Mara Breen's Avatar

Mara Breen

@mbreen.bsky.social

Professor of psychology at Mount Holyoke College; Cognitive scientist studying speech and music

713 Followers  |  741 Following  |  18 Posts  |  Joined: 18.11.2023  |  2.4229

Latest posts by mbreen.bsky.social on Bluesky

The editorial leadership team for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance seeks nominations for intern junior editorial positions for early-career psychologists (IJEs).

25.10.2025 21:40 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Judy DeLoache passed away yesterday. She was a brilliant scientist and giant in the field of developmental psychology. She will be missed dearly.

24.10.2025 15:20 β€” πŸ‘ 52    πŸ” 15    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 5
A group of 19 people standing in front of a large, white tundra buggy after a fun day out looking for polar bears. The buggy is marked as number 9 and stands 9 feet tall at the bottom of the 11 windows along the side.

A group of 19 people standing in front of a large, white tundra buggy after a fun day out looking for polar bears. The buggy is marked as number 9 and stands 9 feet tall at the bottom of the 11 windows along the side.

A woman in a green parka and teal coloured toque smiles as a grey (Canada) jay lands on her head. She has a large camera strapped to her and is standing in the snowy woods.

A woman in a green parka and teal coloured toque smiles as a grey (Canada) jay lands on her head. She has a large camera strapped to her and is standing in the snowy woods.

A large polar bear stares ahead at the photographer as it comes of a rise on a rocky seashore.

A large polar bear stares ahead at the photographer as it comes of a rise on a rocky seashore.

It's polar bear season in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada and I'm a guide. My polar bear photos always engender a lot of questions, so I thought I'd take a moment to answer some of the most common ones so you can better understand these amazing animals and our relationship with them in Churchill. πŸ»β€β„οΈ 1/

25.10.2025 01:10 β€” πŸ‘ 611    πŸ” 138    πŸ’¬ 14    πŸ“Œ 19
An aerial photograph of the Tilburg University campus.

An aerial photograph of the Tilburg University campus.

I am hiring PhD candidates to study the psychology of attention & technology use at @tilburg-university.bsky.social.

We're looking for motivated & curious scholars with expertise in cognitive psychology and statistics, and offer a friendly work environment with great terms & benefits.

tiu.nu/22989

23.10.2025 15:04 β€” πŸ‘ 39    πŸ” 43    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 3
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

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

23.10.2025 18:28 β€” πŸ‘ 66    πŸ” 46    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Text of the call for papers which can be found here: https://jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlanguageinterface.aspx

Text of the call for papers which can be found here: https://jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlanguageinterface.aspx

Hello vision scientists & linguists! The Journal of Vision is publishing a special issue on β€œThe Vision-Language Interface.” Send in your research about reading, perceptual learning, sign language, dyslexia, etc! jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan... #neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky

23.10.2025 21:33 β€” πŸ‘ 37    πŸ” 22    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
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πŸ€” Are you interested in working at #BCBL?

We have a new PhD student position available under the #INPhINIT Predoctoral Fellowship sponsored by FundaciΓ³n LaCaixa.

πŸ“† Application deadline: 10/11/2025

+info⬇️

www.bcbl.eu/es/unete-a-n...

23.10.2025 13:09 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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The NIH institute director firing last Friday is very bad.

I made a video explainer about why.

Stay for last post, w link to @science.org story from @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social

1/4
πŸ§ͺ

23.10.2025 04:02 β€” πŸ‘ 359    πŸ” 175    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 11
IMPRS PhD Fellowships 2026 | Max Planck Institute

OPEN PHD POSITION - Come join our group! The IMPRS at @mpi-nl.bsky.social is offering an PhD position on modelling structured meaning in the brain, supervised by me and Helen De Hoop at the Centre for Language Studies in the @dondersinst.bsky.social -
www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe... #NeuroJobs #cogsci

23.10.2025 09:05 β€” πŸ‘ 31    πŸ” 24    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Assistant Professor, Cognitive and Brain Sciences The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) appreciates your interest in employment at our growing institution. We want your application process to go smoothly and quickly. Final applications must be submitt...

Job announcement! UN Reno Psychology (Cognitive & Brain Sciences division) is hiring for a tenure-track position. Come join us! We have a great group! Deadline December 1. Please share!

nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UNR-external...

#neuroskyence #neuroscience

21.10.2025 15:43 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Deadline Nov 10: Asst prof (tenure track), Speech, Lang, + Hearing Sci. (area open), Cal State Univ, East [San Francisco] Bay careers.pageuppeople.com/873/eb/en-us...

19.10.2025 20:05 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

i’m looking to recruit a postdoc to work on this (documentation + evaluation on accuracy, reliability and societal impacts). hope to advertise detailed descriptions of the role in the coming weeks

18.10.2025 13:27 β€” πŸ‘ 28    πŸ” 29    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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I made a video about the shutdown, and why this government worker won’t be a pawn.

When the president and Supreme Court are both acting lawlessly, Congress must stand up and stop it.

US science is collapsing and Congress needs to act.
πŸ§ͺ
Full video here: www.instagram.com/reel/DP1tXXE...

16.10.2025 23:17 β€” πŸ‘ 105    πŸ” 40    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 2

Open immediately -- postdoc, speech motor control and speech motor neuroscience w/ C. Niziolek + B. Parrell, U. Wisconsin Madison blab.wisc.edu/join-the-lab/ [see Postdoctoral researchers tab]

14.10.2025 21:20 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this yearβ€˜s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

08.10.2025 23:29 β€” πŸ‘ 4737    πŸ” 1840    πŸ’¬ 142    πŸ“Œ 83
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Data Scientist or Machine Learning / AI expert (m/f/d) Data Scientist or Machine Learning / AI expert (m/f/d)Β to join the AI and High-Performance Data Analytics division of MPCDF.

We are looking for β€œData Scientist or ML/AI expert” who will work at the cutting edge of data science and neuromaging in a collaboration between @mpicbs.bsky.social and the Max Planck Computing and Data Facility (MPCDF).

Deadline: 10th Nov. 2025.

Apply here:

13.10.2025 11:00 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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#DLDday is coming, so I’m starting a thread over a few days.

DLD (Developmental Language Disorder) is all about spoken language. Words and sentences are tricky for people with DLD. And people don’t grow out of it.
#DevLangDis @radld.bsky.social

29.09.2025 10:02 β€” πŸ‘ 38    πŸ” 24    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 5

PAMLab is recruiting new PhD students! πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰

#phonetics #bilingualism #multilingualism #phd #gradschool #langsky 🐦🐦

13.10.2025 11:12 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
UT Austin Computational Linguistics Research Group – Humans processing computers processing humans processing language

UT Austin Linguistics is hiring in computational linguistics!

Asst or Assoc.

We have a thriving group sites.utexas.edu/compling/ and a long proud history in the space. (For instance, fun fact, Jeff Elman was a UT Austin Linguistics Ph.D.)

faculty.utexas.edu/career/170793

🀘

07.10.2025 20:53 β€” πŸ‘ 41    πŸ” 27    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 4
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Senior Director - Scientific Officer Primary Work Address: 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD, 20815 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) advances the disco...

Great Job - Great Colleagues - Great ScienceπŸ‘
Help us pick the next generation of @hhmi.org Investigators, Freeman Hrabowski Scholars, Hanna Gray Fellows, Gilliam Fellows
Relocation to DC is required, perfect for academic PIs looking for their next chapter
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...

09.10.2025 21:48 β€” πŸ‘ 44    πŸ” 46    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
β€’ MIT prides itself on rewarding merit.
Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute
was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

Dear Madam Secretary, I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters. I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education. As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples: β€’ MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

β€’ MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available
to any American with an internet
connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly
10%.
β€’ We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

β€’ MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%. β€’ We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific
funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences.
Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law. The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone. In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the
U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people.
We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
CC
Ms. May Mailman
Mr. Vincent Haley

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation. Sincerely, Sally Kornbluth CC Ms. May Mailman Mr. Vincent Haley

MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

β€œAnd fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

10.10.2025 13:47 β€” πŸ‘ 430    πŸ” 132    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 12
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Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers We align the aligners

Very glad to see that someone is doing the important work of aligning AI alignment. alignmentalignment.ai

11.09.2025 13:04 β€” πŸ‘ 410    πŸ” 106    πŸ’¬ 22    πŸ“Œ 49
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Vitalism in the age of AI Is biological naturalism committed to some sort of "Γ©lan consciente"?

AI, and philosophy of mind in general. Here's the link: open.substack.com/pub/felipede... [2/2]

10.10.2025 01:00 β€” πŸ‘ 15    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
tweet from childish branzino @absflora:
timothΓ©e chalamet is the new benedict cumberbatch in the sense that you can say ANYTHING and we know who you mean. tiffany chevrolet. timpanogos charlemagne. symphony cabernet. jiminy castaway.

tweet from childish branzino @absflora: timothΓ©e chalamet is the new benedict cumberbatch in the sense that you can say ANYTHING and we know who you mean. tiffany chevrolet. timpanogos charlemagne. symphony cabernet. jiminy castaway.

Higgledy piggledy
TimothΓ©e Chalamet
Has a name meriting
Endless design

Much like his forerunner
Benedict Cumberbatch:
Hexasyllabically,
Easy to rhyme

09.10.2025 18:57 β€” πŸ‘ 2091    πŸ” 629    πŸ’¬ 53    πŸ“Œ 51
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Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science On 8 April 2024, a total solar eclipse disrupted light-dark cycles for North American birds during the lead-up to spring reproduction. Compiling more than 10,000 community observations and artificial ...

I have to fan-girl for a minute here. My friend @rosvall-lab.bsky.social built an app to gather data on bird behavior during the 2024 solar eclipse. 10,000+ citizen scientists contributed (including my kids), and the resulting paper was published in Science today!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

09.10.2025 23:54 β€” πŸ‘ 494    πŸ” 143    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 14
Assistant Professor

University of Colorado Boulder Psychology & Neuroscience is searching for TWO tenure track assistant professors!!

jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...

#socialpsychology #cogpsyc #PsychSciSky #PsychJob
#psycjobs #psychology

1/n

22.09.2025 16:00 β€” πŸ‘ 108    πŸ” 108    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 4

We’re looking for a postdoc to join our Max Planck group in Germany some time in 2026. If you have computational and/or neuroimaging expertise, and are interested in questions intersecting perception and cognition, please reach out! I’ll also be happy to chat at the #Bernsteinconference this week.

29.09.2025 17:15 β€” πŸ‘ 62    πŸ” 54    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

We’re recruiting a postdoctoral fellow to join our team! πŸŽ‰

I’m happy to share that I’ve opened back up the search for this position (it was temporarily closed due to funding uncertainty).

See lab page and doc below for details!

07.10.2025 02:39 β€” πŸ‘ 63    πŸ” 37    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
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Letter Regarding Compact MIT Chapter of the American Association of University Professors October 6, 2025 Statement on the β€œCompact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” MIT has been invited by the federal governmen...

I am proud of MIT, where our branch of AAUP has voted unanimously to endorse this statement urging MIT leadership and the MIT Corporation to reject the Compact wholesale
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

07.10.2025 00:01 β€” πŸ‘ 810    πŸ” 202    πŸ’¬ 12    πŸ“Œ 11
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My new op-ed with @lkfazio.bsky.social:

Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.
Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

06.10.2025 23:48 β€” πŸ‘ 617    πŸ” 207    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 10

@mbreen is following 20 prominent accounts