continuum of inductive potential from low (relatively minimal categories whose members are dissimilar) to high (coherent meaningful categories whose members are similar) above a cartoon child. an icon of a tiger appears under "high" inductive potential, with "closes eyes when happy" appearing as a feature of a tiger in a zoo, with an arrow pointing to the tiger icon, and a dashed arrow extending it to a tiger on a savanna. an icon of a pedestrian appears under "low" inductive potential, with "closes eyes when happy" appearing as a feature of a woman on a street, with Xs over arrows pointing to the pedestrian icon, and to a different pedestrian.
π£ new paper! people use some categories to generalize (e.g., we generalize something we learn about one tiger π― to other tigers π
), but not others (e.g., we don't generalize from one pedestrian πΆ to other pedestrians πΆββοΈ). how do people learn what categories allow for generalization? π§΅
31.07.2025 06:10 β π 46 π 15 π¬ 3 π 1
On Wednesday:
Adena Schachner, talk: "Intuitive Archeology: Social reasoning from the physical worldβ, 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 Nguyα»
n, Rodney Tompkins & Adena Schachner, poster, "When walls talk: People make social inferences from townsβ 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) π
30.07.2025 01:13 β π 20 π 5 π¬ 1 π 0
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:
28.07.2025 15:56 β π 36 π 8 π¬ 1 π 0
A new piece - well, almost a whole book! - by our team, reflecting more than a decade of work.
23.07.2025 18:10 β π 38 π 10 π¬ 0 π 0
OSF
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...
17.07.2025 13:29 β π 19 π 9 π¬ 1 π 0
β Out now in Developmental Science β
"Sounds of Hidden Agents: The development of causal reasoning about musical sounds"
(by Minju Kim and me)
causal reasoning, music/auditory cognition, event reconstruction, kids' integration of information...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
03.07.2025 21:12 β π 30 π 7 π¬ 2 π 0
Junior Specialist-Lab for Infant Learning And Cognition (LILAC), Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
University of California Santa Barbara is hiring. Apply now!
I'm hiring a full-time #labmanager for my new Lab for Infant Learning and Cognition (LILAC) at UCSB! The start date is flexible, but could be as early as August 1, 2025. Application review begins July 17th and will continue until the position is filled πΆπͺ΄
recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02992
#academicjobs
02.07.2025 19:26 β π 20 π 13 π¬ 0 π 1
Experimentology cover: title and curves for distributions.
Experimentology is out today!!! A group of us wrote a free online textbook for experimental methods, available at experimentology.io - the idea was to integrate open science into all aspects of the experimental workflow from planning to design, analysis, and writing.
01.07.2025 18:25 β π 522 π 225 π¬ 10 π 15
This paper stems from one of the first projects I worked on as a lab manager, closely following many fruitful discussions during my time as a post-bacc RA! I'm incredibly grateful for my lab communities as well as the many reviewers along the way. Looking forward to hearing what folks think!
22.06.2025 16:54 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
With age, people likewise judged the lying friend (vs. classmate) as meaner. This pattern was similar to that for failure to help scenarios (replicating original findings from Marshall, Wynn, and Bloom, 2020, Child Dev).
22.06.2025 16:54 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
In comparative contexts directly contrasting the relationships (ridding of alternatives like private interaction and/or extending an olive branch), with age people evaluated it as worse for a friend to lie. Thanks to a helpful reviewer, we also show that this divergence may emerge as early as age 4.
22.06.2025 16:54 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Here we show that these early evaluations are not only sensitive to acts of omission (harming by failing to do the right thing, like failing to help), but extend to and follow similar developmental trajectories as acts of commission (harming by doing the wrong thing, like lying).
22.06.2025 16:54 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Past work shows that older children and adults (but not younger children) expect and judge friends as obligated to help, and evaluate a friend (vs. classmate) as meaner for failing to do so.
22.06.2025 16:54 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Redirecting
New paper with past honors student Vanessa Chao and @zoeliberman.bsky.social in press at JECP:
βChildren can consider social relationships when evaluating liarsβ
By the early elementary school years, people judge it as worse and meaner for a friend (vs. classmate) to lie.
doi.org/10.1016/j.je...
22.06.2025 16:54 β π 13 π 4 π¬ 1 π 1
1. New paper first-authored by former post-doc Young-eun Lee (currently at MIT with @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social) now in press at JECP! More info in thread below, full text here: columbiasamclab.weebly.com/uploads/5/9/....
π§ͺ #PsychSciSky #SocialPsyc #DevPsyc #CogPsyc @socphilpsych.bsky.social
09.06.2025 19:29 β π 16 π 6 π¬ 2 π 1
When development constricts our moral circle
Nature Human Behaviour - Although many believe our moral circles expand with age, this Perspective discusses an early-emerging tendency to care for others.
π₯³π₯³ New paper in @nathumbehav.nature.com: βWhen development constricts our moral circle." Contrary to popular belief, younger kids may start out with broader moral circles than older ones. Check it out here π rdcu.be/eoaSe
w/ @mattiwilks.bsky.social @karrineldner.bsky.social & Lucius Caviola
28.05.2025 17:49 β π 111 π 41 π¬ 2 π 9
Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades (Gift Article)
The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.
NSF Physics was cut by 85%, basically wiping out most of its capacity for supporting research.
NSF Astronomy was cut by 53%
Undergrad education was cut by 71% and research on learning by 79%
Graduate education was cut by 100% to ZERO.
#GiftLink βοΈπ
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
22.05.2025 15:34 β π 1184 π 816 π¬ 40 π 92
We were lucky to receive so much support from members of our Departments of Psychology and Cognitive Science, including @asmithflores.bsky.social who coined SoCal MInDS, Salih Γzdemir who created our logo, and Tori Hennessy and @kostaboskovic.bsky.social who affirmed that our science is COOL! π
21.05.2025 02:40 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
I was lucky to co-organize with @carenwalker.bsky.social and @drbarner.bsky.social.
21.05.2025 02:38 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
But, I think we accomplished exactly what we set out to do, and perhaps in a time when we needed it more: We hosted an event geared toward building community, fostering future collaborations, and discussing recent findings in developmental science. It felt like a lighthouse in a storm.
21.05.2025 02:38 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Planning started in October 2024, and I had a very different idea of the context/circumstances this meeting would take place in.
21.05.2025 02:38 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Posters taped over windows and on hallway walls made a comeback, too!
21.05.2025 02:33 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
We were lucky to receive so much support from members of our Departments of Psychology and Cognitive Science, including @asmithflores.bsky.social who coined SoCal MInDS, Salih Γzdemir who created our logo, and Tori Hennessy and @kostaboskovic.bsky.social who affirmed that our science is COOL! π
21.05.2025 00:48 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
I was lucky to co-organize with @carenwalker.bsky.social and @drbarner.bsky.social.
21.05.2025 00:48 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
But, I think we accomplished exactly what we set out to do, and perhaps in a time when we needed it more: We hosted an event geared toward building community, fostering future collaborations, and discussing recent findings in developmental science. It felt like a lighthouse in a storm.
21.05.2025 00:48 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Developmental psychologist, researcher, π-lover | Assistant Professor, Pomona College | Author of BEYOND DIFFICULT with Rachel Samson
Dev Psych PhD student at UChicago | Lab manager at Harvard Thomas Lab | she/her/ella π²π½
she/her | Lab Manager @Harvard Thomas Lab | Boston University '23
Prof at Princeton, Trans Youth Project
Asst prof in social psychology @colorado.eduβ¬
https://youngkihong.com/
professor at university of washington and founder at csm.ai. computational cognitive scientist. working on social and artificial intelligence and alignment.
http://faculty.washington.edu/maxkw/
Postdoctoral fellow in the Thomas Lab at Harvard University studying children's environmental moral reasoning and intuitive biology
Psychology PhD Student, Columbia University | studying the development of morality and its intersections with social identity
Psychology Postdoc at Dartmouth. Incoming Assistant Professor at Chicago Booth (summer 2026). Trying to answer the question, "What makes conversation good?" she/her
https://emmatempleton.com/
developmental cognitive scientist & (terminated) NSF postdoc fellow @ NYU | social categories, development, language, climbing, caving | π½π¬οΈππ½ | she/ε₯Ή
mariannazhang.github.io
Professor, cognitive developmental psychologist, and author of SCIENCEBLIND (Basic) and LEARNING TO IMAGINE (Harvard). I love academic bureaucracy and sarcasm.
Asst. Prof. in Psychological and Brain Sciences and Anthropology @ UC Santa Barbara | UC PPFP Fellow | Fascinated by great ape social cognition!
https://www.laurasimonelewis.com/
https://www.originsofmindlab.com/
Lab Manager at UCSD Psych (he/him)
PhD student @velezcolab.bsky.social Princetonπ― Previously @stanford_vpnl π§ | @USCMIDLA | Co-Host of @StanfordPsyPod | Loves catsπ±
https://bellafascendini.github.io/
Psych professor @UCSD, PI of the Early Learning & Cognition Lab
NIDA D-SPAN K99/R00 Fellow
Incoming Assistant Professor @ USC
Cooperation, Morality, Justice, Norms, Evolution, Society, Culture, etc
bccooperationlab.com
bcvirtueproject.com
Associate Prof @ Psychology & Neuroscience, Boston College
Roses are red, rabbits eat kale. Iβm studying for a PhD at Yale.
Social Cognition β’ Comparative Cognition β’ Theory of Mind
https://amandaroyka.github.io/
Assistant Professor of Psychology at Duke University studying kids & culture. Director of the Mind & Culture Lab. Mom x3. Some people just want to watch the world learn.
dorsaamir.com | mindandculturelab.com
