David Barner
@drbarner.bsky.social
Professor of Psychology at UCSD interested in language & conceptual development.
What's your favorite fiction of 2025? Looking for a next read.
December 27, 2025 at 11:49 PM
What's your favorite fiction of 2025? Looking for a next read.
Reposted by David Barner
1/ If you read this NY Times piece but ACTUALLY want to do something to reduce screen time, there's really only one way to do this w/ an iPhone (and it's not switching to greyscale). www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/o...
Opinion | I Killed Color on My Phone. The Result Shocked Me.
www.nytimes.com
December 27, 2025 at 1:52 AM
1/ If you read this NY Times piece but ACTUALLY want to do something to reduce screen time, there's really only one way to do this w/ an iPhone (and it's not switching to greyscale). www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/o...
1/ If you read this NY Times piece but ACTUALLY want to do something to reduce screen time, there's really only one way to do this w/ an iPhone (and it's not switching to greyscale). www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/o...
Opinion | I Killed Color on My Phone. The Result Shocked Me.
www.nytimes.com
December 27, 2025 at 1:52 AM
1/ If you read this NY Times piece but ACTUALLY want to do something to reduce screen time, there's really only one way to do this w/ an iPhone (and it's not switching to greyscale). www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/o...
Reposted by David Barner
Super cool study led by Haleh Yazdi - a simple demonstration that applying oft-used measures to novel contexts isn’t enough for inclusive & effective cross-cultural research. Measures designed for western populations do not always capture cross-cultural variability, nor within-group patterns.
A common problem w/ studies testing non-WEIRD groups is they compare multiple groups using the same WEIRD measure. How can we compare groups w/ apples-apples measures w/o distorting cross-cultural differences? We explore this in this new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Development of Morality and Conventionality Across Cultures: Implementing a Two‐Stage Model for Cross‐Cultural Research
Establishing a shared sense of right and wrong is an essential milestone for human cooperation, raising the question of whether a universal set of moral intuitions exists. However, tests of universa.....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Super cool study led by Haleh Yazdi - a simple demonstration that applying oft-used measures to novel contexts isn’t enough for inclusive & effective cross-cultural research. Measures designed for western populations do not always capture cross-cultural variability, nor within-group patterns.
Reposted by David Barner
A common problem w/ studies testing non-WEIRD groups is they compare multiple groups using the same WEIRD measure. How can we compare groups w/ apples-apples measures w/o distorting cross-cultural differences? We explore this in this new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Development of Morality and Conventionality Across Cultures: Implementing a Two‐Stage Model for Cross‐Cultural Research
Establishing a shared sense of right and wrong is an essential milestone for human cooperation, raising the question of whether a universal set of moral intuitions exists. However, tests of universa.....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 16, 2025 at 6:11 AM
A common problem w/ studies testing non-WEIRD groups is they compare multiple groups using the same WEIRD measure. How can we compare groups w/ apples-apples measures w/o distorting cross-cultural differences? We explore this in this new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
A common problem w/ studies testing non-WEIRD groups is they compare multiple groups using the same WEIRD measure. How can we compare groups w/ apples-apples measures w/o distorting cross-cultural differences? We explore this in this new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Development of Morality and Conventionality Across Cultures: Implementing a Two‐Stage Model for Cross‐Cultural Research
Establishing a shared sense of right and wrong is an essential milestone for human cooperation, raising the question of whether a universal set of moral intuitions exists. However, tests of universa.....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 16, 2025 at 6:11 AM
A common problem w/ studies testing non-WEIRD groups is they compare multiple groups using the same WEIRD measure. How can we compare groups w/ apples-apples measures w/o distorting cross-cultural differences? We explore this in this new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by David Barner
Several people have mentioned online that they get terrible responses from online services such as Prolific, e.g., bots, LLM responses. I'm curious if anyone who has experienced that in a memorable way would mind sharing the details of their project (code, etc.).
December 15, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Several people have mentioned online that they get terrible responses from online services such as Prolific, e.g., bots, LLM responses. I'm curious if anyone who has experienced that in a memorable way would mind sharing the details of their project (code, etc.).
Reposted by David Barner
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.
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 David Barner
New pre-print with @drbarner.bsky.social! We ask how children come to understand age. We find that young children use numerical age and facial morphology to identify who’s older, not just size, and point to acquiring a number system as key to developing an understanding of age.
osf.io/gvb46
osf.io/gvb46
OSF
osf.io
December 1, 2025 at 5:04 PM
New pre-print with @drbarner.bsky.social! We ask how children come to understand age. We find that young children use numerical age and facial morphology to identify who’s older, not just size, and point to acquiring a number system as key to developing an understanding of age.
osf.io/gvb46
osf.io/gvb46
Happy to share this new entry on numerical cognition for the OECS. Thanks to @hbaum.bsky.social and @mcxfrank.bsky.social for making this happen! Apologies if your work isn’t cited! Had to limit cites!!! oecs.mit.edu/pub/rek9756r...
Numerical Cognition
oecs.mit.edu
November 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Happy to share this new entry on numerical cognition for the OECS. Thanks to @hbaum.bsky.social and @mcxfrank.bsky.social for making this happen! Apologies if your work isn’t cited! Had to limit cites!!! oecs.mit.edu/pub/rek9756r...
Very fun review from Jean-Charles Pelland on how base structures in number systems impact learning, thinking, & culture.
How number systems shape our thinking and what it means for learning, language and culture
theconversation.com/how-number-s...
theconversation.com/how-number-s...
How number systems shape our thinking and what it means for learning, language and culture
A new collection of research papers examines how humans conceptualize numbers and the numeral systems we’ve build around them.
theconversation.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Very fun review from Jean-Charles Pelland on how base structures in number systems impact learning, thinking, & culture.
Reposted by David Barner
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
![On official UC letterhead:
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA
James B. Milliken President
Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607
universityofcalifornia.edu
CAMPUSES Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
Merced
Riverside San Diego San Francisco
Santa Barbara Santa Cruz
MEDICAL CENTERS
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
San Diego
San Francisco
NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
November 18, 2025
Dear Chancellors:
I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive.
As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California.
Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines.
Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership.
[continued on next image]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rzn6yramffebefeitqifiqqz/bafkreigiwq5ongzwpj4wqmgjam3yfvhyjnv5e3dbq6cnrrbwblqvs624gq@jpeg)
November 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
Reposted by David Barner
periodic reminder of the existence of Atkinson Hyperlegible, a free font available from the Braille Institute designed to improve readability for people with low vision
I use it in talks because it's pretty and also because, as an audience member, I am perpetually squinting at people's slides
I use it in talks because it's pretty and also because, as an audience member, I am perpetually squinting at people's slides
Atkinson Hyperlegible Font - Braille Institute
Read easier with Atkinson Hyperlegible Font, crafted for low-vision readers. Download for free and enjoy clear letters and numbers on your computer!
www.brailleinstitute.org
November 17, 2025 at 4:19 AM
periodic reminder of the existence of Atkinson Hyperlegible, a free font available from the Braille Institute designed to improve readability for people with low vision
I use it in talks because it's pretty and also because, as an audience member, I am perpetually squinting at people's slides
I use it in talks because it's pretty and also because, as an audience member, I am perpetually squinting at people's slides
Reposted by David Barner
Shopping for a hot take on nativism? Here's an argument that "strong nativist" accounts of concepts (here, numerical concepts) often fail to explain ontogenesis because they lack an account of "rational causation" - i.e., how innate contents are brought to bear in experience osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
November 13, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Shopping for a hot take on nativism? Here's an argument that "strong nativist" accounts of concepts (here, numerical concepts) often fail to explain ontogenesis because they lack an account of "rational causation" - i.e., how innate contents are brought to bear in experience osf.io/preprints/ps...
Shopping for a hot take on nativism? Here's an argument that "strong nativist" accounts of concepts (here, numerical concepts) often fail to explain ontogenesis because they lack an account of "rational causation" - i.e., how innate contents are brought to bear in experience osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
November 13, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Shopping for a hot take on nativism? Here's an argument that "strong nativist" accounts of concepts (here, numerical concepts) often fail to explain ontogenesis because they lack an account of "rational causation" - i.e., how innate contents are brought to bear in experience osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by David Barner
Super fun paper on the role of sensorI-motor procedures in 1-to-1 set matching in blind children and adults, with the effulgent @urvi.bsky.social . Procedures that blind kids use for counting 1-1 don’t help set matching 1-1 unlike in sighted kids!
Just in: @drbarner.bsky.social & I find that blind adults and children who have symbols for large numbers, and use 1:1 correspondence to count, do not extend a similar 1:1 strategy to a set-matching task, which assesses their knowledge of Hume’s principle. A 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Exact numerical reasoning in blind children and adults
What is the origin of exact numerical reasoning in humans? Previous studies report that innumerate humans are unable to recognize that two sets placed…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 26, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Super fun paper on the role of sensorI-motor procedures in 1-to-1 set matching in blind children and adults, with the effulgent @urvi.bsky.social . Procedures that blind kids use for counting 1-1 don’t help set matching 1-1 unlike in sighted kids!
Reposted by David Barner
Just in: @drbarner.bsky.social & I find that blind adults and children who have symbols for large numbers, and use 1:1 correspondence to count, do not extend a similar 1:1 strategy to a set-matching task, which assesses their knowledge of Hume’s principle. A 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Exact numerical reasoning in blind children and adults
What is the origin of exact numerical reasoning in humans? Previous studies report that innumerate humans are unable to recognize that two sets placed…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Just in: @drbarner.bsky.social & I find that blind adults and children who have symbols for large numbers, and use 1:1 correspondence to count, do not extend a similar 1:1 strategy to a set-matching task, which assesses their knowledge of Hume’s principle. A 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Super fun paper on the role of sensorI-motor procedures in 1-to-1 set matching in blind children and adults, with the effulgent @urvi.bsky.social . Procedures that blind kids use for counting 1-1 don’t help set matching 1-1 unlike in sighted kids!
Just in: @drbarner.bsky.social & I find that blind adults and children who have symbols for large numbers, and use 1:1 correspondence to count, do not extend a similar 1:1 strategy to a set-matching task, which assesses their knowledge of Hume’s principle. A 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Exact numerical reasoning in blind children and adults
What is the origin of exact numerical reasoning in humans? Previous studies report that innumerate humans are unable to recognize that two sets placed…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 26, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Super fun paper on the role of sensorI-motor procedures in 1-to-1 set matching in blind children and adults, with the effulgent @urvi.bsky.social . Procedures that blind kids use for counting 1-1 don’t help set matching 1-1 unlike in sighted kids!
My career has finally made contact with the culture wars. I can now start a podcast and start plotting an exclusive counterculture college.
Don't like AI, don't use it. Don't like cars, don't drive one. Don't like abortion, don't get one. etc.
October 25, 2025 at 6:13 PM
My career has finally made contact with the culture wars. I can now start a podcast and start plotting an exclusive counterculture college.
OMG stop it with the AI jobs in psychology. Let the datascience bubble burst first, ok???
October 24, 2025 at 7:07 PM
OMG stop it with the AI jobs in psychology. Let the datascience bubble burst first, ok???
Reposted by David Barner
My paper "Base structures across lexical and notational numeral modalities" (PhilTransB) addresses a whole class of questions around the role that semiotic modality, and specifically number words vs. number symbols, plays in the structure of numerical systems.
Base structures across lexical and notational numeral modalities | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
The base concept in number systems is realized differently across multiple representational modalities—frameworks that incorporate sensory channel, medium of expression and semantic structures into integrated semiotic systems. Because these three factors ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
October 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM
My paper "Base structures across lexical and notational numeral modalities" (PhilTransB) addresses a whole class of questions around the role that semiotic modality, and specifically number words vs. number symbols, plays in the structure of numerical systems.
A new paper w/ the inimitable Sebastian Holt (now at N.Western w/ Dedre Gentner). Kids are slow to learn rules that govern number words. We ask: is this because young kids CAN'T learn such rules, or b/c of the kinds of (base-10) systems they're exposed to? royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10....
Can preschoolers learn the syntax of number? Using rules to combine familiar and novel number words
royalsocietypublishing.org
October 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
A new paper w/ the inimitable Sebastian Holt (now at N.Western w/ Dedre Gentner). Kids are slow to learn rules that govern number words. We ask: is this because young kids CAN'T learn such rules, or b/c of the kinds of (base-10) systems they're exposed to? royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10....
Finally a chance to celebrate this paper with @ebruevcen.bsky.social. Conditionals often have 2 meanings. The statement, “If you mow the lawn, you will get $5”, might mean that mowing the lawn is just one way to earn $5 or that it’s the ONLY way – a meaning sometimes called Conditional Perfection.
Now out in Open Mind!
@drbarner.bsky.social and I find that when people hear a conditional statement like “If you mow the lawn, you’ll get $5,” they often interpret it as “only if you mow the lawn”, a pragmatic, perfected meaning.
doi.org/10.1162/opmi...
@drbarner.bsky.social and I find that when people hear a conditional statement like “If you mow the lawn, you’ll get $5,” they often interpret it as “only if you mow the lawn”, a pragmatic, perfected meaning.
doi.org/10.1162/opmi...
Already Perfect: Language Users Access the Pragmatic Meanings of Conditionals First
Abstract. Conditional statements often have two interpretations. For instance, the statement, “If you mow the lawn, you will receive $5”, might be understood to mean that mowing the lawn is just one p...
doi.org
October 16, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Finally a chance to celebrate this paper with @ebruevcen.bsky.social. Conditionals often have 2 meanings. The statement, “If you mow the lawn, you will get $5”, might mean that mowing the lawn is just one way to earn $5 or that it’s the ONLY way – a meaning sometimes called Conditional Perfection.