dae houlihan

🚨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

🧵

Promotional image for a #CogSci2025 workshop titled “Building computational models of social cognition in memo.” Organized and presented by Kartik Chandra, Sean Dae Houlihan, and Max Kleiman-Weiner. Scheduled for July 30 at 8:30 AM in room Pacifica I. The banner features the conference theme “Theories of the Past / Theories of the Future,” and the dates: July 30–August 2 in San Francisco.

#Workshop at #CogSci2025
Building computational models of social cognition in memo

🗓️ Wednesday, July 30
📍 Pacifica I - 8:30-10:00
🗣️ Kartik Chandra, Sean Dae Houlihan, and Max Kleiman-Weiner
🧑‍💻 underline.io/events/489/s...

A slide with the text “Consequently every survival function can be written as the exponential integral of some non-negative function.” and an equation showing how monotonically non-increasing functions can always be written as the exponential of a negated integral of a non-negative function.

Only a few weeks left to register for my remote Bayesian modeling courses this year, www.eventzilla.net/e/advanced-b.... Where else are you going to learn about survival models without a weird construction based on awkward limits?

Evolving general cooperation with a Bayesian theory of mind | PNAS Theories of the evolution of cooperation through reciprocity explain how unrelated self-interested individuals can accomplish more together than th...

Our new paper is out in PNAS: "Evolving general cooperation with a Bayesian theory of mind"!

Humans are the ultimate cooperators. We coordinate on a scale and scope no other species (nor AI) can match. What makes this possible? 🧵

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

As always, CogSci has a fantastic lineup of workshops this year. An embarrassment of riches!

Still deciding which to pick? If you are interested in building computational models of social cognition, I hope you consider joining @maxkw.bsky.social, @dae.bsky.social, and me for a crash course on memo!

THIS WEEK the @cogscisociety.bsky.social Minds in the Making workshop brings you Vanessa Bermudez and @togelius.bsky.social in conversation about LEARNING 🧠💪 x DESIGN 🛠️! And what makes GAMES awesome for learning. Wednesday July 16th, 12pm-1pm PT. Register here: stanford.zoom.us/meeting/regi....

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.

Psychology Project Coordinator in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America | Research at University of Virginia Apply for Psychology Project Coordinator job with University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America. Research at University of Virginia

Join me in launching a new lab at the University of Virginia!
Our team is growing, and I am thrilled to share that we are hiring a full-time Project Coordinator to start this fall! 🎉

Learn more & apply - jobs.virginia.edu/us/en/job/R0....

Please share widely! 🌟

LLMs learn beliefs and values from human data, influence our opinions, and then reabsorb those influenced beliefs, feeding them back to users again and again. We call this the "Lock-In Hypothesis" and develop theory, simulations, and empirics to test it in our latest ICML paper!

the NSF uses less money than the NYPD wild shit

Generative Modeling Talk Livestream: Wed 6/4 at 9:00 AM EDT | Michael Betancourt Get more from Michael Betancourt on Patreon

My @imperial-ix.bsky.social talk earlier this week was plagued by some technical issues that make the remote viewing experience unpleasant. In an effort to compensate I'm going to give the talk again when I get home, and this time anyone can join. For details see www.patreon.com/posts/genera....

(c) Discriminatory prohibited boycott means refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business. The term discriminatory prohibited boycott also includes an academic boycott of Israel in which an educational or research institution enacts or implements restrictive policies, or otherwise participates in activities having the object or effect of restricting ongoing or potential academic, educational, or research institutions. Notwithstanding any restriction on the applicability of other NSF rules and regulations, the requirements in paragraph (c) applies to both foreign and domestic institutions receiving funding from the NSF.

(a) By accepting the award, recipients are certifying that: (i) They do not, and will not during the term of this financial assistance award, operate any programs that advance or promote DEI, or discriminatory equity ideology in violation of Federal anti-discrimination laws; and (ii) They do not engage in and will not during the term of this award engage in, a discriminatory prohibited boycott. (3) NSF reserves the right to terminate financial assistance awards and recover all funds if recipients, during the term of this award, operate any program in violation of Federal antidiscriminatory laws or engage in a prohibited boycott.

🚨🚨 Alarming NSF policy update

By accepting an NSF award, an institution now must say it's:

1. Not engaging in boycotts of Israel (yes really)

2. Not advancing or promoting DEI in violation of anti-discrimination laws

Announced via a footnote today: nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/gc1-ma...

the DOJ is literally **arresting Democratic members of Congress** and Senate Democrats are voting to pass Republican legislation

Despite some ups and downs at NIH, we do have an open position for a postbac and are considering candidates.
Our work is at the intersection of neuroscience and AI, and we aim to understand how the brain's densely connected recurrent networks operate. 🧪

Dark teal background graphic with bold lime green text reading "NOMINATIONS OPEN!" in the top left. Below, it says: “Help us build an even more inclusive and diverse Governing Board for the Cognitive Science Society.” On the right side is the CogSci Society logo (a stylized octagonal white maze) at the center of a circular design, surrounded by colorful shapes in teal, pink, purple, and lime green, like chairs surrounding a table, representing collaboration and diversity.

The Cognitive Science Society is accepting nominations for Governing Board!

🪑3 seats for regular board members (2025-2030)
🪑1 seat for the Graduate Student Representative (2025-2027)

Visit cognitivesciencesociety.org/gb-nominees/ to learn all the details and (self) nominate until May 12 🗓️

Despite everything going on, I may have funds to hire a postdoc this year 😬🤞🧑‍🔬 Open to a wide variety of possible projects in social and cognitive neuroscience. Get in touch if you are interested! Reposts appreciated.

Please repost to get the word out! @nkgarg.bsky.social and I are excited to present a personalized feed for academics! It shows posts about papers from accounts you’re following bsky.app/profile/pape...

Hello world! We are building *personalized* feeds to help you make sense of research discussions on BlueSky! Pin our first feed below, which shows posts about papers from accounts you follow! Follow this account for more updates!
bsky.app/profile/pape...

Friendly reminder for those in the greater Sweden area that I'll be hosting a free, day long workshop on Bayesian inference and modeling with interactive epidemiology exercises on Wednesday May 14, learnbayes.se/events/gener.... Additional info at learnbayes.se/information/....

Six months ago, I accepted a postdoc offer in a fabulous lab. Three days ago, the Trump administration terminated the NSF grant supporting the position. Today, my offer had to be rescinded, and my PhD defense is a week away. (1/3)

We are hiring! Interested in computational models of social interaction and computational psychiatry?

🤔 Interested in models of social interaction and computational psychiatry?

🤗 If so, @shawnrhoadsphd.bsky.social and I are seeking a highly motivated and talented postdoc to work on these topics!

Please share widely!

apply.interfolio.com/165809

Feels like they really missed an opportunity to induce "emerald-green of unprecedented saturation."

We hang together or we hang separately. Could not be clearer what is happening and how universities must respond.

If only there were a group of prestigious universities that could coordinate.

A "league" of sorts. Given the classic ivy draping buildings on college campuses maybe we could use that type of symbol to unite them.

I.R.S. Agrees to Share Migrants’ Tax Information with ICE The agreement is a major departure from the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to gain the trust of migrants and encourage them to file their taxes.

Breaking News: The IRS agreed to share information with ICE to help locate people for deportation, court records show. This is a fundamental change in the IRS, which had gained the trust of migrants and encouraged them to file their taxes.

And: I'm hiring a post-doc! I'm looking for someone with a strong computational background who can start in the summer (or sooner). Details here: apply.interfolio.com/165122

Feel free to reach out with questions (email is best: smlevine@mit.edu) and please share widely!

If you are a faculty member at a US university, please consider signing this excellent petition asking our presidents, chancellors, etc to work together to defend our institutions from the direct attacks by Trump administration: sites.google.com/view/we-must...

Excerpt from Rutgers University Senate resolution calling for a Mutual Academic Defense Compact. The excerpt reads: "BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the Rutgers University Senate urges the President of Rutgers University to formally propose and help establish a Mutual Academic Defense Compact (MADC) among all members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance; BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, under this compact, all participating institutions shall commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund. This fund shall be used to provide immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement;"

This exciting resolution from Rutgers University Senate is exactly the kind of model I think higher ed needs: a mutual defense pact of, in this case, Big 10 schools. They call for member institutions to create a joint defense fund and make resources available to any member institution under attack.

Imagine being in charge of a university and believing it was clever and strategic to sacrifice all your values, only to be tricked by the dumbest and most dishonest president in history.

Glioblastoma cancer tore up the brain of someone I loved dearly.

We are approaching highly effective treatment for glioblastoma with mRNA-based vaccines! —> doi.org/10.3389/fonc...

And this conspiracy-soaked cabal wants to throw it away. Forcing more families to endure what mine did.

Stop them.