iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Waiting 3h for my swiss visa appointment in SF I met a new colleague from UC Berkeley. Famous senior scientist, he was there in the same line hoping to give a keynote presentation in 🇨🇭; he said he'll never accept another invite from Europe. He received a visa valid for 3 days 🤡

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The level of attention to detail, time (20h+ preparing the documents and attending an in-person apt), money (150$+ visa fee) European countries expect from us to come share knowledge with their own citizens is absurd. I am speaking as a holder of 10 (!) past Schengen visas.

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Apparently, holding a valid swiss visa that says "from 11/9/2026" "until 1/10/2026" and "6 days" (hard to see, in the corner) makes landing on 11/9 and departing on 17/9 a criminal offense. I had to rebook my flight to leave one day earlier after this welcome from border officer.

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Just returned to Berkeley after giving an invited talk at @UZH_en 🇨🇭. Gorgeous country, high-quality research, talented students... except I was threatened with a criminal charge upon landing in Europe :) @thelocalswitz.bsky.social @ec.europa.eu 1/n

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tal boger @talboger.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

BBS recently published a great piece by @mdubova.bsky.social & @sabinasloman.bsky.social on “Excess capacity learning”. I argue D&S’s framework overlooks a special kind of representation that encodes information both minimally and perfectly: lossless compression. philpapers.org/archive/BOGC...

Figure for my BBS commentary ("Compression without compromise") on Dubova & Sloman's target article ("Excess capacity learning")

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Santa Fe Institute @sfiscience.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Applications are open for SFI's 2027 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships. SFI is looking for recent Ph.D. graduates with strong quantitative and computational skills who want to pursue independent, transdisciplinary research. Deadline: September 30, 2026 Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

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Cognitive Science Society @cogscisociety.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Next in the Glushko Dissertation Prize Symposium, Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social presents Cognitive Mechanisms of Discovery, exploring how people generate, evaluate, and refine new ideas and explanations. #CogSci2026

Marina Dubova presents during CogSci 2026, standing beside a clear lectern while holding a presentation remote. Behind her, a slide titled “how can we better learn about the world?” explores how cognitive science can test intuitions about the scientific method. The slide questions ideas such as Occam’s razor, whether good experiments should aim to falsify theories or distinguish between competing models, and features a cartoon ghost wearing a graduation cap at the center.

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Had so much fun talking with @thomaslewton.bsky.social @newscientist.com about parsimony and the scientific method more generally!

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

So honored to receive the Glushko prize, and just grateful that @cogscisociety.bsky.social is willing to recognize whatever I’m doing as the study of the “mind” :)

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

full manuscript + supplementary materials: osf.io/preprints/ps... accepted manuscript: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... instructions for commentary proposals: drive.google.com/file/d/1XkBQ...

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Ever thought we acquire generalizable knowledge by discarding details and compressing our experiences? In a new BBS paper, @sabinasloman.bsky.social and I argue otherwise, proposing a novel way of studying human learning inspired by double descent in ML. Disagree? Propose a commentary by May 15 :)

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Tim Verstynen @tdverstynen.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

If science is fundamentally about discovery, then are we doing it wrong by using hypotheses testing? A beautiful and thought provoking piece on the potential limits of theory-driven research by @mdubova.bsky.social & @kevinzollman.com . journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

journals.sagepub.com

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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Santa Fe Institute @sfiscience.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

How can we best learn about the world? A new paper by SFI's Marina Dubova (@mdubova.bsky.social) and coauthors applies the scientific method to itself, finding that some common strategies that scientists consider gold standards for designing experiments could perform worse than random choice.

santafe.edu

Reassessing the scientific method

Is the scientific method really the best approach to learning about the world? A new paper in Collective Intelligence applies the scientific method to itself, finding that some common strategies that ...

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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Interested in radical exploration in science? There's evidence that it can actually be the best strategy for discovery. We talk about it in our new episode of the Night Science Podcast episode with Marina Dubova (@mdubova.bsky.social)! Apple podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n...

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

New episode of my favorite podcast! I had a great discussion with @itaiyanai.bsky.social and @martinlercher.bsky.social about (radical) exploration in science :)

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Amitai Shenhav @ashenhav.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

These job ads have now been posted! 🎉 Social/Personality: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05020 Biological Basis of Behavior: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05054 Please spread the word!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

Assistant Professor - Social Personality - Department of Psychology

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

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todd gureckis @toddgureckis.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Congrats to Doug Medin on becoming the next Rumelhart prize winner! 🏆 My “academic grandpa” through multiple pathways! #cogsci2025

doug medin finding out he is the rumelhart prize winner

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Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Indiana University, home of one of the best cognitive science programs in the world, appears to be cancelling its undergrad cog sci program. Fascist ghouls continuing their horrid torrent of destruction.

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

I’m indebted to the entire @IUBloomington CogSci community and to @sfiscience for incredible intellectual engagement with my research. Finally, this wouldn’t have happened without TCTS (thinkcognitive.org/en) introducing me to cognitive science in the first place ❤️

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

This would never have been possible without the support of my family and friends across my Russian and US homes, my mentors (especially Rob Goldstone, who taught me nearly everything) and the letter writers.

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

The lab will focus on studying the cognitive mechanisms of discovery, including experimentation, theory building, and the learning of scientific concepts, with the goal of better understanding and improving science. I’ll be hiring soon (more info here: mdubova.com/lab)!

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Marina Dubova @mdubova.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

As a psych undergrad in St. Petersburg 6 years ago, I never imagined I’d be starting my own cognitive science lab at one of the world’s best research environments. I’m beyond excited to share that I’ll be starting a Cognitive Epistemology Lab at @BerkeleyPsych in Fall 2026!

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