.
Tobias Gerstenberg
@yangxiang.bsky.social, @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social, and I have a fun new paper on self-handicapping:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
We analyze this phenomenon in terms of rational signaling, showing how it depends on assumptions about whether observers are naive or sophisticated.
