How to join zillions of lexical norms to each word in your language sample the easy way: a quick tutorial and demo reilly-lab.github.io/Jamie_JoinLe...
Posts by Language and Memory Aging Lab
You turned me onto them years ago and Ive been a convert ever since!
We received the an invitation from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS) for CNS members who are faculty to join a discussion on 4/10 about federal science funding:
us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
This is in response to the the President's budget request for FY27. 1/
Looking inside and beyond eye fixations in reading
Opinion by Elizabeth R. Schotter & Brennan R. Payne
Free access before May 17: tinyurl.com/bde7p834
The game is to destroy academia and take control of universities. Throttling science funding is just one more move in the broader assault against #highered.
Fight back. Don't give in. Don't give up. #AAUP #Standupforscience
5/5
How do we read faster than our brains process each word?
Out now in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, @lizschotter.bsky.social and I explore how co-registering eye-tracking and EEG helps solve this paradox by looking "beyond" the individual fixation to probe dynamic coupling between the brain and eyes.
📢 BREAKING! TiCS just published a paper by @lamalab.bsky.social and me that synthesizes co-registration (and related) studies of reading that resolve the apparent paradox that the eyes move faster through the text than the brain can understand it!
How do we read faster than our brains process each word?
Out now in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, @lizschotter.bsky.social and I explore how co-registering eye-tracking and EEG helps solve this paradox by looking "beyond" the individual fixation to probe dynamic coupling between the brain and eyes.
A figure showing event-related brain potentials to target words that are expected, unexpected, or syntactic violations. ERPs are shown as a function of background noise and hearing acuity.
How does the brain comprehend when listening gets tough (e.g., acoustic challenge, hearing loss)? Even when semantic retrieval and syntactic integration are impaired, listeners still prioritize prediction.
Young adults: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Older adults w/ hearing loss: osf.io/preprints/ps...
surely we can teach the children how to ethically use this product designed for unethical use by unethical people
free video for intro lectures on auditory perception
Although the reporting requirements are over for basic experimental studies in humans, the principle of making research plans and results public and accessible is “a good one that we should all continue to work on,” Jeremy Wolfe says.
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/4kpaBCC
There's good evidence that talking is declining. I explore the cognitive and social consequences of this shift in the Washington Post. wapo.st/4pz96CG
Our first eye movement and eeg coregistration project from the lab. Allyson Copeland's (not on bsky) excellent thesis work examining prediction and plausibility violations in natural reading. Parafoveal n400s, frontal positivities, and LPCs.
Check it out! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Check out our new paper in CABN (special issue on neuroscience of effort). @sarahdoesscience.bsky.social shows that acoustic challenge modulates aperiodic activity in younger and older listeners, effects correlated with hearing loss and distinct from alpha modulations.
One last reminder that I’m recruiting a graduate student through the Cognition & Neural Science area @utah.edu this Fall! The lab uses MRI to study healthy cognitive aging across the adult lifespan and will start assessing factors that moderate cognitive aging (air pollution, cardiovascular health).
Imagine working in a restaurant where the boss tells you the job performance is based only on tables served. But then every shift you are scheduled to the stockroom, the dishwashing station, and occasionally to like, trim the hedges outside.
Anyway. I'm an associate professor...
The idea that human cognition is, or can be understood as, a form of computation is a useful conceptual tool for cognitive science. It was a foundational assumption during the birth of cognitive science as a multidisciplinary field, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as one of its contributing fields. One conception of Al in this context is as a provider of computational tools (frameworks, concepts, formalisms, models, proofs, simulations, etc.) that support theory building in cognitive science. The contemporary field of Al, however, has taken the theoretical possibility of explaining human cognition as a form of computation to imply the practical feasibility of realising human(-like or -level) cognition in factual computational systems; and, the field frames this realisation as a short-term inevitability. Yet, as we formally prove herein, creating systems with human(-like or -level) cognition is intrinsically computationally intractable.
🚨Our paper `Reclaiming AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science' is now forthcoming in the journal Computational Brain & Behaviour. (Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...)
Below a thread summary 🧵1/n
#metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy
There is time to urge a change to the current #GRFP solicitation ( #NSF 25-547 ): reverse the eligibility restrictions and ensure applicants (including 2nd year PhD students) have a fair chance in the competition.
Feel free to sign and share this open petition:
laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/
Please add me too!
A statistical error known as pseudoreplication appears in more than half of recent mouse studies on neurological disorders, according to a new study. Peter Kind and Constantino Elfetheriou tell Lauren Schenkman why researchers should pay attention.
www.thetransmitter.org/pseudoreplic...
President Trump’s FY26 budget for #NSF will slash funding for the agency by 56.9% and funding for Social, Behavioral, and Economic sciences by 67.6%
These cuts will end US STEM leadership, weaken national security, and set-back individual prosperity and well-being.
NSF, NASA and NIH budgets per year, inflation adjusted from 2000-2025 along with the proposed cuts. NSF includes research component only. Massive cuts across all sectors, well below support spanning 25 years.
The President's Budget request as released yesterday will gut scientific research. Why should you care?
1) Science is fundamentally a jobs program. Many 100,000s are employed to do science and work for you, the US taxpayer.
Devastating...
Welcome to Save The U.S. National Science Foundation A Girl Looking at a Physics Model TAKE ACTION Save NSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the U.S. National Science Foundation. Our mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation in various scientific fields. NSF funding is critical to this work. Join us in our endeavor to ensure a sustainable future for scientific exploration and discovery.
I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!!
Has a take action toolkit with:
1. Press outreach templates
2. Social media toolkit
3. Elected official outreach
4. Talking points
Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come.
www.savensf.com
And here is a free link to the published paper, now in Brain and Language: authors.elsevier.com/c/1l18O,28iJ...
A meme about Chomsky's notion of universal grammar and how it is no longer as dominant in theories of language acquisition
Every year at the end of the semester, I ask the students in my Psych of Language class to create memes about what they've learned. They then vote for their favorites.
Here's the winner about how the idea of a universal grammar is no longer as compelling as it once seemed.
1/5
Out now in Brain & Language -- "Did you say brain or brave? Event-related potentials reveal the central role of phonological prediction in false hearing"
osf.io/preprints/os...
Hey academics, wondering about changes for evaluating job applicants and T&P decisions.
Downgrade importance of grants if getting grants is no longer based on scientific evaluation.
Increase the value of communication with the general public. We need to speak clearly about the value of our work.