Reposted by Yang XiangTobias Gerstenberg @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social · 23/09/2026I'm so grateful for the continued support from my lab, and for everyone who helped along the way, now as an associate professor with tenure at Stanford 🧑🏫🥂🌲 222204
Reposted by Yang XiangAmitai Shenhav @ashenhav.bsky.social · 28/09/20262 yrs ago, I briefly laid out a new theory of how motivation works (AGH). Here, I expand on the problems AGH was trying to solve, why they are hard to solve, what my solution looks like, and how this should change our understanding of thoughts & actions. osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵A few highlights: 17542
Reposted by Yang XiangTobias Gerstenberg @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Excited and grateful to be part of this initiative by the Toyota Research Institute 🙏 Together with Thomas Icard, @noahdgoodman.bsky.social, and @yangxiang.bsky.social our team will explore what role responsibility plays in supporting effective collaboration. 📃 www.tri.global/news/elevati...tri.globalElevating Human Growth: Human-AI Kaizen Initiative | Toyota Research InstituteBy Matthew Lee, Program Director, Human-AI Kaizen Initiative Today, Toyota Research Institute (TRI) announces the proposals selected for the Human-AI Kaizen Initiative, a multi-year collaboration with... 0202
Reposted by Yang XiangTomer Ullman @tomerullman.bsky.social · 08/12/2025fun pre-print for your start of week reading: "People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable" (by Hu, Sosa, and me) doi.org/10.31234/osf... 13812
Reposted by Yang XiangSam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 06/12/2025Another fun project from @yangxiang.bsky.social. She asks the question: do people assign responsibility to personality traits in the same way that they assign reponsibility to people? The answer: sort of! osf.io/preprints/ps...osf.ioOSF 0227
Reposted by Yang XiangSam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 04/12/2025The Harvard Gazette has a nice story on my student @yangxiang.bsky.social and her work with @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...news.harvard.eduCracking the code of why, when some choose to ‘self-handicap’ — Harvard GazetteNew research also offers hints for devising ways to stop students from creating obstacles to success. 0235
Reposted by Yang XiangSam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 19/09/2025This is one of the most outstanding examples of circuit understanding I've seen in a long time. The unification of theory and experiment is beautiful. When Malcolm presented this in my lab, the audience was cheering at the end, and one person shouted (non-ironically) "You did it!" 510621
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 19/09/2025Now out in Cognition, work with the great @gershbrain.bsky.social @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social on formalizing self-handicapping as rational signaling! 📃 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lo8f2Hx2-...kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me 13613
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 24/07/2025Interesting! We’re trying to figure out _why_ LLMs don’t quite rely on counterfactual reasoning when judging responsibility. It could be—as you suggested—that they’re worse at counterfactual simulations, or that they simply don’t think counterfactuals are relevant here. Excited to dig further 🙂 110
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 24/07/2025Come by our poster at CogSci (Poster Session 2, P2-X-215), Friday 8/1 at 10:30am! 010
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 24/07/2025Our results shed light on how we can make LLMs more human-like and how to study the mechanisms underlying complex behavior in LLMs. Co-led by me and @ebig.bsky.social, with the great @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social @tomerullman.bsky.social @gershbrain.bsky.social (4/4) 210
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 24/07/2025LLM and human data are highly correlated, BUT they are best explained by different factors! LLMs evaluate collaborators based on force (how much output they contribute), whereas humans evaluate collaborators based on their actual and counterfactual effort. (3/4) 140
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 24/07/2025We adapted materials from human studies on responsibility and reward attributions and compared LLMs’ responses to human data and seven cognitive models. (2/4) 130
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 24/07/2025Our latest on the cognitive science of LLMs! To be presented @CogSci2025 🎉 LLMs are increasingly involved in human collaborations. How do LLMs assign responsibility and reward to collaborators? Is it similar to how humans do it? 🤖🧑 📃 gershmanlab.com/pubs/XiangBi... (1/4) 2399
Reposted by Yang XiangTomer Ullman @tomerullman.bsky.social · 02/07/2025🎈 Out now: 🎈 "The capacity limits of moving objects in the imagination" (by Balaban & me) of interest to people thinking about the imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, capacity limits, and more www.nature.com/articles/s41... 612228
Reposted by Yang XiangLiu, Shuze @liushuze.bsky.social · 23/03/2025@gershbrain.bsky.social, @yangxiang.bsky.social, and I have a new project out in preprint form! osf.io/preprints/ps... Here are the main takeaways: (1/6)osf.ioOSF 4134
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 25/11/2024By offering a systematic explanation of self-handicapping, we hope to lay the groundwork for developing effective interventions that target academic self-handicapping, helping people to realize their full potential. A preprint of the paper is available on PsyArxiv: osf.io/preprints/ps... (5/5)osf.ioOSF 010
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 25/11/2024We tested the theory's predictions in two experiments, showing that self-handicapping occurs more often when it’s unlikely to affect the outcome and when it increases a naive observer's perceived competence. With sophisticated observers, it’s less effective when followed by failure. (4/5) 000
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 25/11/2024We developed a signaling theory of self-handicapping, involving a naive observer who evaluates the actor’s competence, an actor who seeks to impress the naive observer through strategic self-handicapping, and a sophisticated observer who considers the actor’s decision whether to self-handicap. (3/5) 010
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 25/11/2024Self-handicapping is a strategy where people deliberately impede their performance to protect perceived competence in case of failure, or enhance it in case of success. Despite much prior research, it is unclear why, when, and how self-handicapping occurs. (2/5) 000
Yang Xiang @yangxiang.bsky.social · 25/11/2024Really excited about this project, and thanks so much to my wonderful collaborators @gershbrain.bsky.social @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social for making this happen! Some main takeaways in thread 🧵 (1/5) 4131
