Zack Hawes

Numerical Cognition

Happy to share this new entry on numerical cognition for the OECS. Thanks to @hbaum.bsky.social and @mcxfrank.bsky.social for making this happen! Apologies if your work isn’t cited! Had to limit cites!!! oecs.mit.edu/pub/rek9756r...

A sunset photo of Padua, Italy, depicting a panoramic view of the city reflected in the Bacchiglione River. In addition, the image includes dates, logos and conference location for 2026.

Hello #MCLS2026 !☘️

We are delighted to announce the dates for our upcoming conference in Padua, Italy! 🇮🇹

Thanks to the local organisers at Università di Padova
S. Caviola, R. Rugani, M. Ranzini, and others
@mcls-official.bsky.social
@mclstrainee.bsky.social
#neuroskyence #cogsci #edusky #devpsy

🚀 Exciting news: I’m accepting new graduate students in the McGill Faculty of Education Learning Sciences! If you’re passionate about educational technology, games, AI, and learning sciences, this is your chance to join a dynamic and interdisciplinary research program.

Such a pleasure to work with @boldinsights.bsky.social to put this piece together. Always happy to discuss the role of spatial thinking in STEM learning and beyond

Such a pleasure to work with @boldinsights.bsky.social to put this piece together. Always happy to discuss the role of spatial thinking in STEM learning and beyond

Spatial thinking in the STEM classroom Zachary Hawes studies how spatial thinking makes abstract ideas accessible

“Spatial thinking is a fundamental, yet often neglected, aspect of human cognition.”
@zackhawes.bsky.social tells Aisha Schnellmann how central spatial thinking is to STEM learning. #EdChat boldscience.org/the-psycholo...

Cognitive bridge between geometric and numerical learning in monkeys | PNAS Educational research highlights strong developmental links between numerical and spatial cognition in humans, often shaped by cultural tools like t...

Children build math skills on a “cognitive bridge” between space & number. But where does it come from? Our new study finds monkeys transfer learning and abstractions across geometry & numerosity, revealing the evolutionary roots of basic math development. 🧪🧠

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

At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery | Quanta Magazine After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture.

What a fantastic accomplishment -- and what a fantastic story! www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...

Congratulations @noranewcombe.bsky.social! So pleased to see this and so grateful for all the work you do

Nora S. Newcombe and Robert Glushko stand together smiling on stage at CogSci 2025. Nora wears the Rumelhart Prize medal around her neck

Huge congratulations to the brilliant Nora Newcombe, recipient of the 2025 David E. Rumelhart Prize! 🏅#CogSci2025

🚨New article🚨 in Computers & Education

We created and validated a measure of how teachers scaffold game-based learning.

Turns out, teachers are great at cheering students on and keeping them on task—but need more support/resources to guide deeper thinking during games.

Full study link below.

New personal record of desk rejects 🥳

I am taking a note of journals that take over a month for the desk 📖

It is also a unusual situation where pretty much everything has been already reviewed at eLife on our Neuro paper (click for open reviews), now the sample size is just substantially larger.

📚 At the #JRF annual meeting, our Research Fellows engaged in three days of structured exchange, sharing research, building interdisciplinary connections, and advancing ideas to improve learning outcomes for children worldwide.

Meet the fellows 👥 bit.ly/4kQMPij

#Education #Research #Fellows

How Language Influences Thought: The Case of Multiplying Fractions This study addresses the question of whether and how language influences mathematical cognition. Canadian students in Grades 4–7 (N = 348) were asked fraction multiplication questions in one of the...

Shout out to co-authors @hannahwhitehead.bsky.social Carolyn Mussio, and Yue Cai

Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1080/1524...

Thrilled to see this registered report published. It's been a long time in the making and a nice little example (we think!) of how language influences mathematical cognition.

How might you answer:

What's 1/2 of 1/2? vs. What's 1/2 x 1/2?

Does 'of' vs. 'x' make a difference? See paper below

Super fun to do! Thanks @theitsinnatepc.bsky.social

What Math Learned in School Is Most Important? Adults and Their Managers Don't Agree Americans don’t always agree about which skills are the most crucial, according to a new survey from Gallup.

Interesting data coming out of a national survey of adults and what they think about math.
www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

Congrats Emily! Well deserved

University of Surrey on LinkedIn: #surreyshapes Congratulations to Professor Emily Farran who has been awarded the 2024 Developmental Psychology Section Impact and Engagement Award by The British…

Very honoured to be awarded the Developmental Psychology Section Impact and Engagement Award by The British Psychological Society. The award is for my work on the importance of spatial reasoning for mathematics.
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

What Makes a Good Theory? Interdisciplinary Perspectives - Computational Brain & Behavior Computational Brain & Behavior -

Finally our editorial for the "What makes a good theory?" special issue is out (co-edited with @irisvanrooij.bsky.social, @jcskewes.bsky.social, Sashank Varma, and Todd Wareham). It's an interdisciplinary issue and the contents are transdisciplinary.

#philsci #metasci #cogsci #ai #psych 🧪

Chladni patterns in a vibrating plate, From Chladni (1787)

Self-referential portrait of Chladni superposed on some of his patterns

#TodayinHistory #dataviz #Onthisday #OTD 📊
🎂Nov 30, 1756 Ernest Florens Friedrich Chladni born in Wittenberg, Germany 🇩🇪

1787: Visualization of vibration patterns (by spreading a uniform layer of sand on a disk, and observing displacement when vibration is applied)

The cognitive scientist asking how kids solve problems Roman Feiman is discovering sophisticated reasoning in young children

"Humans have an incredible ability to think and reason about things they’ve never experienced."
Even very young children are capable of sophisticated reasoning and problem-solving, says @romanfeiman.bsky.social. #Reasoning #ProblemSolving boldscience.org/the-cognitiv...

gorodenkoff via Getty

stories.surrey.ac.uk/YoungMindsFo...

Spatial reasoning is the ability to understand the spatial properties of objects such as their size and location, and to visualise objects and problems in the mind. Training children to think and work spatially leads to improvement in mathematics.

Four raincloud plots: a normal distribution, bimodal, skewed, and one riddled with outliers. Popular sample statistics are identical so that mere plotting of the identical means and confidence intervals would miss these qualitative differences.

abstract of pre-print

The Raincloud Quartet (new pre-print)

All N = 111, M = 0.04, SD = 0.27.
One-sided t-tests vs. 0 yield: t(110) = 1.67, p = .049.

Only raincloud plots reveal the qualitative differences, preventing the drawing of inappropriate conclusions.

How did we create the quartet?
Where are data & code?
🧵👇

The strain on scientific publishing: we set out to characterise the remarkable growth of the scientific literature in the last few years, in spite of declining growth in total scientists. What is going on?

direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

A 🧵 1/n
#AcademicSky #PhDchat #ScientificPublishing #SciPub

Open Encylopedia of Cognitive Science

Announcing the launch of the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science: oecs.mit.edu! OECS is a freely-available, growing collection of peer-reviewed articles introducing key topics in cogsci to a broad audience of students and scholars.

Bluesky is emerging as the new platform for science - Mike Young Academy Scientific Twitter is about to find its true successor. And it is not X. This, our latest release, shows that the Bluesky network of scientists is growing — and growing.

🌍 We have just released a NEW global top 100 list of scientist and science communicators on Bluesky. @lassehjorthmadsen.bsky.social and I map out the new emerging community: How are the research fields clustered? All likes, reshares, and love 😍 is appreciated! mikeyoungacademy.dk/bluesky-is-e...

Issue 60, Volume 11 is now out for Developmental Psychology!

psycnet.apa.org/PsycARTICLES...

Special issue:

Revisiting Jerome Kagan and his research legacy: An introduction to a special issue of Developmental Psychology.

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