iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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ingmarvisser.bsky.social @ingmarvisser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

New paper 🍼📄 ManyBabies 3 is out (open access, registered report in Developmental Science). 30 labs, 33 languages, 839 infants set out to replicate a textbook finding: 7-month-olds learn abstract rules from speech (@garymarcus.bsky.social et al., 1999). We didn’t find it. 🧵

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Sam Forbes @samhforbes.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Just be careful not to strain your eyes

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Demetri @phdemetri.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

More thoughts about the normal prior vs the student's t prior dpananos.github.io/posts/2026-0...

dpananos.github.io

Adaptive Shrinkage and the Student’s t Prior – Demetri Pananos Ph.D

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Zanna Clay @zannaclay.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Great apes reassure one another to maintain the peace Our new study shows that friendly touch before stressful events, like embracing, patting and even kissing, promotes tolerance and peace in chimpanzees and bonobos. Some BBC coverage 🙂 open-access paper below! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Great Apes kiss and cuddle to keep the peace, says study

Hugging before stressful events may be an ancient way of building trust, say scientists studying apes.

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Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

🔺Psychology Job 🔺 Assistant Professor in Psychology (Grade 8) at Durham Uni to support our new MSc Psychology (Conversion) You should use computational approaches, incl machine learning and artificial intelligence Closing date 30th Aug Please share! #Psychology #AcademicSky #PhDSky More info 👇

durham.taleo.net

Assistant Professor (Research %26 Education)

Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

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Durham University @durham.ac.uk · 22/07/2026

Are our phones stealing more than our attention? BBC Bitesize Parenting explored this with Dr Samuel Forbes, from @durhampsych.bsky.social, and Pete Etchells, author of Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time (and How to Spend It Better). Discover more 👉 www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/art...

bbc.co.uk

How parents’ phone use affects children’s feelings and safety - BBC Bitesize

As parents, what message do we send to children when we lock in on our screens? Bitesize Parenting investigates.

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Dr. SkySkull @drskyskull.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

By the way @olivia.science is just the coolest person and if you want to follow someone who very much knows what they're talking about with "AI" criticism they're the person to follow!

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 27/06/2026

If you're interested in these EXACT same dynamics, see my work with @samhforbes.bsky.social (bsky.app/profile/oliv...) on programming and gender: Guest, O. & Forbes, S. H. (2024). Teaching coding inclusively: if this, then what?. Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies. doi.org/10.5117/TVGN...

doi.org

Teaching coding inclusively | Amsterdam University Press Journals Online

Abstract We present our stance on teaching programming with the aim of increasing reflexivity amongst university educators through dissecting and destroying pervasive anti-pedagogical gendered framing...

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International Association for the Study of Child Language @iasclchildlang.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

We recently asked for members to send us professional associations around the world which are dedicated to child language. After sorting through the many responses, we've started an initial list on our website to provide as a resource for researchers: www.childlanguage.org/resources-fo...

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Caroline Rowland @carorowland.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

"However, the education system alone cannot eradicate the attainment gap, so a true strategy would include a plan to reduce and ultimately to end child poverty in the UK"

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Durham Psychology @durhampsych.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Research led by Dr Sam Forbes and Prof John Spencer shows that young children who experience richer, face to face interaction develop stronger neural pathways for language processing than those primarily exposed to screens www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... @samhforbes.bsky.social

bbc.co.uk

The parents using play to stop children getting 'trapped' by screens

Researchers say more speech and interaction around children can aid the development of young brains.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 21/04/2026

> LLMs are labor intensive, are economically infeasible, and pollute the environment, and these properties may outweigh any proposed benefits. For example, poor quality air directly harms human cognition, and thus has compounding effects on educators' and pupils' ability to teach and learn.

Huettig and Christiansen in an earlier issue argue that large language models (LLMs) are beneficial to address declining cognitive skills, such as literacy, through combating imbalances in educational equity. However, we warn that this technosolutionism may be the wrong frame. LLMs are labor intensive, are economically infeasible, and pollute the environment, and these properties may outweigh any proposed benefits. For example, poor quality air directly harms human cognition, and thus has compounding effects on educators' and pupils' ability to teach and learn. We urge extreme caution in facilitating the use of LLMs, which like much of modern academia run on private technology sector infrastructure, in classrooms lest we further normalize: pupils losing their right to privacy and security, reducing human contact between learner and educator, deskilling teachers, and polluting the environment. Cognitive scientists instead can learn from past mistakes with the petrochemical and tobacco industries and consider the harms to cognition from LLMs.

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megan peters 🧠 @meganakpeters.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

🚨🚨JOB ALERT🚨🚨 I'm hiring a cogsci/philosophy/compneuro postdoc at @ucl.ac.uk @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclpals.bsky.social! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRH486/p... Come to London & work on frameworks for "testing" for consciousness using Bayesian belief updating & latent variable modeling. Pls share!

jobs.ac.uk

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL

Discover Postdoctoral Research Fellow jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

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Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

For a year and a half, @carorowland.bsky.social, @lehersingh.bsky.social, Marisa Casillas, Shanley Allen, and I have been meeting to discuss whether innateness is still a useful concept to think about in studying language acquisition. Here's our take: osf.io/preprints/ps...

The origins of language have been a persistent object of philosophical and scientific inquiry, in part
because they offer a window into the origins of thought. Classic innatist theories of language have argued
that languages share universal elements that arise because language acquisition is guided by rich,
biologically specified structures in the form of a universal grammar. However, different versions of this
hypothesis that posit substantial amounts of innate content are not consistent with recent evidence. We
review new evidence from language diversity, human interaction, and large language models (LLMs), all
of which challenge classical innatist views. Yet we believe there is still value in asking what elements of
language development are innate. In this Perspective, we integrate evidence from these three areas
towards a broader conception of innateness, one that seeks to explain both consistency and variation in
language acquisition. On this view, innateness remains a key orienting principle for understanding the
origins of language.

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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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Emma James @emljames.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Are you a #secondaryschool teacher or school leader? We're looking to hear from educators across all areas of the curriculum about how #vocabulary is being supported in your school. Please share, thanks! ⏱ 15–20 minutes (can leave & return) 🎁 Chance to win a £20 voucher tinyurl.com/UoYVocabular...

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Sam Forbes @samhforbes.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

As always, clear thinking from @mcxfrank.bsky.social but I’d emphasise two things that he implies: 1. If you are going to use it make sure you check everything (and that may not save you any time by the end) 2. You don’t have to use it. You aren’t going to miss the boat.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 21/04/2026

@samhforbes.bsky.social and I wrote about this exact thing with air pollution and iirc back when we were all on twitter more than a few bros got upset we said it To Improve Literacy, Improve Equality in Education, Not Large Language Models doi.org/10.1111/cogs... pdf: philpapers.org/archive/FORT...

doi.org

To Improve Literacy, Improve Equality in Education, Not Large Language Models

Huettig and Christiansen in an earlier issue argue that large language models (LLMs) are beneficial to address declining cognitive skills, such as literacy, through combating imbalances in educationa...

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Kosta Boskovic @kostaboskovic.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

New pre-print alert! How do children learn magnitude words like "long" and "high", which often denote multiple domains? With @urvi.bsky.social and @drbarner.bsky.social, we find that children start with narrow meanings restricted to the labeled domain, before analogically extending osf.io/ucxra_v1

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Marine Wang @marinewang.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Why do kids learn better from gestures than visually similar actions with objects? In our new paper out in JoCN, we looked at how the brain responds to both. Check out the full paper here: doi.org/10.1162/JOCN... Thanks to @ycleong.bsky.social Susan Goldin-Meadow, Marc Berman and all collaborators!

doi.org

Gesture-based Instruction Enhances Neural Synchrony and Predicts Children's Mathematical Learning

Abstract. Teachers' hand movements during instruction can influence how children learn mathematics, but not all movements are equally effective. Gesture-based instruction on problems such as 4 + 2 + 5...

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Caroline Rowland @carorowland.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Only a few more days left to apply for a 5 year postdoc with me and Sergio on the neurobiology of child language development. Apply via the MPG postdoc program portal www.mpg.de/en/max-planc... Deadline 13th April

mpg.de

Max Planck Postdoc Program

Launching in April 2025, the Max Planck Postdoc Program features structured application calls and a comprehensive support system for researchers.

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Ariel Edwards-Levy @aedwardslevy.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

lingthusiasm is always fun, but this episode is *extremely* fun

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Davis Vaughan @davisvaughan.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

dplyr 1.2.0 is out now and we are SO excited! - `filter_out()` for dropping rows - `recode_values()`, `replace_values()`, and `replace_when()` that join `case_when()` as a complete family of recoding/replacing tools These are huge quality of life wins for #rstats! tidyverse.org/blog/2026/02...

tidyverse.org

dplyr 1.2.0

dplyr 1.2.0 fills in some important gaps in dplyr's API: we've added a new complement to `filter()` focused on dropping rows, and we've expanded the `case_when()` family with three new recoding and re...

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Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Recurring Crises in Psychology "The current responses to the replication crisis, although valuable, are not ultimate solutions because they deflect fundamental questions and postpone the reconsideration of the ideals of psychology as a science." Open Access: doi.org/10.1177/1089...

The replication crisis shook the discipline of psychology and has led to reforms such as open science and large-scale replication projects. Yet, it is not psychology’s first crisis, and it is likely not the last. In this paper, we look at three major crisis discussions in the history of psychology: discussions in the early 20th century about the possibility of psychology as a natural-scientific discipline; discussions in the 1960s–70s about the methods, relevance and scientific status of the discipline; and discussions in the 2010s about replication. We compare these crises to determine what generates crisis discussions in psychology and how they tend to unfold and be resolved. We argue that, despite differences across these crisis discussions, some fundamental questions about the object of research and proper methods of psychology recur, as do considerations related to epistemology, ontology, ethics and politics. Our analysis indicates that the current responses to the replication crisis, although valuable, are not ultimate solutions because they deflect fundamental questions and postpone the reconsideration of the ideals of psychology as a science.

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

In case you are unaware of this. @olivia.science is great!

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Christopher Madan @engra.me · 09/01/2026

There are a few good books and guides, my (biased) suggestion is the text I wrote for this very purpose engra.me/books/matlab/

engra.me

Madan Lab | An Introduction to MATLAB for Behavioral Researchers

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Prof. Ian Walker @ianwalker.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Critically, we also need the public to support actions that enable older people to live great lives without having to drive for when they fail the eye tests. So the public need to get onboard with no pavement parking, pedestrian priority, denser housing, fewer out-of-town shopping centres, etc etc

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Steve Smith @fmrib-steve.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

For people using the @ukbiobank.bsky.social UKB RAP cloud system for brain imaging analyses: In order to make RAP much easier to use, we have created a Docker which is easy to install and gives you a graphical desktop, FSLeyes and the HCP wb_view. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

docs.google.com

Imaging-friendly docker for UK Biobank RAP

An Easy Docker for Brain Imaging Visualisation on UKB RAP Paul McCarthy1 Stephen Smith1 1FMRIB, OxCIN, NDCN, Oxford University, UK Queries: email paul.mccarthy@ndcn.ox.ac.uk and stephen.smith@ndcn....

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Sam Forbes @samhforbes.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Seems like a genuinely horrible idea that will only serve to amplify existing biases in selection

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Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 26/12/2025

I won’t tag them but there are a few fairly large science-adjacent accounts on here (who are followed by a lot of y’all) who have been bashing the work and person of @irisvanrooij.bsky.social for the last few days. I feel it important to note that, as far as I can tell, those people are full of shit

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rogier kievit @rogierk.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

I've used Lavaan almost every (work)day for 15 years, but this open source labour of love has never received proper institutional support. I'm delighted to be a small part of an 1.5M OpenScienceNL award, led by Jorgensen, to completely revamp and futureproof Lavaan www.openscience.nl/en/news/45-p...

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Sebastiaan Mathôt @cogsci.nl · 18/12/2025

And for anyone looking to recruit a superstar post-doc 👉 @anavili.bsky.social 🏆 has just submitted her thesis and is on the lookout, mainly in the fields of #perception, #attention, #workingmemory, #pupillometry, #eyemovements! #nvp2025 #psychology

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Qualitative Applied Health Research Centre @quahrc.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Rethinking power in #AutismResearch: Intersectional, Participatory, & Afrocentric Futures? Book our January seminar with @drmbothapsych.bsky.social & Dr Olivia Matshabane, facilitated by Dr Sohail Jannesari. @kingsioppn.bsky.social @journalautism.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/quahrc-sem...

eventbrite.co.uk

QUAHRC Seminar: Rethinking Power in Autism Research

Rethinking Power in Autism Research: Intersectional, Participatory, and Afrocentric Futures?

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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Scientists now believe that the human brain--a magic goo for worrying--can also be used to do other things

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UK Reproducibility Network @ukrepro.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Nominations for the UKRN Dorothy Bishop Prize 2026 have opened! Named after @deevybee.bsky.social, the prize, first awarded in 2022, celebrates the contributions of early career researchers to research improvement. Nominations close 18 January 2026. #AcademicSky #Research

ukrn.org

Dorothy Bishop Prize 2026

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Linda Arrighi @lindarrighi.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Good morning! My dissertation students and I would appreciate your help with our study investigating how neurotypical and neurodivergent people approach multi-tasking. As compensation, you can enter to win 1 of 4 £20 vouchers. Links are below! Email any questions to linda.arrighi@durham.ac.uk :)

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Dr. Sobana Wijeakumar @drswijeakumar.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

New paper from our work on Project NeuroSync published in Infant and Behavior Development. The interaction between caregiver scaffolding and infant object engagement is associated with better visual working memory in 6-to-10-month-old infants. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Caregiver-infant behaviours during multi-component object play are associated with infant visual working memory

Through play interactions, caregivers play a significant role in shaping children’s early cognitive development. The over-arching objective of this cr…

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 23/11/2025

"It is noteworthy here that in all likelihood, the wealthy would still continue to receive high-quality personal instruction while the less wealthy would be taught by these potentially problematic LLMs due to resource constraints." — me and @samhforbes.bsky.social ☹️

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Sam Forbes @samhforbes.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

We're looking for great students interested in language processing and cognitive development in fNIRS. We use HD-DOT / fNIRS and eyetracking to understand how infants develop. If interested see the scheme and please get in touch.

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Nick Brown @steamtraen.eu · 07/11/2025

Oops. Ooooooooooooops. I do hope that nobody has been given or denied a job/promotion based on their SpringerNature citation counts in the past 15 years. arxiv.org/pdf/2511.01675 h/t @nathlarigaldie.bsky.social

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Audun Rosslund @audunrosslund.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Do parents exaggerate the pronunciation of words they believe their infants don’t know yet? Our new paper suggests no. ❌ w/ @julienmayor.bsky.social & @nataliakartushina.bsky.social 🧵 1/ #DevSci #langsky #devpsy

dx.doi.org

APA PsycNet

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Sam Forbes @samhforbes.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

library(dplyr) Haul %>% group_by(candy) %>% arrange()

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Sam Forbes @samhforbes.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Gosh with any luck you might be able to avoid doing science altogether

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