David Melnikoff

I'm recruiting a grad student! My lab at NYU (psych dept) studies the computational basis of moral cognition and aims to build AI systems that are aligned with human values. Now admitting a PhD student for Fall 2026. Apps due 12/1. sites.google.com/corp/site/sy...

I want to know how the millennial motor cortex has adapted to a decade-plus of shimmying into skinny jeans.

People are lazy--except when they're watching other people work hard.

My student Emily Zohar just published her first first-authored paper, and it reveals something surprising about effort and social norms. /1

osf.io/preprints/ps...

It was great to hear from Brian Leahy (brianleahy.net) in the devo lunch at Stanford today!!

He presented a beautiful set of studies that suggest that many 4-year-old children have a minimal concept of possibility: they simulate only once and treat the outcome as a fact. 🎱⬅️➡️🤔💭💡

The Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Science of Motivation has opened nominations for the editorship of Motivation Science, a multidisciplinary journal that publishes significant contributions to the study of motivation.

We're excited to announce that Cognitive Science at Dartmouth is recruiting PhD students to work collaboratively with me, Steven Frankland, and Fred Callaway. Come study the principles and mechanisms that enable us to understand, plan, and act in the world! Info: sites.dartmouth.edu/cogscigrad/

Columbia Psych is hiring *two* junior faculty in Cognitive Science/Neuroscience this year! If you work on cognition (broadly defined), submit your application materials as soon as possible (review starts Nov 1). If you have questions you can reach out to me by email! apply.interfolio.com/175428

“Okay great I opened the city gates like you suggested. And yeah, if you could generate a list of fun things to do with a giant wooden horse that would be super.”

Implicit bias education has gotten a bad rap recently (and for some very good reasons), but in this paper (newly out in PIBSS) I argue that it could have value if done differently: doi.org/10.1177/2372... (Still also available as a preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...)

ISCON now seeking nominations for the 2024 Best Social Cognition Paper Award!

This award recognizes an outstanding article (theoretical or empirical) in the field of social cognition. Papers eligible if published in 2024.

More info here: www.socialcognition.net/best-paper-a...

Brown’s Department of Cognitive & Psychological Sciences is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor, working in the area of AI and the Mind (start July 1, 2026). Apply by Nov 8, 2025 👉 apply.interfolio.com/173939

#AI #CognitiveScience #AcademicJobs #BrownUniversity

Research Coordinator, Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab in Graduate School of Education, Stanford, California, United States The Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) seeks a full-time Research Coordinator (acting lab manager) to help launch and coordinate the Minds,.....

I’m hiring!! 🎉 Looking for a full-time Lab Manager to help launch the Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab at Stanford. We’ll use all-day language recording, eye tracking, & neuroimaging to study how kids & families navigate unequal structural constraints. Please share:
phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDWcqUYo

Want to do a PhD with me and the Emotions in Context Lab? We’re looking for new grad students to join us next fall! Check out the lab website to learn what we’re working on now and in the near future: www.emotionsincontextlab.com/join/

Complex technology requires cultural innovations for distributing cognition Over the last decade, new research has shown how human collectives can develop technologies that no single individual could discover on their own. How…

🚨 New paper alert! (slightly belated)

We (with @joshcjackson.bsky.social) suggest that complex technologies, as they need several (often many) people to use them, require innovations that distribute cognition to help regulate cognitive load and coordinate.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Paying attention and paying the costs: wildfires in the American West - Climatic Change Preliminary estimates suggest that the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires could be the costliest disaster in U.S. history to date when accounting for both direct and indirect losses. As personal exper...

As wildfires burn at home in 🇵🇹 and here in CA, we have a new paper that finds: exposure to fires doesn’t necessarily predict greater support for climate change mitigation. But people closest to the 2021-2022 fires do prioritize personal adaptive action. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Research Coordinator in Graduate School of Business, Stanford, California, United States Stanford Graduate School of Business Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB) has built a global reputation based on its immersive and innovative....

Stanford GSB is hiring a behavioral research coordinator! Fantastic option for a pre-doc.

In addition to the faculty and students, the lab director Nick Hall has been there since I was running my grad school expts- he's great, and super knowledgeable.

careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/researc...

Job announcement 📢

@shawnrhoadsphd.bsky.social and I are looking for a joint postdoc interested in computational models of social interaction!

Interested? If you’ll be at #rlc2025 (or I missed you at #cogsci2025) feel free to reach out with any questions!

apply.interfolio.com/165809

Very cool. But also: “I Am!” Is hilarious.

🔖 NEW PAPER ALERT 🔖 Out in PNAS – we used equation discovery algorithms to improve models of human reinforcement learning.

Led by the wonderful Kyle Lafollette with an amazing team Yanni Yuval @roeyschurr.bsky.social and @d-melnikoff.bsky.social

www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

Our *new paper* explores how flexibility in social categories like gender and race can undermine unfair norms. If we can't read an identity, we can't use it to underpin discrimination. We show even a little confusion can be powerful, and advocate identity play
philsci-archive.pitt.edu/26062/

📣 Heads-up that our amazing dept (Berkeley Psych) is anticipating hiring *two* TT Asst Profs this Fall, under the themes of (1) Social & Personality Psychology, and (2) Biological Basis of Behavior.

Official job ads coming soon...

Send qs for (1) to Iris Mauss/Serena Chen, (2) to Linda Wilbrecht

Happy to announce that my lab @ Yale Psychology (actcompthink.org) will be accepting PhD applications this year (for start in Fall '26)!

Come for the fun experiments on human learning, memory, & skilled behavior, stay for the best 🍕 in the US.

Please reach out if you have any questions!

Research Associate Screen reader users may encounter difficulty with this site. For assistance with applying, please contact hr-accessibleapplication@osu.edu. If you have questions while submitting an application, pleas...

I'm recruiting a lab manager for my soon-to-be-launched lab at Ohio State! If you know of any recent grads who may be interested both in helping to build the lab and in developing skills in the cognitive neuroscience of memory, please share!

osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/OSUCar...

I have noticed that many cool people are starting labs at Ohio State right now. I've decided to follow their lead.

Soon, my lab will be moving to Ohio State as well.

You can learn more about our recent and upcoming work here: www.cogdevlab.org

Incredibly excited and grateful to share that I’ll be starting a lab at The Ohio State University this(!) fall! My lab will study human learning and memory, with related interests in sleep, stress, and time perception. More info soon, but do get in touch if you’re interested in joining!

Centaur's performance may be largely driven by learning a good model of behavioral auto-regression—independent of the task. An important lesson for cognitive modelers: higher likelihood ≠ better account of behavior.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Here are some! (1) banaji.sites.fas.harvard.edu/research/pub... (2) pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... (3) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (4) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (5) www.cell.com/trends/cogni... (6) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Disagreement drives metacognitive development Metacognition improves significantly over childhood, but the mechanisms underlying this development are poorly understood. We first review recent rese…

Check out our new TICS paper on disagreement and metacognition! We argue that disagreement drives metacognitive development by expanding children's consideration sets.
With Antonia Langenhoff, Bill Thompson @wdt.bsky.social and Mahesh Srinivasan
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🎈 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...

Though provoking post as usual! But there’s overwhelming evidence now that implicit biases aren’t associations and aren’t difficult to control. Few people in the field, if any, hold those views anymore. Happy to send some papers if you’re interested!