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Dr. Ji Y. Son

@cogscimom.bsky.social
189 followers 528 following 18 posts

A cognitive scientist who happened to reproduce! Professor at CalStateLA. Teacher of statistics. Co-founder of CourseKata.org. Khaleesi of Inappropriate Ideas. Mother of Rascals.

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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
People are using AI but do they understand how it works? Most explanations (e.g., "magic" or "like a human") make it hard to anticipate AI’s mistakes and biases. We need a better metaphor. How about the “button-pushing explorer”? Read more @theconversation.com theconversation.com/button-pushi...
theconversation.com
Button-pushing explorers: How to grasp that AI agents can do amazing things while knowing nothing
Today’s AI systems are powerful, and it’s natural to see them as having humanlike intelligence. Shaking that illusion is important – and difficult to do.
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Hot takes on AI wanted 🔥 @calstatelosangeles.bsky.social R Club students made a quick survey about AI use: which scenarios feel okay vs. not? Even a few responses would help! Thanks! calstatela.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
calstatela.co1.qualtrics.com
Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
You know how no one reads academic papers these days? Well, maybe they should EAT them! Here's the cookie version of our "better book" paper that lays out a new R&D model in education: researchers, developers, and instructors collaborate to continuously improve an online interactive textbook.
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Congrats to all the @studentsrunla.bsky.social kids that ran the #LAmarathon this Sunday! Whether you finished or not, whether you beat your time or not, you won the true prize—the transformation along the way.
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
As a proud mama and learning scientist, I wrote how Amos and the 3,000 other students running the #LAMarathon2026 this Sunday teach us an important lesson in the age of AI. Thank you to Students Run LA (SRLA) and @edsource.org! edsource.org/2026/maratho...
edsource.org
COMMENTARY: Even in a marathon, the finish line is not the point
In the age of AI shortcuts, are we confusing the goal of schooling with its purpose?
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
A must read! In this murk of AI+higher ed, this is a rare convo that felt clear and hopeful. open.substack.com/pub/derektho...
open.substack.com
How Metrics Make Us Miserable
The quantified life has become a modern religion. But many of us are measuring life the wrong way.
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
It's no @mcsweeneys.net but I got a letter printed in @economist.com www.economist.com/letters/2026...
I found your analysis to be empirically sound, but it would be sharpened by two refinements. First, ed tech is treated primarily as instructional software, but much of the industry’s scale and profitability comes from platforms and hardware (such as Chromebooks, iPads, and operating systems) that erode attention and degrade classroom behaviour even when no instructional software is running.

Second, educational apps may disappoint when they digitise tasks that are better done off-screen, especially for young children. By contrast, there are domains where computers are not optional but necessary, such as coding and data science. Separating infrastructure from instructional software, and distinguishing among different kinds of instructional goals, would clarify the economics of ed tech and the learning-science evidence.
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
We are 95% confident that the true state of the world lies between the end of scarcity and the end of humanity.
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
I would like to thank Companion AI for helping promote my latest in @mcsweeneys.net. I had worried my satire was too dark. This Einstein product reassures me that it was optimistic sunshine. www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
mcsweeneys.net
The Next Innovation in Higher Education: Vibe-Teaching™
As the associate vice provost for the Office of Asynchronous Online Courses for Student-Centered High-Impact Learning (OAOCSCHIL, an office we crea...
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Reposted by Dr. Ji Y. Son
McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 23/02/2026
"There is, of course, some risk of corroding the very foundations of our university’s mission. But institutional survival requires adaptation. Our graduates must become 'AI-resilient and future-ready members of the workforce'… whatever that means." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
mcsweeneys.net
The Next Innovation in Higher Education: Vibe-Teaching™
As the associate vice provost for the Office of Asynchronous Online Courses for Student-Centered High-Impact Learning (OAOCSCHIL, an office we crea...
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Reposted by Dr. Ji Y. Son
Dave Kung @dtkung.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
"In Vibe-Teaching™, faculty are no longer required to read the AI-generated slop that students themselves have not paused to read. " Hilarious satire about what teaching in a time of AI might become. (Also: excited that a friend got a piece into @mcsweeneys.net!)
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Reposted by Dr. Ji Y. Son
McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 13/02/2026
"Rather than building courses through faculty expertise or disciplinary knowledge, faculty gather complaints from alums now trying to get real jobs, feed those complaints into AI, and allow the system to revise the course accordingly."
buff.ly
The Next Innovation in Higher Education: Vibe-Teaching™
As the associate vice provost for the Office of Asynchronous Online Courses for Student-Centered High-Impact Learning (OAOCSCHIL, an office we crea...
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Reposted by Dr. Ji Y. Son
Jack Iwashyna @iwashyna.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
This could be the next “Gourd Season”
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
I’ve officially made it as a humor writer! I’m in McSweeney’s today. www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
mcsweeneys.net
The Next Innovation in Higher Education: Vibe-Teaching™
As the associate vice provost for the Office of Asynchronous Online Courses for Student-Centered High-Impact Learning (OAOCSCHIL, an office we crea...
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Ahem. Capitalism would like a word. Specifically, it would like journalists to calm-the-f-down about love scams and recognize them for what they are: a wildly successful business model! Check out my parody letter from Capitalism, out today in Jane Austen’s Wastebasket: medium.com/jane-austens...
medium.com
Unregulated Capitalism Defends Love Scams Against Critics
An open letter from Capitalism to journalists covering “pig butchering scams”
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Here's the question about #SquidGame I finally had the courage to ask: how are they funding that murder circus? Turns out capitalism is the real bloodbath.
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
I wrote a romance novel called The Long Con… and then got actual romance scammers to promote it! I wrote about what happened and what it says about the industrialization of modern love for Medium’s Human Parts: humanparts.medium.com/how-i-conned...
humanparts.medium.com
How I Conned Scammers into Promoting My Romance Novel
Love in the age of pig-butchering
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Reposted by Dr. Ji Y. Son
Alexandra W. Logue @lexalogue.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
This piece does a great job explaining how hard it is on faculty with the lower pass rates that often come with corequisite (vs. prerequisite) remediation, even though more students total are passing. buff.ly/RKjrY2l #math #AcademicSky #highered @cogscimom.bsky.social
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
What happens when tech algorithms capture our attention so effectively that we lose agency over our mental lives? On East LA's "Riding the Wave" podcast, I stepped outside my academic bubble for a convo about the deep things that affect us all! 🎥 Watch the clip: www.youtube.com/shorts/SPL90... 1/
youtube.com
TikTok isn’t going to like this
YouTube video by Riding The Wave Podcast
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Dr. Ji Y. Son @cogscimom.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Does it feel like the world is algorithmically engineered to stamp out reading--eroding focus and sustained attention to long complex ideas? blog.coursekata.org/teaching-rea...
blog.coursekata.org
Teaching Reading in a Distracted World
Are your students struggling to engage with reading? You're not alone! Even though we're a stats & datasci project, we explore the challenges of teaching anything that requires reading.
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Reposted by Dr. Ji Y. Son
Psychonomic Society @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
What does it mean to have truly new objects for research? Fall into geometric wonderland with the ALICE database. #psynomBRM paper by Alice Xu, Ji Y. Son, Catherine M. Sandhofer; post by Ben Wolfe
buff.ly
New objects for new research: The ALICE database
How do we build true novelty? We have new experiences all the time (maybe reading a blog post about a scientific article is one, and if it is, welcome!), but studying how we learn about new items and…
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