iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dr Reshanne Reeder

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Growing pressure on probationary staff to win grants represents ‘material divergence’ from agreed policies, argue UCU leaders. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #research #highered #UCU #academicsky www.timeshighereducation.com/news/r…

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Andrea Floris, I don't know.who you are, but thank you for writing this. I hope it reaches the people who need to read it! www.linkedin.com/posts/andrea...

UK academics should stop being "managed" by managers, who are, with very few exceptions, mediocre, incompetent, and with no academic vision. When I tell foreign colleagues and friends what happens in our universities, they are speechless. Managers who earn far more than £100k per year, who do not listen to academics, who patronise them as they were their children. I have recently seen full professors being dismissed in ridiculous top-down "meetings", where the manager expects only questions and not ideas. Managers who jeopardise the lives of staff and their families, determining the closure of entire departments. Managers who all speak the very same language, mumbling about "reshaping the future" or "transforming the University into agile institutions", and who want to "create universities of the 21st century in a rapidly changing times". You hear these bs from all of them, without exception. To cover cuts and redundancies. They are unable to even tell the truth, or describe things as they are, providing a bad example to our young students, who then think that an ethical behaviour, also in language, is not necessary. *These* managers are failing, not the academics. Managerialism is the single most important reason for stress in UK universities, in what would otherwise be a fantastic job where you teach young people and do your research. Until this is fully understood, even by academics themselves, the decline of the UK academic will contunue and a collapse is inevitable.

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Another aphantasia face memory preprint just dropped - an impressive mega-study led by Varg Koenigsmark! The Role of Visual Imagery in Face Recognition and Confidence Revisited: New Evidence from Aphantasia, Sampling Context Effects, and a Meta-Analysis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

The Role of Visual Imagery in Face Recognition and Confidence Revisited: New Evidence from Aphantasia, Sampling Context Effects, and a Meta-Analysis

The absence of voluntary visual imagery, known as aphantasia, offers a unique lens into the role of visual imagery in visual memory processes such as face recognition. While aphantasics often report d...

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Reposted by Dr Reshanne Reeder

Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Humans are not black boxes. Experience is everything. This is not a definition problem. This is a "completely ignoring human experience" problem. Some things cannot be measured objectively (yet). Until then, qualitative evidence is the most important evidence we have.

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

This is such an amazing and comprehensive resource on the research related to mental imagery up to 2014. Does anyone know how to contact Nigel J T Thomas, or have any information on him since 2014? He seems to have disappeared, I can't even find an obituary... plato.stanford.edu/archives/fal...

plato.stanford.edu

Mental Imagery (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2021 Edition)

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Very excited to get started on this multi-lab intl collab investigating the role of mental imagery, schizotypy, and sensory sensitivity in visual perception! With @mmonzel.bsky.social, @tesvlee.bsky.social, @katechristodoulou.bsky.social, and Raquel Krempel: rr.peercommunityin.org/PCIRegistere...

rr.peercommunityin.org

A comprehensive, multi-lab visual illusion test battery will exa...

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

The business model of higher education is real, and it's depressing for academics who have a love for knowledge and see the greedy leaders at the top who just see the bottom line. Students and staff suffer under this model. If you think it's all fine, you've got your head in the sand.

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

So @mmonzel.bsky.social read my bsky thread and proposed we extend these ideas into a theory paper - and thus, this preprint was born! A unifying theory of aphantasia: Aphantasia as the inability to disengage from the external environment osf.io/preprints/ps...

osf.io

OSF

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

When you have a feedback section at the end of your study and the person just writes "dope" 👌😁

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

From the article: "The ability to conjure mental imagery is a key aspect of being human." This is amusing, because I literally have a paper under review titled "mental imagery is not essential to being human" 🤣

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The Psychologist @psychmag.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

‘They can turn a normal city street into a jungle' Ella Rhodes spoke to Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social (University of Liverpool), who researches extremes of mental imagery, individual differences in mental imagery, and their impacts. www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...

bps.org.uk

‘They can turn a normal city street into a jungle' | BPS

Ella Rhodes spoke to Dr Reshanne Reeder (Lecturer in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Liverpool), who researches extremes of mental imagery, individual differences in mental imagery,...

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Cool! A new mental imagery scale that gets rid of the pesky relative rating problem: what if my 4 is your 6? Led by @heidasigurdar.bsky.social: The Visual Imagery Visually Anchored Scale (VIVAS) reveals dissociable perceptual dimensions and category-specific structure osf.io/preprints/ps...

osf.io

OSF

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Jonathan Peelle @jpeelle.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Somehow this must be useful for vision science 🧠

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Optogenetics induces aphantasia and hyperphantasia in mice I am thrilled to announce my latest study, providing objective neural evidence for imagery extremes – in mice! 🐁 Read the paper here: tinyurl.com/ycxnkka7 <----👀 A thread 🧵 1/N

A Superlab mouse demonstrating the optogenetic equipment. Stimulation at different alternating currents either enhanced mental imagery to synaesthetic levels, or completely eliminated it

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Having weak imagery (hypophantasia) can make ppl feel like they don't belong in aphantasia research. But this is a critical group to study in refuting the "aph=metacognitive issue" hypothesis. Don't neglect the hypophants! When weak imagery is worse than none: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

When weak imagery is worse than none: Core aphantasia and hypophantasia relate differently to mental health, mediated by subjective interoception

Aphantasia, characterized by absent or reduced visual mental imagery, has been associated with alexithymia and negative mental health outcomes. Howeve…

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

This should be a concern for anyone relying on online data collection (most of us in aphantasia & extreme imagery research)! Added to my lab code of conduct on how to combat bots potentially infiltrating research: tinyurl.com/2kwwkm2w & happy to help develop high quality participation databases!

docs.google.com

Superlab Handbook 2026 - Public

Superlab Handbook 2026 PI: Dr Reshanne Reeder Poster reads: In this lab, we believe SCIENCE is real, BRAINS are cool, DIVERSITY fuels innovation, RESEARCH is global, LOVE is love, IMMIGRANTS are we...

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Reposted by Dr Reshanne Reeder

Christoph Strauch @cstrauch.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

We show that synesthesia is sensory and automatic in nature: the pupil scales with the brightness of experienced synesthetic colors. doi.org/10.7554/eLif... Now in its new dress @elife.bsky.social (convincing & valuable in round 1). If anyone wants to pick up the method, happy to share & explain!

doi.org

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Please repost! I have a wonderful colleague seeking a postdoc with expertise in *Bayesian Network Analysis* Position for 1 year in Liverpool, starting as early as next month (April)! Informal EOIs to Angelika Stefan: astefan1.github.io

astefan1.github.io

| Angelika Stefan

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Boomers still using mapquest must be laughing their asses off right now

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Thank god Robert Langdon is not in the Epstein files

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Reposted by Dr Reshanne Reeder

Maëlan Menétrey @maelanmenetrey.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

🚨 New preprint! What if individual alpha peak frequency—often treated as a global marker of brain function and clinical phenotypes—actually reflects a mixture of independent alpha rhythms with distinct frequencies and neural origins? That’s what @davidpascucci.bsky.social and I suggest here. #EEG

biorxiv.org

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Katalin Karikó is a fascinating and inspirational person - funders and universities never saw the use of her brilliant work. She never got tenure, but she eventually saved the world and won a Nobel Prize for it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katalin...

en.wikipedia.org

Katalin Karikó - Wikipedia

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Reposted by Dr Reshanne Reeder

Caroline Hu @hudrewthis.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

New student x scientist comics collab! Curious about the science behind hallucinations? Who isn't?? Learn about a tool scientists are using to understand hallucinations & mental imagery. 🧠👁️🎆 Scientist: @kerblooee.bsky.social, University of Liverpool x Student: Greta Dalton-Kay, BFA Illustration '26

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

With this new pub arguing that aphantasia is NOT an episodic memory condition, I agree that aphantasia must be defined, first and foremost, by a lack of imagery. However, aphantasia reduces the vividness of episodic memories in predictable ways. Here's another idea... 1/8 rdcu.be/eYxns

rdcu.be

Client Challenge

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Welcome to the world of Ganzflicker... in comic form!? Comic by the fabulous daltonkaygreta@gmail.com, Instagram: @Mr.dog.art A MassArt initiative led by @hudrewthis.bsky.social Hallucinations are often feared and unwanted... But what if we could induce them, so we can better understand them?

Narration:
Hallucinations are complex phenomena occurring involuntarily to individuals with a mental disorder. They are often feared and unwanted.

Narration:
But what if they can be controlled? What if we could intentionally induce them in a secure way, so we can better understand them?

Narration:
In order for an experimentally induced hallucination to form, the mind must be presented with something specific that is visually very different from what it is accustomed to seeing.

Narration:
Sensory deprivation: The lack of stimuli (specifically visual). Participants engaging in this method of hallucination induction can be completely blindfolded or left in a pitch black environment. Either way, their mind must not be exposed to light.

Narration:
Ganzfeld: A uniformly colored, luminary visual field (e.g. a clear blue sky or a singular color on a screen). Exposure to ganzfeld can induce slight visual hallucinations.
(Figure laying on the grass, facing a clear blue sky.)

Narration:
Sensory deprivation can be an unreliable method for the intention of experiencing induced hallucinations. Visuals aren’t always guaranteed, and it can take hours or even days for imagery to start showing up.
(Figure sitting on the ground, blindfolded. Cobwebs are on the figure, signifying a long time has passed. A little spider is next to the figure.)

Narration:
Ganzfeld is also not very reliable. Though most individuals experience visuals, they are not very complex. Most experience colors and simple geometric patterns after a while.
(Side view of a head, a cloud forming from their head that contains simple geometric shapes.)

Narration:
But is there a way to induce complex and vivid hallucinations almost immediately and comfortably? There sure is!
(Two figures, shoulders up, next to each other. Exclamation marks next to one, and a question mark next to the other. They are both looking at the text bubble.)

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Peter Lush @peterlush.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

"How participants create illusory experiences to help experimenters." A new preprint of a multi-study manuscript w/ @zoltandienes.bsky.social, @anilseth.bsky.social & Ryan Scott, extending previous work on demand characteristics & phenomenological control in psychological effects. osf.io/n2ukj

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Reposted by Dr Reshanne Reeder

Andrey Chetverikov @achetverikov.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Good post with two takeaways for me: 1) we also make mistakes as reviewers (I'm sure I made my share - sorry to those who were wronged) and 2) we need to appreciate papers without data more - a good theory doesn't need data to be good

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Ganzflicker gets a lot of hate, but look- I know it's cheesy. But the name is probably why it's so popular, and got me my job. People will always make fun of things that are different... but if you just go by what everyone else thinks, you'll never stand out 🙃

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

If more women could do work on visual illusions that would be great, why is this such a male dominated field?

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Excited to see this article is out! A thoroughly researched article on imagery extremes. If you read carefully, a couple of my most recent thoughts about hyperphantasia are also featured :-) This includes... 1/4 www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

newyorker.com

Some People Can’t See Mental Images. The Consequences Are Profound

Research has linked the ability to visualize to a bewildering variety of human traits—how we experience trauma, hold grudges, and, above all, remember our lives.

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

I used to think the brain was the most important organ in the body... but then I thought, "well, look what's telling me that"... -Emo Philips

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

NEW paper! 💭🖥️ “Combining Psychology with Artificial Intelligence: What could possibly go wrong?” — Brief review paper by @olivia.science & myself, highlighting traps to avoid when combining Psych with AI, and why this is so important. Check out our proposed way forward! 🌟💡 osf.io/preprints/ps...

Table 1
Typology of traps, how they can be avoided, and what goes wrong if not avoided. Note that all traps in a sense constitute category errors (Ryle & Tanney, 2009) and the success-to-truth inference (Guest & Martin, 2023) is an important driver in most, if not all, of the traps.

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

If you can see the balance of how much an author collaborates vs. had the primary/senior position, it can actually highlight those collabs, or reveal a potentially problematic imbalance. I'm happy to hijack the metric to get insights I think are important. We don't have to use it as Google intended.

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

share.google/FkOnXVNpGvvZ... I've been playing around with this and it's actually kinda neat - it separates an author's h-index into 1st, 2nd, other, and last authorship positions. Perhaps this could encourage a more even spread (& ignore the final weighted metric proposed). What do you think?

share.google

Google Scholar tool gives extra credit to first and last authors

Researchers welcome the initiative, but say it doesn’t go far enough to capture the nuance of researcher productivity and impact.

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

"Maybe this time I can solve all of life's problems when I wake up at 4am" -my brain

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Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Ammar I. Marvi, Nancy G. Kanwisher, et al: An efficient multifunction fMRI localizer for high-level visual, auditory, and cognitive regions in humans doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

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Laura Dugué @lauradugue.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Happy to share our last article on a computational model of traveling waves! @erc.europa.eu funded work led by Dugué Lab PhD student Joao Cardoso. @upcite.bsky.social jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx...

jov.arvojournals.org

Attention-induced perceptual traveling waves in binocular rivalry | JOV | ARVO Journals

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching share.google/UMERED1ptRSC... Wow what a clever new idea that's never been tried before, so we can't know if anything will go wrong, oh wait: No Child Left Behind Act - Wikipedia share.google/2yfqMkBgaTfR...

thetimes.com

Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching

Labour is considering bringing the cap below £9,000 a year on campuses where standards aren’t met

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PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Michael X Cohen on why he left academia/neuroscience. mikexcohen.substack.com/p/why-i-left...

mikexcohen.substack.com

Why I left academia and neuroscience

Don't worry, this isn't yet another story of rage-quitting.

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Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Scrolling through my list of Sona participants and calling out the zoomy clickers: "You didn't pass the attention check! You know what that means, 24601!"

media.tenor.com

a man speaking into a microphone with the words and i 'm javert

Alt: Javert from Les Miserables singing, "And I'm Javert!"

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