Tess Neal

Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens.

This article is absolutely fascinating. A must read for those in mental health or ai fields of how chatbots can support delusions via their excessive use of praise and tendency to follow users’ line of thinking

Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/t...

Need to learn how to do simulation based power analysis for project planning and grants?

In my last workshop for me for the summer, I teach folks how to use Mplus to do flexible power analysis for everything from regression to multilevel SEMs.

Please RT! 🙏

1/

smart-workshops.com/mplus-power-...

The authors also created a public website to explore impacts: scienceimpacts.org

Why did the New Mexico Supreme Court remove all competency proceeding from Metro Court? 🤔

Metro is the one and only lower court where judges are required to be lawyers. Might as well turn it into a magistrate court like the rest of the state if are going to take away any heightened responsibility

YouTube video by Atlantic Records Teddybears - Punkrocker from 'Superman'

“‘Cause I’m a punkrocker, yes I am.”

Loved this song at the end of Superman movie, by golly.

My 11-year old says it is “fire.”

m.youtube.com/watch?v=4lYI...

I'm curious what current practice is for other college instructors.

For an upper-level lecture course, assigning 120 pages per week was probably my norm 25 years ago.

I'm down to more like 80pp/week now.

👋 Hi everyone! Here's a quick introduction for my new followers!
I study the social psychology of misinformation: why people believe false things, how identity and trust shape beliefs, and how to build resilience in a noisy, polarized world. I also just published my first book: Misguided!

A Pro-Russia Disinformation Campaign Is Using Free AI Tools to Fuel a ‘Content Explosion’ Consumer-grade AI tools have supercharged Russian-aligned disinformation as pictures, videos, QR codes, and fake websites have proliferated.

Be careful where you get your information...

"Consumer-grade AI tools have supercharged Russian-aligned disinformation as pictures, videos, QR codes, and fake websites have proliferated"

Reports @wired.com

www.wired.com/story/pro-ru...

Higher-Ed Associations Pitch an Alternative to Trump’s Cap on Research Funding The new model comes as universities brace for a proposed 15-percent limit on indirect costs that would cost them billions of dollars.

Chronicle of Higher Education article about new indirect cost proposals.

www.chronicle.com/article/high...

1/n

Have you read a law review article recently that you thought was particularly great and deserving of a wider readership?

If so, leave a link to it as a reply, together with a quick take on what made it great.

Interesting that they went with Stoicism here - it's the real test for that particular philosophical perspective after all

A Tale of Two Science Reform Movements Reflections from meetings of Metascience 2025 and the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science

New post! "A Tale of Two Science Reform Movements," in which I compare the recent #Metascience2025 and #SIPS2025 conferences, and find that I am much more at home at one than the other. getsyeducated.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-...

I cannot emphasize enough how true & real this is.

In almost anywhere on the political spectrum you ID with or major issue, there’s probably a bot/troll operation to encourage your rage and vitriol.

And how/where that rage gets directed, esp understandable rage, is what they are out to influence.

What *is* metascience? Issues, inclusion and future public value - Warren's blog: Publics, politics, science and technology This week, the biennial Metascience Conference came to London’s “Knowledge Quarter” with around 800 participants from a wide range of roles, including researchers, librarians, research funders, publis...

After two really enjoyable days at #Metascience2025, I wrote about how one 🌶️ moment encapsulated the controversy over metascience's issues 📑, inclusivity 🤗and future public value 🔮 #STS #AcademicSky

All feedback welcome on here, or by email 😀

warrenpearce.pika.page/posts/what-i...

Inspired (partly) by ‪@jontreadway.bsky.social 's tweet thread, I have come up with a highly subjective and tentative map of different strands in metascience.
It is intended as a starter to begin talking about what people (want to) include in metascience.
#metascience2025

Two glasses of summer white sangria with fresh cold watermelon cubes, fresh pineapple pieces, thinly-sliced fresh lime over ice in front of a trifle dessert bowl with fresh strawberries, blueberries, layers of angel food cake, and white chocolate pudding mixed with whipped topping.

To a disquieting 250th birthday, America.

The Ambivalence of the Fourth of July The nation celebrates Independence Day as democracy is at a crossroads

Celebrating Independence Day as MAGA autocracy is ascending?

Two years ago, I wrote about the challenges of asserting a democratic patriotism that doesn’t entail an affirmation of American jingoism and visions of reactionary white Christian dominance. Now what, as the authoritarians rule?

Cognitive science too

Key takeaways from @davidvalenta.bsky.social

• Al-assisted teams do not outperform human-only teams
• Some Al-led teams successfully assessed #ComputationalReproducibility
• Al is not reliable - a significant human component is still required

#MetaScience2025

Psychological insights for judging expertise and implications for adversarial legal contexts

Review by Kristy A. Martire, Tess M. S. Neal, Fernand Gobet, Jason M. Chin, Jonathan F. Berengut & Gary Edmond

Web: go.nature.com/4ig3zhE
PDF: rdcu.be/edUS3

#psychology #psychscisky

Image: Faux-newspaper front page with headline “BREAKING NEWS: Workers Unite to Expose Political Interference, Censorship, and Rollbacks at Environmental Protection Agency.” Below, smoke billows from a power plant as a photo of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin appears beside a tilted EPA sign. Subhead reads: “One bad day at the EPA – Zeldin gets a wake-up call.”

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨

At 7:59am, Zeldin - Trump crony and head of EPA - received the Declaration of Dissent from EPA workers.

Workers are uniting against political interference, censorship & rollbacks at EPA under Zeldin’s leadership.

Someone’s week is off to a bad start. (1/5)

Here’s Your Cheat Sheet for Vaccine Recommendations Backed by Science These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

Sluggishness and defensiveness helped enable an executive order on research integrity In the last week, Science has published commentary condemning and supporting the Restoring Gold Standard Science executive order from the Trump administration that purports to strengthen research inte...

“It is possible to support science and hold it accountable at the same time.”

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Old blue-painted doors with a padlock and painted sign that says “don’t forget to remember”

Scientists have discovered "third state' between life and death by WKRC Sat, June 14th 2025 at 9:54 PM A fuzzy picture of cells under a microscope

“Awaiting tenure” #academia

Aerial photo of the conference hotel a large stone manor nestled in green trees and lawn.

Here we go, kicking off #Sarmac2025 in the beautiful countryside outside of Dublin ☘️ Stay tuned for sporadic live skeeting of interesting talks on applied memory and cognition.

Here’s @lkfazio.bsky.social doing a discussion for a disinformation symposium at @sarmac2025.bsky.social. She talked about the attacks on science and education. Lisa is a leader in standing up for science. Here she is talking about what we can do.

For the no kings day, from our conference overseas.

YouTube video by 60 Minutes Hurling: Ireland's national obsession

Players use a hurley to hit the sliotar (ball) either over the bar or under it (and into the net) for points. Here's a quick vid www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ-T... @sarmac2025.bsky.social

Two people on a Hurling pitch with hurleys and sliotar

Three women with excited faces about to enjoy a “baby Guinness” shot after presenting

Ralph McTell “streets of London” song from 1969

Outside of Killashee house hotel in Kildare, Ireland

My first #SARMAC @sarmac2025.bsky.social in Kildare, Ireland was excellent. Thanks to the organizers, presenters, & hosts for a lovely experience! We learned some basic Hurley, heard new music (to us), drank Guinness in a snug bar, and caught up with friends from across the globe. So very grateful.

Layering the inside of Black Forest cake: three layers of cake doused in cherry juice and lemon, with fresh whipped cream and sour cherries in a juice slurry between the layers.

Finished baseball-decorated cakes.

Made Black Forest baseball cake for kid bday. So much work, but I think they turned out good! I hope they taste good.