iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jacob T. Fisher @jacobtfisher.online · 25/06/2026

I'm overjoyed to finally be able to share that I've been awarded tenure here at MSU! I'm thankful that my colleagues have decided to keep me around, grateful to the many of you who have supported me along the way, and looking forward to a long, productive career as a Spartan. On to the next chapter!

Picture of Spartan Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University.

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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Every system that was regulated, either explicitly or implicitly, by the fact that they were effortful for humans (letters of recommendation, government filings, essays, or, as this paper finds, lawsuits) will break under a wave of AI.

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Richard Huskey @richardhuskey.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Also today at #SANS2026, Ziyu Zhao investigates the “brain rot” hypothesis. When studied rigorously, in large multi-national samples, we find a whole lot of nothing. Conclusion: previously observed alarming results might be driven by sampling bias and/or measurement error (P1-C-20)

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Science is good. We should fund it.

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Richard Huskey @richardhuskey.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

1/n New preprint with Ziyu Zhao, @dougaparry.bsky.social, & @jacobtfisher.online Can an AI bot complete a live online reaction-time task & produce data that passes as human? We built an autonomous bot to take the Attention Network Test (ANT) in real time Preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Screenshot of a manuscript title page. Title: “An AI agent can complete the Attention Network Test with human-like behavioral signatures: Implications for the bot-or-not debate.” Authors: Richard Huskey, Ziyu Zhao, Douglas A. Parry, and Jacob T. Fisher, with university affiliations listed below. The abstract says an autonomous AI agent completed the Attention Network Test in real time and produced mostly human-like behavioral data. Across seven code revisions, the bot achieved attention network scores within published human norms, 95.8% accuracy, and reaction-time patterns showing positive skew and trial-to-trial autocorrelation. Compared with 796 human participants, the bot fell within the human range on several measures but showed elevated autocorrelation and a bimodal reaction-time distribution due to intermittent detection failures. The paper argues this makes simple bot-vs-human detection harder in online reaction-time studies.

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Chris Carpenter @chriscarpenter.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

The last edition of this conference was one of the most intellectually exciting conferences I have ever attended. I'm looking forward to September!

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Jacob T. Fisher @jacobtfisher.online · 18/03/2026

Hey y'all! Very pleased to announce that we'll be hosting Communication Science Futures again in East Lansing later this year. The conference in 2024 was a blast, and we're looking forward to running it back! Keynote speaker: James Pennebaker Submission deadline: June 5th. → commscifutures.com

commscifutures.com

Home | Communication Science Futures

Communication Science Futures is a conference aimed at addressing pressing issues and opportunities in the interdisciplinary, social...

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Rachael Kee @rachaelkee.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

🚨 New Preprint Alert 🚨 Communication science has no shortage of data. But what do we do with all of it? Experience sampling, sensors, digital trace, location aware observations are growing in popularity and scale.

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 29/01/2026

On almost everything – fraud, polarisation, radicalisation, misinformation – evidence suggests that over 60s are in much more urgent need of online protection and education than teenagers. But that issue gets zero political attention, and is a total non-starter. Nothing good will come of it.

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Johannes B. Gruber @jbgruber.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

One of my favourite events of the year! Learn about new tools/methods/people and hack on some dataset/tool/project 😍

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Richard Huskey @richardhuskey.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Depressed? Anxious? Lonely? What if mental health doesn’t just result from media use, but shapes how we choose media? In a new preprint, Valerie Klein, @gongxuanjun.bsky.social @aeden.bsky.social and I and I test this using a computational decision-making model: doi.org/10.21203/rs.... 🧵Thread

doi.org

Using the Drift Diffusion Model to Examine Relationships Between Mental Health and Media Selection Dynamics

A substantial body of research has investigated how people’s transient affective state influences their media selection, as well as how selected media influences subsequent affective states. However, ...

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PsychoPy @psychopy.org · 09/02/2026

We're getting excited... just putting the finishing touches to **PsychoPy Studio** This is a complete rewrite of the PsychoPy Builder/Coder app, now packaged in Electron. Faster load, modernised UI, web-ready, independent of the Python interpreter 🎉 🚀 blog.psychopy.org/general%20bl...

blog.psychopy.org

PsychoPy Studio: the app we love, reimagined

It’s now over 20 years since PsychoPy’s humble beginnings as an open-source Python library to help users present high-precision stimuli and collect responses from participants. Since 2009 PsychoPy…

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 10/02/2026

In the future we're gonna look back at online gambling and prediction markets in the same way we look now at cigarettes on airplanes and lead-based paint www.wsj.com/business/med...

The high wouldn’t last. Seahawks safety Julian Love soon intercepted a throw from New England quarterback Drake Maye, and the Patriots never recovered. In the end, Kane lost a bit less than $100,000 in bets that favored the Patriots.

“What are you gonna do about it? You get very numb to these kinds of numbers,” said Kane, who works out of his one-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia.

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Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 15/12/2025

The "smartphones/social media" discourse suffers from some amazing historical amnesia. There was no 2008 financial crisis and no global pandemic starting in 2020, it's all SCREENS SCREENS SCREENS. Major world events? Just the backdrop against which SCREENS happened.

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Ian Hussey @ianhussey.mmmdata.io · 02/12/2025

Works the other way around too. “If I was Jonathan Haidt, how would I destroy the next generation?”

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Jacob T. Fisher @jacobtfisher.online · 02/12/2025

Very cool study! Happy to see someone is actually studying this. My anecdotal experience aligns as well. Framing overuse/compulsive use of screens as "addiction" robs people of their agency and masks the issues we should actually be talking about (adversarial design tactics, attention economy, etc).

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Sam Nastase @samnastase.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

I'm recruiting PhD students to join my new lab in Fall 2026! The Shared Minds Lab at @usc.edu will combine deep learning and ecological human neuroscience to better understand how we communicate our thoughts from one brain to another.

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Damien Fair @drdamienfair.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

I still get chills Meet Mike *30+ years severe depression *first hospitalized @ 13y *20 meds *3 rounds of ECT *2 near-fatal suicide attempts Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE see videos, read paper, follow thread doi.org/10.31234/osf...

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UCSB Media Skill Lab @mediaskill.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

🎉 Huge congrats to our team @overbye.bsky.social, Kristy Hamilton and @jacobtfisher.online for receiving a Top Student Paper award in the Communication & Social Cognition Division at #NCA25! 🏆

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Jacob T. Fisher @jacobtfisher.online · 15/06/2025

Very happy to see that @overbye.bsky.social’s fantastic work on detecting bias in human-in-the-loop algorithms was awarded a top paper in @icacsab.bsky.social this year. Incredibly interesting, rigorous, and timely research! #ica25

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Jacob T. Fisher @jacobtfisher.online · 15/06/2025

Took some time off to get into the mountains for a little different view on #ica25 this morning! Out of breath but totally worth it!

View of downtown Denver skyline from a trail near Evergreen in the Rocky Mountains

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Jacob T. Fisher @jacobtfisher.online · 13/06/2025

Can we kick off #icacoffee for #ica25 on here? First on the docket for me is Huckleberry Coffee Roasters. About .5mi from the hotel but definitely worth the walk. maps.app.goo.gl/ncBAAchbFJzi...

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hackingcommsci @hackingcommsci.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

From text-as-data to sleep data collection, this year‘s #hackica25 in Boulder, CO, was a blast and we‘re proud to say that we‘ve (again) successfully hacked communication science. Thanks to all participants and see y‘all at #ica25 ✨

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Media Neuroscience Lab @medianeuro.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

We’re thrilled to see MNL represented at @hackingcommsci.bsky.social! Huge thanks to @jacobtfisher.online and @kyliewoodman.bsky.social for organizing another fantastic hackathon and sharing valuable comm sci insights such as using GitHub and running fMRI analyses. #hackica25 #ica25

Kylie leading an fMRI analysis breakout session

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Jacob T. Fisher @jacobtfisher.online · 11/06/2025

Kicking off our fourth(!) annual #hackica this year at @colorado.edu. This is always the highlight of ICA. Super excited to get hacking! #hackica25

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Comm Sci Bio @icacsab.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Leading up to #ICA25 we're sharing info on papers that received Top Paper awards. Today, you can read about "Expectation of Algorithm Bias Increases Caution: Implications for Human-in-the-Loop Decisions" by @overbye.bsky.social Kristy Hamilton & @jacobtfisher.online : commscience.org/ica-top-pape...

commscience.org

ICA Top Paper: Overbye-Thompson, Hamilton, & Fisher

Hannah Overbye-Thompson In our lead up to #ICA25, we are providing information about papers that received Top Paper awards from the Communication Science and Biology (CSaB) Interest Group. Each pap…

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Jacob T. Fisher @jacobtfisher.online · 22/05/2025

As someone who is actually on this paper, this critique (and many others) is absolutely spot-on. I can't speak for other authors, but this process has left me with far more questions than answers. The gap between what the data say and how it's being framed publicly is...notable to say the least.

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Doug Parry @dougaparry.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Amidst all of this, @jacobtfisher.online & I have a new paper in @jmp-hogrefe.bsky.social! We discuss theoretical, methodological, & practical concerns with the media multitasking (MMT) index & lay out an agenda for better research on MMT 📄 doi.org/10.1027/1864... 📝 OA osf.io/preprints/ps...

doi.org

Is It Time to Abandon the Media Multitasking Index? | Journal of Media Psychology

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Doug Parry @dougaparry.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

While the 'belief' plot draws attention, the core message of the final, deliberative consensus statements is that evidence linking smartphone and social media use to negative outcomes is limited, mixed, context-dependent, insufficient to support causal claims, and better research is needed.

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Media Neuroscience Lab @medianeuro.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Alex Lover from the @jacobtfisher.online group presents new computational approaches to parse subtitles and film scripts for extracting moral conflict patterns. Excellent presentation, way to go Alex! What a nice memory of some MNL work with @fhopp.bsky.social and @jacobtfisher.online. Nostalgia!

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hakwan lau @hakwan.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

osf.io/preprints/ps... turns out, u can analyze meta-d' w/ just reaction times rather than confidence. loses some info & also a bit different. but maybe RT really isn't so metacognitive, so we might have to call it pseudo-meta-d' new preprint with Kiyo Miyoshi & Doby Rahnev 🧠📈

osf.io

OSF

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Chris Bail @chrisbail.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Grateful that some Republican leaders are pushing back against efforts to defund American universities: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

washingtonpost.com

Opinion | Funding for R&D isn’t a gift to academia

Investing in scientific research and development is vital to U.S. security.

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Hannah Overbye-Thompson @overbye.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

I'm excited to share that I'm officially a Ph.D. candidate 🎉 Meaning I'll be on the job market this fall (gulp). My research explores human-algorithm interaction and the social impact of emerging tech at the intersection of mass communication & decision-making. #commsky #AcademicSky

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Wouter Kool @wouterkool.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Two new preprints from my group at WashU! First, Merve @mileritayar.bsky.social tests whether people place an effort cost on switching between cognitive control settings. We find that people avoid switching between focused and relaxed attentional states. osf.io/preprints/os...

osf.io

OSF

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Ian Hussey @ianhussey.mmmdata.io · 18/03/2025

Tens of thousands of psychological measures have been created, but 79% are not reused more than twice. In a new article in NHB lead by @faridanvari.bsky.social and @ruben.the100.ci we quantify this fragmentation in psychology's measures and propose solutions. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Patrick Parschan @patrickparschan.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

🚀 #hackica25 registration is open! 🚀 Register now! Hack with us and join the free sunset mountain bus tour 🌄👩‍💻 Join the hack, and get to see a lot more than hotels and convention centers at this ICA!

media.tenor.com

a lake surrounded by mountains and trees at sunset

ALT: a lake surrounded by mountains and trees at sunset

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hackingcommsci @hackingcommsci.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

🚀 #hackica25 registration is open! 🚀 Spots are limited—secure yours now: forms.gle/ssZFtZmfWYaC... 📅 June 11-12, 2025 📍 UC Boulder (shuttle from Denver available) No coding skills required! Join us to explore methodological & substantive challenges in communication science. See you there! 🍻

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Knight-Georgetown Institute (KGI) @knightgtown.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

🚨 NEW REPORT – Better Feeds: Algorithms That Put People First 🚨 As policymakers around the globe grapple with addressing concerns about algorithms, KGI’s new report offers guidance on improving the design of algorithmic systems that shape billions of users’ digital lives. bit.ly/3QzxVzq

bit.ly

Better Feeds: Algorithms That Put People First – Knight-Georgetown Institute

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

just gonna be the thousandth person to remind you all that segregationists start the open bigotry with people they feel they can target most easily but do not end there

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Allison Eden @aeden.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Would love to see communication organizations follow. @icahdq.bsky.social or National Communication Association?

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

higher ed is the largest employer in 10 states and in over 60% of the 100 largest cities. destruction of federal research funds is economic sabotage.

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Alex Coppock @aecoppock.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

So far persuasion work in polisci has mostly centered on message -> opinion (main result imo: messages have small fx in the right direction that don't differ too much by message or person or issue) with less work on message -> attention need to figure out experimental paradigm for attention

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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

This will effectively kill both science and higher ed in the United States. Universities will be accessible only to the rich, and the number of people who can afford to do the bench work behind most research would plummet.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 24/01/2025

Just used Gemini Live to participate in a beh. experiment without even reading the instructions or speaking the language. LLMs acting as participants on platforms like Prolific could pollute data meant to study humans. With OpenAI’s operator model, this issue is growing. 🎥👇 youtu.be/NujyGZSA7Hg

youtu.be

Participating in a behavioral experiment with Gemini Live

YouTube video by Tobias Werner

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 24/01/2025

The fact that NIH grant-making has been switched off so haphazardly, for reasons that remain unclear, and despite the scope of troubles it creates, suggests that higher ed will be profoundly vulnerable during the second Trump era, writes @ibogost.bsky.social:

theatlantic.com

The Chaos in Higher Ed Is Only Getting Started

Grant reviews have been suspended at the NIH. This could be an omen.

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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I didn't think I'd have to say this, but as someone who's spent years studying and treating "addictions" there is no such thing as "dopamine addiction," no matter what Insta/ TikTok tell you, and anything using that phrase is a gutter trash scam. You cannot be addicted to your own neurotransmitters.

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