Lexi Decker

Thanks to Amy Sue Finn, @duncanlabuoft.bsky.social Katherine Duncan, and other amazing collaborators for always inspiring me!

This also made me wonder about neural network models of attention and learning - would attention 'darting' early in training (rapid sequential sampling across features) produce better learning than 'diffuse' attention? Is this immature attention a feature, not a bug 🤔?

This darting pattern makes me think about explore-exploit patterns across development. Higher exploration (darting) early in training/development enabling broader learning

We also found kids were less likely than adults to learn associations between relevant and irrelevant info—their associative systems "stick" the stuff they encounter together less... keeping things more open or disparate..

Does darting attention have adaptive benefits over diffusing? Hypothetically it would allow children to retain a narrowly focused attentional scope in each moment, regardless of the content of their focus. Darting could lead to really good and broad learning when averaged across many events.

But kids' broad attention didn't always"diffuse" over everything. Instead, it appeared to "dart" between relevant and irrelevant information across time - narrowing in on one one or the other in each moment

We found that kids' immature selective attention allowed them to learn more—even stuff we explicitly told them to ignore! Their "leaky" attention mediated better memory for task-irrelevant information

a woman stands in front of a crowd on a stage with a lot of lights ALT: a woman stands in front of a crowd on a stage with a lot of lights

❗New Paper❗Is children's attention more like a spotlight that darts across time, or one that diffuses across many things at once? How might children's immature attention help their learning? Our Dev Sci Paper has answers! 🧵🎯

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41549519/

This also made me wonder about neural network models of attention and learning - would attention 'darting' early in training (rapid sequential sampling across features) produce more robust, generalizable learning than parallel 'diffuse' attention? Is this immature attention a feature, not a bug 🤔?

This darting pattern makes me think about explore-exploit patterns across development. Higher exploration (darting) early in training/development enabling broader learning

We also found kids were less likely than adults to learn associations between relevant and irrelevant info—their associative systems "stick" the stuff they encounter together less... keeping things more open or disparate..

Darting could have adaptive benefits over diffusing. It could allow children to remain laser focused some times, facilitating detailed learning of whatever it is they are prioritizing in the moment. The pattern of darting ends up looking broad when averaged across many events.

But kids' broad attention doesn't always let everything in all at once, like a "diffuse" attentional spotlight that spreads over everything. Instead, their attention often appears to "dart" between relevant and irrelevant information - narrowing in one one or the other over time.

We found that kids' bad selective attention gave them a broader curriculum for learning—they learned stuff we explicitly told them to ignore! Their "leaky" attention mediated better memory for task-irrelevant content onlinelibrary-wiley-com.libproxy.washu.edu/doi/10.1111/...

Our stellar graduate alum Dr. Alexandra Decker is looking for a Lab Manager for her lab, the Learning and Development lab@WashU! 🧠

If you are interested in attention, learning and memory in children and adults, this is the place to be.

See her posts for more details!
#Research #Psychology

Apply here!

wustl.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

Research Technician I - Social Science Scheduled Hours 37.5 Position Summary Applications are invited for a full-time research assistant position at WashU in St. Louis to work with Dr. Alexandra Decker in the Learning and Development lab. ...

wustl.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

My lab is recruiting a postdoc and a full-time research technician to work on an NIH-funded project studying age-related changes in memory for naturalistic events. Behavior, fMRI, and blood-based biomarkers. 3+ years funding guaranteed.

Postdoc: tinyurl.com/ykjfbnj8

Tech: tinyurl.com/2f2hw3f5

You'll help build a new lab from the ground up, run cognitive experiments with kids & adults, analyze behavioral/psychophysiological data & help write papers.

Please DM me if interested and help spread the word!

🧠 Hiring a Research Assistant/Lab Manager! Share widely! 📍 St. Louis | ⏰ Full-time

We're launching the How We Learn Lab @WashU, studying attention, learning & memory interactions. Perfect for anyone interested in dev cog neuro who wants hands-on experience before grad school.

deckerlab.com

"The decision in Cycle Toronto v Ontario was a strong rebuke to government overreach when those actions put people’s lives at risk and are unsupported by facts and data. We look forward to defending that victory in court on Jan. 28.”

Thanks to @shawnballard.bsky.social for this terrific synopsis of our latest work in @cellpress.bsky.social. The details of how stimulant medications like Ritalin work inside the brain will surprise you! doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

This is your brain on Ritalin. Got your attention? Stimulant medications like Ritalin (methylphenidate) do, but not in the way you might think. They don't act directly on the brain’s attention systems! Find out what's really happening in @cellpress.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

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
🧵👇

Very happy to share our paper on the "summer slide" in kid's cognitive test scores is out now in @pnas.org!
We find a replicable dip in performance across multiple domains of cognition in >23,000 kids across 4 datasets!

Check out the 🧵 from @ariellekeller.bsky.social below! 👇

Honored that our soon-to-launch lab is included in this Liftoff piece! Grateful to everyone who has helped me get here and excited to keep learning with trainees and collaborators. Thanks to @thetransmitter.bsky.social @franciscorr25.bsky.social for highlighting this early stage of building a lab!

📣We have 2 open faculty positions for senior researchers in Neuroscience at Queen's University!

healthsci.queensu.ca/administrati...

1. a new Director for our Centre for Neuroscience Studies
2. a non-human primate NeuroAI researcher

Please share widely and reach out for questions!

The conceptual structure of human relationships across modern and historical cultures - Nature Human Behaviour Cheng et al. explore the universality and cultural variability in how people understand human relationships, revealing a five-dimensional framework for relationship concepts across both modern and anc...

It’s out! Our article in Nature Human Behavior led by Yin Wang on the conceptual structure of human relationships across cultures and time. This work is breathtaking nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

No meta-analytical effect of economic inequality on well-being or mental health - Nature A meta-analysis of 168 studies reveals that economic inequality is not significantly associated with subjective well-being or mental health.

A recent meta-analysis published in @nature.com finds that there is no general effect of economic inequality on well-being or mental health (though there are some effects for specific groups, e.g. low-income samples). Read more details in the full paper here: 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Persuading voters using human–artificial intelligence dialogues - Nature Human–artificial intelligence (AI) dialogues can meaningfully impact voters’ attitudes towards presidential candidates and policy, demonstrating the potential of conversational AI to influence politic...

Did you know that chatting with LLMs can shift people's attitudes towards political candidates & policy issues? A recent @nature.com paper show that AI chatbots can persuade voters to change their minds; a related paper in @science.org describes when they work best www.nature.com/articles/s41...