Sign in

Abdellah Fourtassi

@fourtassi.bsky.social
359 followers 322 following 61 posts

Multimodal Communication and Learning in Social Interactions (CoCoDev team). Associate Professor of Computer/Cognitive Science at Aix-Marseille University. afourtassi.github.io

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Dirk Gütlin @gutlin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
📣📣📣 Preprint Alert! 📣📣📣 Do predictive processes shape brain representations during learning? We investigated the effect of Predictive Coding by training identical recurrent networks with different optimization procedures and then comparing them to human EEG under the same visual learning task.
Overview figure of our learning paradigm, architecture, and analysis procedure.
15113
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
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
16651
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 10/09/2026
How does the architecture of a city shape the way we think, talk, and draw space? And how do spatial conventions travel across cultural generations? New paper in Open Mind, spearheaded by Z Alinam (w J Nölle, C Vesper, K Tylén & me): doi.org/10.1162/OPMI.a.380 🧵 1/
doi.org
When the City Speaks: How Urban Form Shapes the Cultural Transmission of Spatial Conceptualization
Abstract. How do urban environments shape the way people conceptualize and communicate space? Using a cultural transmission experiment in virtual reality, we asked participants to navigate one of two ...
25022
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The hippocampus sits at the interface of perception & memory, allowing us to link past, present, & future through its role in generating predictions. Excited to share this theme issue in @royalsociety.org's Philosophical Transactions B, co-edited with @barense.bsky.social & @mariamaly.bsky.social
royalsocietypublishing.org
Volume 381 Issue 1954 | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | The Royal Society
Influential themed journal issues across the life sciences.
211753
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Marianne de Heer Kloots @mdhk.net · 03/07/2026
Now out in BBS, as commentary on @futrell.bsky.social & @kmahowald.bsky.social's "How linguistics learned to stop worrying and love the language models"! Humans learn much of spoken language structure from speech (not text), & we can study models that do the same. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Cover page of our commentary.

Title: Linguists should learn to love speech-based deep learning models
Authors: Marianne de Heer Kloots, Paul Boersma, Willem Zuidema

Abstract: Futrell and Mahowald present a useful framework bridging technology-oriented deep learning systems and explanation-oriented linguistic theories. Unfortunately, the target article's focus on generative text-based Large Language Models (LLMs) fundamentally limits fruitful interactions with linguistics, as many interesting questions on human language fall outside what is captured by written text. We argue that audio-based deep learning models can and should play a crucial role.
1286
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Grzegorz Chrupała @grzegorz.chrupala.me · 05/09/2026
Accepted to EMNLP 2026: "Beyond Decodability: Reconstructing Language Model Representations with an Encoding Probe". Probing asks what you can decode from a model's activations. We reverse it: reconstruct activations from interpretable features, then ablate to rank them. arxiv.org/abs/2605.00607
arxiv.org
Beyond Decodability: Reconstructing Language Model Representations with an Encoding Probe
Probing is widely used to study which features can be decoded from language model representations. However, the common decoding probe approach has two limitations that we aim to solve with our new enc...
1111
Abdellah Fourtassi @fourtassi.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Happy to share our new paper: "Scaffolding Early Dialogue: A Unified Account of Response Contingency in Child–Caregiver Interaction" with @abhiagrawal.bsky.social and Benoît Favre. Question: How can infants participate in dialogue while their linguistic and cognitive abilities are still immature? 🧵
1102
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Lucas Benjamin @lucaswbenjamin.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Our new paper is now out in @pnas.org! How does the (baby) brain extract regularities from sequences from what-follows-what up to large-scale network structure? What if it all came from a single mechanism? www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
15216
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Neil Burgess @neilburgess10.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Great to see Ellie Spens’ model out! Interplay btwn episodic (hippo) & semantic (neocort’l) systems, in encoding, consolidatn, recall & problem solving with sequential info, as compressive retrieval-augmented generation. Inc gist-based distortion in stories & inference www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Hippocampo-neocortical interaction as compressive retrieval-augmented generation - Nature Communications
Here the authors model interactions between episodic and semantic memory as ‘retrieval-augmented generation’, explaining consolidation of structure from sequential experience, the reconstruction and d...
02810
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Marianne de Heer Kloots @mdhk.net · 30/06/2026
Let’s study learning trajectories in self-supervised speech models! 🔊 Do they reflect the hierarchical organization of spoken language? We have analyzed a lot of training checkpoints to find out 🌠 Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2604.02043 ⬇️
12811
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Giulia Rambelli @grambelli.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
🎉 Happy to have presented my postdoctoral work in collab with Laurent Prévot & @fourtassi.bsky.social at #ESLP2026 ! 🧠 Can distributional input alone support the emergence of abstract relational knowledge? We explore this through computational models of child-directed speech. #NLPproc #cogsci
072
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Greg Woodin @gregwoodin.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Had fun presenting our work (@gretagandolfi.bsky.social, @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social, @fourtassi.bsky.social, Yan Gu) on multimodal coordination in early word learning w 3–4-year-old children and their caregivers today at Embodied and Situated Language Processing at Lancaster University. (1/4) 👇
194
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
CoNLL 2026 @conll-conf.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
We are excited to announce the second keynote of CoNLL 2026! Adele Goldberg (Princeton University) “Compositionality and creativity in natural language and LLMs” 📅 Saturday, July 4, 2026 🕘 09:00 📍 Room Harbor B #CoNLL2026 #NLP #Compositionality
091
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Greg Woodin @gregwoodin.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
My current position will be coming to a close at the end of 2026, so I’m beginning to explore next steps. I’m a postdoctoral researcher at UCL working at the intersection of language, cognition, and multimodal communication. 1/4 👇
166
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Greg Woodin @gregwoodin.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Does verbal coordination help 3–4 year old children learn new words? In our new preprint (w/ @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social, @gretagandolfi.bsky.social, @fourtassi.bsky.social, Yan Gu), we explored 20 predictors of word learning. One combination stood out. 👇 (1/4) papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
2203
Abdellah Fourtassi @fourtassi.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Are you an advanced PhD student looking for a reviewing experience? I’m looking for one emergency reviewer for one paper in ACL Rolling Review in the track "Linguistic Theories, Cognitive Modeling, and Psycholinguistics" --due before next Tuesday April 28th.
010
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Nivi Mani @nivimani.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Call for a PhD position in Cognitively inspired natural language processing with Lisa Beinborn and me. Part of the new SPP "Robust Assessment & Safe Applicability of Language Modelling: Foundations for a New Field of Language Science & Technology” (LaSTing). huds.uni-goettingen.de/assets/Call_...
huds.uni-goettingen.de
0115
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Caroline Rowland @carorowland.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Applications open for the School on Analytical Connectionism 📅 August 17-28, 2026 🗺️ Chalmers University of Technology Gothenburg 📚 Topical focus: language acquisition ... with me, Michael Biehl, Paul Smolensky & many other incredible researchers 😊 www.analytical-connectionism.net/school/2026/
analytical-connectionism.net
2026 School on Analytical Connectionism
A 2-week summer course hosted at Chalmers University of Technology on analytical approaches to language acquisition and higher-level cognition.
085
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Marvin Lavechin @marvinlavechin.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
What if you could automatically transcribe children's speech sounds from their first babbles to full sentences? Screening for speech delays. Comparing how kids learn to talk across languages. Following how sounds evolve month by month. We're building toward this with BabAR🧵 (sound on 🔊)
35519
Abdellah Fourtassi @fourtassi.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Open PhD/Postdoc position (start: Oct 2026). Topic: AI/LLMs and child language/communicative/cognitive development. The exact project will be shaped with the candidate. Join our team @univ-amu.fr at the intersection of computer and cognitive science (& right next to the Calanques!). Send me your CV!
045
Abdellah Fourtassi @fourtassi.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Deadline approaching (March 20), consider submitting! The process is flexible to accommodate different situations: - Hybrid presentation mode - Direct submission or via ARR - Non-archival option: present work that is (or will be) published elsewhere - Short (4 pages) or long (8 pages) papers
052
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
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
25239
Abdellah Fourtassi @fourtassi.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
My interview with the Photizo channel on how AI can help us understand language development! The interview is in French, but you can enable the auto-translated English subtitles at your own risk 🙂 www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ8h...
youtube.com
COMMENT L'IA AIDE À COMPRENDRE L'ACQUISITION DU LANGAGE CHEZ L'ENFANT (avec Abdellah Fourtassi)
YouTube video by Photizo on AI
020
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Gabriella Vigliocco @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
*Preprint*: Pedagogy in the speech-gesture couplings of caregivers: Evidence from a corpus-based analysis by @marinewang.bsky.social, @eddonnellan.bsky.social and myself: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
doi.org
OSF
183
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Prof. Dr. Asli Ozyurek @asliozyurek.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
📣📣📣Job alert Multimodal Language Department Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics MAX PLANCK RESEARCH GROUP LEADER POSITION (W2 BBESG) lnkd.in/eaq5MW9a
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
11619
Abdellah Fourtassi @fourtassi.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
🚨 New Paper: How can AI help us understand child lang dev? If we train models on children’s environment, they can tell us if this environment support learning. E.g., models tested child linguistic input (Huebner et al.) and visual input (Vong et al.). What about Social Interaction? (a thread 🧵)
1235
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Greg Woodin @gregwoodin.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Excited to present this poster today (w/ @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social, @gretagandolfi.bsky.social, @fourtassi.bsky.social, and Yan Gu) at the 3rd International Workshop on Naturalistic Experimentation of Child Development at Birkbeck, University of London. Check out the poster here: osf.io/876ab
052
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 05/02/2026
A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the mechanisms of learning from social interaction. Read articles for free: buff.ly/K8v43YM
14015
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Manuel Bohn @elmanubohn.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
New Paper out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! Language learning as ontogenetic adaptation Marisa Casillas and I argue that language learning: 👪 is a by-product of social interaction ↘️ integrates a wealth of information sources 🌐 adapts to the cultural context www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
cell.com
Language learning as ontogenetic adaptation
Language learning is a multi-threaded, multi-mechanism process. It is multi-threaded in that it emerges as a byproduct of addressing multiple goals while engaging in social interactions. It is multi-m...
073
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Nivi Mani @nivimani.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
One more week to apply for the PhD position on curiosity in early development (B4) in my group!
084
Abdellah Fourtassi @fourtassi.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Thrilled to announce the 1st Workshop on Computational Developmental Linguistics (CDL) at ACL 2026 🎉 A new venue at the intersection of development linguistics × modern NLP, spearheaded by @fredashi.bsky.social @marstin.bsky.social, and and outstanding team of colleagues! A thread 🧵
3219
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
languagemit.bsky.social @languagemit.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
New book! I have written a book, called Syntax: A cognitive approach, published by MIT Press. This is open access; MIT Press will post a link soon, but until then, the book is available on my website: tedlab.mit.edu/tedlab_websi...
tedlab.mit.edu
212541
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Ev Fedorenko @evfedorenko.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
It has been so so fun to think with some of my favorite scientists about what it means to understand!
0539
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
wimpouw @wimpouw.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
New little home for the research program: www.tilburguniversity.edu/about/school...
tilburguniversity.edu
Dynamic Signs and Signals (DYNAMOS²) | Tilburg University
This research program focuses on the continuous and physical aspects of communication within humans and other animals. Its goal is to understand how communication systems emerge from multi-scale inter...
072
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Šárka Kadavá @sarkadava.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
🚨 #EnvisionBOX alert 🚨 We are pleased to announce a virtual EnvisionBox Community Meeting, designed to bring together researchers who work with computational tools for processing, annotation, and analysis of multimodal data available on the EnvisionBox platform (and beyond). #multimodality
164
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
SFB 1528 - Cognition of Interaction @sfb1528.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Multiple job alerts! The @rtg2906-curiosity.bsky.social at the @uni-goettingen.de and @primatenzentrum.bsky.social has 10 openings for PhD students! Join us now in Göttingen.
011
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Michael Pleyer @symbolicstorage.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
🚨NEW PUBLICATION ALERT!🚨 The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social) Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
The title page
310233
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
ILCB_France @ilcb.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
🐒 New #Research featuring several ILCB researchers! A new annotated dataset of common marmoset vocalizations is now available, offering: • 253h of high-quality recordings • 800k+ audio files • 215k annotated calls • A trained classifier to support future research 🔗Link: hal.science/hal-05073707v1
hal.science
A large annotated dataset of vocalizations by common marmosets
<div><p>Non-human primates, our closest relatives, use a wide range of complex vocal signals for communication within their species. Previous research on marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) vocalizations has been limited by sampling rates not covering the whole hearing range and insufficient labeling for advanced analyses using Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). Here, we provide a database of common marmoset vocalizations, which were continuously recorded with a sampling rate of 96 kHz from an animal holding facility housing simultaneously ~20 marmosets in three cages. The dataset comprises more than 800,000 files, amounting to 253 hours of data collected over 40 months. Each recording lasts a few seconds and captures the marmosets' social vocalizations, encompassing their entire known vocal repertoire during the experimental period. Around 215,000 calls are annotated with the vocalization type. We offer a trained classifier to assist future investigations. Finally, we validated our dataset by sampling 700 representative recordings and cross-examining them with four experts.</p></div>
042
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Morten H. Christiansen @mh-christiansen.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
📣 Very happy to announce a new BBS target article with Nick Chater in which we propose a new theory of cultural evolution, highlighting the importance of bottom-up social interaction in explaining the emergence of cultural complexity 🧵 1/8 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Social Tinkering: The Social Foundations of Cultural Complexity | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Social Tinkering: The Social Foundations of Cultural Complexity
23916
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Ece Takmaz @ecekt.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics (CMCL) workshop will be co-located with LREC 2026 in Palma, Mallorca!🌴Stay tuned for more details!✨ @byungdoh.bsky.social Tatsuki Kuribayashi @grambelli.bsky.social Philipp Wicke, Jixing Li, Ryo Yoshida @cmclworkshop.bsky.social
0134
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 26/11/2025
CogSci in Aarhus is hiring, open rank (assi, asso or full prof). We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice! international.au.dk/about/profil...
international.au.dk
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Full Professor of Cognitive Science - Vacancy at Aarhus University
Vacancy at School of Communication and Culture - Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Dept. of, Aarhus University
26353
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
wimpouw @wimpouw.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Team science (all shared authorship), pre-registered, diamond open access paper now accepted at Open Mind: "Foreign Language Learners Show a Kinematic Accent in Their Co-speech Hand Movements". with Bosker, Marieke Hoetjes, Doenja Hustin, Lieke van Maastricht www.wimpouw.com/files/POSTPR...
A busy figure showing some time series and timing distributions movement versus speech
1217
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Lorijn Zaadnoordijk @lorijn.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
New paper alert: Beyond the Adult Mind: A Developmental Framework for Predictive Processing in Infancy! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #PsychSciSky #DevPsyc #CogPsyc #neuroskyence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Beyond the Adult Mind: A Developmental Framework for Predictive Processing in Infancy
In this paper, we argue that Predictive Processing cannot be a unifying account of cognition until it can explain infant development. We show why development is crucial for understanding human cognit...
12710
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Sara De Felice @saradefelice.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
This is now out in Cerebral Cortex. Open Access: academic.oup.com/cercor/artic... @antoniahamilton.bsky.social @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social Uzair Hakim @paola182.bsky.social Danny Thompkings @fdi55.bsky.social
academic.oup.com
Learning with others: teacher–learner brain synchrony depends on mutual gaze and joint attention
Abstract. Successful learning often emerges through social interaction: what are the neural and behavioral systems that support this process? This ecologic
0145
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
ILCB_France @ilcb.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
🧠 NLP & Cognition – Next Meeting The GDR TAL Working Group meets on Dec 12, 2025 at Campus Saint-Charles (Marseille). Keynote by Yair Lakretz, panel + GT sessions in the afternoon. 📍 Frumam 🔗 Registration: lnkd.in/eFCgZvjs #NLP #Cognition #CognitiveScience #AI #Language #Linguistics
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
031
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Gabriella Vigliocco @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
New work from the lab! A full multimodal picture of caregivers behaviours supporting learning in the early years answering the question: what do caregivers say and do to support their children’s word learning?
0184
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Vilém Zouhar @zouhar.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
📢 Announcing the First Workshop on Multilingual and Multicultural Evaluation (MME) at #EACL2026 🇲🇦 MME focuses on resources, metrics & methodologies for evaluating multilingual systems! multilingual-multicultural-evaluation.github.io 📅 Workshop Mar 24–29, 2026 🗓️ Submit by Dec 19, 2025
13415
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Francesca Padovani @frap98.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞? 🇨🇳🇮🇩🇸🇪 Here’s the proof! 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐋𝐌 is the first Multilingual Benchmark of Developmentally Plausible Training Data available for 45 languages to the NLP community 🎉 arxiv.org/abs/2510.10159
24016
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Arianna Bisazza @arianna-bis.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Thrilled to be heading to Suzhou with a big team of GroNLP'ers 🐮 Interested in Interpretable, Cognitively inspired, Low-resource LMs? Don't miss our posters & talks #EMNLP2025!
1143
Reposted by Abdellah Fourtassi
Cameron Buckner @cameronbuckner.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Another banger from @tallinzen.bsky.social . Also fits with some of the criticisms of Centaur and my faculty-based approach generally; if you want LLMs to model human cognition, give them more architecture akin to human faculty psychology like long and short-term memory. arxiv.org/abs/2510.05141
arxiv.org
To model human linguistic prediction, make LLMs less superhuman
When people listen to or read a sentence, they actively make predictions about upcoming words: words that are less predictable are generally read more slowly than predictable ones. The success of larg...
1236