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Nicole Nelson

@nicolenelson.bsky.social
1.5K followers 668 following 213 posts

Emotion and developmental psychology at the University of Adelaide. Studying emotions, kids, and all occasions where they intersect. Ex-pat 🇺🇲, living in 🇦🇺, arrived by way of 🇨🇦.

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Reposted by Nicole Nelson
David Barner @drbarner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A new paper, to appear in Dev Psych. Why do kids as old as 5 or 6 count parts of things as though they were whole objects? We argue that this is pragmatic failure due to kids' inability to access alternative descriptions like "piece of fork". osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Tuomas Eerola @tuomaseerola.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
New paper out today! 🎶 How can we capture the situated and functional nature of emotional experiences with music? We introduce MEEM — Measure of Emotional Episodes with Music: a new 35-item, modular instrument covering 5 types of emotional episodes. With @kirtsconnor.bsky.social & Suvi Saarikallio
This figure is the figure 1 from the article that shows all 5 episode types
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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 02/10/2026
Deep male voices are perceived as more attractive and formidable, but does this hold up when a listener can actually see who's speaking? A new paper from #RSOS tested this: doi.org/10.1098/rsos... @drboothroyd.bsky.social @jrut.bsky.social
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Christoph Strauch @cstrauch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
How much of a risk are LLM-generated bots for online behavioral experiments? We present results of an entirely natural language prompt-generated agent, capable of absolving any of the 26 experiments we tested it on. Most tasks are passed with data that can pass as human osf.io/preprints/ps... (1/)
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Prof Sarah-Jayne Blakemore @sjblakemore.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New paper! By brilliant Emma Kilford and Sophie Fielmann and others - a great collaboration between researchers in South Africa, Uganda, UK and US. The Limpopo Facial Emotion Stimulus Set: Locally Validated Stimuli for Emotion Research in Sub-Saharan Africa Thread👇 psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
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Heather Urry @heatherurry.io · 24/09/2026
holy fucking shit - see Claude Code (Opus 5.5) rip through a survey eligility test I was really proud of... It requires tracing a route through designated points on a map with server-side Javascript applying eligibility criteria. (1.5 min video)
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Tim Ricker @timricker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Recruiting a new PhD student to start Fall 2027. Research would focus on Visual Working Memory, possibly with a developmental approach (but not necessarily). Check out my lab website where the are links to the application and contact info if you have questions. rickermemorylab.com
rickermemorylab.com
Memory & Attention Laboratory
The Memory and Attention Laboratory at the University of South Dakota is part of the Human Factors & Applied Cognition  program in the Department of Psychology . We study memory, attention, and...
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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The US is facing a mass exodus of scientists The funding cuts & attacks on science are demoralizing a generation of brilliant minds One-third of young scientists who were planning careers in academic research changed their minds in 2025 and many now plan to leave www.nber.org/system/files...
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Kathryn Paige Harden @kph3k.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
💫 New work! We find that randomized cash gifts to low-income moms slow children's epigenetic pace of biological aging at age 4. Led by @laraffington.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Effects of a randomized controlled trial of unconditional cash transfers on epigenetic measures of ageing and cognition in children and mothers - Nature Human Behaviour
Raffington et al. find that providing low-income mothers with cash gifts for the first four years of their children’s lives appears to change the children’s epigenetic biological ageing in ways associ...
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Dr James Dunn @jamesdunn.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
We're looking for a Postdoc to join the Face Lab at UNSW Psychology! Ideal: someone with strong ML/deep learning expertise and an interest in how people perceive AI-generated faces. 📍 Sydney | Full-time, 18 months 📅 Apply by 3 Sept 2026 🔗 external-careers.jobs.unsw.edu.au/cw/en/job/54...
external-careers.jobs.unsw.edu.au
Research Associate - UNSW Face Research Lab
he Research Associate works within the UNSW Face Research lab located in the School of Psychology at UNSW and is responsible for taking a leading role in a collaborative ARC Discovery Project aiming t...
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Alex Holcombe @alexh.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Postdoc job in language acquisition and linguistic diversity with Joshua Hartshorne
I am currently currently recruiting a postdoc in language acquisition and linguistic diversity for my new lab at the School of Psychology in the University of Sydney. This is a 2-year position, with a salary range of AUD$117,936 – AUD$142,475 (roughly US$84,000 – US$101,500) + 17% superannuation. University of Sydney is currently ranked 31st in the world, and the School of Psychology is ranked 47th.

The postdoc would work on one of these areas:
Computational models of language acquisition – specifically, exploring how language might be bootstrapped from thought.
Acquisition of the indigenous languages of Taiwan and/or Australia, including studying revitalization attempts.

Please indicate in your application letter which of these you are interested in.

NOTE that I am also recruiting PhD student(s) on the same topics. 

Prospectives are not expected to have prior experience in specifically these areas but should have relevant skills and experience. Prospectives wishing to work on the computational modeling project should have prior computational modeling skills or advanced mathematics. Prospectives wishing to work with the indigenous languages of Taiwan should have excellent spoken and written Mandarin (the contact language). Prospectives wishing to work with Australian languages should have prior work or strong community ties with at least one such language.

Prior authorization to work in Australia is not required but will certainly make everyone's lives easier, so let me know whether you have it.

Benefits of the position include

Conference travel! Conferences are a big part of our lab culture. Expect to attend 2–3 out-of-town conferences/year.
A small lab (just one other postdoc currently!) and individual attention.
Opportunity to network with researchers around the world (we have a lot of collaborators).
Career mentoring.
Living in Sydney.

Apply here by September 20th.

Joshua Hartshorne | Associate Professor
The University of Sydney
School of Psychology
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 04/08/2026
Cool finding on 'parentese' from Gaye Soley's lab: when a parent speaks to each of their two children, the sound/style of their voice indicates whether they're speaking to the younger or older one (and other kids can tell!)
tandfonline.com
Preschoolers Infer Listeners from Age-Related Variation in Maternal Child-Directed Speech
Child-directed speech (CDS) varies systematically with the recipient child’s age. The present study examined whether children aged 3–6 years are sensitive to this within-register variation and use ...
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Psyche Loui @psycheloui.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Why does live music hit different? Our new paper has a neural answer: EEG in a concert hall showed stronger brain-rhythm phase locking during live vs. recorded Bach violin — and that predicts higher pleasure & engagement. 1/2
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Open Mind @openmindjournal.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Children’s Representations of Possibility: Uncertainty About “What” Is Easier Than Uncertainty About “Where”
direct.mit.edu
Children’s Representations of Possibility: Uncertainty About “What” Is Easier Than Uncertainty About “Where”
Abstract. Young children struggle in situations involving mere possibility, such as when a target object could be in one of two possible locations. This difficulty is often interpreted as a general…
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Matthew Robison @matthewrobison.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
The Department of Psychology at Notre Dame is hiring! We have two TT Asst Prof ads out, one in cognitive psychology and another in developmental psychology. Come be my colleague in South Bend!
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Natalie Christie Peluso 🧠 @nataliepeluso.com · 14/07/2026
Stunning evening last night at the @isreorg.bsky.social conference dinner at Brisbane's Customs House. (Lucky me sitting with the wonderful @arvidkappas.bsky.social & @nicolenelson.bsky.social - together with our table friends we managed 2nd prize for the after-dinner trivia 🤗) #ISRE2026
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Nicole Nelson @nicolenelson.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Amazing talk by @mzloteanu.bsky.social at #ISRE2026 highlighting ways the emotion field can do better in general, and particularly when looking at expression authenticity/deception
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jens-madsen.bsky.social @jens-madsen.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
New open dataset out in Scientific Data 🚨 We are releasing BBBD: the Brain, Body, and Behavior Dataset. Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Work with @parralab.org
nature.com
The Brain, Body, and Behavior Dataset (BBBD): Multimodal Recordings during Educational Videos - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - The Brain, Body, and Behavior Dataset (BBBD): Multimodal Recordings during Educational Videos
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Nicole Nelson @nicolenelson.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Thanks for organising such a great set of talks @hedwigeisenbarth.bsky.social!!
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Nicole Nelson @nicolenelson.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Super excited for Gina Grimshaw's public lecture looking at thinking in the heart and mind! @expsyanz.bsky.social
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Prof Nichola Raihani @nicholaraihani.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
If you have (or will soon) complete your PhD & would like to join a thriving cultural evolution research group in NEW ZEALAND, drop me a line. UoA offers a handful of funded research fellowships. Applications must be made by a faculty member. Deadline August. Pls share with your students
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Australasian Society for Experimental Psychology @expsyanz.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
IT'S CONFERENCE WEEK! 🎉 Welcome to Auckland, NZ for APCV/EPC2026. Whether you're giving a talk, presenting a poster, or simply taking it all in, we're glad to have you here. Tag us with: #APCVEPC26
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William Ngiam | 严祥全 @williamngiam.github.io · 22/06/2026
I adapted a scheduler app that was shared at VSS for this conference: apcvepc2026.netlify.app. Hope others find it useful in organising their time. (And thank you to Miyoung Kwon who created the app originally).
apcvepc2026.netlify.app
APCV / EPC 2026 Scheduler
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Andrea Howard @drandreahoward.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
I just returned from two back-to-back conferences. Students, I noticed that a lot of your slide decks had an oddly similar layout structure and I was able to confirm in conversations that these were AI-generated/assisted. Some thought about this for your own professional development: 🧵
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J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Spencer and MJ’s project is now out! Let me say something about the study, why it is important to me personally, and why I think it is important given what is happening right now at NIH and how science there is being disrupted or suppressed. 1/N (N = 19) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
The visual perks of (not) being a wallflower: sociality is a stronger predictor of individual differences in face recognition than childhood experiences
Individuals vary considerably in their ability to recognize faces. Such variability may in part reflect individual differences in exposure to faces ba…
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Sam Schwarzkopf @sampendu.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
All speakers should have received information about the session & timings of their presentations at #epc-apcv-2026 by now! A preliminary (searchable) schedule is available on the website: visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz/epc-apcv-2026 Remember to register by the end of 15 May for early-bird rates!
visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz
EPC & APCV 2026
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Australasian Society for Experimental Psychology @expsyanz.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Final days for Early Bird registration! Register now and take advantage of discounted pricing.
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Nicholas A. Coles, PhD @nicholascoles.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Can gratitude interventions make the world happier? We tested 6 gratitude practices across 34 countries with 10,696 participants to find out — and the answer is more interesting than a simple yes 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
A multinational megastudy of the effects of gratitude practices on subjective well-being | PNAS
Scholars have observed people from a variety of cultures using a variety of gratitude-related practices to change their emotions, outlooks, and soc...
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Melissa Kibbe @levelsof.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
New work from my lab! Young children find it easier to represent mutually-exclusive possible identities of an object than possible locations of an object - an early object-rep-architecture limitation on possibility reasoning! Work led by @esranur.bsky.social recently accepted in Open Mind ✨
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Australasian Society for Experimental Psychology @expsyanz.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
⚠️ LAST CHANCE to submit your abstract. Submissions close 30 April 2026.
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Violeta J. Rodriguez, PhD, MSEd @vjrp.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
New paper in Developmental Psychology: Rethinking parenting: A function-based framework for understanding caregiving across contexts We move from labeling parenting and focus on the goals behind behaviors (emotional connection, structure, cultural values). w/ Sungha Kang & @qmmmmliu.bsky.social!
doi.org
APA PsycNet
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kirstyrgreen.bsky.social @kirstyrgreen.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Excited to share our new paper in Child Dev! 🎉 We taught children names for 'monster' toys. Some names matched the sounds they made, some didn't. Children, especially 3-yr-olds, learned matching names more easily. Iconic words support word learning. Read here: track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...
track.smtpsendmail.com
Young children benefit from iconicity when learning novel onomatopoeia
Abstract. Iconic words, especially animal onomatopoeia, are more prevalent in infant- than adult-directed speech, possibly because iconicity bootstraps wor
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moin syed @syeducation.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Postdoc available! There are two T32 positions at Minnesota focusing on developmental psychopathology, with a large selection of potential mentors. I could serve as primary mentor for someone interested in intersections with metascience and/or diversity. Apply now! drive.google.com/file/d/18SoO...
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Eliza Bliss-Moreau @eblissmoreau.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Spread the word! We are recruiting for 6 new research professors at UC Davis' California National Primate Research Center. Open rank, open area, but must leverage 🐒 resources. recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07561
recruit.ucdavis.edu
6 Positions - Assistant, Associate, Full Professional Researcher
University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!
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ACNS Early Career Researchers @acns-ecr.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
🧠Welcome to the official Bluesky for the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society (ACNS) Early Career Researcher (ECR) members🧠 Here we'll share information about upcoming ACNS conferences, workshops, and other ECR-relevant opportunities! #ACNS #EarlyCareerResearcher #Science #ACNSECR
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Nicholas Van Dam @ntvandam.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
My close friend/colleague (Dr Pengfei Xu) has published an impressive 7-yr prospective study with nearly 400 young people, showing that functional brain dynamics in early childhood relate to adolescent anxiety and depression. www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S000... #PsychSciSky
biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com
Childhood electroencephalographic signatures predict distinct developmental trajectories to adolescent anxiety and depression
Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the onset of anxiety and depression, yet their neurodevelopmental origins remain unclear.
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Meryl Malezieux @merylneuro.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
1/8 New preprint alert! How are signals from the heart encoded in the brain? What could be the functional implications of cardioception? We found that neurons in the posterior insular cortex are precisely tuned to heartbeats, and that this cardio-insular coupling supports emotion coding in mice.
biorxiv.org
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PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Culture-specific pathways to the emerging sense of agency in early vocal development: osf.io/9g8zd
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Jared Moore @jaredlcm.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Disturbing anecdotal reports of "AI psychosis" and negative psychological effects have been emerging in the news. But what actually happens during these lengthy delusional "spirals"? In our preprint, we analyze chat logs from 19 users who experienced severe psychological harm🧵👇
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John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Postdoctoral Fellow in Social Psychology at the Australian National University jobs.anu.edu.au/jobs/postdoc...
jobs.anu.edu.au
Postdoctoral Fellow - Canberra / ACT, ACT, Australia
Classification: Academic Level A Salary package: $89,313 - $112,103 per annum plus 17% superannuationTerm: Full time, Fixed term (up to 24 months)  The Position The Postdoctoral Fellow will work with ...
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 19/03/2026
"every talk is a job talk" is absolutely true, but imo the less formal settings (analogous to the rehearsals) are as important, or even more so. eg if you're hiring a postdoc or a colleague, credible information on how they collaborate or how they work with students (etc) is absolutely actionable
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Australasian Society for Experimental Psychology @expsyanz.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Meet our second keynote speaker for APCV & EPC 2026! Prof. Elaine Reese from the University of Otago will deliver a keynote lecture titled "Memory Development: From Basic Science to Applied Approaches."
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Gareth Gaskell @mggaskell.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
We have three lectureships available at York Psychology (@yorkpsychology.bsky.social) with a broad remit for research/teaching areas. Home and overseas applications are welcome. Deadline for applications is early April - enquiries welcome. Come and join us! jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...
jobs.york.ac.uk
Jobs - The University of York
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 17/03/2026
new review paper in press, on a brand-new line of research that's personal for me and that I'm excited about — music in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias this one led by a wonderful student Sophia Moret and in collab with my kickass Yale Neurology colleague @carolynfredericks.bsky.social
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Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 17/03/2026
If you're working on health topics and are into mobile sensing -- the non-profit data4life supports early-career researchers with access to their GDPR-compliant data collection platform, mentorship, open-access coverage and travel support! www.data4life.care/en/about-us/...
data4life.care
D4L Impact Program | Supporting Early-Career Digital Health Researchers
The D4L Impact Program enables early-career researchers to generate real-world evidence from digital health data. The program provides access to the D4L Collect platform, cloud infrastructure, mentorship, and publication support to help researchers design and conduct high-quality studies using patient-reported outcomes, wearable and sensor data, and mobile health technologies.
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Sam Schwarzkopf @sampendu.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
I missed all this kerfuffle last year becuase I was preoccupied with other things but gawd this is some bullshit. I'm glad now that I didn't submit my last paper to a Wiley journal as I had considered...
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Claudio Tennie @ctennie.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
A fresh take on kid innovation in relation to task properties. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Age differences in innovation strategies: Children favour exploration and adults prefer exploitation
Innovation plays a fundamental role in human cognitive development, yet the mechanisms by which it emerges in childhood are complex. Innovation abilit…
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Brian Nosek @briannosek.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Sometimes it does make sense to give awards for individual contributions to science. Simine is a force for good, and brings everyone along.
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