Ashley Thomas

Interested in understanding how young humans think about social relationships? I am reading PhD applications this year! **Please note**, that Harvard now requires the GRE. More information here: www.ashleyjthomas.com/workwithme

Interested in applying to graduate programs or research positions in psychology? Want more information and feedback on your submission materials? Then Harvard’s Prospective Ph.D. & RA Event in Psychology (PPREP) Is for you!! psychology.fas.harvard.edu/pprep
More info in the link!! Please retweet!

No worries at all! I'm glad to know your paper. I think these results imply they could -- if the proposition is correct that they're able to represent the faces as distinct entities based on their facial features, then they should be able to!

Social Engagement Leads Infants to Represent People as Individuals Author(s): Woo, Brandon Matthew; Peng, Haowei; Steele, Christina; Thomas, Ashley J | Abstract: How do infants come to represent people's identities? In two experiments (N = 86), we investigated 7- to ...

So cool! Check out @brandonwoo.bsky.social ’s recent cog sci paper where we find convergent results! escholarship.org/uc/item/4db7...

All Sound so cool! @qinwenshuo.bsky.social would love to see your poster!

🚨Out in PNAS🚨
with @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social & @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social

Punishment, even when intended to teach norms and change minds for the good, may backfire.

Our computational cognitive model explains why!

Paper: tinyurl.com/yc7fs4x7
News: tinyurl.com/3h3446wu

🧵

The lab feels so empty without our summer interns!

On Wednesday: Adena Schachner, talk: "Intuitive Archeology: Social reasoning from the physical world”, W ~10 am, Fourth Level (Pacific) Room A. Chaolan Lin & Adena Schachner, poster: "How children explore and detect augmented reality filters", W 10-11 am, Fourth level (Pacific) Room E. On Thursday: Amy Nguyễn, Rodney Tompkins & Adena Schachner, poster, "When walls talk: People make social inferences from towns’ protective features", Th 1:00-2:15, P1-T-194 On Saturday: Chaolan Lin & Adena Schachner, poster, "Perceived musicality in an android increases positive social attributions", Sat 1:00-2:15, P3-L-113 Shirley Liu, Craig McKenzie & Adena Schachner, poster, "When Default Options Explain Away Preferences: A Causal Reasoning Account of Mental State Reasoning from Default Options ", Sat 1:00-2:15, P3-L-11

I and my lab are happy to be at #cogsci2025! Here's a shortcut to find work from the fabulous folks in my lab (and me) 😄

The Learning Lab is heading to CogSci 2025 (@cogscisociety.bsky.social) to share our latest research! Come say hello!

Schedule for the LIU LAB at CogSci 2025 conference, featuring a variety of workshops and presentations. Wednesday, July 30 Workshop 1: "Putting it together: Interactions between domains of cognition" at 8:30 AM, presented by Shari Liu and Joseph Outa. Thursday, July 31 P1-C-24: "Surprise isn’t symmetrical: Adults’ looking suggests non-perceptual considerations during dishabituation" from 1:00 PM to 2:15 PM, presented by Qiong Cao, Anjie Cao, Gal Raz, Josh Tenenbaum, and Shari Liu. Friday, August 1 Lecture in Symposium 4: "Perceiving and reasoning jointly about the social and physical world" at 9:40 AM, presented by Shari Liu. P2-O-146: "Adults hold two parallel causal frameworks for reasoning about people’s minds, actions, and bodies" from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM, presented by Joseph Outa and Shari Liu. Saturday, August 2 P3-B-15: "Who drew this? Children appreciate visual style differently than adults" from 1:00 PM to 2:15 PM, presented by Tal Boger, Chaz Firestone, and Shari Liu. P3-K-95: "Pushing people: the neural basis of social interaction perception" from 1:00 PM to 2:15 PM, presented by Minjae Kim, Miriam Hauptman, and Shari Liu. Talks 49: "Learning and Development 5" from 3:21 PM to 3:45 PM, presenting findings on individual differences in habituation and dishabituation, by Anjie Cao, Qiong Cao, Michael Frank, and Shari Liu. The schedule includes a call to attendees to "Come and say hi!" at the event.

Who's excited for #CogSci2025? 💭

A list of the SoCal Lab's presentations at CogSci. In brief: Lindsey Powell is giving talks in Workshop 1 on July 30 at 9:30 am and in Symposium 1 on July 31. Tori Hennessy is giving a talk in the Development of Social Cognition 1 session on July 31. Bill Pepe is giving a talk in the Development of Social Cognition session on August 1. Coxi Jiang is giving a talk in the Emotion session on August 1. Rodney Tompkins is presenting a poster in Session 2 on August 1.

The SoCal Lab is headed to #cogsci2025 this week! Here's where you can find us:

A visual with the presentations from the lab Brandon Woo Social engagement leads infants to represent people as individuals Development of Social Cognition IThu, July 31 | 10:30 am to 12:00 pm PSTSalon 6 Anushka Laha Young children spontaneously appreciate the perspectives of their social partners Virtual Poster Session 1Thu, July 31 | 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm PST

Looking forward to #CogSci2025! Anushka Laha and I will be sharing some of the first work from our lab

Domain Interactions | CogSci 2025 Organizers

If you are attending #CogSci2025 I hope you will consider attending our pre-conference workshop on July 29 - "Putting it Together: Interactions Between Domains of Cognition"
sites.google.com/view/cogsci2...

@brandonwoo.bsky.social @lizettepizza.bsky.social

Poster that feature talks from the Thomas Lab at the Cognitive Science Society. The Thomas Lab at CogSci 2025 July 31st Brandon woo Social Engagement Leads Infants to Represent People as Individuals Oral Talk Session: Development of Social Cognition 1 Time: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Location: Salon 6 Denise Lopez Flores Preliminary Evidence that Infants and Children Use Accents to Inform Relational Expectations Poster Session 1: (PL1-L-118) Time: 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM Location: Salon 8 Friday August 1st Emma Yu Children Expect Emotional Consolation to Occur in Close Relationships Oral Talk Session: Development of Social Cognition 2 Time: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Location: Nob Hill B Min Feldman Do children use action frequency to infer social closeness? Poster Session 2: (P2-F-55) Time: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Location: Salon 8 Christina Steele Navigating Family Ties: Young Children's Cognitive Representations of the Family Network Oral Talk Session: Learning and Development 3 Time: 4:00PM - 5:30PM Location: Nob Hill D Hannah Hok Kim Written in Stone: Lay intuitions about the emergence and impact of formal rules Poster Session 2: (P2-H-77) Time: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Location: Salon 8 Saturday August 2 Lizette Pizza Do People Value Plants Over Non-Living Entities? Moral Considerations in Adults and Young Children Poster Session 3: (P3-P-158) Time: 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM Location: Salon 8 Megan Richardson Children's Expectations of Emotional Intimacy in Close Relationships Poster Session 3: (P3-R-165) Time: 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM Location: Salon 8 Mack Briscoe When to speak up: How children reason about group dynamics Poster Session 3: (P3-B-18) Time: 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM Location: Salon 8

Come see my lab at the Cognitive Science Society Conference #cogsci2025

New preprint! Led by Bill Pepe, with @brandonwoo.bsky.social and @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social. We asked if infants think helping and hindering stem from actors' dispositions (i.e. good/nice v bad/mean) or their social relationships, by testing expectations for future behavior: osf.io/preprints/ps...

two 4-year PhD positions in the Ape Behaviour & Ecology Group of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Zurich, and the Wild Minds Lab of the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, to study wild chimpanzees and bonobos. The PhD candidates will work within the Creative Ape Project. The overall goal of the project is to enhance our understanding of the evolution of creativity, and to shed light on whether humans are a uniquely 'creative ape'. To do so we will apply a comparative approach, quantifying the creative capacities of wild non-human apes to investigate the underlying drivers that shape creative expression across species. The project explores four interconnected topics: i) Making mavericks, ii) Funny guys and arty-types, iii) Lone ape geniuses, and iv) Creative ape economies. We employ a comprehensive approach that leverages long-term datasets, new field data, detailed manual video-coding, bespoke automated deep-learning models, and advanced modelling, to extract rich information on the ways in which apes solve problems in their daily lives. Excellent collaborative, independent working and time management skills are essential. Previous field experience (incl. behavioural data collection) is required, and experience working in remote places under difficult living conditions is highly recommended. The project will require strong data management and data analysis skills, and 12-18 months of field work split into 2-3 periods. Please submit your application in a single PDF to kathelijne.koops@iea.uzh.ch and clh42@st-andrews.ac.uk – by 4th of August 2025. Feel free to get in touch if you have any inquiries about the positions. Applications should include: 1) cover letter stating your motivation and how your expertise fits the project (max. 1 page), 2) Curriculum Vitae, 3) copy of the highest degree obtained, 4) names and contact details of two referees, and 5) reprints of 1-2 selected publications

A tiny chimpfant looks at the camera with surprise

📣 Join the K/Creative Ape Team 🤓 2 PhDs on Creativity in Wild Chimpanzees & Bonobos; w myself & the v awesome @kathelijnekoops.bsky.social

@snf-fns.ch Uni Zurich @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @efp2026.bsky.social @ips-primatenews.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social @primbehavecol.bsky.social 🐵🧪

🎈 Out now: 🎈

"The capacity limits of moving objects in the imagination"

(by Balaban & me)

of interest to people thinking about the imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, capacity limits, and more

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Massachusetts: $107,694,933

Approved by Congress. Illegally withheld by the DOE.

It's a summer conference season, so I thought I'd tell you about the tremendous efforts our conservation biology colleagues have been making to make conferences more INCLUSIVE & friendly to early career researchers (ECRs) not fluent in English. I find their accomplishments truly inspiring. 🧵(1/10)

Infants have been shown to individuate objects before people in a visual occlusion task. Why? @brandonwoo.bsky.social, @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social, et al. find that engagement matters. Infants *do* individuate people who actively engage with them.

Would love that!

This is so cool! I have been thinking about how intuitive theories work on IATs -- so very broadly in the same vein! Nice for some evidence :-)

Undergrads interested in philosophy of science? Please share that applications are open for our summer development program! lpssdp.com?fbclid=IwY2x...

🔆 I'm hiring! 🔆

There are two open positions:

1. Summer research position (best for master's or graduate student); focus on computational social cognition.
2. Postdoc (currently interviewing!); focus on computational social cognition and AI safety.

sites.google.com/corp/site/sy...

RFK Jr. and Trump Administration is Limiting Access to Vaccines. Tell them by Friday, June 20, Everyone Must Have Access Public Comment at the CDC is open until June 20th at 11:59pm EDT.

🚨Only a few hours left to leave a public comment re: RFK Jr. and Trump administration limiting access to vaccines through the CDC!!!

Public Comment at CDC is open until June 20th at 11:59pm EDT.

peoplescdc.substack.com/p/rfk-jr-and...

Hi Christina!

So interesting! I’m thinking about how this may relate to the negativity bias that toddlers may have wrt social interactions: they aren’t surprised when hinderers or bullies distribute unequally to new individuals…but they don’t generalize from pro social actions to new individuals.

Regressive bills BOTTOM 20% TOP 20% 2025 Current G.O.P. bill Lose Gain 2017 Obamacare repeal* Lose Gain 1997 Tax and budget acts Unclear Gain 1996 Welfare act Lose No change Progressive bills BOTTOM 20% TOP 20% 2022 Inflation Reduction Act Gain Lose 2021 Build Back Better* Gain Lose 2010 Affordable Care Act Gain Lose 1993 Clinton budget act Gain Lose 1990 H.W. Bush tax act Gain Lose Regressive, but all gain BOTTOM 20% TOP 20% 2017 First Trump tax cuts Gain Gain most 2013 Obama tax cuts Gain Gain most 2001/03 W. Bush tax cuts Gain Gain most *Not enacted

NYT found the “big beautiful bill” would be the largest transfer from the poor to the rich in a single law since at least 1990.

In fact, it would be the largest transfer *ever.*

Reagan’s low-income cuts were MUCH smaller - and his tax cuts were done separately. And before him, nothing comes close.

I hate this so much. I’m so sorry.