Ronda F. Lo

What does it mean for culture to ‘shape’ cognition? Human culture and cognition vary widely across groups, but how exactly culture ‘shapes’ cognition remains underspecified. In this review, we outline four qualitatively different pathways by which culture can shape cognition. In this framework, culture can (i) privilege some cognitive processes, while leaving alternative processes intact; (ii) prune unused alternative processes, which are irretrievably lost; (iii) produce new cognitive processes; or (iv) have no effect on cognition at all. To illustrate the utility of this framework, we apply it to three debated effects of culture on cognitive processes, namely, visual illusions, large exact number abilities, and spatial–numerical associations. The distinctions we propose can serve to reframe long-standing debates, sharpen empirical predictions, and open new avenues of research in cognitive diversity.

Online Now: What does it mean for culture to ‘shape’ cognition?

Hello from the Culture Pre-Conference! 👋 #SPSP2026

Thanks to everyone who helped make the culture pre-conference a “successful failure!” We didn’t make the main pre-conference time, but we had a packed house and a great time. #SPSP2026

Excited to share that our lab will be presenting multiple projects at SPSP 2026!

If you’re interested in social perception, race talk, intergroup dynamics, or collective action — come check us out!

#SPSP2026 #SocialPsychology #PersonalityPsychology #AcademicResearch #RaceTalk

📣 PsychoPy Studio is out now!!

✨ Which also means swish new branding on psychopy.org ✨

We really hope that this improves user experience in general.

Please download and try it. Let us know how you get on via the forum discourse.psychopy.org/t/introducin...

Home Survey Experiments for the Scientific Study of Religion (SESSR) aims to improve our understanding of the measurement, impacts, and causes of religion, spirituality, and related concepts. SESSR accept...

Here's a great opportunity to conduct religion-related research at no cost on a high-quality survey panel (it uses random sampling to invite respondents).

One year after data is given to researchers, it will be made publicly available for further analysis.
www.sessr.org/home 🧪

I'm revising a lecture on extensions of logistic regression for my #psy6136 #CDA course and thought I'd share this slide on t he age-old question:

PLOT FIRST?
FIT FIRST?

It captures a course theme that data analysis is an iterative process, involving a loop of graphing and model fitting.

Recent work has shown how vulnerable online survey research is to LLMs. Motivated by this, we examined our online Posner cueing data from Prolific. It's concerning. We now must carefully consider when (or whether?) online behavioral data can be trusted.
see our comment:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Job Opportunity at the University of Kent: Lecturer in Psychology The School of Psychology is seeking to appoint a Lecturer in Psychology and a Lecturer in Psychology focusing on Cognition and Neuroscience  to join a collegial, supportive, and intellectually vibrant...

Kent Psychology is hiring 🎓We have two posts: 1) open area and 2) cog neuro. More details can be found here: jobs.kent.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... Feel free to reach out with questions!

Are you using experience sampling/ mobile sensing or are interested in incorporating these naturalistic methods? Are you going to SPSP? Are you 0-6 years post PhD?
Sign up to join the early career mentoring session at 4:30 PM on Friday 02/27! www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4EAB...

yesssss!!

Grad student: I think this draft is ready for your read

PI, after a quick skim: awesome, looking great I'll dig in now

PI, after an hour: I'm moving these sections around and revamping the discussion

PI, after several hours: I have made this paper into a boat and launched it into the moon

🎉 Excited to share our new paper on how the brain forms first impressions, now out (open access)!

In our EEG study, we tested how the brain responds to two kinds of social information: what we see (like perceived race) and what we know (like a person’s socioeconomic status).

🧵

evidence accumulation models 👀👀 i gotta talk to you at spsp about this

(Mic check 1-2-3)

I'm on the job market🚨

I’m a social psychologist building computational models to study social cognition, attitudes, polarization, and how people update beliefs.

Evidence accumulation models, Hierarchical Bayes, Agent-based models, NLP, etc.

Interested in formal theorizing!

my lab and i have been patiently waiting for psychopy studio, very excited!!

#TodayinHistory #dataviz #Onthisday #OTD 📊
📅 Feb 8, 1727 Happy e-day!.

This celebrates the first appearance of the base e = 2.71828... of the natural logarithm in a 1727-1728 paper by the 21-year-old Leonhard Euler titled "Meditatio in Experimenta explosione tormentorium nuper instituta".

Sonia Day: Colourless housing is a scourge. Bring on more bubblegum pink cottages Why do builders of modern subdivisions — and the buyers of these homes — feel compelled to opt for drab, dreary-looking exteriors when, especially at this time of year, everything

Colourless housing is a scourge. Bring on more bubblegum pink cottages #Opinion

The beauty of academia? Total freedom to pick which 7 days you work each week.

Project Implicit is facing an existential threat. After almost 30 years, 60 million visitors, and hundreds of published papers, funding for our work has disappeared.

We’ve never held a fundraising drive before, but we need your support to keep our site running. Please consider donating! 🙏

Looking for hands-on psychology research experience? We've compiled summer programs, internships, and opportunities specifically for undergraduates.

Explore the full guide: https://ow.ly/sWBj50XT9SM

Excited to share that former SAMC Lab grad student @dymoral.bsky.social has accepted a postdoc at @cornellbctr.bsky.social. He'll be studying purpose, identity, and well-being among adolescents and adults. Sad not to have Daniel in the lab anymore & also very excited for his new adventure! 🎉🎉🎉

Our paper on the ☀️ "summer slide" 🛝 is out now @pnas.org!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Summer slide is a replicable phenomenon across diverse datasets that's more than "forgetting" school material in vacation months, but effects of socioeconomic inequality are ➡️ 7x bigger! ⬅️
#PsychSciSky #DevPsy
🧵👇

How do resource fears (realistic threat) vs. value clashes (symbolic threat) drive war & peace?

We built a virtual society of 25 autonomous agents using the Park et al. (2023) framework to find out, using a "minimal groups" paradigm (Group A vs. B).

But first, we looked under the hood. 🧠

New paper out today! The most cost-effective nudges in the US and UK are NOT the most cost-effective in China, Mexico, or India. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
@sagepub.com @casbsstanford.bsky.social @chicagoboothreview.bsky.social

Ready to launch your social science career?

ISR’s Junior Professional Researcher (JPR) Program is a full time paid opportunity offering hands on research experience, mentorship from ISR faculty, and professional training at the world’s largest social science research institute.

14 two-year postdocs for academics of any nationality who cannot continue their research due to US politics. Do share if you know of such.

This includes Canadian PhDs & Postdocs looking to return to Canada 🍁 #PsychSciSky #neuroskyence

A global study of minimal groups finds discrimination in favor of the in-group in all 20 countries, yielding a large overall effect (OR = 4.58).

The degree of intergroup discrimination was related to higher societal uncertainty www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Bursary for Equity Deserving Graduate Psychology Students – Call for Applications OPEN

We are offering 4 grants valued at $2500.00 each for equity-deserving psychology student affiliates, & 2 grants valued at $2500.00 each for Black psychology student affiliates.

More details: buff.ly/uWqGIau