Erin Westgate
@erinwestgate.bsky.social
Social psychologist, studying boredom, interest, and thinking (...and why it's so hard for so many of us!). Assistant Professor @ University of Florida 🐊
🌐 erinwestgate.com
📸 https://instagram.com/erin.corwin.westgate
🌐 erinwestgate.com
📸 https://instagram.com/erin.corwin.westgate
Pinned
Erin Westgate
@erinwestgate.bsky.social
· Dec 24
Are you living a good life? Take this quiz to find out.
Now is a good time to reflect on the life you’re leading — and what you want out of it.
www.washingtonpost.com
Are you leading a (mostly) happy life, a meaningful life, or a psychologically rich life? Take this fun quiz at the Washington Post and find out!
www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/int...?
www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/int...?
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Reposted by Erin Westgate
![Comic. [2x2 chart. Top left quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of dinosaurs stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, velociraptor, and long-neck dinosaur. Top right quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, and pteranodon. Bottom left quadrant: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of penguin, egret, ostrich, pigeon, falcon. Bottom right: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of squirrel, stapler, plant, person, and bicycle.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreihcxd5wcrrf5nxz3g4riglsrccbucmdns6kxrtmtj6gjgwqibp3fi@jpeg)
February 9, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Has any linguist looked into the NXIVM cult's language acquisition experiments?
Babies were systematically exposed to up to 9 languages. Allegedly, they ended up speaking gibberish.
(Quotes from Sally Denton's 2022 book "The Colony.")
#LangSky #Linguistics
Babies were systematically exposed to up to 9 languages. Allegedly, they ended up speaking gibberish.
(Quotes from Sally Denton's 2022 book "The Colony.")
#LangSky #Linguistics
February 9, 2026 at 8:59 PM
Has any linguist looked into the NXIVM cult's language acquisition experiments?
Babies were systematically exposed to up to 9 languages. Allegedly, they ended up speaking gibberish.
(Quotes from Sally Denton's 2022 book "The Colony.")
#LangSky #Linguistics
Babies were systematically exposed to up to 9 languages. Allegedly, they ended up speaking gibberish.
(Quotes from Sally Denton's 2022 book "The Colony.")
#LangSky #Linguistics
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Botany valentine. Another oldie.
February 9, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Botany valentine. Another oldie.
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Very proud that this is finally out!
Come for the new auditory illusion, stay for the brain imaging and speech analysis…..
Come for the new auditory illusion, stay for the brain imaging and speech analysis…..
Humans can use positive and negative spectrotemporal correlations to detect rising and falling pitch
Humans can use positive and negative spectrotemporal correlations to detect rising and falling pitch
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 09 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-025-02371-7Vaziri et al. examined how humans detect changes in auditory pitch, revealing that listeners rely on correlations in sound intensity over frequency and time, processing that is reminiscent of visual motion detection.
dlvr.it
February 9, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Very proud that this is finally out!
Come for the new auditory illusion, stay for the brain imaging and speech analysis…..
Come for the new auditory illusion, stay for the brain imaging and speech analysis…..
Reposted by Erin Westgate
💡 Our new #preprint is available online!
How do people adapt their decisions when priorities change?
In our new study, we examine how the way people represent value shapes their ability to adjust in multi-goal environments.
🔗 OSF link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
It's a thread 🧵
How do people adapt their decisions when priorities change?
In our new study, we examine how the way people represent value shapes their ability to adjust in multi-goal environments.
🔗 OSF link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
It's a thread 🧵
February 9, 2026 at 2:01 PM
💡 Our new #preprint is available online!
How do people adapt their decisions when priorities change?
In our new study, we examine how the way people represent value shapes their ability to adjust in multi-goal environments.
🔗 OSF link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
It's a thread 🧵
How do people adapt their decisions when priorities change?
In our new study, we examine how the way people represent value shapes their ability to adjust in multi-goal environments.
🔗 OSF link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
It's a thread 🧵
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Can you easily distinguish between value, valence, and salience?
Probably not, but the prefrontal cortex of mice seems to achieve this by creating a sort of multidimensional orthogonal neural space, where each dimension corresponds to one of these subjective elements
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Probably not, but the prefrontal cortex of mice seems to achieve this by creating a sort of multidimensional orthogonal neural space, where each dimension corresponds to one of these subjective elements
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Prefrontal neural geometry of learned cues guides motivated behaviours - Nature
The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex encodes the value, salience and valence of learned stimuli along distinct neural dimensions, and the geometry of these representations shapes motivated behaviours in ...
www.nature.com
February 9, 2026 at 1:31 PM
Can you easily distinguish between value, valence, and salience?
Probably not, but the prefrontal cortex of mice seems to achieve this by creating a sort of multidimensional orthogonal neural space, where each dimension corresponds to one of these subjective elements
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Probably not, but the prefrontal cortex of mice seems to achieve this by creating a sort of multidimensional orthogonal neural space, where each dimension corresponds to one of these subjective elements
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Bad Bunny's historical advisor is an assistant professor at UW-Madison.
Hell of a flex for your tenure file.
Hell of a flex for your tenure file.
Not at all surprised to learn that Bad Bunny has a historical adviser. His halftime show was a reminder that our history and culture are deeply intertwined with the rest of the western hemisphere. We should think of his performance as part of #America250. #SuperBowl
news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one.
Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”
news.wisc.edu
February 9, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Bad Bunny's historical advisor is an assistant professor at UW-Madison.
Hell of a flex for your tenure file.
Hell of a flex for your tenure file.
Reposted by Erin Westgate
the bushes were people 😂
February 9, 2026 at 2:26 AM
the bushes were people 😂
Reposted by Erin Westgate
They moved an entire farm and a power station onto the field in five minutes and the Pats can't move a football 10 yards
Genuinely incredible how quickly they can roll all this out in the middle of a football game
February 9, 2026 at 1:32 AM
They moved an entire farm and a power station onto the field in five minutes and the Pats can't move a football 10 yards
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Reposted by Erin Westgate
What can you do with a history degree?
February 9, 2026 at 1:52 AM
What can you do with a history degree?
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Bad Bunny has more rushing yards than either team so far
February 9, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Bad Bunny has more rushing yards than either team so far
Reposted by Erin Westgate
This is my America.
February 9, 2026 at 1:24 AM
This is my America.
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Higher ed in Florida is spiraling and I hope those students and administrators are ignoring such a silly demand.
FAMU can't use the word Black on anything posted around campus related to Black History Month, to stay in compliance with Florida state laws against DEI. Black students can't use the word Black at their Historically Black College during Black History Month.
February 8, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Higher ed in Florida is spiraling and I hope those students and administrators are ignoring such a silly demand.
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Former Washington Post journalists have launched a GoFundMe to help repatriate fired staff members who are effectively stranded in foreign countries.
One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home.
Abolish the billionaire class:
One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home.
Abolish the billionaire class:
Donate to Support for Washington Post international employees, organized by Michelle Lee
Among the hundreds of journalists laid off by The Washington Post on … Michelle Lee needs your support for Support for Washington Post international employees
www.gofundme.com
February 8, 2026 at 4:37 AM
Former Washington Post journalists have launched a GoFundMe to help repatriate fired staff members who are effectively stranded in foreign countries.
One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home.
Abolish the billionaire class:
One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home.
Abolish the billionaire class:
Reposted by Erin Westgate
They sang “American Idiot”
Green Day avoids making political statement during Super Bowl 2026 opening performance
Green Day avoids making political statement during Super Bowl 2026 opening performance
A rocking start to the Super Bowl.
pagesix.com
February 8, 2026 at 11:35 PM
They sang “American Idiot”
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Is anyone watching the Super Bowl? Is Bad Bunny winning?
February 9, 2026 at 12:16 AM
Is anyone watching the Super Bowl? Is Bad Bunny winning?
Reposted by Erin Westgate
These ads reminding me why I have a whole ass research career
February 8, 2026 at 11:48 PM
These ads reminding me why I have a whole ass research career
My office for today! Field data collection day #16 at Fanning Springs State Park, for our NSF grant study on whether people underestimate the meaning of novel experiences
February 8, 2026 at 3:49 PM
My office for today! Field data collection day #16 at Fanning Springs State Park, for our NSF grant study on whether people underestimate the meaning of novel experiences
Reposted by Erin Westgate
free video for intro lectures on auditory perception
February 8, 2026 at 3:14 AM
free video for intro lectures on auditory perception
Reposted by Erin Westgate
February 8, 2026 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Erin Westgate
I can point to the exact moment when my faith in academia died, and it was when my MS advisor had a friend/collaborator get busted for sexually harassing women during Antarctic fieldwork. He defended it to us (his students, majority-women) by saying that in Antarctica, "men turn into animals."
Trust me, the woman of academia are not at all surprised by the number of academic men orbiting Epstein.
February 7, 2026 at 2:55 PM
I can point to the exact moment when my faith in academia died, and it was when my MS advisor had a friend/collaborator get busted for sexually harassing women during Antarctic fieldwork. He defended it to us (his students, majority-women) by saying that in Antarctica, "men turn into animals."
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Lord grant me the confidence of a dog who rearranges all the blankets on a freshly made bed with clean sheets.
February 8, 2026 at 2:07 AM
Lord grant me the confidence of a dog who rearranges all the blankets on a freshly made bed with clean sheets.