@cogscikid.bsky.social
Kempner Institute research fellow @Harvard interested in scaling up (deep) reinforcement learning theories of human cognition
prev: deepmind, umich, msr
https://cogscikid.com/
prev: deepmind, umich, msr
https://cogscikid.com/
Pinned
Excited to share recent work on an AI model that doubles as a scalable cognitive theory.
Basic idea: when learning one task, "preplay" other tasks to learn implicit goal-oriented maps that support fast performance later.
This improves AI and predicts human behavior in naturalistic experiments!
Basic idea: when learning one task, "preplay" other tasks to learn implicit goal-oriented maps that support fast performance later.
This improves AI and predicts human behavior in naturalistic experiments!
Reposted
📣 We’re currently reviewing applications for this postdoctoral position. Next review date: Jan 26. Feel free to reach out with any questions! recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF03027
January 13, 2026 at 6:23 PM
📣 We’re currently reviewing applications for this postdoctoral position. Next review date: Jan 26. Feel free to reach out with any questions! recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF03027
Reposted
We're hiring! The Computational Clinical Science Lab @ Yale is seeking a full-time lab manager/research coordinator to start in early summer 2026.
For more information about the position and to apply: forms.gle/LtQwVgPUfaGk...
Please share widely & consider applying!
For more information about the position and to apply: forms.gle/LtQwVgPUfaGk...
Please share widely & consider applying!
forms.gle
January 13, 2026 at 4:45 PM
We're hiring! The Computational Clinical Science Lab @ Yale is seeking a full-time lab manager/research coordinator to start in early summer 2026.
For more information about the position and to apply: forms.gle/LtQwVgPUfaGk...
Please share widely & consider applying!
For more information about the position and to apply: forms.gle/LtQwVgPUfaGk...
Please share widely & consider applying!
Reposted
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
Gentle reminder for the RL folks out there:
RLC 2026 → Montreal 🇨🇦 (Aug 16–19)
Abstract: Mar 1 | Submission: Mar 5 (AOE) | rl-conference.cc/callforpaper...
Looking forward to receiving your submission!
RLC 2026 → Montreal 🇨🇦 (Aug 16–19)
Abstract: Mar 1 | Submission: Mar 5 (AOE) | rl-conference.cc/callforpaper...
Looking forward to receiving your submission!
January 7, 2026 at 6:46 PM
Gentle reminder for the RL folks out there:
RLC 2026 → Montreal 🇨🇦 (Aug 16–19)
Abstract: Mar 1 | Submission: Mar 5 (AOE) | rl-conference.cc/callforpaper...
Looking forward to receiving your submission!
RLC 2026 → Montreal 🇨🇦 (Aug 16–19)
Abstract: Mar 1 | Submission: Mar 5 (AOE) | rl-conference.cc/callforpaper...
Looking forward to receiving your submission!
Reposted
vibecoded a little chrome extension to fix a perpetual bugbear with reading pdfs: being sent on search expeditions to figure out where a particular parameter was introduced.
Instead, just type in the latex expression and get back unicode that you can ctrl/cmd+F easily
github.com/apoorvalal/m...
Instead, just type in the latex expression and get back unicode that you can ctrl/cmd+F easily
github.com/apoorvalal/m...
December 28, 2025 at 7:09 PM
vibecoded a little chrome extension to fix a perpetual bugbear with reading pdfs: being sent on search expeditions to figure out where a particular parameter was introduced.
Instead, just type in the latex expression and get back unicode that you can ctrl/cmd+F easily
github.com/apoorvalal/m...
Instead, just type in the latex expression and get back unicode that you can ctrl/cmd+F easily
github.com/apoorvalal/m...
codebases almost always have to be rewritten. maybe build initial prototypes with AI, then study the structute and choices and design the final output?
the fast prototyping can be very useful and is almost always wrong in important ways
the fast prototyping can be very useful and is almost always wrong in important ways
December 26, 2025 at 12:57 AM
codebases almost always have to be rewritten. maybe build initial prototypes with AI, then study the structute and choices and design the final output?
the fast prototyping can be very useful and is almost always wrong in important ways
the fast prototyping can be very useful and is almost always wrong in important ways
Reposted
Hi RL Enthusiasts!
RLC is coming to Montreal, Quebec, in the summer: Aug 16–19, 2026!
Call for Papers is up now:
Abstract: Mar 1 (AOE)
Submission: Mar 5 (AOE)
Excited to see what you’ve been up to - Submit your best work!
rl-conference.cc/callforpaper...
Please share widely!
RLC is coming to Montreal, Quebec, in the summer: Aug 16–19, 2026!
Call for Papers is up now:
Abstract: Mar 1 (AOE)
Submission: Mar 5 (AOE)
Excited to see what you’ve been up to - Submit your best work!
rl-conference.cc/callforpaper...
Please share widely!
RLJ | RLC Call for Papers
rl-conference.cc
December 23, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Hi RL Enthusiasts!
RLC is coming to Montreal, Quebec, in the summer: Aug 16–19, 2026!
Call for Papers is up now:
Abstract: Mar 1 (AOE)
Submission: Mar 5 (AOE)
Excited to see what you’ve been up to - Submit your best work!
rl-conference.cc/callforpaper...
Please share widely!
RLC is coming to Montreal, Quebec, in the summer: Aug 16–19, 2026!
Call for Papers is up now:
Abstract: Mar 1 (AOE)
Submission: Mar 5 (AOE)
Excited to see what you’ve been up to - Submit your best work!
rl-conference.cc/callforpaper...
Please share widely!
can you tell us more about why mean field is good for scale? I have a naive mental model that it relies on local averages of populations which feels intuitively wrong? but I'm naive
December 22, 2025 at 5:57 PM
can you tell us more about why mean field is good for scale? I have a naive mental model that it relies on local averages of populations which feels intuitively wrong? but I'm naive
Reposted
This week's #PaperILike is "Elephants Don't Pack Groceries: Robot Task Planning for Low Entropy Belief States" (Adu-Bredu, RAL 2022).
Love the focus on planning with "low entropy beliefs" -- not full-fledged POMDPs, but also not full observability.
PDF: arxiv.org/abs/2011.09105
Love the focus on planning with "low entropy beliefs" -- not full-fledged POMDPs, but also not full observability.
PDF: arxiv.org/abs/2011.09105
Elephants Don't Pack Groceries: Robot Task Planning for Low Entropy Belief States
Recent advances in computational perception have significantly improved the ability of autonomous robots to perform state estimation with low entropy. Such advances motivate a reconsideration of robot...
arxiv.org
December 21, 2025 at 1:59 PM
This week's #PaperILike is "Elephants Don't Pack Groceries: Robot Task Planning for Low Entropy Belief States" (Adu-Bredu, RAL 2022).
Love the focus on planning with "low entropy beliefs" -- not full-fledged POMDPs, but also not full observability.
PDF: arxiv.org/abs/2011.09105
Love the focus on planning with "low entropy beliefs" -- not full-fledged POMDPs, but also not full observability.
PDF: arxiv.org/abs/2011.09105
I think it's great as a productivity tool.
I'm talking about getting social support like treating it like a friend or romantic partner (which is shockingly common)
I'm talking about getting social support like treating it like a friend or romantic partner (which is shockingly common)
December 20, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I think it's great as a productivity tool.
I'm talking about getting social support like treating it like a friend or romantic partner (which is shockingly common)
I'm talking about getting social support like treating it like a friend or romantic partner (which is shockingly common)
a lot of people use AI as social support
I wonder if AI, especially at this stage, isn't the junk food of social support
does junk food provide nutrients we need? yes
but it does so in such an unbalanced way from what we evolved for that it's unhealthy as our main food source
I wonder if AI, especially at this stage, isn't the junk food of social support
does junk food provide nutrients we need? yes
but it does so in such an unbalanced way from what we evolved for that it's unhealthy as our main food source
December 20, 2025 at 10:48 PM
a lot of people use AI as social support
I wonder if AI, especially at this stage, isn't the junk food of social support
does junk food provide nutrients we need? yes
but it does so in such an unbalanced way from what we evolved for that it's unhealthy as our main food source
I wonder if AI, especially at this stage, isn't the junk food of social support
does junk food provide nutrients we need? yes
but it does so in such an unbalanced way from what we evolved for that it's unhealthy as our main food source
Reposted
Hello! 👋
Are you interested in AI for board games using language models? Want to do some hobby tinkering with fine-tuning or RL?
We've released an easy-to-follow example colab that fine-tunes Gemma models via Kauldron to mimic an MCTS player.
Details here: github.com/google-deepm...
♟️🎲♦️♠️♥️♣️✨🎉
Are you interested in AI for board games using language models? Want to do some hobby tinkering with fine-tuning or RL?
We've released an easy-to-follow example colab that fine-tunes Gemma models via Kauldron to mimic an MCTS player.
Details here: github.com/google-deepm...
♟️🎲♦️♠️♥️♣️✨🎉
2025 Wrap-up: Fine-tuning Gemma with Kauldron Example ✦︎ · Issue #1414 · google-deepmind/open_spiel
Hello everyone! We've been hard at work this year working on OpenSpiel 2.0, which will be better than ever. Major developments have been underway to make working with language models easier. I'm lo...
github.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Hello! 👋
Are you interested in AI for board games using language models? Want to do some hobby tinkering with fine-tuning or RL?
We've released an easy-to-follow example colab that fine-tunes Gemma models via Kauldron to mimic an MCTS player.
Details here: github.com/google-deepm...
♟️🎲♦️♠️♥️♣️✨🎉
Are you interested in AI for board games using language models? Want to do some hobby tinkering with fine-tuning or RL?
We've released an easy-to-follow example colab that fine-tunes Gemma models via Kauldron to mimic an MCTS player.
Details here: github.com/google-deepm...
♟️🎲♦️♠️♥️♣️✨🎉
Reposted
Goal selection through the lens of subjective functions:
arxiv.org/abs/2512.15948
I welcome any feedback on these preliminary ideas.
arxiv.org/abs/2512.15948
I welcome any feedback on these preliminary ideas.
Subjective functions
Where do objective functions come from? How do we select what goals to pursue? Human intelligence is adept at synthesizing new objective functions on the fly. How does this work, and can we endow arti...
arxiv.org
December 19, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Goal selection through the lens of subjective functions:
arxiv.org/abs/2512.15948
I welcome any feedback on these preliminary ideas.
arxiv.org/abs/2512.15948
I welcome any feedback on these preliminary ideas.
Reposted
How do biological agents learn for the future?
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
December 17, 2025 at 5:06 PM
How do biological agents learn for the future?
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted
We're hiring at the Associate Professor level in Social Psychology! Join us in our vibrant and wonderful department and area. Contact Markus Brauer, search committee chair, for details (markus.brauer@wisc.edu). Job ad here: shorturl.at/nnvv8
Associate Professor - 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...
shorturl.at
December 4, 2025 at 5:39 PM
We're hiring at the Associate Professor level in Social Psychology! Join us in our vibrant and wonderful department and area. Contact Markus Brauer, search committee chair, for details (markus.brauer@wisc.edu). Job ad here: shorturl.at/nnvv8
Kempner 2.0
Princeton's AI Lab is advertising positions for AI Postdoctoral Fellows in two areas: studying natural and artificial minds, and designing, understanding or engineering large AI models. We are also searching for a Lead Research Software Engineer! ai.princeton.edu/ai-lab/emplo...
Employment Opportunities
Find and learn more about our open positions.Join our team
ai.princeton.edu
December 17, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Kempner 2.0
Reposted
Princeton's AI Lab is advertising positions for AI Postdoctoral Fellows in two areas: studying natural and artificial minds, and designing, understanding or engineering large AI models. We are also searching for a Lead Research Software Engineer! ai.princeton.edu/ai-lab/emplo...
Employment Opportunities
Find and learn more about our open positions.Join our team
ai.princeton.edu
December 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Princeton's AI Lab is advertising positions for AI Postdoctoral Fellows in two areas: studying natural and artificial minds, and designing, understanding or engineering large AI models. We are also searching for a Lead Research Software Engineer! ai.princeton.edu/ai-lab/emplo...
Reposted
What does this mean? It suggests that architectural inductive biases alone can get us surprisingly far in explaining the image representations of the ventral stream. See a great commentary by @binxuwang.bsky.social wang.bsky.social and Carlos Ponce. www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Structure as an inductive bias for brain–model alignment - Nature Machine Intelligence
Even before training, convolutional neural networks may reflect the brain’s visual processing principles. A study now shows how structure alone can help to explain the alignment between brains and mod...
www.nature.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:45 PM
What does this mean? It suggests that architectural inductive biases alone can get us surprisingly far in explaining the image representations of the ventral stream. See a great commentary by @binxuwang.bsky.social wang.bsky.social and Carlos Ponce. www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted
Another new paper from the lab: Predictive theories like the SR imply that navigators who navigate differently should have cognitive maps which differ in predictable ways. Here we show that this holds in mouse hippocampal CA1.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Environmental representations in mouse hippocampal CA1 reflect the predictive structure of navigation
Predictive theories of cognitive mapping propose that these representations encode the predictive relationships among contents as experienced by the n…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Another new paper from the lab: Predictive theories like the SR imply that navigators who navigate differently should have cognitive maps which differ in predictable ways. Here we show that this holds in mouse hippocampal CA1.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted
Thrilled to start 2026 as faculty in Psych & CS
@ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
@ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
December 6, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Thrilled to start 2026 as faculty in Psych & CS
@ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
@ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
Reposted
starting fall 2026 i'll be an assistant professor at @upenn.edu 🥳
my lab will develop scalable models/theories of human behavior, focused on memory and perception
currently recruiting PhD students in psychology, neuroscience, & computer science!
reach out if you're interested 😊
my lab will develop scalable models/theories of human behavior, focused on memory and perception
currently recruiting PhD students in psychology, neuroscience, & computer science!
reach out if you're interested 😊
November 25, 2025 at 9:36 PM
starting fall 2026 i'll be an assistant professor at @upenn.edu 🥳
my lab will develop scalable models/theories of human behavior, focused on memory and perception
currently recruiting PhD students in psychology, neuroscience, & computer science!
reach out if you're interested 😊
my lab will develop scalable models/theories of human behavior, focused on memory and perception
currently recruiting PhD students in psychology, neuroscience, & computer science!
reach out if you're interested 😊
Reposted
🚨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
We are hiring an assistant professor in cognitive neural systems in the department of psychology at the university of arizona. please use this link to check out the requirements and apply!
arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Assistant Professor, Psychology (T/TE)
Duties & Responsibilities:Publishing peer-reviewed scholarly works.Maintaining an active research program.Obtaining extramural funding.Teaching un...
arizona.csod.com
December 4, 2025 at 7:24 PM
We are hiring an assistant professor in cognitive neural systems in the department of psychology at the university of arizona. please use this link to check out the requirements and apply!
arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
It seems that Pat Buchanan has finally taken power in government
December 4, 2025 at 9:53 PM
It seems that Pat Buchanan has finally taken power in government
Reposted
The 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.edu/gazette/stor...
Cracking the code of why, when some choose to ‘self-handicap’ — Harvard Gazette
New research also offers hints for devising ways to stop students from creating obstacles to success.
news.harvard.edu
December 4, 2025 at 7:43 PM
The 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.edu/gazette/stor...