Reliable research in the social and behavioural and sciences Sweeping new investigations probe the replication, robustness and reproducibility of results across the behavioural and social sciences.

Today, the SCORE program releases its primary results! 865 researchers examined research credibility across the social and behavioral sciences, publishing three papers in Nature + five preprints.

📑 Explore the papers: www.nature.com/colle...
ℹ️ Read more about SCORE: www.cos.io/score

SCORE | Center for Open Science SCORE shows that there is no shortcut to producing credible research findings, and there is no single indicator of trustworthiness. Research progress depends on transparency, rigor, and establishing r...

SCORE, a collaboration of 865 researchers, is now released as three papers in Nature, six preprints, and a lot of data (cos.io/score/). SCORE examined repeatability of findings from the social-behavioral sciences and tested whether human and automated methods could predict replicability.

When @marvinlavechin.bsky.social first approached me about this project I thought no *way* could we get something useful out of messy early child speech. Delighted to have been wrong & excited for what babar will let us do at a bigger scale than the super hard manual transcription work it leverages!

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻: 𝗠𝗮𝘅 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗪𝟮)

An exciting opportunity for outstanding researchers ready to lead an independent research group and shape the future of multimodal language research.

Learn more and apply here: www.mpi.nl/career-educa...

Newborn Infants Selectively Attend to Points That Refer to Objects Recognizing that certain acts are communicative is a key requirement of the development of communicative skills. Newborn infants have been shown to selectively respond to certain ostensive cues, incl...

This is great. I love to see evidence for 'factory settings' of cognitive mechanisms that enable learning.
Newborn Infants Selectively Attend to Points That Refer to Objects - Geraci - 2026 - Developmental Science - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the mechanisms of learning from social interaction. Read articles for free: buff.ly/K8v43YM

📣 The call for individual papers for the #StatLearnBCBL is open! 📣

The conference will discuss statistical learning and its underlying mechanisms from behaviour to neuroscience, across various domains.

📆 June 10-12, 2026
✍🏼 Submission deadline: 01/03/2026

+info ⬇️

www.bcbl.eu/events/stati...

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New postdoc position with the LEVANTE project! We're looking for someone with language development / reading knowledge to help work on our international adaptations of language assessments. Please forward to interested candidates

Photo of Dr Lucas Castillo

Welcome back to Dr Lucas Castillo, who is starting an ESRC-funded postdoc with Prof. Adam Sanborn using statistical sampling algorithms as standard models of human perceptual and cognitive behaviour. Lucas recently gained his PhD in the department exploring why people are not able to act randomly.

Paper title and authors

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!

The Reward Positivity signals a goal prediction error The Reward Positivity (RewP) is an electroencephalogram (EEG) feature that emerges following performance feedback and is commonly understood to index both positive and negative reward-prediction error (RPE+ and RPE−, respectively) signals. In contrast to this dominant perspective, we argue that the RewP is an independent EEG feature that selectively responds to positive RPE and is superimposed on a common background signal. We further propose that the RewP signals a goal prediction error: it is elicited by abstract signals instead of by hedonic 'rewards'. This goal prediction error appears to be produced by a critic-like architecture that is associated with the actor–critic framework in reinforcement learning. This perspective emphasizes the role of the RewP in goal attainment and cognitive control as opposed to being a simple indicator of reward receipt.

Online Now: The Reward Positivity signals a goal prediction error

And for anyone looking to recruit a superstar post-doc 👉 @anavili.bsky.social 🏆 has just submitted her thesis and is on the lookout, mainly in the fields of #perception, #attention, #workingmemory, #pupillometry, #eyemovements! #nvp2025 #psychology

Sharing, caring, and developing better practices for both One of the greatest (and, in my opinion, most overlooked) aspects of science is that it is a process inherently founded on and driven by community. Almost all ongoing research questions are derived…

The procedures for what, where, and how to share materials can be wildly inconsistent. A BRM paper by @haywardgodwin.bsky.social @michaelhout.bsky.social et al. introduces the Find It, Access It, Reuse It scorecard to help standardize research sharing practices. Post by Lai

Several people have mentioned online that they get terrible responses from online services such as Prolific, e.g., bots, LLM responses. I'm curious if anyone who has experienced that in a memorable way would mind sharing the details of their project (code, etc.).

UC San Diego Alumnus Honors Cognitive Science Pioneers with Endowed Chairs UC San Diego alumnus Robert J. Glushko, Ph.D. and Pamela Samuelson have created four endowed faculty chairs in honor of transformational scholars whose work shaped both modern cognitive science and Gl...

Known for his sustained contributions to #CogSci and the Cognitive Science Society, Robert J. Glushko is now honoring the giants of the field with endowed chairs at @ucsandiego.bsky.social

today.ucsd.edu/story/uc-san...

7 new posts at the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life The new Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, led by Louise Amoore at Durham Univeristy, launched in October. My role is to lead the data cluster from here at the University of York. The centre h…

7 new posts at the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life halfthoughtsart.wordpress.com/2025/12/08/7...

I’ll never forget the look of hatred Nigel Farage had for me at school, simply for existing The Reform UK leader doubts people can recall their abuse from years ago. I’ve never forgotten his – it felt malicious

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

If you start someone on an online experiment and the subject reloads the page or browser quits -- what happens? Usually we are resigned that they just start over 😢 With the magic of Smile you can determine trials at run time and it picks up where it left off! smile.gureckislab.org/coding/steps...

The title page

🚨NEW PUBLICATION ALERT!🚨
The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social)
Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics
Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

Scientific Director Donders Institute | Radboud University Do you want to work as a Scientific Director Donders Institute at the Donders Institute? Check our vacancy!

Donders Institute seeks to appoint a new Scientific Director to lead our internationally oriented and interdisciplinary organisation 🌍🧠

Are you ready to help shape the future of brain, cognition, and behaviour research?👇

www.ru.nl/en/working-a...

📢Applications are open for the second cohort of our RTG! Learn more about the opportunities: www.uni-goettingen.de/de/open+posi...
🔔Join our info meeting on Dec 10, 1 p.m. CET. Register via: survey.academiccloud.de/index.php/34...

for all of you using the ALIGN library (to measure lexical, syntactic and semantic alignment in conversations), Nick Duran has put together a great refactoring: ALIGN 2.0 (github.com/nickduran/al...), now integrated with Spacy and Bert

savenottinghamlanguages The University of Nottingham has suspended applications to all languages degree programmes, with a view to permanent closure of all of its undergraduate languages degrees. Under the proposals, it…

Colleagues and UCU members from UoN's Department of Modern Languages have put together this wonderful guide on supporting their programmes. A lot of what they suggest is also helpful in challenging the 48 courses at risk across the university

www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk

Hierarchical interactions between sensory cortices defy predictive coding Perceptual experience depends on recurrent interactions between lower and higher cortices. One theory, predictive coding, posits that feedback from higher to lower brain regions decreases neuronal activity predicted by higher-level representations. Despite the widespread adoption of predictive coding in neuroscience, the correspondence to neurophysiological findings in sensory cortices remains elusive. Here, we review how the canonical patterns of intra- and inter-cortical interactions that occur during perception and shifts of attention deviate from those predicted by predictive coding. We argue that these circuit interactions are better captured by alternative theories, which we summarize under the umbrella term BELIEF. We review how BELIEF theories account for the inter-areal interactions during attentive perception.

Online Now: Hierarchical interactions between sensory cortices defy predictive coding

How prediction error drives memory updating: role of locus coeruleus–hippocampal interactions The brain constantly generates predictions based on one’s knowledge of the world, as captured in memory. When these predictions are in error, our know…

How prediction error drives memory updating: role of locus coeruleus–hippocampal interactions

Looks interesting, from Groves et al

#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition

Flyer for a study at the University of Warwick. Text reads: Language learning study. Does guessing words help you learn? We are looking for 4-year-olds for a fun study to help find out how children learn new words and how sentences are put together. Calling mini scientists! Recruiting 4-year-olds now! Help Warwick Research with Kids group with exciting new research! 3 sessions either on the University of Warwick campus or at home. you receive 3 books and a £25 voucher. Interested? Email Ed at ed.donnellan@warwick.ac.uk for more info, or scan the QR code to register your interest in taking part. The QR code directs to a qualtrics survey available at https://warwick.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6XbQRngMAUrOEIK

At the Warwick Babylab we have an exciting new study about 4-year-olds' language learning. If you are keen to take part with your 4-year-old, please register your interest using this form and we'll get in touch with more information (warwick.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...).

Are you regularly on the @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social campus? Are you a caregiver of a 4 year old (or soon to be 4 yo) child? Then please consider taking part in our study on language development. Link 👇@warwickpsych.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk #DevSci #Language

We need everyone to come together and support Leicester!

If you can't make it down on the 12th please like and share this post and send your support!

Visuospatial working memory load reduces semantic prediction in the visual world Prediction in language is often about objects in the language users’ visual surroundings. Previous research suggests that linguistic working memory limitations in such task environments constrain l...

Visuospatial working memory load reduces semantic prediction in the visual world. Final version by Christopher Allison & al. with @falkhuettig.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2025.2522272

Beyond Single Frames: Can LMMs Comprehend Implicit Narratives in Comic Strip? Xiaochen Wang, Heming Xia, Jialin Song, Longyu Guan, Qingxiu Dong, Rui Li, Yixin Yang, Yifan Pu, Weiyao Luo, Yiru Wang, Xiangdi Meng, Wenjie Li, Zhifang Sui. Findings of the Association for Computatio...

Here's an interesting new study exploring whether LLMs are able to understand the narrative sequencing of comics and... even the best AI models are *terrible* at it for pretty much all tasks that were analyzed aclanthology.org/2025.finding...