David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 19/04/2026Of course it's trivial to create a machine with superhuman strength or speed but there's a reason it's just shooting a free throw here. If you put this thing in actual competition with multiple agents it will become a glorified mannequin. 000
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 24/01/2026Here is the accepted version of my thesis. A huge thanks to my supervisory team and everyone who supported me. A few chapters are already published some are still in review, so this is a sneak peek for anyone interested in the empirical findings. www.researchgate.net/publication/...researchgate.net(PDF) An Ecological Dynamics Perspective on Flow in SportPDF | This thesis utilises an ecological dynamics perspective to investigate the concept of flow experiences in the domain of sport. The study of flow... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee... 141
Reposted by David Farrokhsantiago salinas @ssalinas.bsky.social · 23/01/20261/12 Really proud of this paper! We borrowed tools from biology to ask a simple question: does who you play with actually matter in football? (Spoiler: it does, a lot.) 🧬 🤝 ⚽ Paper here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mUusArnpe... 45817
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 24/04/2025I'm pleased to share a preprint of a chapter I wrote for an upcoming book on embodied cognition. I try to tackle some thorny questions surrounding unit and scale as they relate to symbols and dynamics in cognitive science. www.researchgate.net/publication/...researchgate.net(PDF) Experience, scale, and co-adaptationPDF | While the ontological and epistemological issues surrounding the status of the mind and its relation to the body are often considered abstract... | Find, read and cite all the research you need ... 131
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 24/04/2025Madhur poses some excellent questions to predictive processing approaches in cognitive science here. I'd be curious how proponents would respond! www.researchgate.net/publication/...researchgate.net(PDF) The myth of the Bayesian brainPDF | The Bayesian brain hypothesis—the idea that neural systems implement or approximate Bayesian inference—has become a dominant framework in... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on Re... 010
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 12/04/2025Damian has arrived! Also, really enjoyed co-authoring this chapter with this group. Check it out here 👇 020
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 09/04/2025www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy... @jcassidysport.bsky.social thoughts?frontiersin.orgFrontiers | The influence of linear and nonlinear pedagogy on motor skill performance: the moderating role of adaptability 120
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 03/04/2025Great new piece from Madhur Mangalam's lab. Some clear reasoning around the concept of optimality with empirical examples to back it up. www.researchgate.net/publication/...researchgate.net(PDF) The myth of optimality in human movement sciencePDF | The concept of optimality dominates contemporary human movement science, with researchers across biomechanics, motor control, and neuroscience... | Find, read and cite all the research you need ... 020
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 28/03/2025A rather puzzling statement from Hubert Ripoll here (perspectives on cognition and action in sport, Araujo, Ripoll, Raab eds.) First of all, what is a "conventional playing system" if not an evolved form of interaction?? Second, if not from repeated interactions where the heck does it come from? 110
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 24/03/2025Transfer of calibration between hand and foot: Functional equivalence and fractal fluctuations (Stephen & Hajnal, 2011) link.springer.com/content/pdf/...link.springer.com 000
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 23/03/2025Question for academics: I often see academics speak about journal-specific readership. I'm curious how common it is for academics to follow journals. Personally, I don't think "hmm let me see what's out in journal x". 100
Reposted by David FarrokhTed McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 14/03/2025it is grimly hilarious that, given the immense, decades-long fetishization of "leadership" and "leadership skills" in business-oriented academia and politics, even unto the formation of leadership institutes, there should turn out to be no leaders in any positions of power 462194458
Reposted by David FarrokhKevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 08/03/2025What is cognition? www.wiringthebrain.com/2025/03/what... - some weekend musings on this tricky concept, with lots of help from all you Blueys!wiringthebrain.comWhat is cognition?“Cognition” is one of those terms that we use a lot, but which is actually rather hard to define. The question of what constitutes cognition... 118218
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 13/02/2025The problem is that cognitive science wants it both ways when it comes to the "hard core" of computation over representation. Strong empirical programs have been scoffed at and quickly dismissed because they didn't explain in these terms (see below) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....onlinelibrary.wiley.comSearching for General Principles in Cognitive Performance: Reply to CommentatorsThe commentators expressed concerns regarding the relevance and value of non-computational non-symbolic explanations of cognitive performance. But what counts as an “explanation” depends on the pre-t... 131
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 10/02/2025Question for academic bluesky: A lot of my work is on co-adaptation. Co-adaptive couplings include both competitive and cooperative couplings. I've used De Poel's taxonomy of couplings quite a bit but I'm trying to decide how to refer to the nature www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...frontiersin.orgFrontiers | Anisotropy and Antagonism in the Coupling of Two Oscillators: Concepts and Applications for Between-Person CoordinationCoupled oscillators provide a pertinent model approach to study between-person movement dynamics. While ample literature in this respect has considered the i... 110
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 07/02/2025Some excellent reflections on the different claims made by the FEP. link.springer.com/article/10.1...link.springer.comIs the brain an organ for free energy minimisation? - Philosophical StudiesTwo striking claims are advanced on behalf of the free energy principle (FEP) in cognitive science and philosophy: (i) that it identifies a condition of the possibility of existence for self-organisin... 010
Reposted by David FarrokhKate Nave @kathrynnave.eurosky.social · 05/02/2025The open access version of A Drive to Survive is now available to download for free! direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon... (If you've already read the preprint, I'd really appreciate a download of the official version... for the *metrics*) - also it has way less typos.direct.mit.eduA Drive to Survive: The Free Energy Principle and the Meaning of LifeHow the purposive behavior of living systems outstrips the constraints of the free energy principle.Since 2005, Karl Friston's proposal that the principle 13113
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 31/01/2025I'm very pleased to share the latest work from my PhD. I would like to thank all of my fantastic co-authors as well as the anonymous peer reviewers. doi.org/10.1016/j.ac...doi.orgRedirecting 131
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 30/01/2025Cognitive science moved away from the difficult questions without ever answering them. "Unfortunately, difficulties that are not faced do not simply go away" - Benoit Mandelbrot Turvey and Kugler (1984) pinpointing them here👇 #complex 020
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 29/01/2025"In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... 110
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 29/01/2025The second paper from my PhD should be out in acta psychologica in a few days! Also just finished a book chapter on the role of unit and scale in cognitive science. 040
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 29/01/2025I get more from this talk every time I listen to it www.youtube.com/live/Xb0sLm5...youtube.comYouTubeShare your videos with friends, family, and the world 030
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 27/01/2025The whole field of pan-computationalist AI is typically both boring and frustrating to read. It can be hard not to pre-judge stuff coming out of that vicinity. So this recent paper by Lehman et al was a pleasant surprise! The authors explore some fundamental arxiv.org/abs/2501.13075arxiv.orgEvolution and The Knightian Blindspot of Machine LearningThis paper claims that machine learning (ML) largely overlooks an important facet of general intelligence: robustness to a qualitatively unknown future in an open world. Such robustness relates to Kni... 100
Reposted by David FarrokhDan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 25/01/2025Starting a new thread to avoid unwittingly dragging people into my rant. This paper articulates 3 criteria for being an affordance and I think they are wildly wrong. It's high citations give me pause, but I really struggle to see where I'm wrong. academic.oup.com/jcmc/article...academic.oup.comExplicating Affordances: a Conceptual Framework for Understanding Affordances in Communication ResearchAbstract. This study aims to clarify inconsistencies regarding the term affordances by examining how affordances terminology is used in empirical research 251
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 26/01/2025“Psychology... is a second rate discipline. The main reason is that it does not stand in awe of its subject matter. Psychologists have too little respect for psychology.” -J. J. Gibson 010
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 24/01/2025Is embodied cognition just a fondness for dynamical systems theory and a distaste for representations? I often see opinions to this effect so I thought I would add a little historical context. A lot of critical issues were discussed much more clearly and explicitly in the 70s and 80s, imo 110
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 21/01/2025One thing I'm starting to recognize with discussions around evidence for ecological approaches in sport is that there are huge differences in how much of a "special science" people see sport as. E.g., how willing are you to consider more general findings about pure.au.dk/ws/portalfil... 120
Reposted by David FarrokhRob Sheridan @rob-sheridan.com · 15/01/2025I don’t want to make a fuckin account to use my toaster. I don’t want to fuckin subscribe to software. I don’t want to create a fuckin profile to watch TV. I don’t want to fuckin register my whatever to unlock whatever. I don’t want to download a fuckin app to access anything. Death to new logins 223115722780
Reposted by David FarrokhDio D. Vicen @diovicen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025I've always seen a tension between two poles when "cognition" is defined in neuro/psych/phil: General Pole - Cognition is all things providing knowledge/meaning of the world. Shopping-List Pole - Cognition is reasoning, decision-making, planning... I prefer the first one. They might be compatible. 062
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 14/01/2025Ok, just had a regrettable peek back at the other place and saw the prominent critic of ecological dynamics refer to uncontrolled manifold hypothesis as the "intake manifold hypothesis". A good summary of the state of things😂 @adw.bsky.social 120
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 13/01/2025Haven't said anything about this yet so thought I'd chime in/add a few thoughts to Andrew's nice overview of the Collins et al piece. 272
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 31/12/2024Anyone else remember when iTunes cooked with this gem in the free songs that came with it? www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rgp...youtube.comDin Din Wo - Habib KoiteYouTube video by stylistrokey 000
Reposted by David FarrokhWRONG or METAPHYSICAL IN NATURE @jsthrill.modphi.com · 20/12/2024If ChatGPT’s performance appears PhD worthy to you, you should not be supervising phds 712019
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 17/12/2024The high percentage of foreign players in NCAA soccer is commonly framed as a failure of the American youth system. In reality it has much more to do with the nature of the global talent pool in soccer compared to other sports. 131
Reposted by David FarrokhJon Mackey @jonmackey-irl.bsky.social · 15/12/2024Episode 7 of The Adaptive Coach Podcast- David Farrokh on Ecological Dynamics, a theory of human motor learning. open.spotify.com/episode/0JNA... 052
Reposted by David FarrokhSteven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 09/12/2024In today's lecture in my nonlinear dynamics and chaos course, I tried to give intuition for where chaos comes from. It's caused by repeated stretching and folding of phase space. 1331647
Reposted by David FarrokhAndrew Perfors @perfors.net · 09/12/2024There are few better feelings than when former students go off and do great things, and then write to you and let you know about them. Students: never wonder if you should get in touch with a former teacher or supervisor to share this kind of thing. It is one of the purest rewards there is. /1 526755
Reposted by David FarrokhThe People Geek @thepeoplegeek.bsky.social · 07/12/2024How heavy is the colour yellow? How bright is 20kg? 🤔 📖Johnston & Turvey in 1980 introduced a meta theory of learning. A highly generalisable meta theory that positioned learning as the ability to adapt to an ever changing environment. Nothing new right? 211
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 05/12/2024I'm not a meme-maker but there's one that needs to be made. IQ truthers will often say "IQ is the most robust finding in all of psychology, if you don't believe in it you shouldn't believe in any of it." We need that followed by some badass character responding "exactly, burn it all down." 020
Reposted by David FarrokhDavid Priess @davidpriess.bsky.social · 05/12/2024“Too many people don’t care what happens so long as it doesn’t happen to them.” —William Howard Taft 1239590
Reposted by David FarrokhIris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 01/12/2024We totally did not see this coming 🙄 www.businessinsider.com/agi-predicti...businessinsider.comThose bold AGI predictions are suddenly looking stretchedRecent signs suggest that the main approach to improving AI models has begun to slow down. 1639594
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 29/11/2024“The root of the matter is that the greatest stimulus of scientific discovery are its practical applications.” - Lewis Fry Richardson 111
Reposted by David FarrokhMr. Spock 🖖 @spockresists.bsky.social · 27/11/2024Eating too much cake is the sin of gluttony. However, eating too much pie is okay because the sin of pi is always zero. 🖖 1257482767618
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 25/11/2024A few reflections on coaching and culture. bigpicturesoccer.substack.com/p/local-cons...bigpicturesoccer.substack.comLocal Constraints on a Global GameAfter playing college soccer in New York, I began my career coaching in nearby Northern New Jersey. 041
David Farrokh @davidfarrokh.bsky.social · 24/11/2024Cognitive science will always be a contested field with diverse perspectives. Chemero does a great job recounting one of the major empirical clashes of 20th century cognitive science and offering some implications for abduction and deduction in science. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...onlinelibrary.wiley.comAbduction and Deduction in Dynamical Cognitive ScienceThis paper reviews the recent history of a subset of research in dynamical cognitive science as progressing from abduction to deduction to induction. To do so, I examine the development of a controve... 041
Reposted by David FarrokhSooz Kempner @soozuk.bsky.social · 24/11/202411-year-old me: "FIFA 98 is like I'm actually PLAYING as Beckham in the World Cup!" FIFA 98: 1846111217