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Stephen Ferrigno

@sferrigno.bsky.social
590 followers 256 following 23 posts

Assistant Professor of Psychology at UW-Madison. PI, Cognitive Origins Lab, investigating the evolutionary and developmental origins of thought. He/Him. cognitiveoriginslab.psych.wisc.edu

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Reposted by Stephen Ferrigno
Markus Brauer @markusbrauer.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The UW–Madison Department of Psychology is seeking to fill an open-rank faculty position in social psychology. If you know a great candidate, encourage them to apply! jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...
jobs.wisc.edu
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor of Psychology - Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...
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Sam Cheyette @samcheyette.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
are you a puzzle-enjoyer, or would you like to become one? try out a game or two at mitpuzzles.com! we're trying to figure out the factors that separate novice from expert problem solving, and what changes with experience, using self-motivated puzzle solving
mitpuzzles.com
MIT Puzzles
MIT researchers study human cognition through logic puzzles
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Benjamin Pitt @benjaminpitt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
New paper finally out in @NatureComms with E. Leib, D. O’Shaughnessy, C. Gallardo, @sferrigno.bsky.social, and @spiantado.bsky.social. 📝Children across cultures discover the latent algorithms that structure what they see, even without instruction, feedback, or formal schooling.🧵 tinyurl.com/4a238m2d
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CantlonLab @cantlonlab.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Geometry is not something humans invented from scratch —congratulations to Jialin Li on her first, first author paper. More to come from this team… @spiantado.bsky.social @wenjieli.bsky.social @jialin21.bsky.social @emilymsanford.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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steven t. piantadosi @spiantado.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
"There won’t be more discoveries, and we’ll just stop at what we already know." @cantlonlab.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/c...
nytimes.com
She Studied Ways to Make People Smarter. Then Her Grant Was Cut.
Jessica Cantlon had a grant with the U.S. Navy to explore whether people could improve spatial problem-solving skills through training. Then the program was cut.
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The It's Innate! Podcast @theitsinnatepc.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
New ep! 🚨 We chatted with Dr. Shari Liu (shariliu.bsky.social) about her recent Nature Reviews Psychology paper. How do infants make sense of other people's minds? According to Shari, part of the answer lies in understanding the physical world. itsinnate.fireside.fm/40
itsinnate.fireside.fm
Mind o̶v̶e̶r̶ Matter? (with Shari Liu)
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Comparative Cognition Society @compcogsoc.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
#FeatureSession Alert! #EarlyCareerAwardWinner Stephen Ferrigno Stephen Ferrigno presents his work showing that monkeys and humans use similar, queue-like memory systems for hierarchical sequences, challenging traditional models of how structured information is represented #CO32026 🧪
Brown haired man in a mauve button up shirt in front of a bookcase, facing the camera.
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Comparative Cognition Society @compcogsoc.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
A big #Congratulations to our Early Career Award Winner, Stephen Ferrigno! His work with #memory systems suggests that #monkeys not only have the ability to represent recursive sequences but do so like #humans. #CO32026
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Excited for #CDS2026! The Cognitive Origins Lab will be there in force, showing our work on number cognition and sequencing development with presentations by @alessandra-silva.bsky.social @zellergracie.bsky.social and @elijahtramm.bsky.social (presented by an outstanding undergrad Maimoona Abdaal)
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Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
"the two sides reached a collective bargaining agreement that gave Women’s National Basketball Association players a nearly 400% raise...It isn’t just the biggest pay increase in U.S. league history. It is, as far as Goldin is aware, the biggest increase any union anywhere has ever negotiated."
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
The Cognitive Origins Lab @uwpsych.bsky.social is hiring! We are looking for a full-time Research Specialist (postbac) to work on non-invasive primate + child cognition research. Full-time, 2 years, starts June 2026. Apply here: wisconsin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UW_Madison/j...
wisconsin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
Research Specialist
Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process. Job Category: Academic Staff Employment T...
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Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
What does it mean for culture to “shape” cognition? In our new TiCS paper, @benjaminpitt.bsky.social & I offer a typology of four possible effects: culture can Privilege one cognitive process over others, Prune out disfavored ones, Produce new ones, or have no effect. www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
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Laura Simone Lewis @laurasimonelewis.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
New article out exploring great ape name recognition! We find partial evidence that zoo-living chimps & bonobos know each other's names 👀 Huge thanks to Animal Behavior and Cognition (a great open-access journal) & co-authors for your collaboration!🎉🐵 unsvr1.com/web/abc/work...
unsvr1.com
Do Great Apes Know Each Other's Names? Probing Great Ape Comprehension of Social Vocal Labels — Animal Behavior and Cognition
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Chris Krupenye @chriskrupenye.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Imagination in bonobos! I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
youtu.be
Apes Share Human Ability to Imagine
YouTube video by Johns Hopkins University
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
First they came for DEI and I said nothing for I hoped my success rates would improve. Then they came for gender identity research and I said nothing for I hoped my success rates would improve. Then they came for the NPRCs, and I said nothing for I hoped my success rates would improve.
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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
1/2 Ai, the chimpanzee who revolutionized science from Kyoto, has died at the age of 49. She was the first chimpanzee to learn Arabic numerals. Here you can see her in action in Tetsuro Matsuzawa's laboratory.
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Vivian Paulun @vivianpaulun.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
🚨I am looking for a POSTDOC, LAB MANAGER/TECH and GRAD STUDENTS to join my new lab in beautiful Madison, WI. We study how our brains perceive and represent the physical world around us using behavioral, computational, and neuroimaging methods. paulunlab.psych.wisc.edu #VisionScience #NeuroSkyence
Skyline of Madison, WI
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Sam Cheyette @samcheyette.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Very excited to share a new preprint that’s been brewing for a long time! This work was led by the exceptional @traceym.bsky.social, and made possible by a developmental + comparative + computational dream team. osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io
OSF
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Rosa Lafer-Sousa @rosalafersousa.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Over the weekend ICE abducted an NIH contractor when he showed up to a courthouse for his green card hearing. He is documented. His wife is a citizen. He is also member of the skeleton crew of animal care staff that works through a shutdown, to ensure the health and wellbeing of research animals.
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
New work with @samcheyette.bsky.social & Susan Carey testing the memory architecture used when learning/producing center-embedded sequences. Adults don't use Push-Down Stacks as is often assumed, instead they rely on a Queue-like memory architecture onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Do Humans Use Push‐Down Stacks When Learning or Producing Center‐Embedded Sequences?
Complex sequences are ubiquitous in human mental life, structuring representations within many different cognitive domains—natural language, music, mathematics, and logic, to name a few. However, the....
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Another fun #cogsci2025 in the books! Thanks to everyone who stopped by the CO-Lab grad student posters! Alessanda Silva on Number-Space mappings & @elijahtramm.bsky.social on Hierarchical grammar learning in monkeys (and humans). Posters still available through Cog. Sci. or reach out for a copy.
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Kira Breeden @kira-bre.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
#cogsci2025 was a blast! Many excellent conversations about inner speech and categorical representation!
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Ali Mohebi @mohebial.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
🚨 Neuro postdocs & grad students: Have a story to tell? Want to practice a talk before a conference or interview? Join our new seminar series on the Isthmus! All are welcome (from around the 🌎). Submit by Aug 20. Share your story (and this ad)! (Ping me for Qs) forms.gle/zpSTGWczxjqJ...
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Science Magazine @science.org · 09/07/2025
Researchers came from around the United States to showcase projects, ranging from modeling coastal hazards to teaching quantum information science, that were killed prematurely this spring by one of a half-dozen federal agencies. scim.ag/3Tv5iVC
scim.ag
Democrats stage a science fair of canceled grants to show what’s been lost
Partisan fight over Trump cuts heats up as Congress works on 2026 spending bills.
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Arif "Felonious Munk" Shahid @feloniousmunk.blacksky.app · 22/06/2025
100% of Black people self censor at work. Its a job site not your personal safe space, snowflake.
Screen shot of a Fox News article with the headline "White men are
'walking around on eggshells at work, afraid to speak freely: Survey
Poll reveals 43% of White men self-censor at work, while 25 million report losing job opportunities due to their race and gender"
By Rachel del Guidice • Fox News
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Center for Communication & Civic Renewal @cccr.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
🚨 CCCR has a new survey report out today! 🚨 "100 Days Under Trump: Public Reactions to Attacks on American Governance & Institutions" The report draws on our Apr/May YouGov panel survey of US adults, following our Oct 2024 survey w/ recontacts + a sample refresh. 1/ cccr.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...
CCCR logo, 100 Days Under Trump: Public Reactions to Attacks on American Governance & Institutions
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Science Magazine @science.org · 16/06/2025
After already killing more than 1700 active grants related to politically charged topics, the National Institutes of Health has flagged another roughly 3200 grants for review and possible termination.
scim.ag
Exclusive: NIH documents reveal inconsistencies in grant terminations as agency reviews 3200 more
Evidence of agency’s uneven guidance to employees and role of DOGE could play into legal case against cuts
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The Cognitive Development Society (CDS) @cogdevsoc.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
📣📣 A recent paper by Nicholas A. Vest and colleagues: Does Focusing on the Unit of Change Help Children Learn Growing Pattern Skills? www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @nicholasvest.bsky.social @marthaalibali.bsky.social
tandfonline.com
Does Focusing on the Unit of Change Help Children Learn Growing Pattern Skills?
Children regularly encounter growing and decreasing patterns in songs, games, and daily routines. Over development, children learn to extend and abstract (i.e., recreate the pattern using different...
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
The original was fantastic! Can't wait for my niece & nephew to get a couple years older. Nerdy bedtime stories for days!
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Gabriel Bosslet @gbosslet.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Well the NIH has cancelled the Women's Health Initiative, the largest study of women in history It has been running continuously since 1991 and has provided massive key knowledge about diseases in women Unreal www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
NIH cancels its first and largest study centered on women
The Women’s Health Initiative has produced numerous influential findings
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Pearl Han Li @pearlhanli.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
📣Now hiring! I'm looking to recruit a full-time Research Specialist (Lab Manager) to join the Social and Moral Learning Lab at UW Madison starting this summer! Apply here: jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/researc... (application deadline March 21, 2025)
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Chris Krupenye @chriskrupenye.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Are humans the only species that communicates when a collaborator is missing information? In @pnas.org, Luke Townrow and I show that our closest relatives, bonobos, can track when a partner is knowledgeable or ignorant, and tailor communication accordingly www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Bonobo Nyota at Ape Initiative, a science and education nonprofit
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 20/06/2024
Excited to be part of this Cog Sci preconference workshop on compositionality in Math & Non-linguistic reasoning next week. Virtual and free to attend! Sign up here: framaforms.org/compositiona...
framaforms.org
Compositionality in minds, brains and machines - Part 1 (virtual seminar) | Framaforms.org
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 26/03/2024
Our fantastic lab manager Sydney Buffonge presented her first poster at a national conference this past weekend at #CDS2024! Congrats Sydney!
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 20/03/2024
Come join the Cognitive Origins Lab at UW-Madison! We are hiring two full time lab managers to start this summer! One specializing in child development and one in non-human primate cognition. Application links below.
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Many Minds podcast @manymindspod.bsky.social · 11/03/2024
New episode!! A conversation w/ Laura Lewis & @chriskrupenye.bsky.social about social memory in great apes. Humans remember familiar faces for decades. But is this ability unique to our species, or is it part of our deeper primate heritage? Listen: disi.org/social-memor...
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Steve Wang @stevewang251.bsky.social · 07/02/2024
Anyone teaching 2-sample t tests in Intro Stats? Here's the dataset you've been looking for. www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/... #stats #AcademicSky #EduSky 🧪
sportingnews.com
Travis Kelce stats with and without Taylor Swift: How much better is Chiefs star with his girlfriend...
Kelce has been much more productive when Swift has been in the stands, and that bodes well for the Chiefs in Super Bowl 58.
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 13/12/2023
Came across this gem when looking for an old paper. Still one of the most memorable experiences in my grad career, but @cantlonlab.bsky.social handled it like an absolute boss!
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steven t. piantadosi @spiantado.bsky.social · 15/11/2023
New postdoc opportunity to work jointly with @cantlonlab.bsky.social and me to understand cognition across species, age, and culture! cmu.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/CMU/job/Pitt...
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 18/10/2023
The Cognitive Origins Lab at UW-Madison is recruiting graduate students to start in Fall 2024. Interesting in how infant monkeys and/or children learn concepts related to number, sequencing, or logic? Apply here: psych.wisc.edu/graduate-pro...
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Stephen Ferrigno @sferrigno.bsky.social · 18/10/2023
The @WiSciFest was a blast! Featuring our amazing RAs teaching students about what you and monkeys have in common, live calves, and e-race cars!
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