Nichol Castro

It is the honor of my lifetime to share that @universitypress.cambridge.org will publish the @lingsocam.bsky.social's new Journal of Black Language & Culture. www.lsadc.org/content.asp?...

JBLAC fosters a transdisciplinary conversation on Black language & culture through a global, diasporic lens.

I'm open to accepting a #PhD student in #CDS beginning Fall 2026 at #UBuffalo!

Join me in tackling questions about precision rehab of #anomia to improve communication and quality of life of people living with #aphasia

A few things to consider, but also *please* reach out

The Whisperers On bookstores, celebrity shelves, and what lingers beyond the noise

We live in an era of overproduction—AI, social media, megaphones everywhere. My new piece, “The Whisperers,” is about choosing a different path: words that don’t scream, but whisper.

open.substack.com/pub/arturoh/... #AI #SocialMedia #WritingCommunity #SubstackWriters

Our department is hiring! We're looking for a cognitive/developmental psychologist who uses computational approaches to study human cognition and behavior to address learning, development, and education. Feel free to reach out with questions!

New paper! This was a passion project for me. As first gen who received no career counseling, it took me a bit to find my through college & into the CSD field. When I taught our Intro course, I incorporated a lot of career counseling based on student feedback. Happy to put some data behind it!

Professor OR Associate Professor, Psychology The Department of Psychology at the University at Buffalo (UB). The State University of New York, is recruiting for a SUNY Empire Innovation faculty hire at the rank of Professor or Associate Professo...

#UBuffalo Dept of Psychology is hiring as part of SUNY's Empire Innovation program

Assoc or Full Prof at the intersection of behavioral development and AI models of detection and intervention

Job ad: www.ubjobs.buffalo.edu/postings/58513

Buffalo is a great place to work and live!

Important to check out if you're interested in discrete vs. gradient representations and notions like 'cascading activation' in speech production

Measuring individual semantic networks: A simulation study Accurately capturing individual differences in semantic networks is fundamental to advancing our mechanistic understanding of semantic memory. Past empirical attempts to construct individual-level sem...

New semantic network paper in @plosone.org with @ruimata.bsky.social at @unibas.ch and @dirkwulff.bsky.social at @arc-mpib.bsky.social!

We ran large-scale simulations to test how well common behavioral tasks measure a person's semantic network.

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Tx is way more complex than our research studies give it credit. It's multifactorial and highly individualized imo. Likely doing several "things" (mechanisms) at once in interactive, emergent ways. Dont think we have good grasp on measuring this yet. Shameless plug, my recent work is headed this way

Maybe! Treatments without verbal production, outcomes not reliant on verbal production would be needed to test this. Reminds me of Mackenzie Fama's inner speech work!

Relatedly.. all our anomia outcome measures tend to be verbal naming tasks. I think if we had other measures of word retrieval, we might see more/different across the scope of anomia treatments

Such a good question! I think that's part of it. We have fewer phonemes than semantics/concepts too. So maybe also we're (weakly) strengthening the phonological encoding part for lots of words, even if our targets are limited.

Check out our new paper on #phonological treatments for #anomia in #aphasia. Lots of good data to support phonological treatment but more work needed for maximizing treatment generalization, expanding outcome measures, and assessing treatment ingredients for patient matching.

Phonological Treatment for Anomia: A Scoping Review Purpose: The aim of this scoping review was to summarize treatment characteristics (with a focus on treatment ingredients), participant demograph...

Treatment characteristics, participant demographic characteristics, and outcomes in the research literature for phonological treatment for anomia are summarized in this new #AJSLP scoping review.

on.asha.org/3HahgRY
@sigperspectives.bsky.social

5. PhD program: arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/cds/grad/phd...

UB Graduate School: www.buffalo.edu/grad.html

UB PhD Funding: www.buffalo.edu/grad/explore...

Lab Website: sites.google.com/view/alnlab

Again - please reach out if interested. Happy to talk prior to submitting an app (and paying app fee!)

4. Our PhD curriculum is flexible to meet a variety of student backgrounds and needs. I’m open to accepting students with backgrounds in SLP/CSD, Psych, Ling, Comp Sci, Rehab Sci, and related

My work is interdisciplinary and you'll be trained similarly

3. I am a firm believer in a mentorship model (vs say a trainee model). I will teach you some things, but I will also point you in lots of directions. I don't know everything and I certainly don't want you to do exactly what I do

The best part of mentoring is growing and learning *with* someone

2. Good oral and written communication. I can certainly help you grow (side story - I used to have debilitating stage fright) but know that this is going to be required

And it's not just through pubs and presentations. It's also communicating to broad and varied audiences and with me directly

1. Prior research experience is desirable but I also want to see these qualities in a PhD student that (I think) make a good researcher:

-openness to new ideas, methods, experiences
-a desire to explore and ask questions (aka initiative)

I'm open to accepting a #PhD student in #CDS beginning Fall 2026 at #UBuffalo!

Join me in tackling questions about precision rehab of #anomia to improve communication and quality of life of people living with #aphasia

A few things to consider, but also *please* reach out

Children's Book — NEURAL Research Lab

I'm delighted to share my picture book written for young kids who are experiencing a loved one with #aphasia. Filled with inclusive language as well as resources, it's made for young kids (3 - 10 years old).

More info & how to buy: www.neuralresearchlab.com/childrens-book

First paper from my lab out @commspsychol.nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s44271-025-00275-w

Latent factor models are popular for mental representation of people, e.g. warmth & competence

But we show in naturalistic contexts, more complex representations are needed: high-dimensional networks

Happy to report that the @sparksociety.bsky.social NSF grant has been reinstated!

I was nominated for creating a welcoming environment for faculty, staff, students, community members, and for organizing speaker events and faculty/student trainings to advance DEI in Communication Sciences and Disorders.

I love that this is (part of) what I get paid to do, even in this climate!

Nichol with Pillars of Pride lanyard and pin

I received the Human Resources' Pillars of Pride Employee Recognition Award for Inclusion! #UBuffalo #UBTrueBlue @ubartsandsciences.bsky.social @ubuffalo.bsky.social

Thank you to Jon Chirico for the nomination, my department for engaging in DEI work, and my mentors for guiding me on this path!

SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research Developed by an interdisciplinary research team, this website shows how funding cuts reduce economic activity and employment nationwide

Important update about local impacts of funding cuts.

Depressing but compelling...

Thanks to @joshuasweitz.bsky.social and his team for putting this together.

scienceimpacts.org

Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist: Time to Revise Our Titles?

🆓🔓in @sigperspectives.bsky.social Adithya Chandregowda writes, "speech-language pathologist" represents our role as diagnosticians (pathologists). "We need a title that emphasizes on our role in promoting communication regardless of one's “diagnosis.”" pubs.asha.org/doi/full/10.... 🦋 #bskySPEECHIES

Brian is living with #aphasia and is a research participant in my lab. Learn about Brian and why he participates:

stream.asha.org/ashfoundatio...

Brian and all our participants with aphasia inspire me to persist, no matter the obstacles!

@ubuffalo.bsky.social
@ubartsandsciences.bsky.social

Super excited for our annual Aphasia Health Fair at #UBuffalo on June 14th in Buffalo, NY!

This is a FREE event, open to the public

✅Learn about aphasia from two people living with aphasia
✅Receive health and wellness resources
✅Get a hearing check-up

After you review >5 times for a journal ask the EIC to add you to their editorial review board. You can indeed self nominate your way to the excellence.