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Stephen Emrich

@emrich.bsky.social
285 followers 143 following 142 posts

Professor of Psychology, Brock University. Cycling. Sailing. Food. Beer. Man about town.

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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The American mind could never comprehend trying to find a beard trimmer in a Canadian Tire.
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Uhhhh...
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Blake Richards @tyrellturing.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This thread is good to read. In my experience, what @michaelhendricks.bsky.social is describing here is not the situation faced by all labs in Canada, but it does describe the situation faced by far too many. And, it's all down to one simple thing: the feds don't find the tri-councils enough!
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Derek Arnold @visnerd.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
This is our summary of where we think the field of Aphantasia research stands. Congenital aphantasia: what we (think we) know, what we thought we knew but were mistaken about, and what we don't know. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Congenital aphantasia: what we (think we) know, what we thought we knew but were mistaken about, and what we don't know
Congenital Aphantasia initially described a lifelong inability to visualise. But it is now understood to manifest as imaginative inabilities that can …
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Jon Bois @jonbois.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
whenever someone on here complains that an independent creator is charging for their content i’m like “oh there’s a republican who doesn’t know it yet”
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Pieter Barkema @pieterbarkema.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
What you see right now is not a livestream, but is delayed & edited by your brain 🧠. The brain uses a short time buffer to rewrite what you thought you saw using info that comes in later (postdiction). We study how (7T fMRI, retinotopy). Read our preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 👀 (1/N)
biorxiv.org
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Rhodri Cusack @rhodricusack.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
We're hiring! 2 postdocs + 3 PhD students to join InfantNeuroAI at Trinity College Dublin: awake infant fMRI & OPM-MEG, plus computational models of how infants learn. Aims: understand infant visual cognition, infant neuroimaging methods, more energy-efficient learning 🧵 www.cusacklab.org/vacancies
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Icelandic Vision Lab @icevislab.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
🚨Paper alert🚨 Here we try to tackle the tricky problem of measuring the inherently private experiences of visual imagery. Now out and open access in Cortex: doi.org/10.1016/j.co... @heidasigurdar.bsky.social @arnig.bsky.social #imagery #visualimagery #visionscience #psychology #cogsci #aphantasia
doi.org
Redirecting
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Justin Ling @justinling.ca · 27/08/2026
Today's @xkcd.com
It's a stickman holding a hammer, lifting up his leg, and saying:

"Listen up, leg. I've been sending you rich, oxygenated blood for years, while you send me worthless used-up blood with no oxygen. Time to teach you a lesson about not ripping me off!"

It is captioned: tariffs
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Garry @thegmcconnachie.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This is why Dolly Parton will be remembered and loved ❤️📚
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Coming to the hive-mind to crowdsource course content again: can anyone recommend an interesting/important review/perspective paper published recently that would be good for a graduate seminar with mixed cognition/neuroscience folks. Bonus points if it is about AI.
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Les Perreaux @perreaux.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This is a decent representation of the past five minutes but I don't know why they totally skipped past the threats to our sovereignty that set the national mood.
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Heida Maria Sigurdardottir @heidasigurdar.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
So happy to be back :) Please note the doctoral student opportunity! Reposts very welcome. #visionscience #psychscisky #neuroskyence #cogsci
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
When you wear denim jeans with a denim jacket and denim shirt, you create a very unique look. This look is known as The Canadian Tuxedo....but why? It all began in the 1950s in Vancouver. This is the story. 📸 Wikicommons (Erky-Nagy Tibor) 🧵 1/7
A young man with a large afro hairstyle and sunglasses, dressed in a denim jacket, jeans, and brown boots, posing with one hand on his hip and the other on a yellow and black motorcycle in a grassy rural field with trees and buildings in the background.
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Christoph Strauch @cstrauch.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Now final in @elife.bsky.social: #Synesthetes really do 'see' when reporting colors while reading (typeface gray) numbers: pupils change according to the perceived colors' brightness - if a synesthete sees a bright yellow, the pupils become smaller. elifesciences.org/articles/110...
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
I'm really excited to share the results of a new study that @bjbalas.bsky.social and I have been working on this summer. This project was a bit of a labor of love. If you're interested in #chess, mental imagery, #aphantasia, or the value of a sabbatical, this is a 🧵 for you: 1/?
static.klipy.com
Clever Cat Plays Chess
ALT: Clever Cat Plays Chess
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The Ronettes Pickering @stoatie.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
People who keep pointing out that golf courses use as much water as data centres as some sort of defence of data centres drastically underestimate the amount we also hate golf.
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 16/07/2026
calling all researchers who collect data from humans 🧠🧪 we are running a very brief survey (<1 min) about jsPsych, the software ecosystem for browser-based data collection. if you use jsPsych, or if you collect data with any other software, please fill it out at tinyurl.com/jspsych-census!
I am writing on behalf of the leadership of jsPsych, the software ecosystem for browser-based data collection used in experiments and surveys from many labs worldwide.

It has been difficult for us to figure out how widespread jsPsych usage is, because the software is freely available online and we do not collect any information about downloads, users, experiments posted online, etc. While the software has been cited in thousands of articles, jsPsych usage is likely more widespread than those citations imply, because not every project using jsPsych leads to a citation, and because there are also often substantial delays between actual jsPsych usage and a publication. As such, we are conducting a very brief census of jsPsych users.

If you collect data from humans using jsPsych or any other type of software, we would appreciate your filling out a very brief survey (<1 min) at tinyurl.com/jspsych-census. This will help us to understand how many people, labs, and institutions are current or former users of jsPsych, information that will help support the long-term sustainability of the jsPsych ecosystem.

We would also appreciate it if you could circulate this message to your lab, your department listserv, and your collaborators, to help ensure that it reaches as many members of the research community as possible. The survey is being distributed by Josh de Leeuw, Melissa Kline Struhl, and myself. Please contact me (sam@auckland.ac.nz) off-list if you have any questions about it.
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Acting the Fulemin @actingthefulemin.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
you can't boil everything wrong down to one issue but i think this might be a pretty good candidate for The Issue nonetheless
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Blake Richards @tyrellturing.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
1/2) Please let's all remember that GWT is a theoy of access consciousness (what is available for verbal reasoning) and not phenomenal consciousness (subjective experience): philpapers.org/rec/BLOOAC Obviously, in this study access consciousness is literally what they test in the LLMs. #NeuroAI 🧪
philpapers.org
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BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
When I explain to peeps how much we do in research labs for how few $$, they simply don’t believe me. I once explained it to a famous person from Pixar, he looked me square in the eye and said “You mean all the cancer, vision, and Alzheimer’s grants work that way? You’ve gotta be %#ing kidding me!”
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Ben Balas @bjbalas.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
New #Science of #Chess post up on Lichess - this time I'm writing about a recent study suggesting that examining success may be more important to improvement than examining failures OTB. Enjoy! #PsychSciSky #ChessSky
lichess.org
Science of Chess: Let your Brilliance be your guide
Improvers are often told to focus on learning from failure, but studying success might be more useful.
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Has Zotero been enshittified? I've never had so many issues importing references.
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Are you a #chess player? If so, you can participate in a scientific study of visual imagery in chess for a chance to win a $50 USD gift card! You can find all the details here: www.emrichlab.com/wp/participa... @bjbalas.bsky.social
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Icelandic Vision Lab @icevislab.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
The dangers of a Necker cube #visionscience #psychscisky
Shower gone wrong
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Are you a #chess player? If so, you can participate in a scientific study of visual imagery in chess for a chance to win a $50 USD gift card! You can find all the details here: www.emrichlab.com/wp/participa... @bjbalas.bsky.social
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Mariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Which factors are more vs. less important in predicting memory? We systematically investigated the contributions of image memorability, valence, arousal, attention, and test delay. Image memorability was the strongest predictor of memory. Proud of this work led by @hartwakeland.bsky.social!
osf.io
OSF
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
I'm missing #VSS2026, the first one I've missed since I think 2007. I don't want a pat on the back or sympathy. I also don't want to see how much fun everyone is having. As far as I'm concerned nothing happened this year and I don't want evidence of anyone having fun or science happening.
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Natalie Christie Peluso 🧠 @nataliepeluso.com · 14/05/2026
I suggested to my students this morning that learning helps make them more interesting people They were genuinely surprised. As if they had never considered that intellect might have a social glaze
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Karen Campbell @karampbell.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
New paper looking at age differences in the neural correlates of attentional selection & distractor suppression, led by @retorresh.bsky.social with @emrich.bsky.social 🧵 #PsychSciSky #Neuroskyence doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
doi.org
Redirecting
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I've received at least 4 review requests in the past week. I also fell for a simulated phishing scam that was an email posing as a head hunter/recruiter. These are two independent facts and not at all related.
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Another demo I made in less time than it took me to drink my morning coffee: www.emrichlab.com/wp/wp-conten...
emrichlab.com
Cone Vision & Colour Mixing
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Inspired by @timmytimmytimmytim.bsky.social, I made this in a matter of minutes using Claude. While I have many reservations about AI, this is undoubtedly rad. Perhaps we need to compile these for some kind of open source S&P text? @bjbalas.bsky.social www.emrichlab.com/wp/wp-conten...
emrichlab.com
V1 Population Coding Demo
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Micah @rincewind.run · 06/04/2026
bluesky is and has always been a posting retirement home for elder millennials
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tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 29/03/2026
how cool would it be if we had different words for "incredibly computationally intense and kinda troubling but startlingly effective coding tools seeing massive uptake", "dumb UI shit nobody asked for polluting everything", "cheating helper", and "computer program for identifying bird calls or wev"
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
My partner is just sitting in the living room watching Angine de Poitrine videos.
media.tenor.com
a gif of a person with a triangle on their back is being made on make a gif.com
ALT: a gif of a person with a triangle on their back is being made on make a gif.com
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I love this little tidbit I found on the EEGLAB website regarding why MATLAB and not Python:
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 24/02/2026
I understand why chatbot cheating happens but every time I read about it I want to gently remind everyone that the point of schoolwork is not for the submission to exist. Teachers are not just greedy for more essays or solved equations. The point is to do the work WITH YOUR OWN BRAIN, FOR LEARNING.
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Yong Hoon Chung @yonghoonchung.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
New preprint with @SamJung @timbrady.bsky.social and @violastoermer.bsky.social: osf.io/preprints/ps.... Here we uncover what might be driving the “meaningfulness benefit” in visual working memory. Studies show that real objects are remembered better in VWM tasks than abstract stimuli. But why? 1/
osf.io
OSF
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Thomas Kesteman🦠🧫🔬🌏 @tomk.eurosky.social · 08/02/2026
Here comes the big AI slop wave of 'scientific' manuscripts!
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
the magic of the Muppets is that there are two fourth walls. they constantly break the one that reminds the audience they are performers. they NEVER break the one that reminds the audience they are puppets. this dynamic is the key to their entire comedy style
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 08/02/2026
free video for intro lectures on auditory perception
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Steve "Dangle" Glynn @stevedangle20.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
After more than three hours and six minutes of game time, the Leafs go to the powerplay!!!
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Saving....for reasons
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
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Derek Powazek @fraying.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
I was present for the birth of the web, the explosion of personal sites, and the blogging revolution, and you know what we never had to do? Beg people to use our shit.
irishtimes.com
AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns
Big tech boss tells delegates at Davos that broader global use is essential if technology is to deliver lasting growth
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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
You can picture how it must have felt in there. Four fucking Nazis with their shit-eating grins squeezing their fat asses into a booth at a family-owned Mexican place poisoning the entire room with their smug impunity. Desecrating a place of community www.welcometohellworld.com/we-must-love...
Clearly there's no shortage of horrors to choose from of late but for some reason this one in particular has really chilled me to the fucking bone. Last week a group of pigs had lunch at a Mexican restaurant called El Tapatio in Willmar, Minnesota. "Staff at the restaurant were frightened," an eye witness told the Star Tribune. You can surely imagine that they were. You can picture exactly how it must have felt in there. Four fucking Nazis with their shit-eating grins squeezing their fat asses into a booth at a family-owned Mexican place poisoning the entire room with their smug impunity. Desecrating a place of community. There's one like it where you live too. In almost every town in the country. We love Mexican food here so much.

They forced these people to prepare their food and to serve them all the while knowing that they were going to ruin their lives after. With full bellies. The threat hanging in the air. Of course they did ruin them. They arrested a dishwasher and the two owners a few hours later after the restaurant closed.

Can you imagine being made to wash the dishes used to feed the men who are waiting to kidnap you or worse? Cooking and plating their meals? I wonder if they put the same care they usually do into it or if their shaking hands made the work suffer?
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Karen Campbell @karampbell.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Opportunity to move to Canada. 🍁 The Lifespan Institute @brocku.ca is looking to hire a Canada Excellence Research Chair In Healthy Development Across the Lifespan. More info in the job ad (salary negotiable). brocku.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/brocku_caree....
brocku.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Healthy Development Across the Lifespan at the rank of Professor or Associate Professor, Tenured
This position is part of the BUFA (Employee Group) Brock University is located on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples, many of whom continue to live and work here to...
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Karen Campbell @karampbell.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
#psychscisky #neuroskyence #development #aging #lifespan #mentalhealth #cognition #physiology #kinesiology
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