Fiery Cushman
@fierycushman.bsky.social
Psychologist, but not the kind that can help you
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
We tend to assume that rules are mostly about maintaining order, reducing prediction errors, and generally helping people cooperate. But not all rules do that--and, as Connie Chiu and I found in our most recent paper, people will buy rules in economic games of little use osf.io/preprints/ps...
December 23, 2025 at 3:43 PM
We tend to assume that rules are mostly about maintaining order, reducing prediction errors, and generally helping people cooperate. But not all rules do that--and, as Connie Chiu and I found in our most recent paper, people will buy rules in economic games of little use osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
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 by Fiery Cushman
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 Fiery Cushman
fun pre-print for your start of week reading:
"People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable"
(by Hu, Sosa, and me)
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
"People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable"
(by Hu, Sosa, and me)
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
December 8, 2025 at 2:18 PM
fun pre-print for your start of week reading:
"People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable"
(by Hu, Sosa, and me)
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
"People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable"
(by Hu, Sosa, and me)
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
Children’s judgments of possibility align with their judgments of actuality
‼️From Mo Pabla, Andrew Shtulman & Ori Friedman
‼️From Mo Pabla, Andrew Shtulman & Ori Friedman
Children's Judgments of Possibility Align With Their Judgments of Actuality
Children often say that possible events are impossible, and only gradually come to see these events as possible. For instance, they often deny that people could do unusual things, like own a pet pea.....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Children’s judgments of possibility align with their judgments of actuality
‼️From Mo Pabla, Andrew Shtulman & Ori Friedman
‼️From Mo Pabla, Andrew Shtulman & Ori Friedman
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
🚨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 Fiery Cushman
🚨Job Alert plz RT!
Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition!
We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals
Open-rank
apply.interfolio.com/178146
Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition!
We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals
Open-rank
apply.interfolio.com/178146
December 2, 2025 at 2:54 AM
🚨Job Alert plz RT!
Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition!
We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals
Open-rank
apply.interfolio.com/178146
Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition!
We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals
Open-rank
apply.interfolio.com/178146
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
Excited to share our new paper in Cognitive Development! We replicate that children punish for both retributive and consequentialist reasons — and, surprisingly, intergroup context doesn’t change these effects. tinyurl.com/ycyhcn5a Check in out! ✨
Motivational context does not influence children’s third-party punishment in intergroup contexts
Children punish to reciprocate harm (retributive motives) and to prevent future wrongdoing (consequentialist motives). Building on this idea, we wante…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Excited to share our new paper in Cognitive Development! We replicate that children punish for both retributive and consequentialist reasons — and, surprisingly, intergroup context doesn’t change these effects. tinyurl.com/ycyhcn5a Check in out! ✨
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
Very happy that this is out www.nature.com/articles/s44.... Together with @stefankiebel.bsky.social we show that decision biases in context-dependent decision making, previously attributed to different forms of value normalization, are very well explained by habit-like action repetition.
Action repetition biases choice in context-dependent decision-making - Communications Psychology
This study shows that decision biases previously attributed to value normalization (e.g. relative value learning or range normalization) are better explained by action repetition. Repeating an action ...
www.nature.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Very happy that this is out www.nature.com/articles/s44.... Together with @stefankiebel.bsky.social we show that decision biases in context-dependent decision making, previously attributed to different forms of value normalization, are very well explained by habit-like action repetition.
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
🚨Friends, we’re happy to share that our book is available for pre-order! 🎉
We aimed to cover all the foundations of the topic in an accessible manner for a large audience.
It could help set up a bachelor-level curriculum on the topic.
Pre-orders are very key for the fate of books: shorturl.at/Dxbif
We aimed to cover all the foundations of the topic in an accessible manner for a large audience.
It could help set up a bachelor-level curriculum on the topic.
Pre-orders are very key for the fate of books: shorturl.at/Dxbif
November 26, 2025 at 11:38 AM
🚨Friends, we’re happy to share that our book is available for pre-order! 🎉
We aimed to cover all the foundations of the topic in an accessible manner for a large audience.
It could help set up a bachelor-level curriculum on the topic.
Pre-orders are very key for the fate of books: shorturl.at/Dxbif
We aimed to cover all the foundations of the topic in an accessible manner for a large audience.
It could help set up a bachelor-level curriculum on the topic.
Pre-orders are very key for the fate of books: shorturl.at/Dxbif
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
📣 New BBS preprint out now! 📣
"Models casting egalitarian societies as crucibles of equality perpetuate the factually uninformed notion that foragers are somehow more noble. Critiques portray egalitarianism as romantic fantasy. Neither characterization is wholly justified."
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
"Models casting egalitarian societies as crucibles of equality perpetuate the factually uninformed notion that foragers are somehow more noble. Critiques portray egalitarianism as romantic fantasy. Neither characterization is wholly justified."
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
Egalitarianism is not Equality: Moving from outcome to process in the study of human political organisation | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Egalitarianism is not Equality: Moving from outcome to process in the study of human political organisation
doi.org
November 18, 2025 at 8:05 AM
📣 New BBS preprint out now! 📣
"Models casting egalitarian societies as crucibles of equality perpetuate the factually uninformed notion that foragers are somehow more noble. Critiques portray egalitarianism as romantic fantasy. Neither characterization is wholly justified."
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
"Models casting egalitarian societies as crucibles of equality perpetuate the factually uninformed notion that foragers are somehow more noble. Critiques portray egalitarianism as romantic fantasy. Neither characterization is wholly justified."
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
How early do children grasp mathematical patterns? In a new Cognition paper, Ciccione et al. show that 5–6-year-olds can intuitively extend lines, curves and oscillating patterns, revealing rich proto-mathematical intuitions before schooling.
November 20, 2025 at 1:55 PM
How early do children grasp mathematical patterns? In a new Cognition paper, Ciccione et al. show that 5–6-year-olds can intuitively extend lines, curves and oscillating patterns, revealing rich proto-mathematical intuitions before schooling.
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
A thread on our recent paper (w/Raihan Alam @raihanalam) in PNAS on why punishment often fails and what it means for crime, cooperation, democracy, and the rule of law. I’m super excited for it, it’s the lab’s most extensive experimental work to date. Check it out! 1/
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
November 19, 2025 at 11:40 PM
A thread on our recent paper (w/Raihan Alam @raihanalam) in PNAS on why punishment often fails and what it means for crime, cooperation, democracy, and the rule of law. I’m super excited for it, it’s the lab’s most extensive experimental work to date. Check it out! 1/
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
Experimental participants to us
November 12, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Experimental participants to us
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
🧠 New paper alert! Can people infer others’ values not from what they choose, but simply from what comes to mind? Across four studies, we show they can—drawing on an intuitive theory of how options are generated.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
Redirecting
doi.org
November 5, 2025 at 7:31 PM
🧠 New paper alert! Can people infer others’ values not from what they choose, but simply from what comes to mind? Across four studies, we show they can—drawing on an intuitive theory of how options are generated.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
New article w/ M Pabla & @orifriedman.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
When children claim an unexpected event is impossible they also claim it's never happened, even for immoral events, suggesting their judgments reflect beliefs about what could happen & not merely what should.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
When children claim an unexpected event is impossible they also claim it's never happened, even for immoral events, suggesting their judgments reflect beliefs about what could happen & not merely what should.
October 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM
New article w/ M Pabla & @orifriedman.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
When children claim an unexpected event is impossible they also claim it's never happened, even for immoral events, suggesting their judgments reflect beliefs about what could happen & not merely what should.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
When children claim an unexpected event is impossible they also claim it's never happened, even for immoral events, suggesting their judgments reflect beliefs about what could happen & not merely what should.
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
We're excited to announce that Cognitive Science at Dartmouth is recruiting PhD students to work collaboratively with me, Steven Frankland, and Fred Callaway. Come study the principles and mechanisms that enable us to understand, plan, and act in the world! Info: sites.dartmouth.edu/cogscigrad/
Cognitive Science Graduate Admissions – Information about graduate admissions from the cognitive science faculty
sites.dartmouth.edu
October 23, 2025 at 5:30 PM
We're excited to announce that Cognitive Science at Dartmouth is recruiting PhD students to work collaboratively with me, Steven Frankland, and Fred Callaway. Come study the principles and mechanisms that enable us to understand, plan, and act in the world! Info: sites.dartmouth.edu/cogscigrad/
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
Only one day left to apply for the Moral Psychology Preconference at SPSP!
We have an outstanding line-up of invited speakers, will have blitz contributed talks, a best poster award, and more.
Don’t miss it!
We have an outstanding line-up of invited speakers, will have blitz contributed talks, a best poster award, and more.
Don’t miss it!
October 22, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Only one day left to apply for the Moral Psychology Preconference at SPSP!
We have an outstanding line-up of invited speakers, will have blitz contributed talks, a best poster award, and more.
Don’t miss it!
We have an outstanding line-up of invited speakers, will have blitz contributed talks, a best poster award, and more.
Don’t miss it!
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
Only two days left to apply!
🚨Historical Psych Pre-Conference🚨
We have a great lineup of speakers for the #SPSP2026 edition!
Submit your poster or data blitz abstract by Oct. 23 (link below!). Open to folks from any career stage
Any research on psychological change or historical context of social psych is welcome!
We have a great lineup of speakers for the #SPSP2026 edition!
Submit your poster or data blitz abstract by Oct. 23 (link below!). Open to folks from any career stage
Any research on psychological change or historical context of social psych is welcome!
October 21, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Only two days left to apply!
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
Last call for data-blitz and poster submission for the Computational Psychology preconference @spspnews.bsky.social! See thread below for details and hope to see you in Chicago!
The computational psych preconference is back @spspnews.bsky.social for a full day! This year's lineup:
👉theory-driven modeling: Hyowon Gweon
👉data-driven discovery: @clemensstachl.bsky.social
👉application: me
👉 panel: @steveread.bsky.social Sandra Matz, @markthornton.bsky.social Wil Cunningham
👉theory-driven modeling: Hyowon Gweon
👉data-driven discovery: @clemensstachl.bsky.social
👉application: me
👉 panel: @steveread.bsky.social Sandra Matz, @markthornton.bsky.social Wil Cunningham
October 20, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Last call for data-blitz and poster submission for the Computational Psychology preconference @spspnews.bsky.social! See thread below for details and hope to see you in Chicago!
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
Hello all! 👋 🚨 New Preprint Alert! 🚨
Code World Models for General Game-Playing. ♟️🎲 ♣️♥️♠️♦️
I am pleased to announce our new paper, which provides an extremely sample-efficient way to create an agent that can perform well in multi-agent, partially-observed, symbolic environments!
🧵 1/N
Code World Models for General Game-Playing. ♟️🎲 ♣️♥️♠️♦️
I am pleased to announce our new paper, which provides an extremely sample-efficient way to create an agent that can perform well in multi-agent, partially-observed, symbolic environments!
🧵 1/N
October 9, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Hello all! 👋 🚨 New Preprint Alert! 🚨
Code World Models for General Game-Playing. ♟️🎲 ♣️♥️♠️♦️
I am pleased to announce our new paper, which provides an extremely sample-efficient way to create an agent that can perform well in multi-agent, partially-observed, symbolic environments!
🧵 1/N
Code World Models for General Game-Playing. ♟️🎲 ♣️♥️♠️♦️
I am pleased to announce our new paper, which provides an extremely sample-efficient way to create an agent that can perform well in multi-agent, partially-observed, symbolic environments!
🧵 1/N
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
Consciousness science as a marketplace of rationalizations
my commentary on @smfleming.bsky.social and @matthiasmichel.bsky.social's thought-provoking BBS paper, and more generally about the field.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
my commentary on @smfleming.bsky.social and @matthiasmichel.bsky.social's thought-provoking BBS paper, and more generally about the field.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
October 10, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Consciousness science as a marketplace of rationalizations
my commentary on @smfleming.bsky.social and @matthiasmichel.bsky.social's thought-provoking BBS paper, and more generally about the field.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
my commentary on @smfleming.bsky.social and @matthiasmichel.bsky.social's thought-provoking BBS paper, and more generally about the field.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
‼️ Recent work by Setayesh Radkani, Joshua Tenenbaum & Rebecca Saxe:
What people learn from punishment: A cognitive model
What people learn from punishment: A cognitive model
What people learn from punishment: A cognitive model | PNAS
Authorities, from parents of toddlers to leaders of formal institutions, use punishment
to communicate disapproval and enforce social norms. Ideall...
www.pnas.org
October 8, 2025 at 5:19 AM
‼️ Recent work by Setayesh Radkani, Joshua Tenenbaum & Rebecca Saxe:
What people learn from punishment: A cognitive model
What people learn from punishment: A cognitive model
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
codec lab
codec-lab.github.io
October 6, 2025 at 2:26 PM
I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
Reposted by Fiery Cushman
📣Recent work by Emily G. Liquin, Marjorie Rhodes & Todd M. Gureckis:
Seeking new information with old questions: Children and adults reuse and recombine concepts from prior questions
Seeking new information with old questions: Children and adults reuse and recombine concepts from prior questions
Seeking New Information With Old Questions: Children and Adults Reuse and Recombine Concepts From Prior Questions
Abstract. Question asking is a key tool for learning about the world, especially in childhood. However, formulating good questions is challenging. In any given situation, many questions are possible b...
doi.org
October 1, 2025 at 3:15 PM
📣Recent work by Emily G. Liquin, Marjorie Rhodes & Todd M. Gureckis:
Seeking new information with old questions: Children and adults reuse and recombine concepts from prior questions
Seeking new information with old questions: Children and adults reuse and recombine concepts from prior questions