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Marc Malmdorf Andersen

@ndersen.bsky.social
439 followers 858 following 34 posts

Cognitive scientist, associate professor at Aarhus University. Predictive Processing, Emotion, Play, Recreational Fear, Cognitive Development.

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Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Such a fun paper led by the amazing @roopekaaronen.net. We find that spinning tops are to be found, well, basically everywhere in the deep past. Perhaps this is because the spinning top is one of the most basic technologies that can defy our intuitions about physics - a fun/surprise generator!
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Such a fun paper led by the amazing @roopekaaronen.net. We find that spinning tops are to be found, well, basically everywhere in the deep past. Perhaps this is because the spinning top is one of the most basic technologies that can defy our intuitions about physics - a fun/surprise generator!
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Denmark is often portrayed as a fairly equal society, but when looking at the distribution of wealth a different picture emerges. The richest 1% of the population owns more wealth than the bottom 82% combined. Wealth tax is now being debated. #dkmedier #dkpol #dkvalg (oxfam.dk/publikatione...)
oxfam.dk
Ny analyse: Top 1 pct. har mere formue end 82 pct. af den danske befolkning
En ny opgørelse viser, at de rigeste cirka 48.000 mennesker i Danmark har lige så meget formue som 3,9 millioner danskere tilsammen.
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Denmark is often portrayed as a fairly equal society, but when looking at the distribution of wealth a different picture emerges. The richest 1% of the population owns more wealth than the bottom 82% combined. Wealth tax is now being debated. #dkmedier #dkpol #dkvalg (oxfam.dk/publikatione...)
oxfam.dk
Ny analyse: Top 1 pct. har mere formue end 82 pct. af den danske befolkning
En ny opgørelse viser, at de rigeste cirka 48.000 mennesker i Danmark har lige så meget formue som 3,9 millioner danskere tilsammen.
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Bonobos pretend!
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Dr Icy Sedgwick @icysedgwick.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
I'm still collecting children's folklore for my next podcast theme, and I'm getting some amazing responses - monsters, urban legends, games, even a Tin God! Still time to add yours to this Google Form: forms.gle/D8mLW7q2um5Z...
forms.gle
Collecting Children's Lore!
February is going to be all about Children's Lore, which is defined as the folklore created, shared, and maintained by children. So it's not folklore about children, but rather spread by them! A lot...
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Children culture @sheinalew.bsky.social @dorsaamir.bsky.social 🥳
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Alison Gopnik @alisongopnik.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Really great new paper using agent-based modelling to show how an exploratory childhood can lead to innovation in the population at large. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
"Combat both US tech capitulation and Enshittification at once." Thanks for these overviews @hansonmark.bsky.social and @parismarx.com 🙏
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Cedric Boeckx @cedricboeckx.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Very nice modeling work by a great team: @drelenamiu.bsky.social @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social 👇
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Elena Miu @elenamiu.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
"The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution" with @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social out in Proc B royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
🚨 🚨 Publication alert🚨 🚨 Great work led by the brilliant @drelenamiu.bsky.social. Using agent-based models, we show that age-structured learning (kids explore broadly; adults refine/exploit) boosts long-term cultural payoffs vs. using the same strategies in random order. shorturl.at/rdlhv
royalsocietypublishing.org
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Thanks for the share, Ellen 🙏
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Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Ellen Roche @ellroche.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
New study from @ndersen.bsky.social and colleagues combines two of my favorite things - haunted houses and physiological synchrony research. "Scared together: heart rate synchrony and social closeness in a high-intensity horror setting." 👻❤️⚡❤️🧟
Scared together: heart rate synchrony and social closeness in a high-intensity horror setting.
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
@stinuslindgreen.bsky.social
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
We missed you, Neil! Your work came up several times! Next year!
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Jarred Lorusso brings the workshop to a close with a fantastic talk on the relationship between individual uncertainty and horror preference 🥳
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Now up, Botond László Kiss! Botond is persuading us that in horror studies, the predictors of excitement and enjoyment seem to be slightly different and they should be considered distinct emotional responses to horror.
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Now, @madisonlasaga.bsky.social is up, telling us all about her fascinating approach to using horror to investigate intrusive memories in PTSD.
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
We continue with the fascinating work by Sabrina Schneider, who delves into research on psychopathy and fear enjoyment. Sabrina’s work explores patterns in how psychopaths process fear stimuli, and how this may differ from people with no psychopathic traits.
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Aaand, we're off! The annual Recreational Fear workshop “When Fear Is Fun 2025” kicks off with Corinna Perchtold-Stefan. Corinna is enlightening us on why the true crime genre has such a massive gender difference, in favour of women consumers. Stay tuned! @aiasdk.bsky.social @au.dk
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Jorge Morales @jorgemorales.me · 09/12/2025
When we see something that's moving, our memories about it end up projected forward in time: We remember it further along than it was. In a new paper in 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, out today and led by @dillonplunkett.bsky.social, we demonstrate that this happens even when there is 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙤𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧.🧵
subjectivitylab.org
Representational Momentum Transcends Motion
Dillon Plunkett & Jorge Morales (2025) Psychological Science
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David Richter @davidrichter.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
High-level visual surprise is rapidly integrated during perceptual inference! 🚨 New paper 🚨 out now in @cp-iscience.bsky.social with @paulapena.bsky.social and @mruz.bsky.social www.cell.com/iscience/ful... Summary 🧵 below 👇
cell.com
Rapid computation of high-level visual surprise
Health sciences
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Hanlu He @hanluhe.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
🫀 New preprint alert! 🌆 Thrilled to share the first paper of my PhD on heart-rate synchrony during social interactions in urban environments. @sinelabdtu.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Physical proximity, social familiarity, and acoustic environment modulate heart rate synchrony in real-world social interactions
Human social behaviour unfolds in complex real-world environments shaped by social and acoustic factors, yet markers of social engagement and connection remain elusive. Interpersonal physiological syn...
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Trends in Cognitive Sciences @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Online Now: Shaping bodily self-awareness through thermosensory signals
dlvr.it
Shaping bodily self-awareness through thermosensory signals
Skin temperature and the ability to perceive warm and cold thermal stimuli (i.e., thermoception) are fundamental to human survival, influencing both our evolutionary history and early individual development. Interestingly, recent research has also started to uncover the role of these thermosensory signals in cognition. Such signals may contribute to the construction of our bodily self-awareness, and specifically the sense of body ownership, which is defined as the feeling that the body and its parts belong to us. This review examines how thermosensory signals travel from the skin to the brain and their impact on body ownership in both healthy and clinical populations. Furthermore, we propose mechanisms that may underlie this interaction and highlight potential clinical and societal applications.
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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...
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koenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Not only many adults, but the vast majority of children too, from infancy through the teenage years, enjoy “recreational fear”—activities that are both scary and fun—new Danish study finds, with the nature and context of the activities evolving with age: buff.ly/AAfh2mt
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Come join the wonderful CogSci dep at Aarhus Uni, Denmark! Fantastic students, wonderful colleagues, and great work/life balance! We are looking for applicants with teaching experience in the field of computational modelling of cognitive and/or social processes. 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
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Vicarious body maps bridge vision and touch in the human brain - Nature
A mode of brain organization that connects visual and bodily reference frames may translate raw sensory impressions into more abstract formats that are useful for action, social cognition and semantic...
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Interacting Minds Centre @interacting-minds.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Come join the workshop on Recreational Fear at @aiasdk.bsky.social, @au.dk!
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Sarah Garfinkel @sarahgarf.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
** Recruiting a postdoc ** We are looking for a postdoc to work on emotion, mental health, and interoception, based in London at @ucl.ac.uk in my lab (Clinical and Affective Neuroscience). Part of a large Wellcome Grant (co-led with the brilliant @camillanord.bsky.social)
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
🎃👻 When Fear Is Fun 2025 🎃👻 Our 5th annual workshop on recreational fear is happening in Aarhus on Dec 12! Free participation, registration required. 🔗 Speakers + program: cc.au.dk/en/recreatio... 🔗 Register: event.au.dk/events/when-...
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Prof Neil Martin @thatneilmartin.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
In need of horror-based scholarship? I re-FEAR you to the workshop below....
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
@felixthehauskat.bsky.social
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
The Recreational Fear Workshop explores why humans sometimes enjoy fear—and what it does to our minds and bodies. This year, we have a fantastic lineup of speakers, covering everything from PTSD, psychopaths, true crime consumption and the Paradox of Horror. Come join us at @aiasdk.bsky.social !
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
🎃👻 When Fear Is Fun 2025 🎃👻 Our 5th annual workshop on recreational fear is happening in Aarhus on Dec 12! Free participation, registration required. 🔗 Speakers + program: cc.au.dk/en/recreatio... 🔗 Register: event.au.dk/events/when-...
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Everything is a distraction from this.
theguardian.com
‘Change course now’: humanity has missed 1.5C climate target, says UN head
Exclusive: ‘Devastating consequences’ now inevitable but emissions cuts still vital, says António Guterres in sole interview before Cop30
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Dawei Bai @daweibai.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Happy to share that our BBS target article has been accepted: “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014... A short thread [1/5]👇
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Hospital says toy MRI scanner helps save £150k
Children can play with the Kitten Scanner to prepare them for a real scan.
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Phil Corlett @philcorlett.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
somehow I missed this! Dopamine represents a domain-general teaching signal: www.science.org/doi/full/10....
science.org
Striatal dopamine signals errors in prediction across different informational domains
Dopamine reflects prediction errors not only about reward but also about valueless stimuli, challenging many current theories.
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Melanie Richter-Montpetit @mellimo.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Academia.edu is changing its Terms and Conditions, and they're so outrageous (AI training; signing over ownership to them etc) I closed my account today. A thread with some practical tips if you want to delete your account (5 steps):
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Danish Media covers our recent study (article in danish): videnskab.dk/kultur-samfu...
videnskab.dk
Alle børn opsøger det gode gys: Derfor må du ikke skærme dem fra det
Helt ned i et-årsalderen går børn af egen drift efter spændingen i rette doser, viser et nyt dansk studie.
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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Does the culture you grow up in shape the way you see the world? In a new Psych Review paper, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I tackle this centuries-old question using the Müller-Lyer illusion as a case study. Come think through one of history's mysteries with us🧵(1/13):
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
@profhelendodd.bsky.social
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Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) @improvingpsych.org · 15/08/2025
PsyArXiv is seeking new moderators to help combat an increase in AI submissions! If you've ever posted a preprint to PsyArXiv, please consider joining. Minimum commitment 1h/month, there's a training session this Monday @ 1pm ET. More info here: forms.gle/9LB1rEtxHAeZ... #PsychSciSky
forms.gle
Expression of Interest in Serving as a PsyArXiv Moderator
As you might have heard, PsyArXiv is having some issues with an increase in low-quality submissions, ranging from AI generated manuscripts to inflate citation metrics, incoherent or nonsensical docume...
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tal boger @talboger.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
On the left is a rabbit. On the right is an elephant. But guess what: They’re the *same image*, rotated 90°! In @currentbiology.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show how these images—known as “visual anagrams”—can help solve a longstanding problem in cognitive science. bit.ly/45BVnCZ
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
AI slop and the destruction of knowledge irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...
irisvanrooijcogsci.com
AI slop and the destruction of knowledge
This week I was looking for info on what cognitive scientists mean when they speak of ‘domain-general’ cognition. I was curious, because the nuances are relevant for something I am researching at t…
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
🧟‍♂️🚨 Publication alert! 🚨🧟‍♀️ Holy moly, I'm thrilled to announce our new paper in Emotion! We explored how recreational fear, physiological synchrony, and social closeness interact in a high-intensity haunted house setting. 1/5 🧵 Link: psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Our results align with prior research showing that shared experiences can enhance physiological and emotional responses. Heart rate synchrony was higher among socially close individuals, though whether this reflects pre-existing alignment or emerges during shared fear remains unclear. 🧟‍♂️❤️🧟‍♀️ 5/5🧵
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Marc Malmdorf Andersen @ndersen.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
We found that participants who synchronised their HRs with others in their group reported higher arousal. This synchrony was more pronounced among socially close dyads, suggesting that social closeness may facilitate physiological alignment during shared emotional experiences of fear. 4/5🧵
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