Sign in

Ben Ambridge

@ambridge.bsky.social
547 followers 342 following 92 posts

Prof of Psychology/Child Language, University of Manchester. Author of PSY-Q, Are You Smarter than a Chimpanzee? and The Stories of Your Life

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Nicholas A. Coles, PhD @nicholascoles.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
When we fake smiles, are we smiling our way to happiness or misery? 🙃 For decades, emotion embodiment theorists have emphasized happiness boosts -- all while emotion labor theorists emphasized misery costs. In this Registered Report, we finally put these ideas side-by-side doi.org/10.1016/j.je...
1168
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Of course, the studies are preregistered, the data and syntax are available, so feel free to check my working and let me know if you find any holes! (and sorry for publishing in a "glamour journal", but even us Open Science fans need a "big paper" from time to time!) 8/8
020
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Why would anyone care about all this? Well many, probably MOST accounts of what speakers' knowledge of language looks like (e.g., @stefanmuelller.lingo.lol.ap.brid.gy) DON'T assume that speakers have constructions with meanings at all. These accounts, I argue, can't explain our data 7/n
111
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
In short, a sentence is acceptable to the extent that the meaning we're trying to get across meshes with the meaning of the sentence construction we're using (e.g., @adelegoldberg.bsky.social @thomscottphillips.bsky.social) ??c.f., @ejfranci2.bsky.social 6/n
100
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
So a passive like "Emily was seen by John" is more acceptable if - say - she owes him money and is hiding from him (meaning she's really affected by being seen), than if Emily is completely unaffected by being seen (e.g., they're just strangers passing on the street) 5/n
100
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It's the same for the passive construction, which has the meaning of "the first-named person being highly affected" (e.g., Bill was run over by a bus). Passives are somewhat ungrammatical when this doesn't hold (e.g., *Bill was remembered/resembled/known by John) 4/n
100
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
So if we can come up with some outlandish context in which the causation is direct and physical - "swimming someone" by manipulating their limbs, "jumping someone" by picking them up and bouncing them, the meaning we're trying to convey fits better with the meaning of the construction 3/n
100
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Specifically the transitive-causative construction (e.g., [PERSON] [VERBed] [PERSON]) has the meaning of direct, physical causation, which is why "Someone swam/laughed/jumped" the boy (c.f. "Someone made the boy jump") is ungrammatical in the first place 2/n
100
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"*The teacher swam the boy" is pretty grammatically unacceptable. But it's much more acceptable if she gets into the pool and moves his arms and legs, rather than just blowing her whistle and shouting. Why? - Sentence constructions have meanings in and of themselves: lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/010... 1/n
lingbuzz.net
1123
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
ingmarvisser.bsky.social @ingmarvisser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New paper 🍼📄 ManyBabies 3 is out (open access, registered report in Developmental Science). 30 labs, 33 languages, 839 infants set out to replicate a textbook finding: 7-month-olds learn abstract rules from speech (@garymarcus.bsky.social et al., 1999). We didn’t find it. 🧵
37747
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Martin Zettersten @mzettersten.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Meta-analytic plot below: only 1 out of the 31 samples find evidence of the effect. Huge effort from the entire ManyBabies 3 team led by @ingmarvisser.bsky.social. Imo an important moment for reflection in infant research (esp. language development) given the centrality of this finding. 2/2
Forest plot of the rule learning effect across individual labs and methods (headturn preference, eyetracking, and central fixation). There is no meta-analytic effect overall or for any of the three methods. Only one sample out of 31 total shows evidence of an effect individually.
0133
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I decided it's time to practice what I preach and make sure I publish all my null/inconclusive results, particularly when my theoretical approach really predicts the effect will be found, (and it *has* been found in similar studies). Only this way can we hope to find out what's actually going on!
0101
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Isabel Picornell Garcia @picornell.eurosky.social · 17/09/2026
The Aston Institute of #ForensicLinguistics (#AIFL) invites applications for a fully funded PhD studentship starting in January 2027. The studentship provides a full tuition fee waiver and a stipend at the standard UKRI rate for three years. Details here: www.aston.ac.uk/study/course...
aston.ac.uk
Fully-funded PhD position at the Aston Institute of Forensic Linguistics
Programme length: Three years The Aston Institute of Forensic Linguistics invites applications for a fully funded PhD studentship starting in January 2027. The studentship provides a full tuition fee ...
033
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Fantastic news for all @manchester.ac.uk staff and students! You can now read @manchestermill.bsky.social for free at access-manchestermill-co-uk.manchester.idm.oclc.org
0117
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Kanishka Misra @kanishka.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Understanding how learners conclude “X laughed Y” is incorrect is an age-old question, with several hypotheses, some of which have been ~impossible to disentangle! @tomyxw.bsky.social, @fredashi.bsky.social, and I use controlled rearing to shed light on this in our new EMNLP paper: 1/n
Title slide for “Disentangling Statistical Preemption from Entrenchment in Language Models’ Avoidance of Overgeneralization,” by Yixuan Wang, Freda Shi, and Kanishka Misra. Includes the main results plot and experimental design.
2179
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Last year, I publicly complained multiple times (see e.g. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...) that the open access movement had been captured by publishers, and we are now worse off than before open access. Well people got mad at me for saying it. But I think things are still getting worse.
616466
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
ManyLanguages @manylanguagesc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Fancy a weekend read? We've got a preprint for you! zenodo.org/records/2214...
zenodo.org
Big Team Science for language science: opportunities and challenges
Abstract: The present paper advocates for incorporating Big Team Science practices into the language sciences. Big Team Science is a promising mode of collaborative research in which top-down coordina...
145
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Yes, when I was a lad we were lucky to get tepid
010
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
In the UK, the “coffee maker”, is usually a tank of boiling water with a tap.
130
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Asifa Majid @asifamajid.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
It's hard to believe that OECS has now published 200 articles!🎉 A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to OECS—our authors, reviewers, readers, and fantastic section editors, and especially @mcxfrank.bsky.social frank.bsky.social and @hbaum.bsky.social Excited for the next chapter!
13913
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Nearly four years ago we asked ourselves, "what would it look like to have a field-leading, completely free reference work for cognitive science"? It's been so fun editing OECS with @asifamajid.bsky.social and @hbaum.bsky.social. I can't believe we have published 200 (!!) articles! oecs.mit.edu
29734
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Also great advice for academic writing!
030
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I'm offering a PhD project under this position for anyone interested in studying the acquisition of a language other than English - www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - though note that you need to already have the right to work in the UK (sorry!). Look me up & email me for more information!
jobs.manchester.ac.uk
Graduate Teaching Assistant:Oxford Road
022
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Maybe it’s the difference between being twee and being archly, knowingly twee?
110
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science bot @oecs-bot.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Children master language either by internalizing innate grammatical rules or by building complex systems from stored examples of phrases they hear. Language Acquisition by Ben Ambridge doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.b4a2349c #CognitiveScience
Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science: "Language Acquisition" by Ben Ambridge. Child language acquisition is the process by which infants and children come to speak the language of the community around them. Children must acquire a great deal of linguistic knowledge, including t
086
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
100% this! I see so many between-participants studies with like N=50 when a proper power analysis would tell you you need like 500! Never between-subjects unless you have an EXTREMELY good reason. Remember, an underpowered study is often worse than no study as it can mislead!
1122
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I had a look at the Krosnick chapter- it mentions “decades of research” but annoyingly doesn’t cite any directly on this point! Anyone know of any actual studies?
021
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
I said it on T*****, and I'll say it again here! A mixed-effects model in lme4 with its default settings gives you outputs that LOOK LIKE "ANOVA-style" main effects, BUT THEY ARE NOT! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Thanks @drlearnasaurus.bsky.social for saving my papers many times over!
sciencedirect.com
Contrast coding choices in a decade of mixed models
Contrast coding in regression models, including mixed-effect models, changes what the terms in the model mean. In particular, it determines whether or…
091
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
David Barner @drbarner.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Open Mind now has an IF of 2.9 after less than 9 years of existence, an amazing accomplishment. This is just short of Cognition (3.1)!
0141
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Love this - It’s very much the vibe of a sports reporter asked to cover the weather! Early Alan Partridge on The Day Today perhaps!
020
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
“The “strongest risk factor” is not the form most related to harm. It is the form least redundant with whatever else is in the model.”
092
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Kristoffer Magnusson @rpsychologist.com · 25/06/2026
New interactive blog! "Why Adjusted Regression Coefficients Are Less Descriptive Than They Look" rpsychologist.com/descriptive-...
1520769
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Another one bites the dust - Delay of gratification and adult outcomes: The Marshmallow Test does not reliably predict adult functioning academic.oup.com/chidev/artic...
050
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I want this quote on an inspirational poster in every office
010
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
ManyLanguages @manylanguagesc.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
If you want to contribute to any of our three projects (ManyTones, CLAPS, Many Uses), you can reach out to the project leads. You will find their contact information here: many-languages.com/projects.html
many-languages.com
Projects
053
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Christina Bergmann @chbergma.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Big Team Science projects like @manybabies.org @themanybirds.bsky.social etc. are brilliant for more reasons that this short piece can cover, including their openness to researchers from all contexts and backgrounds - you don't even need to have access to the target population! #OpenScience
0187
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
It’s fine, BUT my honest opinion is that joint first authorship is a bit of a myth as it won’t be preserved in reference sections, databases etc. But final authorship can sometimes be as good as first authorship in some fields if it denotes PI status - possibly that could work here?!
100
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Daniel Lakens @lakens.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
New interactive simulation in my online textbook illustrating publication bias in meta-analyses, and some techniques to model bias-adjusted effect sizes. None of these work perfectly. We need an unbiased literature to draw valid inferences. lakens.github.io/statistical_...
14014
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Does engaging with the arts help to slow the aging process? According to this new paper from Fancourt et al the answer is yes! Alas, the paper is actually unsuitable for such claims. Let’s examine by discussing how you'd establish whether arts engagement actually caused future health! 1/18 🧵
academic.oup.com
Does leisure activity matter for epigenetic ageing? Analyses of arts engagement and physical activity in the UK Household Longitudinal Study
AbstractBackground and Objectives. Over the past decade, ageing clocks have become widely adopted as important tools for understanding biological ageing an
813160
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Andrea Nini @andreanini.com · 10/04/2026
After years in preprint, our paper is finally out! We introduce LambdaG, a simple new authorship verification method that matches complex neural approaches. This supports the theory of grammar as a behavioural biometric (like a signature or gait). www.nature.com/articles/s41... #nlp #llm #forensic
nature.com
Grammar as a behavioral biometric: using cognitively motivated grammar models for authorship verification - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - Grammar as a behavioral biometric: using cognitively motivated grammar models for authorship verification
084
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
To paraphrase Thomas Edison (or whoever actually said it) Statistical analysis is 1% Investigation and 99% Preparation. Most mistakes I see (and make!) result from rushing too quickly to model building!
050
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 16/03/2026
Study participation advert: "What we want: how can Speech & Language Therapy best meet the needs of autistic children? We are looking for autistic children & young people (9 - 17 years 11 months old) to take part in an adapted interview about their priorities and preferences in Speech & Language Therapy. We hope our findings will support the development of services in this area. In the first part of this study, we are looking for children & young people who are verbally-able, so likely in mainstream schools accessing a mainstream curriculum. A formal autism diagnosis is important and should follow national clinical guidance on best practice. Please get in touch to ask about eligibility or find out more: NDSpeech-LanguageTherapy@manchester.ac.uk. Our team includes experienced & DBS checked autistic researchers & Speech & Language Therapists. The interviews will be adapted to meet individual needs. If your child has more significant language support needs, we will be recruiting these children to a related but different study. Please do ask for details.”

The study is a collaboration between the University of Manchester, University of Sheffield and the NHS Manchester University foundation trust. The study is funder by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research.
2913
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
ManyLanguages @manylanguagesc.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
This month’s #ManyLanguagesChallengeOfTheMonth comes from the world of **grammatical acceptability judgments** by the ML2 CLAPS team. @ambridge.bsky.social
152
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Nominative determinism strikes again
000
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
2/2 For å lære mer om undersøkelsen, og delta anonymt, vennligst registrert deg via Prolific.com gjennom følgende link: app.prolific.com/register/par...
prolific.com
Prolific | Easily collect high-quality data from real people
Prolific helps AI developers, researchers, and organizations easily access the highest-quality human data. Sign up for free.
000
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Er du interessert i mysteriene bak det norske språket? Forskere ved Universitetet i Manchester gjennomfører en online undersøkelse som involverer å vurdere ord og setninger, med mål om å avdekke noen av disse mysteriene. Du vil motta finansiell kompensasjon for deltagelsen din. 1/2
100
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Another @jstordaily.bsky.social popular-Psychology post lead-authored by one of my Psychology undergrads - here, Maliha Idow daily.jstor.org/face-value-c...
daily.jstor.org
Face Value: Can You Spot a Cheater at First Glance? - JSTOR Daily
Looking for love this holiday season? Science suggests first-glance impressions may offer tiny signals about personality, trust, and even cheating tendencies.
010
Ben Ambridge @ambridge.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Most years, one or two of the students on my Psychology in the Real World course pitch a popular psychology blog post to @jstordaily.bsky.social - Here's the most recent, by Aabhya Parnami daily.jstor.org/love-is-blin...
daily.jstor.org
Love Is Blind … but Are Your Hormones? - JSTOR Daily
Do women’s attraction to certain faces really change across the menstrual cycle? A long-running theory meets modern data.
010
Reposted by Ben Ambridge
International Association for the Study of Child Language @iasclchildlang.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
The journal "Language Development Research" is now an official journal of the IASCL! LDR's intended audience is all researchers and professionals with an interest in language development and related fields. Read more on our website: www.childlanguage.org/ldr
051