Benedek Kurdi
@benedek.bsky.social
Experimental psychologist studying social learning and memory, assistant professor @psychillinois.bsky.social, SAB chair @projectimplicit.bsky.social, AE at JEP:G & @openmindjournal.bsky.social, immigrant, 🏳️🌈, he/him
Pinned
Benedek Kurdi
@benedek.bsky.social
· Jun 21
Paper in @pnas.org in which @d-melnikoff.bsky.social and I provide evidence for model-based effects on automatic evaluation. This was a super fun “adversarial” collaboration with 0 adversariality. It may have been nice to be right, but getting it right is nearly as nice: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
arxiv.org/abs/2601.11432
I want to share an astonishing result. LLMs can "translate" Jabberwocky' texts like 'He dwushed a ghanc zawk” & even and even 'In the BLANK BLANK, BLANK BLANK has BLANK over any BLANK BLANK’s BLANK' This has profound consequence for thinking about.. 1/2
I want to share an astonishing result. LLMs can "translate" Jabberwocky' texts like 'He dwushed a ghanc zawk” & even and even 'In the BLANK BLANK, BLANK BLANK has BLANK over any BLANK BLANK’s BLANK' This has profound consequence for thinking about.. 1/2
arxiv.org
January 19, 2026 at 3:27 AM
arxiv.org/abs/2601.11432
I want to share an astonishing result. LLMs can "translate" Jabberwocky' texts like 'He dwushed a ghanc zawk” & even and even 'In the BLANK BLANK, BLANK BLANK has BLANK over any BLANK BLANK’s BLANK' This has profound consequence for thinking about.. 1/2
I want to share an astonishing result. LLMs can "translate" Jabberwocky' texts like 'He dwushed a ghanc zawk” & even and even 'In the BLANK BLANK, BLANK BLANK has BLANK over any BLANK BLANK’s BLANK' This has profound consequence for thinking about.. 1/2
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
January 9, 2026 at 1:27 AM
With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Project Implicit is facing an existential threat. After almost 30 years, 60 million visitors, and hundreds of published papers, funding for our work has disappeared.
We’ve never held a fundraising drive before, but we need your support to keep our site running. Please consider donating! 🙏
We’ve never held a fundraising drive before, but we need your support to keep our site running. Please consider donating! 🙏
Project Implicit is a research nonprofit behind tools millions use to understand bias. Like many public science orgs, sustaining this work has become increasingly difficult. We are at risk of closing without additional support.
Help protect this impt work by donating here: 4agc.com/donate/impli...
Help protect this impt work by donating here: 4agc.com/donate/impli...
January 8, 2026 at 6:10 PM
Project Implicit is facing an existential threat. After almost 30 years, 60 million visitors, and hundreds of published papers, funding for our work has disappeared.
We’ve never held a fundraising drive before, but we need your support to keep our site running. Please consider donating! 🙏
We’ve never held a fundraising drive before, but we need your support to keep our site running. Please consider donating! 🙏
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
a project I really like, now officially out!
"Shape Guides Visual Pretense"
by Qian and me
paper link: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I'll walk through a quick version here
To get a sense of it, first consider:
Would it make more sense to pretend that this block is a car, or a strawberry?
"Shape Guides Visual Pretense"
by Qian and me
paper link: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I'll walk through a quick version here
To get a sense of it, first consider:
Would it make more sense to pretend that this block is a car, or a strawberry?
January 6, 2026 at 2:34 PM
a project I really like, now officially out!
"Shape Guides Visual Pretense"
by Qian and me
paper link: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I'll walk through a quick version here
To get a sense of it, first consider:
Would it make more sense to pretend that this block is a car, or a strawberry?
"Shape Guides Visual Pretense"
by Qian and me
paper link: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I'll walk through a quick version here
To get a sense of it, first consider:
Would it make more sense to pretend that this block is a car, or a strawberry?
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Call for Applications! APS's Editorial Fellowship Program (EFP) is now OPEN #AcademicSky
📝 Evaluate submitted manuscripts
🔍 Select and invite reviewers
🤝 Receive mentorship across five APS journals
💵 US $1,000 stipend
Learn more & apply by February 6 www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...
📝 Evaluate submitted manuscripts
🔍 Select and invite reviewers
🤝 Receive mentorship across five APS journals
💵 US $1,000 stipend
Learn more & apply by February 6 www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...
APS Editorial Fellowship Program: Call for Applications
Deadline: February 6, 2026APS is pleased to announce the application process for the next cohort of the Editorial Fellowship Program (EFP) is now open. This program aims to increase opportunities for ...
www.psychologicalscience.org
January 6, 2026 at 2:50 PM
Call for Applications! APS's Editorial Fellowship Program (EFP) is now OPEN #AcademicSky
📝 Evaluate submitted manuscripts
🔍 Select and invite reviewers
🤝 Receive mentorship across five APS journals
💵 US $1,000 stipend
Learn more & apply by February 6 www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...
📝 Evaluate submitted manuscripts
🔍 Select and invite reviewers
🤝 Receive mentorship across five APS journals
💵 US $1,000 stipend
Learn more & apply by February 6 www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
A fascinating new paper by Amanda Royka and colleagues explores why monkeys fail false belief tasks.
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Exploring the evolutionary roots of theory of mind: Primate errors on false belief tasks reveal representational limits
Human adults flexibly reason about others' unobservable mental states, a capacity known as Theory of Mind (ToM). Unfortunately, the roots of this capa…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:21 PM
A fascinating new paper by Amanda Royka and colleagues explores why monkeys fail false belief tasks.
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name.
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
December 24, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name.
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
postdoc opportunity! would be a good fit for an intergroup person with NLP chops interested in the role of historical narratives
bonus, Edinburgh is a phenomenal city to live in with wonderful, walkable quality of life
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
bonus, Edinburgh is a phenomenal city to live in with wonderful, walkable quality of life
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
The Psychology Department in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences are seeking a full time, fixed term Post-Doctoral Research Associate. This post is available from 1st of Septemb...
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:17 PM
postdoc opportunity! would be a good fit for an intergroup person with NLP chops interested in the role of historical narratives
bonus, Edinburgh is a phenomenal city to live in with wonderful, walkable quality of life
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
bonus, Edinburgh is a phenomenal city to live in with wonderful, walkable quality of life
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
New paper with Junyi Chu, Tomer Ullman et al showing that kids think more difficulty is more fun!
Fun isn't easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when “playing for fun” versus “playing to win”. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
Fun isn't easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when “playing for fun” versus “playing to win”. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
December 14, 2025 at 2:37 PM
New paper with Junyi Chu, Tomer Ullman et al showing that kids think more difficulty is more fun!
Fun isn't easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when “playing for fun” versus “playing to win”. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
Fun isn't easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when “playing for fun” versus “playing to win”. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
New preprint in advance of a Phil Trans paper. Outlining a theoretical argument bridging Bayesian causal learning and empowerment in reinforcement learning. And empirical data that kids do too!
arxiv.org/abs/2512.08230
arxiv.org/abs/2512.08230
Empowerment Gain and Causal Model Construction: Children and adults are sensitive to controllability and variability in their causal interventions
Learning about the causal structure of the world is a fundamental problem for human cognition. Causal models and especially causal learning have proved to be difficult for large pretrained models usin...
arxiv.org
December 10, 2025 at 4:26 PM
New preprint in advance of a Phil Trans paper. Outlining a theoretical argument bridging Bayesian causal learning and empowerment in reinforcement learning. And empirical data that kids do too!
arxiv.org/abs/2512.08230
arxiv.org/abs/2512.08230
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
We are recruiting a lab manager/research assistant to start in early 2026! The successful candidate will conduct awake infant fMRI, meet cute babies, and join a fun team!
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
People – Scaffolding of Cognition Team
soc.stanford.edu
November 21, 2025 at 12:16 AM
We are recruiting a lab manager/research assistant to start in early 2026! The successful candidate will conduct awake infant fMRI, meet cute babies, and join a fun team!
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
We are hiring!
The Department of Network and Data Science of Central European University (Vienna) has an open position for an Assistant Professor in network science and computational social science.
The Department of Network and Data Science of Central European University (Vienna) has an open position for an Assistant Professor in network science and computational social science.
Assistant Professor (f/m/d)
Assistant Professor (f/m/d)
careers.ceu.edu
December 5, 2025 at 3:12 PM
We are hiring!
The Department of Network and Data Science of Central European University (Vienna) has an open position for an Assistant Professor in network science and computational social science.
The Department of Network and Data Science of Central European University (Vienna) has an open position for an Assistant Professor in network science and computational social science.
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
🚨Super excited that Dartmouth's Society of Fellows is hiring a postdoc with the Program in Cognitive Science 🚨 Specialization in computational and empirical approaches to artificial and natural intelligence, including perception, representation, and complex planning: apply.interfolio.com/176946
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:40 PM
🚨Super excited that Dartmouth's Society of Fellows is hiring a postdoc with the Program in Cognitive Science 🚨 Specialization in computational and empirical approaches to artificial and natural intelligence, including perception, representation, and complex planning: apply.interfolio.com/176946
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
New paper alert!
"Public Speakers With Nonnative Accents Garner Less Engagement" -- now out in Psych Science!
This is my first graduate student's first first-author paper (and it was her first-year project).
Short THREAD on the results:
"Public Speakers With Nonnative Accents Garner Less Engagement" -- now out in Psych Science!
This is my first graduate student's first first-author paper (and it was her first-year project).
Short THREAD on the results:
December 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM
New paper alert!
"Public Speakers With Nonnative Accents Garner Less Engagement" -- now out in Psych Science!
This is my first graduate student's first first-author paper (and it was her first-year project).
Short THREAD on the results:
"Public Speakers With Nonnative Accents Garner Less Engagement" -- now out in Psych Science!
This is my first graduate student's first first-author paper (and it was her first-year project).
Short THREAD on the results:
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
🚨New pub alert!🚨 Now available open-access in @journal-of-comm.bsky.social, we (w/ @dkreiss.bsky.social, @danlane.bsky.social, & @shannimcg.bsky.social) critique political communication's "Identity Turn" and offer instead a foundation for studying #polcomm from a *group* perspective. 🧵
December 3, 2025 at 6:04 PM
🚨New pub alert!🚨 Now available open-access in @journal-of-comm.bsky.social, we (w/ @dkreiss.bsky.social, @danlane.bsky.social, & @shannimcg.bsky.social) critique political communication's "Identity Turn" and offer instead a foundation for studying #polcomm from a *group* perspective. 🧵
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Age is an important predictor of many behaviors & yet we know little about how children understand it. Early studies suggest they don't know much & conflate age with physical size. Here, @kostaboskovic.bsky.social revisits this consensus & shows even 3-yr-olds use multiple cues to reason about age.
December 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Age is an important predictor of many behaviors & yet we know little about how children understand it. Early studies suggest they don't know much & conflate age with physical size. Here, @kostaboskovic.bsky.social revisits this consensus & shows even 3-yr-olds use multiple cues to reason about age.
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
New paper in press at JPSP! An adversarial collaboration focusing on a large-scale test of how strongly implicit racial attitudes predict discriminatory behavior. Pre-print here: osf.io/preprints/ps...
December 2, 2025 at 2:14 PM
New paper in press at JPSP! An adversarial collaboration focusing on a large-scale test of how strongly implicit racial attitudes predict discriminatory behavior. Pre-print here: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
#AcademicSky #PsycSciSky
Editors, looking for a reviewer?
I know a PhD student looking for more experience. With publishing experience. Bright etc.
feel free to DM me if looking (re: prejudice, contact, ideology, dehumanization)
Editors, looking for a reviewer?
I know a PhD student looking for more experience. With publishing experience. Bright etc.
feel free to DM me if looking (re: prejudice, contact, ideology, dehumanization)
December 1, 2025 at 8:29 PM
#AcademicSky #PsycSciSky
Editors, looking for a reviewer?
I know a PhD student looking for more experience. With publishing experience. Bright etc.
feel free to DM me if looking (re: prejudice, contact, ideology, dehumanization)
Editors, looking for a reviewer?
I know a PhD student looking for more experience. With publishing experience. Bright etc.
feel free to DM me if looking (re: prejudice, contact, ideology, dehumanization)
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
How do people form beliefs about complex topics?
Happy to report our Bayesian model of the psychology of Bayesian updating is out in @ispp-pops.bsky.social! (w/ Gabriel Li & Krosnick)
If you gloss over the Greek, it's a new model for how to assess the impacts of information on summary judgments.
Happy to report our Bayesian model of the psychology of Bayesian updating is out in @ispp-pops.bsky.social! (w/ Gabriel Li & Krosnick)
If you gloss over the Greek, it's a new model for how to assess the impacts of information on summary judgments.
A certainty‐weighted, belief‐based model of political attitudes: A Bayesian analysis of American public attitudes toward the affordable care act
This study proposes a novel, certainty-weighted account of the process by which political beliefs shape political attitudes. Building upon expectancy-value frameworks, this paper introduces belief ce...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:47 PM
How do people form beliefs about complex topics?
Happy to report our Bayesian model of the psychology of Bayesian updating is out in @ispp-pops.bsky.social! (w/ Gabriel Li & Krosnick)
If you gloss over the Greek, it's a new model for how to assess the impacts of information on summary judgments.
Happy to report our Bayesian model of the psychology of Bayesian updating is out in @ispp-pops.bsky.social! (w/ Gabriel Li & Krosnick)
If you gloss over the Greek, it's a new model for how to assess the impacts of information on summary judgments.
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
1/10
🚨 New preprint: Using Large Language Models to Estimate Belief Strength in Reasoning 🚨
When asked: "There are 995 politicians and 5 nurses. Person 'L' is kind. Is Person 'L' more likely to be a politician or a nurse?", most people will answer "nurse", neglecting the base-rate info.
A 🧵👇
🚨 New preprint: Using Large Language Models to Estimate Belief Strength in Reasoning 🚨
When asked: "There are 995 politicians and 5 nurses. Person 'L' is kind. Is Person 'L' more likely to be a politician or a nurse?", most people will answer "nurse", neglecting the base-rate info.
A 🧵👇
October 16, 2025 at 4:17 PM
1/10
🚨 New preprint: Using Large Language Models to Estimate Belief Strength in Reasoning 🚨
When asked: "There are 995 politicians and 5 nurses. Person 'L' is kind. Is Person 'L' more likely to be a politician or a nurse?", most people will answer "nurse", neglecting the base-rate info.
A 🧵👇
🚨 New preprint: Using Large Language Models to Estimate Belief Strength in Reasoning 🚨
When asked: "There are 995 politicians and 5 nurses. Person 'L' is kind. Is Person 'L' more likely to be a politician or a nurse?", most people will answer "nurse", neglecting the base-rate info.
A 🧵👇
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
🚨 SynthNet is out 🚨
Researchers propose new constructs and measures faster than anyone can track. We (@anniria.bsky.social @ruben.the100.ci) built a search engine to check what already exists and help identify redundancies; indexing 74,000 scales from ~31,500 instruments in APA PsycTests. 🧵1/3
Researchers propose new constructs and measures faster than anyone can track. We (@anniria.bsky.social @ruben.the100.ci) built a search engine to check what already exists and help identify redundancies; indexing 74,000 scales from ~31,500 instruments in APA PsycTests. 🧵1/3
November 26, 2025 at 11:42 AM
🚨 SynthNet is out 🚨
Researchers propose new constructs and measures faster than anyone can track. We (@anniria.bsky.social @ruben.the100.ci) built a search engine to check what already exists and help identify redundancies; indexing 74,000 scales from ~31,500 instruments in APA PsycTests. 🧵1/3
Researchers propose new constructs and measures faster than anyone can track. We (@anniria.bsky.social @ruben.the100.ci) built a search engine to check what already exists and help identify redundancies; indexing 74,000 scales from ~31,500 instruments in APA PsycTests. 🧵1/3
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
#AcademicSky
#PrejudiceResearch scholars will want to check this out
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#PrejudiceResearch scholars will want to check this out
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
November 27, 2025 at 1:44 PM
#AcademicSky
#PrejudiceResearch scholars will want to check this out
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#PrejudiceResearch scholars will want to check this out
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
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...
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
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...
Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun
This was my lab's first foray into event cognition
gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
CogSci in Aarhus is hiring, open rank (assi, asso or full prof).
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Full Professor of Cognitive Science - Vacancy at Aarhus University
Vacancy at School of Communication and Culture - Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Dept. of, Aarhus University
international.au.dk
November 26, 2025 at 11:38 AM
CogSci in Aarhus is hiring, open rank (assi, asso or full prof).
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Thrilled to share my new article in Political Psychology: “The psychology of political attitudinal volatility.” In it, I attempt to answer why do some people change their political views more than others? Open access at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
@ispp-pops.bsky.social
@ispp-pops.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Thrilled to share my new article in Political Psychology: “The psychology of political attitudinal volatility.” In it, I attempt to answer why do some people change their political views more than others? Open access at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
@ispp-pops.bsky.social
@ispp-pops.bsky.social