Jenny R. Saffran | Lightnews

Jenny Saffran

@jennysaffran.bsky.social

1.9K followers 360 following 16 posts

Professor at UW-Madison, parent, studies how babies learn, loves food, dogs, and politics.

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Jenny Saffran is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She specializes in language acquisition and early cognitive development, and she also conducts research on music cognition. Saffran views language acquisition as based on general cognitive processes such as statistical learning, and has conducted numerous empirical studies that support this view. She received a B.A. from Brown University and a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. Saffran is married to fellow psychologist Seth Pollak, and she is the daughter of cognitive neuropsychologist Eleanor Saffran. .. more

Psychology 71%

Neuroscience 10%

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Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

European Society for Cognitive Psychology @escop.bsky.social · 5d

Interdisciplinary Advances in Statistical Learning Conference 2026
Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
10-12 June 2026

Abstract submission deadline: 1 March 2026

Statistical Learning 2026

www.bcbl.eu

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Brigitte Nerlich, Jenny R. Saffran

Nora Newcombe @noranewcombe.bsky.social · Sep 23

Science pushes back. Thanks to Helen Tager-Flusberg for her work on this front!
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/o...

Opinion | ‘That Was Shocking’: Four Autism Experts React to Trump’s Plan

www.nytimes.com

Jenny Saffran @jennysaffran.bsky.social · Sep 16

Tenure track position in Psychology at UW-Madison — CogSci or comp neurosci with an AI emphasis, broadly construed. Apply!

Gary Lupyan @glupyan.bsky.social · Sep 15

Come be my colleague! UW-Madison Psychology is hiring! Computational Neuroscience and/or Cognitive Science, with an AI emphasis. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Assistant 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...

jobs.wisc.edu

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · Sep 15

A first blogpost from the LEVANTE team, introducing our global project perspective.

A good intro if you're interested in learning more about cross-cultural developmental data collection using LEVANTE.

levante-network.org/global-colla...

Global Collaboration to Capture Variability in Child Development - Levante

Ensuring that children around the world can flourish is one of the most important goals of our time. Developmental science has made major strides in understanding how children grow, learn, and thrive ...

levante-network.org

Reposted by Jill A. Jacobson, Jenny R. Saffran

Gary Lupyan @glupyan.bsky.social · Sep 15

Come be my colleague! UW-Madison Psychology is hiring! Computational Neuroscience and/or Cognitive Science, with an AI emphasis. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Assistant Professor of Psychology - Madison, Wisconsin, United States

jobs.wisc.edu

Jenny Saffran @jennysaffran.bsky.social · Jul 18

Really looking forward to this!

BogaertsLab @bogaertslab.bsky.social · Jul 18

📣🗓️ The 6th Interdisciplinary Advances in Statistical Learning Conference #IASL26 will be held June 10-12 in San Sebastián.

Our keynotes:
@jennysaffran.bsky.social with 30 years of SL work since 1996.
@noranewcombe.bsky.social on learning and spatial cognition.
@pyoudeyer.bsky.social on curiosity.

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

BogaertsLab @bogaertslab.bsky.social · Jul 18

Jenny Saffran @jennysaffran.bsky.social · Jul 17

Signing the review makes it easier!

Jenny Saffran @jennysaffran.bsky.social · May 24

Saw these babies on campus yesterday 🐣 love seeing crane colts!

Jenny Saffran @jennysaffran.bsky.social · May 16

UGH! So sorry and hoping things turn around soon.

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Maryellen MacDonald @maryellenmacdonald.bsky.social · May 9

My book reveals the mostly hidden effects of talking *on talkers.* Talking boosts focus & learning, regulates emotions, changes perception, & more. The reason lies in how utterance planning for talking works. It's a book for gen'l audiences, but w scientific claims for production & its consequences

More Than Words by Maryellen MacDonald, PhD: 9780593545270 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

"This beautifully written book by Maryellen MacDonald demonstrates how 'word-work' shapes both our experience of the world and the very brain that produced our capacity to articulate and generate our ...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

Jenny Saffran @jennysaffran.bsky.social · May 3

Fun new study by Ellie Breitfeld!

Cognition @cognitionjournal.bsky.social · May 3

How do children figure out what new words mean? This study shows that preschoolers use the locations in which they encounter new labels/objects (e.g. in the kitchen or outside) to infer information about them (e.g., if they can be eaten vs. thrown).

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Cognition @cognitionjournal.bsky.social · May 3

Reposted by Martin Wiener, E. Richard Gold, Jenny R. Saffran

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · Apr 14

Super excited to submit a big sabbatical project this year: "Continuous developmental changes in word
recognition support language learning across early
childhood": osf.io/preprints/ps...

title of paper (in text) plus author list

Time course of word recognition for kids at different ages.

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Martha W. Alibali @marthaalibali.bsky.social · Apr 9

U of Wisconsin alumni & friends: today is "Day of the Badger"--a day to raise money to support our department & our students. If we reach 150 donors to the Dept of Psych, we unlock a big additional gift! Please support if you can! (any dollar amount, $5 is great!)
dayofthebadger.org/campaign/psy...

Psychology | Day of the Badger

Students in the Department of Psychology are tomorrow’s change makers, shaping the future of mental health care, providing valuable psychological insights in legal settings, and driving innovation in ...

dayofthebadger.org

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

CantlonLab @cantlonlab.bsky.social · Apr 3

Why isn’t the leadership of the National Academies of Science SAYING ANYTHING to protect science from being dismantled? Dick Aslin writes about the 1900+ scientists who spoke out —without their leadership. 🧪🧬🔬

dickaslin.substack.com/p/getting-in...

Getting into Good Trouble

Former congressman John Lewis from Georgia was famously quoted as saying, “Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” Over the p...

dickaslin.substack.com

Jenny Saffran @jennysaffran.bsky.social · Mar 31

Grateful to the members of the National Academy of Sciences for standing up! www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/s...

Trump Administration Has Begun a War on Science, Researchers Say

Nearly 2,000 scientists urged that Congress restore funding to federal agencies decimated by recent cuts.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · Mar 16

In this interview Schumer says he agrees with Trump’s decision to pull $400 million from Columbia. A university in his own state. And he’s unconcerned about the unlawful arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, one of his constituents.

He is a traitor who needs to resign.

‘The Interview’: Chuck Schumer on Democrats, Antisemitism and His Shutdown Retreat

The Senate minority leader discusses the backlash to his vote on the Republican spending bill, how he sees his role within the party and his new book.

www.nytimes.com

Jenny Saffran @jennysaffran.bsky.social · Mar 15

Exciting! The NYTimes snacking cake recipes are my go-tos (made one today) - fun to find more.

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Nicole McNeil @nicolemmcneil.bsky.social · Mar 13

It seems relevant to reshare our info piece, given what just happened to IES. It’s now gonna become even easier for snake oil salesmen to peddle their junk to parents, teachers, and schools. www.the74million.org/article/with...

Without the DOE’s Institute of Education Sciences, Helping Teachers Learn What Works in the Classroom Will Get a Lot Harder

In short, the Institute of Education Sciences identifies what works and what doesn’t.

www.the74million.org

Reposted by Paul Goldberg, Jenny R. Saffran, Renaud Morieux

Paul Noth @paulnoth.bsky.social · Mar 12

Mine in today’s @newyorker.com

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Reposted by Allison Eden, Jenny R. Saffran

Tristan Yates @tristansyates.bsky.social · Mar 11

Last year, I was overjoyed to receive an NIH NRSA fellowship to study toddler brains and caregiving effects on memory at Columbia. Last night, my grant was terminated.

Reposted by Christopher J. Fariss, Myra Marx Ferree, Jenny R. Saffran

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · Mar 8

I'm just a small-town professor. I'll never be a provost or chancellor. But here's some free advice: we're about to hold the most watched college sports event in 🇺🇸. Every college president should be all over TV, at every game, explaining why the March Madness of federal budget cuts is a huge crisis.

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · Mar 8

👇🎯 The public isn't going to understand this, unless the presidents of R1 universities around the country <loudly> & <collectively> get out into the public square & start explaining this & calling out the existential threat to the entire 🇺🇸 university system. The silence is deafening right now.

Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · Mar 8

The public really needs to understand this. Every university system in the world rests on public funding, there has never been an alternative model at any time in history.

We have universities for literally the same reason that we have roads and armies.

Reposted by Stanislas Dehaene, Jenny R. Saffran, Jhumka Gupta

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · Mar 1

The National Academies remained silent about the destruction of American science. They did nothing for the scientists comprising their membership

They calculated that they would be spared if they didn't make themselves a target.

They will not be spared.
www.foxnews.com/politics/str...

'Structural racism': Top taxpayer-funded academy rife with DEI programs, hefty executive salaries

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has received millions of dollars of taxpayer grants while promoting a variety of left-wing causes.

www.foxnews.com

Jenny Saffran @jennysaffran.bsky.social · Feb 25

Can’t wait!

Maryellen MacDonald @maryellenmacdonald.bsky.social · Feb 24

My new book, MORE THAN WORDS (Avery/PenguinRandomHouse) arrives 6/3! It tells the story of how we produce language & how talking shapes our lives in surprising ways. It's psyling for gen'l audiences! Info & preorders www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/724046/more-than-words-by-maryellen-macdonald-phd/

Image of cover of forthcoming More Than Words: How Talking Sharpens the Mind and Shapes Our World, by Maryellen MacDonald

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Maryellen MacDonald @maryellenmacdonald.bsky.social · Feb 24

Reposted by Jenny R. Saffran

Rosa Lafer-Sousa @rosalafersousa.bsky.social · Feb 24

As a result of Trump’s slashes to research funding, dozens of graduate programs have announced reductions and cancellations of graduate admissions slots.

If you are an impacted applicant, please fill out this survey: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

🧪🧠🧬🔬🥼👩🏼‍🔬🧑‍🔬

Grad Admission Impacts Survey

It is grad admissions season and many postbacs are feeling the chilling impacts of the Trump administration's recent executive orders freezing and slashing extramural research funding. Dozens of gradu...

docs.google.com

Reposted by Bridgette Thom, J. S. Morrison, Jenny R. Saffran

The Onion @theonion.com · Feb 21

DOGE By The Numbers
theonion.com/doge-by...

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