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aaron bornstein

@aaronbornstein.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.7K following 166 posts

associate professor, cognitive sciences, uc irvine aaron.bornstein.org @aaronbornstein@neuromatch.social

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Reposted by aaron bornstein
Dr Anna Leshinskaya @annaleshinskaya.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I am recruiting graduate students for UCI's PhD in Cognitive Sciences - www.cogsci.uci.edu/graduate/pro... The lab's focus is on how relational structure and combinatorial reasoning is implemented in human brains and large language models--and if they are similar.
cogsci.uci.edu
GRADUATE PROGRAM
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Critically, they find a distinct neural signature of this memory-guided influence which fluctuates with both the strength of expectations and also the uncertainty of the current percept. This was something we could not resolve in the original model, behavior, or fMRI!
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Where we had found that expectations, derived from memory, *bias* how we perceive upcoming visual stimuli @khoudary.bsky.social shows that memory is an essential, ongoing, part of perception, resolving uncertainty that can fluctuate throughout experience (e.g. driving through a rainstorm).
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This work extends in exciting new directions findings reported by myself and @mariamaly.bsky.social, Sam Feng, Nick Turk-Browne, @kennethanorman.bsky.social, and Jonathan Cohen. link.springer.com/article/10.3...
link.springer.com
Associative memory retrieval modulates upcoming perceptual decisions - Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience
Expectations can inform fast, accurate decisions. But what informs expectations? Here we test the hypothesis that expectations are set by dynamic inference from memory. Participants performed a cue-gu...
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ari ☀️ @khoudary.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
how does memory support perceptual decisions made under uncertainty? this question has scaffolded my entire PhD, and I'm so excited to share part of it in this ✨new preprint ✨ w/ @meganakpeters.bsky.social and @aaronbornstein.bsky.social! link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Memory retrieval explains dynamic effects of expectations on perceptual decisions
Expectations—prior knowledge of environmental statistics—support adaptive behavior by reducing uncertainty during inference. However, the questions of where expectations come from and how that ought t...
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
New lab preprint! @khoudary.bsky.social presents a tour-de-force: a new model of how uncertain expectations should help resolve uncertain sensations, supported by re-analysis of four experiments in monkeys (behavior, ephys) and humans (behavior, fMRI, EEG, intracranial) @meganakpeters.bsky.social
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Jordan Deakin @jordantdeakin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
📣 NEW PREPRINT ALERT! 📣 📝Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... When choosing between options with multiple attributes, what does the brain actually compare - individual attributes or integrated option values? We combined EEG + eye-tracking to find out... and found evidence for the latter 🧠
biorxiv.org
Fixation-evoked potentials reveal neural signatures of hierarchical value-integration during decision-making
Many decisions require maintaining beliefs across multiple levels of representation, from sampling and integrating information to forming action plans. To elucidate these processes and reveal the neur...
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Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Democrats do not only need to "go all in" on higher education. The party needs a genuine reset on its understanding of it. The last three Democratic administrations contributed to creating the crisis that higher ed is facing today.
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D. Hicks @danhicks.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The University of California is considering requiring the SAT again, based in part on claims that there's a burgeoning crisis in Calculus classes at Berkeley. I don't think the available evidence actually supports those claims. dhicks.github.io/posts/2026-0...
dhicks.github.io
The absence of evidence for a calculus crisis at UC Berkeley – D. Hicks
Website description
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Dana El Kurd @danaelkurd.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New ACLU and Amnesty International report on repression on American campuses www.aclu.org/publications...
aclu.org
"Student Speech Under Attack: Suppression of Pro-Palestine Speech and Dissent on Campus" | American Civil Liberties Union
"Student Speech Under Attack: Suppression of Pro-Palestine Speech and Dissent on Campus," an ACLU and Amnesty International USA research report, documents the heavy-handed responses by certain univers...
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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Last week, the world lost an extraordinary scholar and person. Alexander Reyes, a PhD student at UCI and my advisee, died after a severe illness. Please considering contributing to this fundraiser for his family, who have incurred tremendous expenses this summer, in his memory if you can.
gofundme.com
Donate to Supporting A Final Farewell to Alexander, organized by Elizabeth Sandoval
Our family is reaching out to ask for support for our beloved cousin, Alex… Elizabeth Sandoval needs your support for Supporting A Final Farewell to Alexander
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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The Working Class Face a ‘Class Ceiling’ in Elite Occupations PhDs whose parents did not graduate from college are less likely to land TT jobs at research universities & less likely to get tenure.They also earn less in the private sector and hold less management jobs www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/b...
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I just wrote a @cftunion.bsky.social letter urging Governor Newsom to sign AB 713 – Equal access to campus job opportunities for students regardless of immigration status. Write one here: actionnetwork.org/letters/oppo...
actionnetwork.org
Urge Governor Newsom to support equal access to campus job opportunities regardless of immigration status
Please take a moment to sign the CFT letter urging Gov. Newsom to sign AB 713, the Opportunity for All Act, which would allow California students at all UC, CSU, and community college campuses equal a...
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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Budgets are strong indicators of what is valued, and they also reflect hundreds of choices rather than one inevitable series of events. (Or you could say, "budgets are moral documents")
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Jess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I did a somewhat deep dive into the recent OpenAI and Anthropic "hacks" for an upcoming interview. IMO, the AI companies are better off running with the "rogue AI" story because the real story is actually pretty embarrassing. Like making your Wi-Fi password "wifi" embarrassing. 🧵
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 11/09/2026
According to a meeting I was in, UMass estimates that if the capacity of these tools were maxed out by student, faculty, staff users, the total cost to the university would be $130,000/day, or about $47 million / year.
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Researchers across the country are turning to side hustles to fund their work. Behind the cuts sits a bigger shift: whether American science can still sustain durable research capacity. @lindseydcameron.bsky.social and I examine the stakes in a new piece @science.org: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
The wrong platform for science
Daniel Blumstein recently sat in a Colorado meadow waiting for yellow-bellied marmots to appear, as the ecologist and evolutionary biologist had done many times before, the New York Times reported. Bu...
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Tiffany C. Li @tiffanycli.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Reminder: AI companies talk up the fear of hypothetical superintelligent AI to distract you from the real, present dangers of AI that are happening right now
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Natasha Singer @natashanyt.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Is it more important for schools to train children to use chatbots -- or to equip kids to examine how A.I. is steering us? We delve into the global A.I. education/skilling debate in today's @nytimes.com's The World newsletter: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/w...
nytimes.com
Back to School, Now With A.I.
This year is shaping up to be a global experiment in education: Can students embrace tech innovation without losing critical thinking skills?
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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The University of California is in the midst of what looks to be a year-long debate about the use of SAT scores in undergraduate admissions. I wrote a FAQ that attempts to collect the facts that are relevant to this debate, and to dispel some common misconceptions: escholarship.org/uc/item/6kx2...
escholarship.org
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Daniel Reznik 🎶 @reznikdaniel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Now out in Hippocampus!! 📣💥 We examined anatomical inputs to the hippocampal region in six species - the tenrec, rat, marmoset, cat, macaque, and human - and found that hippocampal processing operates on fundamentally different types of information across species! (1/3) dx.doi.org/10.1002/hipo...
dx.doi.org
Phylogeny of Cortical‐Hippocampal Projections Reveals Selective Elimination of Input From Sensory Regions
The study of cross-species differences in the organization of the cerebral cortex received significant attention during the past century. However, the evolutionary principles governing changes in bra...
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
This summer I led a series of conversations in my lab about "AI" and our research. Some colleagues have shared "AI policies" for their labs and we discussed whether this would make sense for us. We decided it did not, and came up with a different approach. Please feel free to share & adapt!
zenodo.org
Crockett Lab Statement on AI and Scientific Research
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
UC Irvine Cognitive Sciences is hiring! Focus on social cognition, broadly construed. Come be my colleague :) I am not on the search committee but happy to talk about the campus, environment, careers, etc any time. recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF10411
recruit.ap.uci.edu
Assistant Professor - Cognitive Sciences
University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!
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AAUP @aaup.org · 03/09/2026
“Weaponizing the IRS to attack colleges & universities that uphold & expand civil rights is outrageous. This is blatantly racist political coercion intended to deny minority students reparative opportunities to further their education.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
nytimes.com
Schools Giving Aid to Minority Students Could Lose Tax Exemptions Under Trump’s New Rules
The Treasury Department released rules that would prevent schools with race-based programs from qualifying for tax-exempt status, a threat to both higher education and other private schools.
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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
And anyone who thinks higher education brought this on itself is a fool or a mark. Fascists will find a pretext to do fascism. Changing course to accommodate them just means they move the goal posts and push for more.
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
UC Irvine Cognitive Sciences is hiring! Focus on social cognition, broadly construed. Come be my colleague :) I am not on the search committee but happy to talk about the campus, environment, careers, etc any time. recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF10411
recruit.ap.uci.edu
Assistant Professor - Cognitive Sciences
University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
(belated) Congratulations to Dr. @dalezhou.bsky.social on winning a 2026 NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the @bbrfoundation.bsky.social! @mikeyassa.bsky.social @ucirvine.bsky.social @ucisocsci.bsky.social @ucibiosci.bsky.social
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Ben Recht @beenwrekt.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The overreaction to this Hugging Face thing is driving me nuts. Come flay me for being wrong but... 1/x
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The conclusion is NOT "we need to debias LLMs" Besides that it's impossible, it also detracts from the point, which is: We shouldn't use machines to offload of the very cognition that is constitutive of the work to be done & supercharge existing inequities and injustices in the process. 🧵
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
newuniversity.org/2026/08/21/i...
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has the facts dead wrong on involuntary commitment. Expanding commitment will lead to more suicides, more overdoses, and more violent crime charges. How do we know? Pittsburgh tried it, and that's what happened: nataliaemanuel.github.io/ne_website/F...
nataliaemanuel.github.io
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Work with Sam. You won't regret it.
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Reposted by aaron bornstein
Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
As we all already know (but it is nice to have it confirmed by a whistleblower): these probes did not follow the mandated procedure and possessed little to no actual evidence. Yet the Columbia administration made a "deal" with Trump anyways. www.ms.now/news/frame-u...
ms.now
Whistleblower says probes into antisemitism at colleges were ploys to harass and strip millions
A former Justice Department lawyer says the Trump investigations squeezed Ivy League universities for millions before they were even concluded. A top Democrat is demanding answers.
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Irvine Mayor Larry Agran calls on @ucirvine.bsky.social to reverse the punishments levied against Professors Tiffany Willoughby-Herard and Brook Haley. static1.squarespace.com/static/60108... This is not going away.
static1.squarespace.com
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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
“Nobody is losing control of an emerging intelligence. They’re redirecting their own agency to the thing they are building.” It’s a myth, a self-affirming form of sense making: they take the action to build it, but insist on describing it as if they are passive witnesses to an inevitable force.
mail.cyberneticforests.com
The System From Nowhere
When Accountability Goes Rogue 💡I recently spoke with Dr. Zena Assaad for her podcast, Responsible Bytes. Video is above, below is an essay adapted from the conversation. "The system from nowhere" i...
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Congratulations to Dr. Ari @khoudary.bsky.social on a successful PhD defense! @meganakpeters.bsky.social and I are so proud of all you have accomplished and excited for what you will do at @pennmindcore.bsky.social!
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
New lab paper! @noraharhen.bsky.social and @catehartley.bsky.social investigate how children and adolescents differ in their use of episodic context for decision-making. Thread below.
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Nora Harhen @noraharhen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
How do we make good decisions with little experience? Adults can rely on memories of past choices. In our new study in @pnas.org we show kids & teens do something similar–but what they remember turns out to be quite different! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Developmental changes in memory structure and precision alter the use of retrieved episodes during decisions for reward | PNAS
Most widely studied option evaluation strategies rely on knowledge accumulated across repeated experiences. But how should options be evaluated in ...
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
New lab paper! @noraharhen.bsky.social and @catehartley.bsky.social investigate how children and adolescents differ in their use of episodic context for decision-making. Thread below.
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Maybe of use www.ru.nl/en/research/... cc @olivia.science
ru.nl
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
See you soon @cogcompneuro.bsky.social
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Robin DG Kelley on @ucirvine.bsky.social's egregious, unjustified, vindictive persecution of Prof Tiffany Willoughby-Herard substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
In Support of Dr. Tiffany Willoughby-Herard
Most academics in the U.S., as well as activists resisting the genocide in Gaza, are familiar with the case of Professor Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, a renowned Global Studies scholar at the University ...
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
oops @cogcompneuro.bsky.social 😬
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Thurs AM: @shuhengguo.bsky.social "Replay Supports Both Future and Immediate Decisions by Updating a Successor Representation" with @johnsakon.bsky.social, Itzhak Fried, Mike Kahana, and Alexa Booras Extended abstract: aaron.bornstein.org/cv/pubs/2026...
aaron.bornstein.org
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Weds PM: @shuhengguo.bsky.social (presenting for @dalezhou.bsky.social) "Representation learning and choice in naturalistically complex environments" with @mikeyassa.bsky.social Extended abstract: aaron.bornstein.org/cv/pubs/2026...
aaron.bornstein.org
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Weds PM: Yifan Zhang "An adaptive role for anhedonia following early-life unpredictability" Extended abstract: aaron.bornstein.org/cv/pubs/2026...
aaron.bornstein.org
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Tues PM: Aidan Goeschel and Rohin Palsule "Quantifying information gain in narrative stimuli using open-source large language models" with @khoudary.bsky.social, @jungsuy.bsky.social, and Janice Chen Extended abstract: aaron.bornstein.org/cv/pubs/2026...
aaron.bornstein.org
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Tues AM: Roger Chen "Age-related differences in structure learning drive foraging behavior in a multimodal patch-leaving task" w\ Meghan Johnson @ilanabennett.bsky.social (and many more!) Extended abstract: aaron.bornstein.org/cv/pubs/2026...
aaron.bornstein.org
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Tues AM: Alexa Booras "Individual Variation in Non-Spatial Navigation is Related to Adaptive Learning and Use of Successor Representations" with @chrastil.bsky.social, @jungsuy.bsky.social, and Theo Kapogianis Extended abstract: aaron.bornstein.org/cv/pubs/2026...
aaron.bornstein.org
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aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Excited for the lab's presentations at @cogcompneuch.bsky.social 2026! see you in ✨New✨York✨City✨ (🧵 1/7)
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