Jill Dosso

We draw a parallel to WEIRD, proposing that CogSci is DEAD (Decontextualized, Engineered, Anonymized, and Disembodied). This is meant to be provocative, of course, but, like WEIRD, it is in the spirit of illuminating limitations and striving for better science 6/

AI Surrogates and illusions of generalizability in cognitive science Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated enthusiasm for using AI simulations of human research participants to generate new know…

Can the human sciences exist w/out the human? Proposals for using AI as human research subjects suggest yes. But @mjcrockett.bsky.social and I respond with, ‘not so fast.’ In fact, silicon subjects say more about the problems of the research paradigm than the promises of AI. 🚨New article, thread 1/

Assistant / Associate Professor: Cognitive Resilience UBC seeks a CRC Tier 2 Chair in cognitive resilience for dementia prevention within Psychiatry and DMCBH supporting research teaching and inclusive leadership

UBC seeks a CRC Tier 2 Chair in cognitive resilience for dementia prevention within Psychiatry and DMCBH supporting research teaching and inclusive leadership.

www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/job/assistan...

🚨We're hiring! A tenure track position at McGill University in the area of #bioethics and / or philosophy of science, with a special focus on the ethics of medical technologies. Please share widely. #philsky #ethics #philsci philjobs.org/job/show/30402

I'm back! In this experiment we had 39 participants choose between 8 different PhD programs which varied in terms of region, application materials, prestige, and fees. Importantly, two of the programs had a GRE requirement and two were equivalent but did not:

We're hiring! @univie.ac.at is seeking a TT Assistant Professor in the Psychology of Digitalization. If your work is about automation, AI, or immersive technology (e.g., VR) in the context of work and organizations (broadly defined), we’d love to hear from you. 👇

When robots promise love: What people really want from AI and smart tech - Faculty of Arts From robotic pets to wearable health devices, UBC psychologist Dr. Jill Dosso explores how people experience these tools and why user perspectives must guide their design.

From genAI to wearable health tech, are emerging technologies truly meeting people’s needs for better well-being? 🤖💭

@ubcpsych.bsky.social lecturer @jilldosso.bsky.social explores how people experience these tools and why user perspectives must guide their design. Read more ⬇️

Great reading for instructors of History of Psych (me)

Photograph of Galton's anthropometric lab at the International Health Exhibition. More info: https://galton.org/anthropologist.htm

Description of the Galton's Anthropometric Laboratory (More info: https://galton.org/anthropologist.htm)

It's a full house in Atelier 4.500 where dozens of people have gathered for a panel on measurement, labor, statistics & AI.

Our first presenter is @nicole-lee-sch.bsky.social, whose talk focuses on Francis Galton's Anthropometric Laboratory, which she recreated in a #DisHist class.

#SHOT2025

if you were to teach a class on the pre/history of AI in terms of key concepts ideas, what would they be? the mind/body problem? abstraction vs materialism? history of the database? automation?

An array of 9 purple discs on a blue background. Figure from Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt.

A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue.

The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.

From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...

When Dementia Steals the Imagination of a Children’s Book Writer

I loved this piece. God, gorgeous. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

A Neurologist Investigates His Own Musical Hallucinations Neurologist Bruce Dobkin started hearing a phantom choir singing on a loop after he received a cochlear implant. He’s not the only one.

What happens when a neurologist gets a cochlear implant and then starts hearing a choir singing “The Star Spangled Banner” on repeat?

At the risk of sounding like I'm doing a prompt thing for engagement: What's a great piece of writing (non book category) you've read online recently? Feel like discovery outside of my usual networks is hard right now! Just wanna read some good shit!

Finally, a bandwagon I can join.

One like = a super interesting tidbit from developmental biology

Trust me. #DevBio will blow. your. mind. 🤯

Computer-vision research powers surveillance technology - Nature An analysis of research papers and citing patents indicates the extensive ties between computer-vision research and surveillance.

New paper hot off the press www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We analysed over 40,000 computer vision papers from CVPR (the longest standing CV conf) & associated patents tracing pathways from research to application. We found that 90% of papers & 86% of downstream patents power surveillance

1/

Listen. The only way you can become a good writer is by being a shitty writer and doing it anyways. You can’t magically become a good writer by having a machine do some of the work for you. That just makes you a fraud.

This is a really fun question to throw at your colleagues when you’re a biologist

Use of these devices is very (!!) widespread and products are sometime expensive. Their use has consequences for mental and physical health in the household during a vulnerable period. But many healthcare providers don't ask about it and don't know what to recommend to families.

We also found several instances of adults making medical decisions for children on the basis of commercial device output (delivering medication, going to ER...)

A small number of adults also engage in behaviours like this, which seems important for the healthcare community to take into account when weighing benefits and risks.

However, devices sometimes perform poorly (with both false alarms and missed breathing events), and this is linked to adult stress and anxiety as well as disruptions in child sleep.

Potential health impacts are nuanced!

Many parents report improved mental health and "reassurance" when using these devices.

The marketing for these products definitely leans on this, e.g., "We're Up All Night for Your Peace of Mind."

Preprint alert!

When I was a postdoc, we (Julie Robillard, Katelyn Teng, Katie Roy, and I) analyzed 11k reviews of "smart" infant sleep products -- cameras, mattress sensors, and wearables -- and found both positive and negative health impacts for families.

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

nooooooo I’ve used pocket since the end of google reader

Boston Has Worms (The Good Kind) Inside the world of C. elegans worms and the scientists who know them best.

Delighted to share this timely article in Boston magazine on our local C. elegans community and the effects of NIH freezes.

"There might be no group more enthusiastic, self-aware, or life-affirming than the worm people."

www.bostonmagazine.com/news/c-elega...

I was starting to think about this as a postdoc a bit ago! Lately I’ve been mostly focused on teaching, but I’d love to get back to it in some way bc I think it’s so important

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Google's AI answers keep telling me 'You can't lick a badger twice' is a real saying It's no glue pizza, but Google AI Overviews still have some problems, like suggesting that "You can't lick a badger twice" is a real saying.

Google AI overview with give you a definition for any made-up phrase. In theory, AI should be VERY good at identifying what is or isn't common English idiom (considering all the training!). So what went wrong? www.businessinsider.com/google-ai-ma...

‘You Can’t Lick a Badger Twice’: Google Failures Highlight a Fundamental AI Flaw Google’s AI Overviews feature credible-sounding explanations for completely made-up idioms.

Google’s AI Overviews will not only confirm that a gibberish idiom is a real saying, it will also tell you what it means and how it was derived -- often including reference links.

www.wired.com/story/google...