Catarina Vales
@cvales.bsky.social
developmental scientist. not-that-kind-of-doctor. coffee lover. cat person. parent. she/her.
Pinned
Catarina Vales
@cvales.bsky.social
· Dec 17
Strengthening Developmental Science With Psychometric Evaluations: An Examination of the Spatial Arrangement Method as a Measure of Semantic Structure in Children
Cognitive tasks are seldom evaluated on their ability to provide valid and reliable measurements of the construct they intend to measure. This scarcity of psychometric evaluations makes it challengin...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
so excited to share this paper where we evaluated the psychometrics of the spatial arrangement method to study children’s semantic structure!
open access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
open access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
excited to share this work at #cogsci2025, Fri at 1p!
July 30, 2025 at 4:30 PM
excited to share this work at #cogsci2025, Fri at 1p!
Reposted by Catarina Vales
July 7, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Catarina Vales
if (like me) you’d like to remove the AI preview when doing a google search, adding “-ai” to your search should do the trick!
July 1, 2025 at 3:34 PM
if (like me) you’d like to remove the AI preview when doing a google search, adding “-ai” to your search should do the trick!
Reposted by Catarina Vales
IU has the oldest Folklore Department in the country--no longer a major. Cognitive Science? gone! PhD programs also sacrificed. Full list here: www.in.gov/che/files/In...
www.in.gov
June 30, 2025 at 9:15 PM
IU has the oldest Folklore Department in the country--no longer a major. Cognitive Science? gone! PhD programs also sacrificed. Full list here: www.in.gov/che/files/In...
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Or here's a thought--maybe we could hire more actual human teachers, pay them better, make class sizes smaller, build in more paid prep time, and generally just invest in education instead of investing in AI.
June 25, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Or here's a thought--maybe we could hire more actual human teachers, pay them better, make class sizes smaller, build in more paid prep time, and generally just invest in education instead of investing in AI.
“It is destabilizing, frustrating and enraging to feel like my daughter, who wasn’t even 18 months old, has done more for public health than some people who are now currently in charge of it”
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
A ‘war on children’: as US changes Covid vaccine rules, parents of trial volunteers push back
Frustration and anger mount as Trump administration contemplates new trials and restrictions for Covid vaccines
www.theguardian.com
June 4, 2025 at 12:11 AM
“It is destabilizing, frustrating and enraging to feel like my daughter, who wasn’t even 18 months old, has done more for public health than some people who are now currently in charge of it”
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
April 15, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
Reposted by Catarina Vales
I wrote a piece for @sciam.bsky.social about why White parents should be talking to their kids about race and racism. It was so great to work with @megha.bsky.social on this piece! Please share! www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
Why It’s Important to Talk about Race with Children
Children start learning about race and racism as early as preschool. Talking about race early, however difficult, will help them become more antiracist
www.scientificamerican.com
February 24, 2025 at 2:04 PM
I wrote a piece for @sciam.bsky.social about why White parents should be talking to their kids about race and racism. It was so great to work with @megha.bsky.social on this piece! Please share! www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Developmental psychologists and statisticians team up to investigate the accuracy and reliability of research tools used to assess how children learn. Read more about how CMU researchers statistically evaluate spatial arrangement tasks with nontraditional data in this featured article! #research
Developmental Psychologists and Statisticians Come Together To Ensure Research Tools Measure Up - Neuroscience Institute - Carnegie Mellon University
Developmental Psychologists and Statisticians Come Together To Ensure Research Tools Measure Up
www.cmu.edu
February 12, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Developmental psychologists and statisticians team up to investigate the accuracy and reliability of research tools used to assess how children learn. Read more about how CMU researchers statistically evaluate spatial arrangement tasks with nontraditional data in this featured article! #research
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Fellow academics, I know that it can feel like capitulation to think about focusing on your work in the face of so many attacks on us right now.
Remember that knowledge is the enemy of ignorance & ignorance is the tool of tyranny.
Doing our work is now a form of rebellion. Keep rebelling.
Remember that knowledge is the enemy of ignorance & ignorance is the tool of tyranny.
Doing our work is now a form of rebellion. Keep rebelling.
February 9, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Fellow academics, I know that it can feel like capitulation to think about focusing on your work in the face of so many attacks on us right now.
Remember that knowledge is the enemy of ignorance & ignorance is the tool of tyranny.
Doing our work is now a form of rebellion. Keep rebelling.
Remember that knowledge is the enemy of ignorance & ignorance is the tool of tyranny.
Doing our work is now a form of rebellion. Keep rebelling.
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Don’t fall into the trap of normalizing any of this with this sort of language that we’ve seen from so many universities, falsely equating the current situation with other presidential transitions
This is unprecedented, unconscionable, and deliberately disruptive.
Have the backbone to say that.
This is unprecedented, unconscionable, and deliberately disruptive.
Have the backbone to say that.
January 31, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Don’t fall into the trap of normalizing any of this with this sort of language that we’ve seen from so many universities, falsely equating the current situation with other presidential transitions
This is unprecedented, unconscionable, and deliberately disruptive.
Have the backbone to say that.
This is unprecedented, unconscionable, and deliberately disruptive.
Have the backbone to say that.
Reposted by Catarina Vales
New lab paper just dropped! Led by Roberto Vargas, we looked at how a person’s geometry of concept relations aligns to their group identity and how this is impacted by information sources.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
A 🧵 1/9
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
A 🧵 1/9
Informational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between U.S. American racial groups - Communications Psychology
Semantic associations between socioenvironmental and emotion concepts varied between non-Hispanic White Americans and Black/African Americans. These differences were partially mediated by the politica...
www.nature.com
January 20, 2025 at 7:33 PM
New lab paper just dropped! Led by Roberto Vargas, we looked at how a person’s geometry of concept relations aligns to their group identity and how this is impacted by information sources.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
A 🧵 1/9
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
A 🧵 1/9
Reposted by Catarina Vales
We tend to think of anti-vaxxers as affluent, White, crunchy granola-type moms. But that stereotype ignores how precarity creates vulnerability to anti-vaxx messaging.
Take Tara, whose daughter had a sudden shift in temperament not long after a routine vaccine. 🧵1/
open.substack.com/pub/jesscala...
Take Tara, whose daughter had a sudden shift in temperament not long after a routine vaccine. 🧵1/
open.substack.com/pub/jesscala...
The Lie That Won't Die
Why We're Still Talking About Autism and Vaccines
open.substack.com
December 20, 2024 at 6:49 PM
We tend to think of anti-vaxxers as affluent, White, crunchy granola-type moms. But that stereotype ignores how precarity creates vulnerability to anti-vaxx messaging.
Take Tara, whose daughter had a sudden shift in temperament not long after a routine vaccine. 🧵1/
open.substack.com/pub/jesscala...
Take Tara, whose daughter had a sudden shift in temperament not long after a routine vaccine. 🧵1/
open.substack.com/pub/jesscala...
so excited to share this paper where we evaluated the psychometrics of the spatial arrangement method to study children’s semantic structure!
open access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
open access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Strengthening Developmental Science With Psychometric Evaluations: An Examination of the Spatial Arrangement Method as a Measure of Semantic Structure in Children
Cognitive tasks are seldom evaluated on their ability to provide valid and reliable measurements of the construct they intend to measure. This scarcity of psychometric evaluations makes it challengin...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 17, 2024 at 2:32 PM
so excited to share this paper where we evaluated the psychometrics of the spatial arrangement method to study children’s semantic structure!
open access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
open access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Catarina Vales
gift link: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
The Fraudulent Science of Success
Business schools are in the grips of a scandal that threatens to undermine their most influential research—and the credibility of an entire field.
www.theatlantic.com
November 19, 2024 at 4:25 PM
gift link: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
Reposted by Catarina Vales
1/ When we partnered with 6th grade teachers to support students' executive functioning and math learning, I was struck by what the teachers wanted to know: What could be done about student procrastination? go.nature.com/3Yug81z
#PsychSciSky
#PsychSciSky
Mutual implications of procrastination research in adults and children for theory and intervention - Nature Reviews Psychology
Procrastination is often viewed as innocuous as long as deadlines are met but it is associated with negative life outcomes. In this Review, Mahy et al. bring together procrastination research in adult...
go.nature.com
August 3, 2024 at 4:56 PM
1/ When we partnered with 6th grade teachers to support students' executive functioning and math learning, I was struck by what the teachers wanted to know: What could be done about student procrastination? go.nature.com/3Yug81z
#PsychSciSky
#PsychSciSky
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Thinking about pros and cons of collecting data from kids online? Our meta-analysis is out today. Effects from online testing were slightly but not significantly smaller than matched in-lab effects: d = −.05 [−.17, .07]. By Aaron Chuey, Veronica Boyce, and Anjie Cao.
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
Conducting Developmental Research Online vs. In-Person: A Meta-Analysis
Abstract. An increasing number of psychological experiments with children are being conducted using online platforms, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Individual replications have compared the fi...
direct.mit.edu
June 28, 2024 at 6:23 PM
Thinking about pros and cons of collecting data from kids online? Our meta-analysis is out today. Effects from online testing were slightly but not significantly smaller than matched in-lab effects: d = −.05 [−.17, .07]. By Aaron Chuey, Veronica Boyce, and Anjie Cao.
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Hey cognitive development folks - anyone tried having 5-8 year olds do online tasks with either mouse/trackpad responses or arrow key responses? Do you have an opinion on the issues with either? Trying to design tasks for kids on different platforms (inc. computer as well as tablet).
February 8, 2024 at 7:33 PM
Hey cognitive development folks - anyone tried having 5-8 year olds do online tasks with either mouse/trackpad responses or arrow key responses? Do you have an opinion on the issues with either? Trying to design tasks for kids on different platforms (inc. computer as well as tablet).
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Are you an undergrad interested in post-bac programs in cognitive and brain sciences? @sparksociety.bsky.social will hold a webinar on Jan 30 at 4pm with reps from Columbia, MIT, Delaware and Pitt discussing their programs. See the flyer below for more details. Feel free to DM me with any questions.
January 22, 2024 at 1:38 PM
Are you an undergrad interested in post-bac programs in cognitive and brain sciences? @sparksociety.bsky.social will hold a webinar on Jan 30 at 4pm with reps from Columbia, MIT, Delaware and Pitt discussing their programs. See the flyer below for more details. Feel free to DM me with any questions.
developmental folks: can you share studies looking at psychometric properties of *cognitive tasks* with children participants — any aspect of validity or reliability? extra points for participants in the 3-8y range. thanks!
January 5, 2024 at 3:17 PM
developmental folks: can you share studies looking at psychometric properties of *cognitive tasks* with children participants — any aspect of validity or reliability? extra points for participants in the 3-8y range. thanks!
Reposted by Catarina Vales
I wrote an op-ed for the NYT about what reporting on long COVID has meant to me—how I approached it, the impact it had, and how it taught me to be a better journalist.
This piece is sort of a manifesto for a journalism grounded in compassion, rigor, and care.
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/o...
This piece is sort of a manifesto for a journalism grounded in compassion, rigor, and care.
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/o...
Opinion | Reporting on Long Covid Taught Me to Be a Better Journalist
Covering long Covid solidified my view that science is not the objective, neutral force that it is often caricatured to be.
www.nytimes.com
December 11, 2023 at 3:06 PM
I wrote an op-ed for the NYT about what reporting on long COVID has meant to me—how I approached it, the impact it had, and how it taught me to be a better journalist.
This piece is sort of a manifesto for a journalism grounded in compassion, rigor, and care.
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/o...
This piece is sort of a manifesto for a journalism grounded in compassion, rigor, and care.
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/o...
Reposted by Catarina Vales
Sharing our new paper out in SIPR: Understanding the challenges and opportunities of talking to children about race and racism in child-facing institutions
Led by Leigh Wilton with Jessica Sullivan & Analia Albuja Grateful to be a part of it!
spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Led by Leigh Wilton with Jessica Sullivan & Analia Albuja Grateful to be a part of it!
spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
December 1, 2023 at 12:41 AM
Sharing our new paper out in SIPR: Understanding the challenges and opportunities of talking to children about race and racism in child-facing institutions
Led by Leigh Wilton with Jessica Sullivan & Analia Albuja Grateful to be a part of it!
spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Led by Leigh Wilton with Jessica Sullivan & Analia Albuja Grateful to be a part of it!
spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...