I was -- fun time!!! Sorry to miss you -- I should have posted something about it on Bluesky, but I ran out of steam during CDS... Next time! :)

New paper in PBR: "Working memory’s pointer system is governed by physical objecthood, not spatiotemporal information"
rdcu.be/fd2tY

Without valid WM pointers, we miss OBVIOUS changes in visible items; the study shows that this "resetting" process is all about objects and not spatiotemporal change!

🚨 NSF is already quietly eliminating the SBE Directorate, despite Congress’ mandate that NSF support the behavioral & social sciences.

Steps to counter this are in motion.

If you
- have an SBE proposal under review
- serve on an SBE grant panel

You can help! Fill out this form: shorturl.at/xuKw2

Hi friends at #CDS.

If you're looking for drop-in hours, I'll be hanging out by the windows/couches at the cds hotel reception desk (by the free latte machine!) from 1:45 to 2:30 today.

Students and all junior folk are especially encouraged to drop by to introduce yourself and have a chat!

The Causality in Cognition Lab -- a supportive, bluesky-colored team -- is looking for a predoc to join us! Here are infos about the lab (cicl.stanford.edu) and the position (careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/iriss-p...). The application deadline is May 1st.

Please share, thank you 🙏

Excited (and cold) for my first ever #CDS2026!

I'll be presenting work by the 'Dropping Things' dream team in the workshop on "Counterfactual thinking: What is it good for?"

Paper sneak peek: cicl.stanford.edu/papers/rose2...

(but I'll admit my first computer hard drive was named A'Tuin)

Turtles all the way down - Wikipedia

Turtles all the way down!
It's family-friendly, and also captures (a self-depricating?) own that our models depend on hierarchical priors/primitives, going "all the way down". (I'm focused on learning, rather than claims about when/where they ground out.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles...

Computational Cognitive Development Lab & Friends Present at CDS 2026. Check out the CDS program and search Bonawitz for a complete list.

Jumping on the #CDS2026 presentation bandwagon. Check out these talks and posters by the Computational Cognitive Development Lab & Friends, if you're so inclined.

Also, I'll post times for a coffee/tea/cocoa hour where you can drop by at chat/introduce yourself in the next day or so! (Stay tuned.)

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

Concerned about the possible dismantling of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Directorate of NSF?? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Find out what's happening and what we can do to protect behavioral science with @fabbs.org Friday April 10th at 1:30 ET. Register at us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

@edmarkey.bsky.social @warren.senate.gov @trahan.house.gov

Original Sin by Kathryn Paige Harden review – are criminals born or made? A psychologist delves into the genetics of bad behaviour in a book littered with fascinating scientific findings

ORiGINAL SIN reviewed in @theguardian.com: “Harden is exceptionally skilled at interweaving the personal and the scientific. She writes about her own life experiences … with rare, dangerous honesty”

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is shuttering its SBE directorate. Staff will be transferred to other parts of the agency and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be maintained.

That & more w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social & @edwrdchen.bsky.social

Overview of changes in NSF funding proposed by the FY 2027 President's Budget Request. Most programs are significantly cut. OMB did not give numbers for STEM and NCSES, so the numbers appear to be increases (they are not).

Giving folks a sense of what the cuts to NSF funding in the 2027 President's Budget Request actually looks like. Note the significant cuts across domains--even to research security! STEM and NCSES aren't captured for prior years, so they appear to be cuts, even though they are not.

Some science cuts in Trump's proposed FY27 budget

❌ NIH: -$5B, including all of NIEHS, NIMHD, FIC & NCCIH.
❌ EPA: -4.6B
❌ NSF: -3.8B
❌ NASA Science: -3.4 Billion
❌ NOAA: -1.8B, including the entire Oceanic and Atmospheric Research budget ($605M)
❌ AHRQ: All of it. -$296M, 100%

And there's more.

The complete destruction of American cognitive science is happening right now

Schedule of speakers for a morning pre-conference workshop at the 2026 meeting of the Cognitive Development Society in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Attending CDS 2026? Consider joining us at the morning pre-conference workshop on intuitive theories of care and protection in development @cogdevsoc.bsky.social

Postdoctoral fellowship in developmental science at Wesleyan University. Joint in H. Barth & R. T. Dubar labs. Particular focus on undergrad research mentoring. 1 year, extendable to 2 years. Share and apply! wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...

absolutely nothin'

Officially out TODAY in Child Development! It's good to try challenging tasks and explore on your own, but not when it might be too hard and help isn't available. Children get that. w/ Kat Shannon, Aneesa Conine-Nakano, Willem Frankenhuis, @mcxfrank.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/chidev/advan...

a mash-up of the embarassed/hiding face emoji with the poop emoji

Friends and colleagues can usually parse my voice-to-text typos and are gracious with my regular errors.

But I definitely felt the need to clarify things when I texted that I needed more time with all the "students' feces".

Technical Assistant I (Lab Manager - Cognitive Construction Lab) - Amherst, Massachusetts, United States Title: Technical Assistant I (Lab Manager - Cognitive Construction Lab) Executive Area: Academic Affairs College/School/MBU: College of Natural Sciences Department: Psychology and Brain Sci Work Locat...

The Cognitive Construction Lab is hiring a full-time lab manager! Come work with me at UMass Amherst, starting this Fall. Apply here: tinyurl.com/3dpz5m3j

Looking forward to hearing @kph3k.bsky.social talk about it at the Harvard Bookstore tomorrow 7PM!

Laboratory Coordinator - 138788 Laboratory Coordinator - 138788 | Careers at UC San Diego

I'm hiring a new lab manager for my lab @ UCSD! For more info on the lab, check out our website: lillab.ucsd.edu

Target start date is June 1 (flexible) and application deadline is March 26. Please share with anyone you think might be a good fit!

Apply here: employment.ucsd.edu/laboratory-c...

A new Department of Cognitive Science is being created at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

Here is the call for a cluster hire (for around 10 faculty) in all areas of cognitive science, at both junior and senior levels:

www.unibocconi.it/en/faculty-a...

Deadline: May 4th, 2026

🥁Now announcing the winner of the 2026 Stanton Prize:

Congratulations, Melissa Kibbe @levelsof.bsky.social!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This honor will be celebrated at the upcoming meeting of the SPP

I think it would work with kids & their desire to hear what they want to hear. "You sad I COULD have ice cream?" I think it comes down a separate additional distribution on the generation step of hypothesis evaluation. (Separate from the prior). Infact, Tom Griffiths and I have a paper on this... 😁

Challenge for people who believe Claude *is* conscious and use it anyway: Explain how you’re not a slaver.

lots of good points have already been made on using AI Agents for cheating (e.g. the latest Canvas-bot), it degrades learning, etc.

One additional thing I'd like to point out: if you use this stuff, you're not being clever, you're just an asshole.

to explain: