iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Love the new plans for the daycare center. Space for 200 kids, eh? Pretty impressive! Oh, how many parking spots should we add? Well, let’s see, we couldn’t need more than... eight, right? You’re right, you’re right, make it seven.

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Sheina Lew-Levy @sheinalew.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Hey fieldworkers! Do you need documentation (health & safety protocols, codes of conduct, feedback forms)? Do you have documentation that you think could help others do better fieldwork, but don’t know where to share it? We’ve got you covered in our new Fieldwork Repo! osf.io/4h7bu/overview

osf.io

OSF

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Are people bad randomizers in general, or only in some contexts? In our new paper, now in press at Cognition, we found that 'socializing' randomization — in this case by pitting people against each other in a live game of Battleship — dramatically improved randomization behavior 👇🏼

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Sami Yousif @samiyousif.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Two special things about this project: (1) This is our first project using a live, interactive game. (2) This is our first (hopefully not last!) collab. with @dorsaamir.bsky.social who was so awesome to work with. Thanks @chazfirestone.bsky.social for letting us borrow @talboger.bsky.social!

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tal boger @talboger.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We often say that humans struggle to produce random sequences… but what if that's not the whole story? In a new paper, @dorsaamir.bsky.social, @samiyousif.bsky.social & I show that context matters (a lot!). When playing strategic games, humans can produce near-random behavior osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Hey folks, I'll be considering PhD applications for the 2026-27 cycle over here at Duke Psych. To learn more about the lab, check us out at www.mindandculturelab.com and/or read through this short FAQ for prospective students: www.mindandculturelab.com/faq

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Have we considered that the baby shoes, never worn were just an impractical gift from the in-laws?

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Chris Krupenye @chriskrupenye.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

🚨 PhD position in human, nonhuman primate, and/or dog cognition! I am thrilled to be reviewing applicants this year for a new PhD student to join the Social & Cognitive Origins Group in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins @jhu.edu @jhuartssciences.bsky.social 1/

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This is a real photo from 1913. It hasn’t been colorized. It was made using a technique called the Autochrome Lumière which captured true color using microscopic dyed starch grains as color filters, decades before color film existed. Pretty incredible, no? More below 👇

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noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Not my problem

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

✨A fun little reminder for everyone✨: Future You is not magically less busy. Future You is actually just as busy as Current You + also hates Past You for all the extra stuff you signed them up for.

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Shoutout to @alissarivero.bsky.social for not just running a great study with dyads of 2&3 year olds, but also running them in _triads_! (Quite an undertaking, as any developmentalist could tell you.) Check out her cool results on the emergence of decision coordination here👇🏼

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Alissa Rivero @alissarivero.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

My first paper (with Jared Vasil and Mike Tomasello) is officially published! 🎉 Question: When can children coordinate decisions with each other in groups? Answer: Age 3! Read it here: academic.oup.com/chidev/advan... 🧵 (1/6)

academic.oup.com

Two- and three-year-olds coordinate decisions in dyads and triads

Abstract. Even young toddlers coordinate actions with a partner. But coordinating choices or decisions is more challenging, particularly in multi-party gro

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Elise Cutts @elisecutts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Writing this story was so unbelievably fun. And not only bc @mcxfrank.bsky.social says quotes like this: “Kids’ experience looks really radically different than we thought ... They’ve got these little short arms, so the objects are, like, right in front of them. And they live in a forest of knees.”

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Many Minds podcast @manymindspod.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Childhood is a special time, but it doesn't always look the same from one place to the next. How do children's lives vary from culture to culture? And why? A listener favorite from our archive, featuring @dorsaamir.bsky.social and @sheinalew.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/varieties-of...

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Benjamin Pitt @benjaminpitt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

New paper finally out in @NatureComms with E. Leib, D. O’Shaughnessy, C. Gallardo, @sferrigno.bsky.social, and @spiantado.bsky.social. 📝Children across cultures discover the latent algorithms that structure what they see, even without instruction, feedback, or formal schooling.🧵 tinyurl.com/4a238m2d

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

A little example of children's peer culture in the wild: my 5-year-old son and his classmates worked together to make these (truly stunning) pieces of art. I asked to take them home & frame them. To quote Picasso: "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

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Melissa Kibbe @levelsof.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

New from me and Alan Leslie! We got the band back together to lay out our view on object representations in the infant mind: non-discursive indexes that operate within a language of thought, & which get development of a more complex object concept off the ground www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

when mailing lists think they can hide their little 'unsubscribe' button

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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes @dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Children drive all sorts of things, including me, to distraction; but they also shape culture. Important theory piece.

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Remi van Trijp @remivantrijp.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Any model of cultural transmission that implies a sender and a receiver vastly underestimates the role of active (re)construction. Great to see more articles like this making it into print

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

When we consider children in cultural evolution, we tend to cast them as recipients of adult culture. In our BBS target article, @sheinalew.bsky.social & I argued there's more: through 'peer cultures', children actively drive cultural adaptation. Our final paper + a rich set of responses is out now!

cambridge.org

Children as agents of cultural adaptation | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core

Children as agents of cultural adaptation - Volume 49

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

FIFA bending the rules to give the US team an edge? Ladies and gentlemen, American soccer has finally arrived.

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Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Most of the statistical tests you learned in stats class — t-test, ANOVA, correlation — are actually special cases of a single thing: linear regression. Ch 7 of Experimentology argues that thinking in models, not tests, is more flexible and a better foundation for theory. 🧵 experimentology.io

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tal boger @talboger.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Complexity is ubiquitous in the world around us. But different stimuli are complex for different reasons. Does the mind nevertheless represent a ‘unified’ notion of complexity across domains? In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show the answer is: yes! osf.io/preprints/ps...

Complex and simple stimuli across a variety of domains. Even though these stimuli are complex for different reasons, we suggest the mind unifies them by their complexity. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/p9xe3_v1

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Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

When I will respond to your email

Histogram peaked at 3 minutes and 2 weeks since sent

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Eli Stark-Elster @eselster.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

For 99% of human history, children were free to roam their environments at will. No longer. So kids are roaming online worlds instead. Today in Psyche, I write about how the Internet became the last refuge for childhood freedom, and why that might be okay. psyche.co/ideas/have-o...

psyche.co

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Simon Hammann @simonhammann.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

It's time for my favorite manuscript submission ritual! Scrolling through every single ManuscriptCentral login I've ever used in my career in a futile, fifteen-minute attempt to gain entry before I inevitably give up & reset my password to a new one which will also be lost to the sands of time.

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Association for Psychological Science @psychscience.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Meet @dorsaamir.bsky.social, director of the Mind & Culture Lab at Duke University & 2026 APS Spence Award recipient! #Psychology Learn about her research, her career, & her advice for the upcoming generation of psychological scientists: www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Hyperfixation of the week: there is apparently a field called “forensic hairdressing” where people try to reconstruct ancient hair techniques. Below is one from Ancient Rome ca. 120 AD. The leading figure is a hairstylist-turned-archaeologist named Janet Stephens who also does video tutorials. Cool!

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I will never forgive AI for taking the em-dash away from me. I was — gratuitously — using it first!

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Roope Kaaronen @roopekaaronen.net · 12/03/2026

Did you know that the spinning top is one of the most common forms of traditional play worldwide? Our research found tops to be nearly universal across human cultures. Wherever you come from, your ancestors probably spun tops. New preprint: Top of the World osf.io/preprints/so... Thread:

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

What does it mean for culture to “shape” cognition? In our new TiCS paper, @benjaminpitt.bsky.social & I offer a typology of four possible effects: culture can Privilege one cognitive process over others, Prune out disfavored ones, Produce new ones, or have no effect. www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 11/03/2026

"...it remains unclear how exactly culture ‘shapes’ cognition. The study outlines four pathways: culture can privilege one cognitive process over another, prune out disfavored processes, produce new processes, or have no effect on cognition." www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

cell.com

What does it mean for culture to ‘shape’ cognition?

Human culture and cognition vary widely across groups, but how exactly culture ‘shapes’ cognition remains underspecified. In this review, we outline four qualitatively different pathways by which cult...

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Quite honored to be included in this amazing cohort of 2026 APS Janet Taylor Spence Award recipients. Grateful to APS for the recognition, and to the mentors & collaborators & friends who make it all possible.

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koenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Fascinating research by @dorsaamir.bsky.social et al finds marked variation in 4 cooperative behaviours—fairness, trustworthiness, forgiveness, and honesty—among children aged 5-13 in five societies, which converges toward the societal norms in middle childhood: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

People form beliefs not only as individual agents, but as members of social groups. Children (4-6 years old) who belonged to a group were more convinced by evidence that supported their ingroup’s belief (and were less convinced by evidence that opposed their ingroup): www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Fun etymology fact (which is maybe obvious but I just learned!)— The word “galaxy” comes from the Greek “galaksias” meaning “milk” (same root as “lactose”). The Greeks thought our galaxy looked like a ring of spilled milk, which is also why we (& others) call it the Milky Way, but metaphors vary!

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Balazs Aczel @balazsaczel.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Our lab has the capacity to test ~500 uni students each semester If you’re a researcher in cognitive psychology or metascience and need data collection support, we’d love to collaborate. We can help collect high-quality data from a large student sample. Get in touch to discuss potential projects!

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Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

If you work at the intersection of computational neuroscience and machine learning, consider applying for this postdoc position (January 2027 start date): academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15868 An opportunity to work with a great group of people across Harvard, MIT, and UC Berkeley.

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Thrilled to share our latest paper, out now in Science Advances! We explored the development of cooperative behaviors — fairness, trustworthiness, forgiveness, & honesty — across five societies, culturally contextualizing them & seeing how they correlate. (1/5) www.science.org/doi/full/10....

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joshuaconfer.bsky.social @joshuaconfer.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Why do otherwise rational people disagree about the same evidence? Our new paper finds that group membership is a deeply rooted influence on how we form beliefs, leading even preschoolers to bias their evidential standards and form inaccurate beliefs. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

A fascinating & damning exposé on Oliver Sacks, author of “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”. It turns out, by his own admission in his private journals, that much of his work was akin to “fairy tales” — based on “lies”, “falsifications”, & “fabrications”. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

newyorker.com

Oliver Sacks Put Himself Into His Case Studies. What Was the Cost?

The scientist was famous for linking healing with storytelling. Sometimes that meant reshaping patients’ reality.

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