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Dota Tianai Dong

@dotadotadota.bsky.social
266 followers 313 following 27 posts

Phd student at @MPI_NL@Donders, working on language and interaction in 🖥️ and 👶🧠 tianaidong.github.io

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Mariya Toneva @mtoneva.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
🚨 Two open postdoc positions in the ERC-funded project BrainAlign at the Max Planck Institute in Saarbruecken, Germany: position #1 on NeuroAI: postdocprogram.mpg.de/node/58480 position #2 on human-centered LLM evaluations: postdocprogram.mpg.de/node/58481 Application deadline: Oct 13, 2026
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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.
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Victoria Bosch @initself.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Are brains and artificial neural networks converging onto universal representations? There is a seductive idea making the rounds in NeuroAI / machine learning: train systems well enough, and they all converge on the same representation of reality (i.e. a unique world model). We have thoughts™ 1/n
cell.com
The Umwelt Representation Hypothesis: rethinking Universality
Recent studies reveal striking representational alignment between artificial neural networks (ANNs) and biological brains, leading to proposals that all sufficiently capable systems converge on univer...
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Mariya Toneva @mtoneva.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
This review began with the great Peter Hagoort asking after one of my talks: "What have we actually learned about the brain from brain–DNN comparisons?" 🔥 So eye-opening to survey NeuroAI work across vision and language--many questions have been answered in one field but remain open in the other!
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
1/5 Over a decade of comparing deep neural networks to the human brain—but what have we actually learned? Our new @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social Feature Review synthesizes a decade of brain–DNN comparisons, asking what they reveal about brain function across vision and language.
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
I’ll be presenting at 9:30 AM PST in Oral Session D: Linguistic Theories, Cognitive Modeling, and Psycholinguistics 2 at #ACL2026! Come say hi! 👋 And stay tuned for more of our work exploring language and language models in interactive worlds. 🚀
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Check out our #ACL2026 Oral paper 🗣️🤖 How do MLMs ground word usage through interactions with the physical and social world? Taking a classical human communication paradigm, we compare 7 MLMs with humans. doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.84
doi.org
Using Perspectival Words Is Harder Than Vocabulary Words for Humans —and Even More So for Multimodal Language Models
Dota Tianai Dong, Yifan Luo, Po-Ya Angela Wang, Asli Ozyurek, Paula Rubio-Fernandez. Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers). 20...
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Dongyan Lin @dongyanl1n.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
(1/n) Thrilled to share my first paper at Meta FAIR! "EgoBabyVLM: Benchmarking Cross-Modal Learning from Naturalistic Egocentric Video Data" 👶 Human infants learn language from sparse, noisy multimodal input. Today's VLMs can't. We built a benchmark + challenge to close that gap. 🧵
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Marcel Binz @marcelbinz.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Excited to announce that I'll be starting my own lab in Tübingen this October! Hiring at all levels: Postdoc, PhD & RA. Want to work on computational cognitive science at scale? Apply: core-cognition.github.io Reposts and shares much appreciated 🙏
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
What is the function of function words ⁉️Using head-mounted eye-tracking and machine learning, we show how tiny words like THIS and THAT actively power word learning 👶🤖. Check our preprint, we’d love to hear your feedback!!!
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Badr AlKhamissi @bkhmsi.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Good morning #ICLR2026 ☀️ The Re-Align workshop kicks off in under an hour! A full day on what we can actually do with representational alignment, from brains to language models to agents. Schedule in the thread 👇
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Khai Loong Aw @khaiaw.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Children exhibit visual understanding from limited experience, orders of magnitude less than our best models. We introduce the Zero-shot World Model (ZWM). Trained on a single child's visual experience, BabyZWM rapidly generates competence across diverse benchmarks with no task-specific training. 🧵
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Kamila Maria Jozwik @kamilajozwik.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
postdoc and PhD positions in visual cognitive computational neuroscience in my lab at the University of Cambridge kamilajozwik.com/join_lab.html
kamilajozwik.com
Kamila Jozwik - Join lab
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micha heilbron @mheilbron.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
📢 PhD position in the NeuroAI of Language Why can LLMs predict brain activity so well? We're hiring a PhD student to find out -- AI interpretability meets neuroimaging Deadline March 20 Please RT 🙏 👇 mpi.nl/career-education/vacancies/vacancy/fully-funded-4-year-phd-position-neuroai-language
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Stefano Sarao Mannelli @stefsm.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
📢 We’re now accepting applications for the 2026 School on Analytical Connectionism dedicated this year to Language Acquisition. 📍 Gothenburg, Sweden 🗓️ August 17–28, 2026 ☠️ Apply by April 17! 🔗 analytical-connectionism.net/school/2026/ 👇 Meet the experts joining us this summer!
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
🔥🔥🔥
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Jennifer Hu @jennhu.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
I wrote a short article on AI Model Evaluation for the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science 📕👇 Hope this is helpful for anyone who wants a super broad, beginner-friendly intro to the topic! Thanks @mcxfrank.bsky.social and @asifamajid.bsky.social for this amazing initiative!
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Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Get ready to submit your 8-pagers!
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Missed the Re-Align hackathon at ICLR or CCN 2025 — or want more? 🙂 Re-Align is back at ICLR 2026 🚀 Beyond the paper track, we’re launching a persistent shared-task challenge + challenge paper track. Can’t wait to see your creative & critical takes on representational alignment 🔥🥳
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Erin Grant @eringrant.me · 06/12/2025
Thrilled to start 2026 as faculty in Psych & CS @ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
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Donders Institute @dondersinst.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
🌱 The Donders Research Stimulation Funds give early-career scientists the freedom to build something new from the bottom up like the #Neuro-#AI #Focus #Group. A new round of the Donders Research Stimulation Funds is open until December 1st. 👇 www.ru.nl/en/donders-i...
ru.nl
Donders’ Research Stimulation Funds: call for new collaborations and focus groups | Radboud University
At the Donders Institute, new ideas often begin at the crossroads of disciplines. Through its Research Stimulation Funds, the institute encourages researchers to explore collaborations.
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Lukas Muttenthaler @lukasmut.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
🥳 I am incredibly humbled and grateful to share that our work, "Aligning machine and human visual representations across abstraction levels," has been published today in @nature.com ⬇️
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Victoria Bosch @initself.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Introducing CorText: a framework that fuses brain data directly into a large language model, allowing for interactive neural readout using natural language. tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬 1/n
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Julian Jara-Ettinger @julianje.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Our paper in annual review of dev psych is out! It's a big-picture look at the development of social cognition from a computational perspective: compdevlab.yale.edu/docs/2025/an...
compdevlab.yale.edu
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Mariya Toneva @mtoneva.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
So excited and honored to receive an ERC Starting Grant for the project BrainAlign!! BrainAlign will bring LLMs closer to human understanding by directly aligning them with the human brain. Stay tuned for our findings, and multiple postdoc and PhD openings in the coming years!
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Erin Grant @eringrant.me · 19/08/2025
I’m recruiting committee members for the Technical Program Committee at #CCN2026. Please apply if you want to help make submission, review & selection of contributed work (Extended Abstracts & Proceedings) more useful for everyone! 🌐 Helps to have: programming/communications/editorial experience.
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Shahab Bakhtiari @shahabbakht.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Nice write-up on the top-performing models of Algonauts 2025 competition by @humanscotti.bsky.social paulscotti.substack.com/p/insights-f... None of the teams trained the models from scratch, mainly relied on pre-trained foundation models, and ensembling seemed to be the key ingredient. 🧠🤖
paulscotti.substack.com
Insights from the Algonauts 2025 Winners
What did we learn from a contest to predict fMRI brain activity to movie viewing?
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Iris Groen @irisgroen.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Somewhat exhausted but very happily and proudly looking back at #CCN2025 & ready to pass the torch to NEW Amsterdam for #CCN2026 🥳Please fill out the survey 👇 to give input to the organizing team led by @neurograce.bsky.social and @toddgureckis.bsky.social @NYU!
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Join us now for a collaborative hackathon 🤗
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Erin Grant @eringrant.me · 13/08/2025
Our #CCN2025 GAC debate w/ @gretatuckute.bsky.social, Gemma Roig (www.cvai.cs.uni-frankfurt.de), Jacqueline Gottlieb (gottlieblab.com), Klaus Oberauer, @mschrimpf.bsky.social &‬ @brittawestner.bsky.social asks: 📊 What benchmarks are useful for cognitive science? 💭 2025.ccneuro.org/gac
Speakers and organizers of the GAC debate. Time and location of the GAC debate: 5 PM in Room C1.03.
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Greta Tuckute @gretatuckute.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
What are the organizing dimensions of language processing? We show that voxel responses during comprehension are organized along 2 main axes: processing difficulty & meaning abstractness—revealing an interpretable, topographic representational basis for language processing shared across individuals
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
This year, we're organizing travel and caregiver awards to help make CCN 2025 more accessible for those who might otherwise find it difficult to attend. If this kind of support would make a difference for you—or someone you know—we’d love for you to apply or pass the word along 🙌
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Limor Raviv 🐘🤗🦒🍄🦄 @limorraviv.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Interested in the evolution of human language and in understanding the pressures that shape languages today? Come do a PhD with me! Fully funded PhD position available in my group @mpi-nl.bsky.social, application deadline June 2nd: www.mpi.nl/career-educa...
mpi.nl
Fully funded 4-year PhD position in Language Evolution | Max Planck InstituteMax Planck Institute for psycholinguistics
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
That’s a wrap for Re²-Align 🤖 🧠👤 at #ICLR2025 🦁🥳— thanks for being part of it! We’re probably just getting started… see you all at Re³-Align🌷😉
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Siddharth Suresh @siddsuresh97.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
✨ Come join us at the Second edition of the Re-Align workshop @iclr_conf ! 🚀🧠 The workshop explores the fascinating question of how artificial and biological systems align in their representations of the world. #ReAlign #ICLR2025
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
🔥🔥🔥
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Mariya Toneva @mtoneva.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
One week left to apply! We'll have so much exciting data for projects: for example, neuropixel data from humans while they listen to sentences courtesy of @shaileejain.bsky.social, Eddie Chang, and his group.
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Shervin Safavi @neuroprinciplist.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Re-posting is appreciated: We have a fully funded PhD position in CMC lab @cmc-lab.bsky.social (at @tudresden_de). You can use forms.gle/qiAv5NZ871kv... to send your application and find more information. Deadline is April 30. Find more about CMC lab: cmclab.org and email me if you have questions.
forms.gle
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Stefano Sarao Mannelli @stefsm.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Happy to announce that the Analytical Connectionism summer school is back! This year we'll dive into "bias" across ML, Neuroscience, and Psychology. 📆 Aug 25-Sep 5 🗺️ London, UK 🌐 www.analytical-connectionism.net/school/2025/ Applications are open!
analytical-connectionism.net
2025 School on Analytical Connectionism
A 2-week summer course hosted at University College London on analytical tools for probing neural networks and higher-level cognition.
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Final Call for Submissions! ⏳ Don't miss your chance to present at the Re-Align Workshop @iclr-conf.bsky.social ! We welcome submissions from ICML, CogSci, and beyond.
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Erin Grant @eringrant.me · 21/01/2025
Last year, we funded 250 authors and other contributors to attend #ICLR2024 in Vienna as part of this program. If you or your organization want to directly support contributors this year, please get in touch! Hope to see you in Singapore at #ICLR2025!
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Brian Cheung @thisismyhat.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Learn about aligning minds and machines. Call for papers is live now—join us at @iclr_conf #ICLR2025. representational-alignment.github.io/2025/
https://representational-alignment.github.io/2025/
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Dota Tianai Dong @dotadotadota.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
🚨Call for Papers🚨 The Re-Align Workshop is coming back to #ICLR2025 Our CfP is up! Come share your representational alignment work at our interdisciplinary workshop at @iclr-conf.bsky.social Deadline is 11:59 pm AOE on Feb 3rd representational-alignment.github.io
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Michael Hanna @michaelwhanna.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Sentences are partially understood before they're fully read. How do LMs incrementally interpret their inputs? In a new paper, @amuuueller.bsky.social and I use mech interp tools to study how LMs process structurally ambiguous sentences. We show LMs rely on both syntactic & spurious features! 1/10
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CogCompNeuro @cogcompneuro.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
For #CCN2025 in Amsterdam, we will, for the first time, have conference proceedings that include both full length peer-reviewed papers and the traditional 2-page track! Deadlines for submissions: 17th February for full papers ( abstract only; full paper on 20th FEB) & 10th April for 2 pagers.
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Mariya Toneva @mtoneva.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
🚨 Open postdoc position on effective human-AI collaboration, joint with the groups of @svenapel.bsky.social and Adish Singla 🚨 Join our exciting collaboration involving ML, cogsci, and software engineering! More info here: mtoneva.com/Postdoc_ad_2... Apply by Jan 31, 2025.
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