Sam McDougle
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actlab.bsky.social
Sam McDougle
@actlab.bsky.social
psychology prof @yale

http://actcompthink.org
Reposted by Sam McDougle
I’m from Whoville, and I say kill the Grinch!
December 25, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Preprint updated -->

Key new results: we found a brain-behavior correlation between performance on an RL task (under short feedback delays) and short-delay RPE signals in the 'cognitive' cerebellum!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
December 19, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
I've got a fully-funded PhD studentship open at @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social, investigating social learning about metacognition & awareness, w/ behavioural studies & neuroimaging (fMRI) - thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk

More details here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPV831/p...

#cogsci #neuroskyence
PhD Studentship: Social Learning of Metacognition and Awareness at Birkbeck, University of London
jobs.ac.uk now advertising a PhD Studentship: Social Learning of Metacognition and Awareness Visit jobs.ac.uk to apply and to browse more PhD opportunities.
www.jobs.ac.uk
December 16, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
From Sam McDougle's love of music has sprung a focus on how people learn and get better at motor skills – an area he sees as sometimes neglected in cognitive neuroscience. Read a new Q&A with him, a preview of his #CNS2026 YIA talk:
www.cogneurosociety.org/taking-actio...
@actlab.bsky.social
Taking Action Seriously in the Brain: Revealing the Role of Cognition in Motor Skills
Samuel McDougle, a CNS 2026 YIA recipient, studies both how people build motor skills through mental functions like “motor working memory."
www.cogneurosociety.org
December 16, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
Incredible piece on Oliver Sacks. If you were ever awed at his supposedly true stories (I remember being stunned by the account of the autistic twins who rattled off large prime numbers), read this. He told wonderful stories, but they were in large part fiction.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Oliver Sacks Put Himself Into His Case Studies. What Was the Cost?
The scientist was famous for linking healing with storytelling. Sometimes that meant reshaping patients’ reality.
www.newyorker.com
December 12, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
NEW: An AI conference was bombarded with complaints about peer reviews sounding AI-generated. A startup jumped in with an outside analysis, estimating that as many 1 in 5 could have been ChatGPT-written. Chaos ensued.

Now the reviews are being reviewed.

www.chronicle.com/article/the-... #ICLR2026
The Conference Where ChatGPT Wrote One in Five Reviews (Maybe)
An AI conference was bombarded with complaints about peer reviews sounding AI-generated. Now the reviews are being reviewed.
www.chronicle.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
New paper out on @openmindjournal.bsky.social *

I propose balance is a core biophysical self-regulatory function, organisationally akin to thermo-regulation. Might seem radical off the bat, but by the end of the paper I hope you'll agree it seems pretty obvious.
doi.org/10.1162/OPMI...
What is Balance? A Vital Mechano-Regulation Paradigm
Abstract. Within minutes of birth a newborn gnu or giraffe works to stand and walk, asserting postural balance and organised animate behaviour in an apparently goal-directed manner. In contrast, robot...
doi.org
December 10, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
The Journal of Neuroscience has updated its policy on supplemental material. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/information-authors#suppl
December 5, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
The Sensorimotor Superlab with @gribblelab.org and @andpru.bsky.social is a unique place to work and learn. We are now accepting MSc and PhD applications for Fall 2026. Join our awesome team at Western University... For application instructions see diedrichsenlab.org and gribblelab.org/join.html!
Diedrichsenlab
diedrichsenlab.org
November 24, 2025 at 10:50 PM
December 2, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
people are saying that Zekun Sun's research is awesome. (people are right.)

learn more about Zekun and her work here! zekun-sun.github.io
November 26, 2025 at 4:25 AM
New paper from the lab, "Perceiving Event Structure in Brief Actions," now out in Cognitive Psychology :)

Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun

This was my lab's first foray into event cognition

gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 25, 2025 at 3:40 PM
3 today —>>
heading to @sfn.org? Check out our group's posters -->
November 17, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
11.17 | 1-5p | PSTR226 + PSTR226.05

Taylor McClure
Reaching Control: Movement Psychophysics and Neurophysiology + Selective attention in motor working memory

Chat with her at #Booth3724 on Tuesday from 2-3p to learn more about her work.

#KnowTogether #ScienceAtYale #SfN25 @actlab.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
Excited to share our latest Sensorimotor Superlab Journal Club. Juliana Trach joins us to discuss her latest paper with @actlab.bsky.social, now published in @nathumbehav.nature.com: Mental graphs structure the storage and retrieval of visuomotor associations. youtu.be/6LlDYxDV8wo
Juliana Trach (Yale University)
YouTube video by Andrew Pruszynski
youtu.be
November 14, 2025 at 4:20 PM
MLMC2025 is tomorrow!

For those joining remotely, here is the link for the meeting:

harvard.zoom.us/j/9544921964...

Reminder, the conference will start promptly at 9am PST.

Please visit the website for additional information, schedule, registration, etc!

motor-conference.org/openconf.php
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.
harvard.zoom.us
November 13, 2025 at 10:49 PM
heading to @sfn.org? Check out our group's posters -->
November 12, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
Now out in #ScienceAdvances: @baiweiliu.bsky.social and I ask how internal (goal) and external (sensory) selection are coordinated during visual search. The key insight: internal and external selection are not inherently serial, but may develop in parallel in the human brain: doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Concurrent selection of internal goals and external sensations during visual search
Internal and external selection processes can codevelop in time to yield efficient search behavior.
doi.org
November 10, 2025 at 12:00 PM
🐝
November 6, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
The last month of the anti-Mamdani campaign was an absolutely shameful undertaking, an attempt to rip the city and Democratic coalition apart and I'm very happy to see it failed.
November 5, 2025 at 3:15 AM
😂
November 5, 2025 at 2:42 AM
There it is!!! 🥳
ALL RIGHT AP JUST CALLED IT WITH 69% OF THE VOTE HA HA HA HA
November 5, 2025 at 2:38 AM
🚨📡 Official MLMC program now posted! See you in San Diego (or hybrid if you can't make it!)

Register NOW!!!

--->

motor-conference.org/openconf.php
OCC - OpenConf Peer Review & Conference Management System
motor-conference.org
November 3, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
Don't forget to get your submission in for #NCMKobe26! Team/panel and individual orals close at 23:59 PDT Dec 1.

Learn more - ncm-society.org/subm...
October 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Sam McDougle
📣 Calling experimental, computational, or theoretical researchers!

WTI's Postdoc Fellowships application is now open, offering a competitive salary, structured mentorship, world-class facilities + more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/...

Apply by November 10: apply.interfolio.com/174525

#KnowTogether
October 6, 2025 at 7:34 PM