New Annual Review with @nathanieldaw.bsky.social: “Planning in the Brain: It's Not What You Think It Is.” We argue that the brain's 'planning' machinery is mostly used for learning from simulated experience, and that thinking prospectively at decision time is just one special case of this process.
Thanks for sharing Stefano. I agree that Skinner is often unfairly maligned as the boogeyman behaviorist but was in fact quite a deep thinker
I have just finished reading The Technology of Teaching by Skinner it confirmed two ideas for me.
First, the image of Skinner as an “evil” behaviorist is false. Reading him directly, I find a profoundly humanist thinker.
Second, he may be more useful than expected in our AI-powered era
Few takeaways
🚨New preprint and our results are rather concerning..
We find the "boiling frog" equivalent of AI use. Using large-scale RCTs, we provide *casual* evidence that AI assistance reduces persistence and hurts independent performance.
And these effects emerge after just 10–15 minutes of AI use!
1/
Our deranged leader is threatening war crimes against 90 million people tonight. I just signed this letter and encourage you to consider signing:
sites.google.com/view/protect...
Congratulations Debbie!! 🎉🎉
I'm SO pleased to announce that I'll be starting as an Asst Prof at @psychiowa.bsky.social this August.
The lab will focus on neural & computational mechanisms of motivation, affect, & decision-making, with the aspirational goal of translation to neuropsychiatric disorders. 🧠
yeelabneuro.com
🚨🚨 My lab is hiring a Pre-doc Researcher/Lab Manager! 🚨🚨
Full-time pre-doc research opening in my lab at Harvard Psych (start: Summer/Fall 2026).
Review begins April 10
Apply: jobs.smartrecruiters.com/HarvardUnive...
Please repost + tag folks who might be a good fit! 👇
extra time to get those proposals in!
A line graph of the number of NSF awards in fiscal 2026 compared to fiscal years 2021-2025. The fiscal year 2026 is well below the other curves and increasing only very slowly.
NSF Update through March 13, 2026
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The sky is not falling; high-quality platforms (Prolific, Verasight, CR Connect) have low rates of apparent bots. osf.io/preprints/ps... But also not zero; vigilance is very much needed!
📢📢 Announcing this year's conference on the Mathematics of Neuroscience & AI (Rome, 9-12th June). We’ve got a stellar line-up and venue, and invite everyone to join:
www.neuromonster.org
excited to share some recent work!
neural networks trained on multi-view sensory data are the first to match human-level 3D shape perception
we predict human accuracy, error patterns, and reaction time—all zero-shot, no training on experimental data
arxiv.org/abs/2602.17650
1/🧠
10 hour study with me at Columbia showing lunch
Her in the library
DHS illegally arrested me please help Text against image of her knees
Columbia student detained today is a day-in-the-life influencer with 100K followers. Her stories right now go from her studying for a Genetics exam in a nicely edited "ten hour study with me at Columbia" video, to a photo of her knees with the caption "dhs illegally arrested me please help"
Lab manager position in the Cognitive Development Lab Please forward to motivated students! Apply here: https://apply.interfolio.com/182022 Deadline: March 2, 2026 Questions? Email andrei.cimpian@nyu.edu
Looking for a lab manager! Join us! 😊
apply.interfolio.com/182022
Bots have made their way to Prolific experiments. Our lab has stopped online testing of adults entirely now for this reason - we want to know if what we study is real. Probably data collected 2-3 years ago are ok, but moving forward we just can't know. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
I'm very sad to have learned today that Joe Halpern passed away. Joe was a giant who knew no scientific boundaries. He loved science with a contagious, child-like enthusiasm. He was wonderful and I'm so grateful that I got to learn from him. Thank you Joe 🙏
www.bangsfuneralhome.com/obituaries/j...
I just created a series of seven deep-dive videos about AI, which I've posted to youtube and now here. 😊
Targeted to laypeople, they explore how LLMs work, what they can do, and what impacts they have on learning, well-being, disinformation, the workplace, the economy, and the environment.
Dr Kareem Carr man: i wish to publish @kareem_carr Jan 21 reviewer 2: your paper is no good man: i'll do anything to improve reviewer 2: it's simple. you must read the work of the great scientist Pagliarini man: *bursts into tears* but i am Pagliarini Andre Pagliarini @apagliar Jan 21 a first: in rejecting an article I submitted to a journal, reviewer 2 noted I failed to engage the work of one Andre Pagliarini Jan 21, 2026 • 3:47 PM UTC
I just thought everyone should see this
It’s book release day! I’m back on social media! I feel slightly awkward about it because part of the book is about how social media transforms your motivations for communication!
But honestly writing a book is lonely, weird basement-work, and now I want to talk to people about this weird jank.
claude code is fucking insane
i know literally NOTHING about Hegel. ZERO. and it just built me a complete system of German idealism
Hi RL Enthusiasts!
RLC is coming to Montreal, Quebec, in the summer: Aug 16–19, 2026!
Call for Papers is up now:
Abstract: Mar 1 (AOE)
Submission: Mar 5 (AOE)
Excited to see what you’ve been up to - Submit your best work!
rl-conference.cc/callforpaper...
Please share widely!
Excited to announce a new book telling the story of mathematical approaches to studying the mind, from the origins of cognitive science to modern AI! The Laws of Thought will be published in February and is available for pre-order now.
Q: When I think about what will set me up for a university job, what should I evaluate potential post-docs based on? Should I consider things like the institution and where it's based? Is it about the subject matter of the project and the kind of papers I'll publish and the skill set I'll use? Or is it more about the connections that I'll have the opportunity to make and going to conferences and that kind of thing? A: I think the main things are: (a) the kinds of papers you'll end up being able to publish; (b) the skill set you'll acquire; and (c) the connections you can make. But all of these are contextually dependent -- really what matters is that they pave the path that you want to take and support your narrative of what you do and how you fit (because once a candidate passes a certain bar for quality, hiring decisions are usually made on the basis of skills and fit). To illustrate: if you want to be the kind of researcher whose contribution to your school/field (and narrative) is that you have certain skills, or a certain area of expertise, then you want your postdoc to be one that develops those skills/expertise, where you write papers that showcases that you have those skills/expertise, and where you create connections with people who care about those skills/expertise. That's why it's so important to figure out your narrative and what you want to do: it all starts from there. So the question is not: how do I set myself up to get a university job? It is what kind of university job do I want, and how do I set myself up for that? Some people are like, I don't care, I just want any job! But people don't want to hire people who have no "why" for what they do beyond just getting money -- people hire people who have a contribution to make. So figure out what contribution you want to make, and then choose a postdoc that will best set you up to be able to make it. (And you can always change direction, people do that often, but you want to start with a direction).
I have been emailing with a student offering advice about navigating the post-PhD job market and it struck me that the advice was general enough that more people might benefit. So here you go!
tl;dr: Figure out what you want your contribution to be, and make choices that can make that happen.
BROWN Brown University @BrownUniversity X.com We are very sorry to share that we have confirmed reports of two deceased victims from the active shooting situation at the Barus & Holley engineering building. There are eight additional victims in critical, but stable condition at the hospital. There remains a shelter in place order. brown.edu 5:39 PM • 12/13/25 • 27K Views
Brown University confirms two dead victims and eight others in critical but stable condition following a mass shooting on campus.
🚨Job Alert plz RT!
Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition!
We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals
Open-rank
apply.interfolio.com/178146
Well this is exciting!
The Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University (@jhu.edu) invites applications for a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member in Cognitive Psychology, in any area and at any rank!
Application + more info: apply.interfolio.com/178146
We are hiring! #musicscience #musicAI #neuroskyence Assistant Professor in Music, AI, and Brain Health. TT position, come join the most vibrant and delightful of peeps 🧠🎶🤖
northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...
Wahooo!!!
a red building on UPENN's campus photographed during the fall
the Philadelphia skyline, with clear skies and autumn trees
starting fall 2026 i'll be an assistant professor at @upenn.edu 🥳
my lab will develop scalable models/theories of human behavior, focused on memory and perception
currently recruiting PhD students in psychology, neuroscience, & computer science!
reach out if you're interested 😊