David Melnikoff

Thanks for this. Do you have a sense of how these bots interface with instruction/survey screens? Do they move the mouse cursor or click on buttons directly? My current defense is to record mouse movements on every screen. The LLMs I’ve seen record almost no movements whereas humans record thousands

What motivates people to engage in climate advocacy?

In a new PNAS Nexus megastudy [https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf400] led by @dgoldwert.bsky.social we tested 17 theoretical interventions on a large US sample (N=31,324) to increase public, political, and financial climate advocacy.

1/5

Not suggesting this is a problem for your work or not addressed in the original framework. Just curious ☺️

I wonder how this definition deals w/ disparities due to diffs in interest (a group gets more of something bc they want it more). Or discrimination driving diffs in qualifications (a group gets more bc they’re more qualified *as a result* of discrimination; doesn’t seem to count under the cited def)

Everyone says I’m the Hastings to Lindsey’s Poirot. Whatever that means…

You know Herc’s LGCs are cookin

Well this is exciting!

The Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University (@jhu.edu) invites applications for a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member in Cognitive Psychology, in any area and at any rank!

Application + more info: apply.interfolio.com/178146

This is just a Mr. Beast video

The International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) is pleased to announce Dr. April Bailey as the 2025 winner of the Early Career Award! Dr. Bailey is a Lecturer of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. She earned her B.A. from Colgate University and her PhD in 2019 from Yale University.

We are recruiting a lab manager/research assistant to start in early 2026! The successful candidate will conduct awake infant fMRI, meet cute babies, and join a fun team!

More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...

Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...

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/