Sign in

Stefano Coretta

@scoretta.bsky.social
354 followers 400 following 217 posts

Lecturer/Assistant Prof at UoE — Research Methods, Statistics, Open Research, Non-dual monism — #neurodiverse #lgbtq #chronicillness stefanocoretta.github.io

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Lisa DeBruine @debruine.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
❇️ I've updated Data Skills for Reproducible Research to v6.1. The Iteration & Functions chapter has been split in two and I've added some material on unit testing. It's a living textbook, so please submit issues if you find a mistake or something unclear. psyteachr.github.io/reprores-v6/...
12010
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Jan Vanhove @janhove.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
New blog post: "Cluster analysis: A skeptic’s guide". In which I ask a few questions that social scientists wishing to identify hidden classes in their data ought to address. janhove.github.io/posts/2026-0...
A two-dimensional scatterplot showing a three-cluster solution.

Caption: "Figure 2: A visualisation of a Latent Profile Analysis fit. Such visualisations may help readers appreciate that the clusters aren’t nicely separated and that the researchers’ notion of clusters may not correspond to their own."Table of contents:

Refresher: What is cluster analysis?
What are the clusters for?
What clusters, exactly?
Does the pipeline work?
What does the solution look like?
When running follow-up analyses, how is the uncertainty in the cluster assignments taken into account?
Was it worth it?
Conclusion
References
416145
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 14/09/2026
Okay before I do write my screed about cluster analysis, please send me your favorite *positive* examples that illustrate the utility of the method!
304011
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 05/09/2026
You can use this UN-approved Equal Earth projection right now in #rstats #gis #databs
library(tidyverse)
library(sf)
library(rnaturalearth)

world <- ne_countries() |> filter(sov_a3 != "ATA")

ggplot(data = world) +
  geom_sf() +
  coord_sf(crs = "+proj=eqearth") +
  theme_void()A basic world map using the Equal Earth projection
727081
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 05/09/2026
One of the things I find most fascinating in mathematical/computational thinking is the borrowing and development of model components from other domains. I need to model how different coders annotate a corpus? It's like occupancy models in ecology, with some twists! 1/
161
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I think we could do without a lot of pedagogical tools if everyone would first learn how to be reflective/reflexive.
100
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Last year, I publicly complained multiple times (see e.g. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...) that the open access movement had been captured by publishers, and we are now worse off than before open access. Well people got mad at me for saying it. But I think things are still getting worse.
616466
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
JsonGeller @jgeller1phd.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Been wanting to write this paper for a while: many experimental psychologists analyzing RTs with the ex-Gaussian in brms are doing it incorrectly. I've seen this mistake across several outlets. osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io
OSF
1144
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I am making my group read @kokkonut.bsky.social primer on continuous time models in ecology (doi.org/10.1111/2041...). Clearest presentation of Gillespie algorithm I've seen.
Comparison of deterministic and stochastic dynamics in the Lotka-Volterra predator–prey system. (a), four different limit cycles depicting deterministic predictions when starting the cycle at different densities for predators and prey, and (b–d) one run of a stochastic implementation of the same process using the Gillespie algorithm (starting at N1 = 1000, N2 = 100). The purple arrow in (a) exemplifies the problem with the Euler equation: Extrapolating from the current direction of change is prone to ‘miss the curve’. In (b–d), the first three cycles are in green, the next three in blue and the final three in red, to make it more visually clear that the system is not bound to always spiral outwards (from blue to red), the opposite can happen too (from green to blue), but the outwards movement is often observed last because it makes the population very prone to extinction. Other parameters: b = 2, B1 = 5, B2 = 1, a = 0.1, μ = 1, n = 150.
2537
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
"Human language is the most complex communication system found in nature." I wish we did not open papers with that statement.
030
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Google ngram viewer of words scientism and scientistic. There is a steady increase of use until peak on 2019 and then decline.
000
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
The more I teach Bayesian stats the more I am surprised that students/researchers naturally go to “evidence weighting” and “credibility based on CrIs including 0 or not” despite me warning against it. It is probably so engrained in our minds that you just got back to it.
120
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
This is possibly the most blatant case of citation farming I've seen. Quality control at Elsevier: www.chrisbrunet.com/p/third-edit...
chrisbrunet.com
Third Editor Fired in Elsevier's Citation Cartel Crackdown; Hundreds of Papers At Risk of Retraction
"This is not a series of coincidences; it is a blatant, industrial-scale quid pro quo."
384
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Nicola Rennie @nrennie.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
📊 Five #ggplot2 functions I wish I'd known about earlier 📊 I've written a short blog (with examples) of some of the lesser-known {ggplot2} functions and arguments that make it easier to create better charts! Link: nrennie.rbind.io/blog/five-gg... #RStats #DataViz
nrennie.rbind.io
Five ggplot2 functions I wish I’d known about earlier – Nicola Rennie
There are a few small tweaks you can make to your ggplot2 code to improve your charts. However, they’re not often mentioned. So here’s a few functions and arguments I wish I’d known about earlier.
616549
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Dan Quintana @dsquintana.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Selecting an effect size for power analysis is hard. Many researchers fall back on Cohen's thresholds, but they have no empirical basis and vary wildly by field. Our new paper offers a better option: field-specific effect size distributions built from meta-analytic data doi.org/10.3758/s134...
Abstract
Effect sizes are useful for understanding the magnitude of study results and for planning new studies via power analysis.
However, despite their wide usage, effect sizes are often misinterpreted. This is mostly due to an over-reliance on general
effect size benchmarks that were not intended for broad application across diverse research fields. Inaccurate effect size
interpretations can lead to incorrect conclusions about the magnitude of study results and incorrect sample size estimates,
thereby increasing the likelihood of false-positive results. This article introduces the ESDist R package, which is designed
to calculate empirically derived effect-size benchmarks or a range of reliably detectable empirical effect sizes for a specific
research question or field of interest by computing effect size distributions (ESDs). This package can be used on data that
can be easily extracted from pre-existing meta-analyses to help researchers more accurately plan new studies or to better
understand how an individual study might relate to other studies in their field. ESDist includes a set of features that make it
easy to use in a priori power analysis. Moreover, the package includes a feature for estimating effect size benchmarks that
account for publication bias and are weighted by effect sizes' variances, which addresses existing limitations of using ESDs
for study planning or interpretation.
316175
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Mathematical formalisation of verbal process models is what we need in linguistics. (Note that this does not entail reductionism nor determinism nor other things associated with scientific realism, which I don’t agree with myself. I got your back, constructivist friends).
030
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Dan Quintana @dsquintana.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Why are oxytocin study results so inconsistent? Methods get most of the blame, but the problem is also theoretical as existing accounts are too vague to falsify. In a new preprint, I formalise the Allostatic Theory of Oxytocin as a computational model osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵
Oxytocin's effects on human behaviour are inconsistent across studies, persisting despite improvements in methodological rigour. Part of this problem is theoretical: existing verbal accounts do not specify predictions precisely enough to be falsified. Here I formalise the
Allostatic Theory of Oxytocin as a computational model, deriving eight testable propositions and evaluating each against simulation evidence. Three structural predictions that follow directly from the model's assumptions were confirmed. Of five genuinely discriminating tests, three were supported. The two unsupported propositions revealed boundary conditions the verbal theory could not identify. Formalisation underscored the importance of validating auxiliary assumptions
regarding optimal oxytocin dosing and the measurement of baseline endogenous oxytocin levels, without which tests of the theory cannot be conclusively interpreted. Altogether, this formalisation provides a more precise and falsifiable account of oxytocin's role in behaviour than
currently exists, and a template for incrementally refining verbal theories in psychology through formal specification.Figure 2. The allostatic theory of oxytocin as a directed graph. Each node is a variable in the equations, and each edge is a functional dependency. The graph complements the equations in Supplementary Text 1. Purple: oxytocin input Ω. Blue (solid border): the four oxytocin-dependent parameter functions specified by the verbal theory — sensing noise σ(Ω), learning rate α(Ω), prior weight w(Ω), and response gain γ(Ω). Blue (dashed border): the efferent coupling rate κ(Ω), a formalisation extension beyond the four verbal-theory components.
Grey: computation cascade operating each time step. Orange: environmental inputs — the predictive cue (pred. cue) feeds the observation, while the true current state drives passive body-state drift. Teal: body state y(t), driven by both passive drift toward s(t) (δ, oxytocin-independent) and efferent coupling toward x(t) (κ(Ω),
oxytocin-dependent). Red: output metrics: fitness f(t); allostatic load L(t); and efficiency E.
56616
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
A lot of meta-research discourse revolves around “science”. We need more discourse that focuses on research (beyond the demarcation “problem”).
110
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Evan Gordon @gordonneuro.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
I always assumed that brain function had to line up with cytoarchitectonics. It turns out I was wrong. Human cortex, especially PFC, is tiled by chains of functional patches that subdivide and interlink architectonic areas into parallel processing streams. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
14234122
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Rasmus Puggaard-Rode @rpuggaardrode.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
praatpicture has a couple new features in the newly released version 1.8.0! You can now embed audio with a moving cursor to your figures (thanks Marina Cantarutti, and thanks to @sorensorensen.bsky.social for donating his voice!) 1/3
3269
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Statistical Rethinking 2026 is done: 20 new lectures emphasizing logical and critical statistical workflow, from basics of probability theory to causal inference to reliable computation to sensitivity. It's all free, made just for you. Lecture list and links: github.com/rmcelreath/s...
12678215
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Michael Flynn @flynnpolsci.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Finally finished up a blog post on estimating Bradley–Terry models using brms. www.m-flynn.com/posts/2025-1...
m-flynn.com
01610
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
🎉 New position paper out with @jess-hampton.bsky.social 🌱 Beyond the horizon: A more-than-human and holistic approach to language 🌱 Out now in *Language & Ecology* www.ecolinguistics-association.org/_files/ugd/a...
ecolinguistics-association.org
132
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 16/04/2026
I ported the notes to Quarto and now all the old links are broken 😅. Here the new link to the chapter on Bayesian models of cognition: fusaroli.github.io/AdvancedCogn... Working now on 3 chapters on models of categorization (exemplar, prototype, rule-based)
fusaroli.github.io
10  Bayesian Models of Cognition – Advanced Cognitive Modeling Notes
191
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Had a blast at #BAAP2026! [That also involved ripping my jeans while performing ballet at the bar (the drinks bar) for some of the conference dinner attendees who surely didn't ask for it] Jokes apart, amazing research being done and was happy to see Bayesian stuff!
150
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Andrew Gelman et al. @statmodeling.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
All graphs are comparisons, and the relevance of this principle to practical advice for producing better graphs statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/04/12/a...
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu
All graphs are comparisons, and the relevance of this principle to practical advice for producing better graphs | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
1135
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Asking for a colleague: First language English speakers survey on phonosymbolism. Please share: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
LINGUISTIC SURVEY
The present survey is addressed to native speakers of English and aims to collect data for linguistic research related to word formation. Participation is voluntary and anonymous, and the responses wi...
010
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Richard Ogden @richardogden.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Link to the paper, Phonetic features in the interactional management of laughter: www.jbe-platform.com/content/jour...
jbe-platform.com
Phonetic features in the interactional management of laughter
Abstract This paper investigates the phonetic and social organisation of laughter in spoken conversation. Building on conversation analytic research that highlights laughter as a complex interactional...
053
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
www.wired.com/story/artemi...
wired.com
Even Artemis II Astronauts Have Microsoft Outlook Problems
The mission commander’s email inbox failed during the journey to the moon. Have they tried turning the computer off and back on again?
100
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 24/03/2026
Fun fact: My boss, Stefan Schmukle, actually published a study on implicit gender self-concept (measured with the IAT) and 2D:4D ratios. And it's included in the loss-of-confidence project, because (surprise) he no longer believes in it. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Statement on Schmukle et al. (2007) by Stefan C. Schmukle
The original main finding was that the implicit gender self-concept measured with the IAT significantly correlated with second-digit/fourth digit (2D:4D) ratios for men (r = .36, p = .02) but not for women. We used two different versions of a gender IAT in this study (one with pictures and one with words as gender-specific stimuli; r = .46), and we had two different 2D:4D measures (the first measure was based on directly measuring the finger lengths using a caliper, and the second was based on measuring the scans of the hands; r = .83). The correlation between IAT and 2D:4D was, however, significant only for the combination of picture IAT and 2D:4D scan measure but insignificant for other combinations of IAT and 2D:4D measures. When I was writing the manuscript, I thought that the pattern of results made sense because (a) the research suggested that for an IAT, pictures were better suited as stimuli than words and because (b) I assumed that the scan measures should lead to better results for psychometric reasons (because measurements were averaged across two raters). Accordingly, I reported only the results for the combination of picture IAT and 2D:4D scan measure in the article (for all results, see the long version of the loss-of-confidence statement at https://osf.io/bv48h/). In the meantime, I have lost confidence in this finding, and I now think that the positive association between the gender IAT and 2D:4D is very likely a false-positive result because I should have corrected the p value for multiple testing.
0204
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
If research has no applied end-goal, it still matters. (Note that “no applied end-goal” doesn’t mean “no potential application”. I believe that all research has potential for application, that’s not the point I am making).
020
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Some believe that others believe that Open Research is the ultimate *cure* to the research crises. But no: in most minds, Open Research is a *response* to the research crises, not necessarily a panacea.
media.tenor.com
a scarecrow from the wizard of oz stands in a field
ALT: a scarecrow from the wizard of oz stands in a field
110
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
A lot of (non-philosophical) discourse around science in linguistics and adjacent disciplines lacks a solid philosophical backdrop. What’s the point in trying to convince people that what you do is “science” when demarcation is a problem in itself?
2102
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Katrin Auspurg @kauspurg.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Do researchers share their code upon request? Does running their orginal code on the original data produce the original results? We provide evidence in a new Royal Society Open Science publication. Studying more than 1,000 articles which use data from the European Social Survey, we find that... 🧵
210848
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Researchers in QUALITATIVE METHODS, can you please share examples of how you share data/annotations/transcripts and so on? Also how you organise your files and so on. Thank you!
media.tenor.com
a microphone with the number 3 on it
ALT: a microphone with the number 3 on it
020
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Psychologists, please abandon box plots. They are bad (why? where do I begin...).
media.tenor.com
homer simpson is holding a sign that says a on it
ALT: homer simpson is holding a sign that says a on it
020
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
🎉 NEW PAPER with @gsakr.bsky.social "Multivariate Analyses of Tongue Contours from Ultrasound Tongue Imaging" 👅📡🩻📉 doi.org/10.1177/0023...
1113
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
🎉 - NEW MANUSCRIPT with @jess-hampton.bsky.social Beyond the horizon: a more-than-human and holistic approach to language lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/009...
lingbuzz.net
Beyond the horizon: a more-than-human and holistic approach to language - lingbuzz/009790
This position paper proposes a more-than-human and holistic approach to language that moves beyond entrenched divides between structuralism, constructivism, positivism, and methodological camps. Writi...
131
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
And the time comes when your tinsy work laptop has no more storage.
media.tenor.com
a cartoon minion with a red light on his head and the words `` memory alert '' below it .
ALT: a cartoon minion with a red light on his head and the words `` memory alert '' below it .
010
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
So Old Chinese *ɲ becomes Middle Chinese *ɻ (still /ɻ/ today in Mandarin). Does anybody know of a parallel change in other (non-Sino-Tibetan) languages?
030
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
My wish for 2026 is that I want to go back to my home planet. Take me back!!! Thank youuuuuu
020
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Peer Community in Registered Reports @pci-regreports.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
We're delighted to welcome TWO new diamond-OA PCI RR-friendly journals Registered Reports in Linguistics, ed. by @scoretta.bsky.social ky.social & @jess-hampton.bsky.social + Replication Research @r2journal.bsky.social ed. by @aufdroeseler.bsky.social & team rr.peercommunityin.org/about/pci_rr...
Statement of commitment: Registered Reports in Linguistics will automatically offer Stage 1 in-principle acceptance (IPA) to any Stage 1 RR within the journal’s disciplinary scope that receives IPA at PCI RR, and will accept without further peer review any Stage 2 RR that has been recommended by PCI RR, subject to the manuscript meeting the journal requirements concerning bias control.

Disciplinary scope: Research in linguistics, including all sub-fields.Statement of commitment: Replication Research will automatically offer Stage 1 in-principle acceptance (IPA) to any Stage 1 RR within the journal’s disciplinary scope that receives IPA at PCI RR, and will accept without further peer review any Stage 2 RR that has been recommended by PCI RR, subject to the manuscript meeting the journal requirements concerning bias control and computational reproducibility.

Disciplinary scope: Replication studies across a range of physical, life, and social sciences, including digital humanities, experimental philosophy, geoscience, linguistics, management sciences, marketing, medicine, mental health, metascience, neuroimaging, neuroscience, political science, psychology, and qualitative and quantitative research methods. Studies can be robustness reproductions using the same data and code, recreate reproductions using the same data and new code, close replications using new data and the same method, or conceptual replications using new data and a different method.
01510
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
IPBES @ipbes.net · 16/12/2025
In 2019, IPBES #GlobalAssessment est. 1 million species of plants & animals are threatened with extinction.🥀 The figure is probably even higher, but what's important is the urgent need for #biodiversity preservation! www.ipbes.net/global-assessment
An image of two bonobos sitting in the grass next to a stream. Overlay text reads “1 million species of plants and animals at risk of extinction. - IPBES Global Assessment”
03921
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
In this writing and reviewing season, I would like to kindly remind linguists to not hide your data or your observations behind what you think is "the main theoretical point of the paper." Cursory data and description are the linguistic impostor syndrome in writing. 1/2
1121
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Florian Naudet @floriannaudet.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
All I want for Christmas…is a precisely defined research question - Trials
Trials -
0164
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
I'm teaching Statistical Rethinking again starting Jan 2026. This time with live lectures, divided into Beginner and Experienced sections. Will be a lot more work for me, but I hope much better for students. I will record lectures & all will be found at this link: github.com/rmcelreath/s...
course schedule as a table. Available at the link in the post.
12660233
Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
🎉 "Normalising formant values for plotting and modelling" New blog post: stefanocoretta.github.io/posts/2025-1...
Vowel plot with F2 and F1 values. The formants are normalised Hz.
0133
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Michael "Shapes Dude" Betancourt @betanalpha.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
So much statistics discourse orbits around Bayes verses frequentist debates, but in practice Bayes verses frequentist is often a false dichotomy. Just as important as the inferential strategy is the underlying model, and how that model is specified. 🧵
A 2x2 table with the four cells:
  I   - “Default Model” x “Frequentist”
  II  - “Default Model” x “Bayesian”
  III - “Bespoke Model” x “Frequentist”
  IV - “Bespoke Model” x “Bayesian”
14911
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Peer Community In @peercommunityin.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
In case you have missed Simine Vazire's excellent webinar yesterday, here is the link to watch it online: youtu.be/_vb1CNwC3CM Thanks again @simine.com for staying up so late and thanks to the audience for the great questions!
youtu.be
PCI Webinar series #13 - Simine Vazire - Recognizing and responding to a replication crisis
14830
Reposted by Stefano Coretta
Martin Haspelmath @haspelmath.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Over the last 5 years, I proposed more and more retro-definitions of traditional terms. But why am I doing this? Are these definitions driven by their "usefulness"? This new blogpost gives an answer. dlc.hypotheses.org/3975
dlc.hypotheses.org
How useful are retro-definitions for (typological) linguistics? (Maybe not very.)
Like all sciences, linguistics needs technical terms, and we generally treat the grammatical terms that we inherited from our ancestors (such as syllable, affix, compound, dative, imperative, subordin...
062