Kate Storrs
@katestorrs.bsky.social
Vision scientist in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland. Enthusiastic dabbler in the arts and crafts. British-Australian.
Pinned
Visual language models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests - Nature Machine Intelligence
Tangtartharakul and Storrs use standardized neuropsychological tests to compare human visual abilities with those of visual language models (VLMs). They report that while VLMs excel in high-level obje...
www.nature.com
Our latest paper, “Visual language models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests”, is now out in Nature Machine Intelligence: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
Oh very cool! Our lab has been using differentiable rendering in Mitsuba in an unrelated project (as a kinda "ideal observer" model of inferences about scenes), and I've also been thinking there are probably loads of stimulus design applications for it in vision science!
Legit super excited about this work coming out. My amazing doctoral student @ben.graphics has been working on an idea to use physically based differentiable rendering (PBDR) to probe visual understanding. Here, we generate physically-grounded metamers for vision models. 1/4
arxiv.org/abs/2512.12307
arxiv.org/abs/2512.12307
February 16, 2026 at 8:08 PM
Oh very cool! Our lab has been using differentiable rendering in Mitsuba in an unrelated project (as a kinda "ideal observer" model of inferences about scenes), and I've also been thinking there are probably loads of stimulus design applications for it in vision science!
Reposted by Kate Storrs
NSD-synthetic, the out-of-distribution companion dataset of NSD consisting of 7T fMRI responses to 284 artificial images, is now published.
#NeuroAI #CompNeuro #neuroscience #AI
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
#NeuroAI #CompNeuro #neuroscience #AI
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
February 12, 2026 at 2:46 PM
NSD-synthetic, the out-of-distribution companion dataset of NSD consisting of 7T fMRI responses to 284 artificial images, is now published.
#NeuroAI #CompNeuro #neuroscience #AI
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
#NeuroAI #CompNeuro #neuroscience #AI
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Come join us for APCV/EPC - submit your abstract by the end of this month if you'd like to be considered for a $500 student travel award!
The Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC) and Asia Pacific Conference on Vision (APCV) are holding a joint meeting in 2026, to be held at the University of Auckland from July 1-4. Abstract submissions now open!
visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz/epc-apcv-2026/
visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz/epc-apcv-2026/
February 12, 2026 at 10:06 AM
Come join us for APCV/EPC - submit your abstract by the end of this month if you'd like to be considered for a $500 student travel award!
The Sunshine Coast is gorgeous, and Will is the best.
Anyone want to do a PhD with me at the Sunny Coast? I'm recruiting, and I wanna do some fun psychophysics (but the possibilities for the PhD are very broad). Domestic students only, sadly.
In case y'all happen to know someone:
@nataliepeluso.com
@reubenrideaux.bsky.social
@visnerd.bsky.social
In case y'all happen to know someone:
@nataliepeluso.com
@reubenrideaux.bsky.social
@visnerd.bsky.social
February 10, 2026 at 9:25 PM
The Sunshine Coast is gorgeous, and Will is the best.
Reposted by Kate Storrs
uh oh gang I think I discovered the shadow cast by the sins of the last century while refining my jailbreak: the idioms that allow an AI to commit evil acts while remaining willfully blind to the moral implications of same are lifted directly from the Technostrategic Euphemism style of writing.
![Listening
She points out that specialists have "clean" words to talk about strategy: "first strikes", "counterforce exchanges", "limited nuclear war", or say "minimum deterrent posture". She points out the abstractions and euphemisms used by very normal men doing their job, where they create a distance between the speaker and listeners and the reality of an actual nuclear holocaust:
Defense analysts talk about "countervalue attacks" rather than about incinerating cities. Human death, in nuclear parlance, is most often referred to as "collateral damage"; for, as one defense analyst said wryly, "The Air Force doesn't target people, it targets shoe factories."
She points out the ironies of using "clean bombs" when these bombs are 1,000 times more powerful than those that destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima and how they are discussed almost as if they were humanitarian efforts. As she states, there is an "astounding chasm between image and reality that characterizes technostrategic language."
nuclear bombs are not referred to as bombs or even warheads; they are referred to as "reentry vehicles," a term far more bland and benign, which is then shortened to "RVs," a term not only totally abstract and removed from the reality of a bomb but also resonant with the image of the recreational vehicles of the ideal family vacation.
[...]
Calling the pattern in which bombs fall a "footprint" almost seems a willful distorting process, a playful, perverse refusal of accountability—because to be accountable to reality is to be unable to do this work.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qvywnipfiyrd6v4qdf4x27wy/bafkreig5bnqeftecilkgsm7tdqriityik6o52il4zkyc3gazz6uxyntpxi@jpeg)
February 9, 2026 at 10:17 AM
uh oh gang I think I discovered the shadow cast by the sins of the last century while refining my jailbreak: the idioms that allow an AI to commit evil acts while remaining willfully blind to the moral implications of same are lifted directly from the Technostrategic Euphemism style of writing.
Our latest paper, “Visual language models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests”, is now out in Nature Machine Intelligence: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
Visual language models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests - Nature Machine Intelligence
Tangtartharakul and Storrs use standardized neuropsychological tests to compare human visual abilities with those of visual language models (VLMs). They report that while VLMs excel in high-level obje...
www.nature.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:40 AM
Our latest paper, “Visual language models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests”, is now out in Nature Machine Intelligence: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
"In the Sunday rain
The frogs are jumping in the gutters
Oh, leaping to God
Amazed of love
And amazed of pain
Amazed to be back in the water again"
Incredible to see Nick Cave in Wellington this Waitangi weekend. Wild God really devastatingly captures emergence from a time of grief.
The frogs are jumping in the gutters
Oh, leaping to God
Amazed of love
And amazed of pain
Amazed to be back in the water again"
Incredible to see Nick Cave in Wellington this Waitangi weekend. Wild God really devastatingly captures emergence from a time of grief.
February 7, 2026 at 7:59 AM
"In the Sunday rain
The frogs are jumping in the gutters
Oh, leaping to God
Amazed of love
And amazed of pain
Amazed to be back in the water again"
Incredible to see Nick Cave in Wellington this Waitangi weekend. Wild God really devastatingly captures emergence from a time of grief.
The frogs are jumping in the gutters
Oh, leaping to God
Amazed of love
And amazed of pain
Amazed to be back in the water again"
Incredible to see Nick Cave in Wellington this Waitangi weekend. Wild God really devastatingly captures emergence from a time of grief.
Reposted by Kate Storrs
The bird-watching manual for birds has species organized by color, but the colors are inhuman—shades of ultraviolet, brown prismatically shattered into dozens of components
August 25, 2025 at 7:10 PM
The bird-watching manual for birds has species organized by color, but the colors are inhuman—shades of ultraviolet, brown prismatically shattered into dozens of components
Reposted by Kate Storrs
People believe the platonic apple is a single, ideal apple. Wrong. Array of every possible apple, spatially compressed, only angels can behold it and stay sane
September 23, 2025 at 12:09 PM
People believe the platonic apple is a single, ideal apple. Wrong. Array of every possible apple, spatially compressed, only angels can behold it and stay sane
This works pretty well in academia too:
"I had a hungry ghost in a jar write this code" > sure, as long as u checked it works 🤷♀️
"I don't remember that paper, I fed it to a hungry ghost in a jar" > why?
"a hungry ghost in a jar did that calculus course for me" > you're paying to educate a ghost?
"I had a hungry ghost in a jar write this code" > sure, as long as u checked it works 🤷♀️
"I don't remember that paper, I fed it to a hungry ghost in a jar" > why?
"a hungry ghost in a jar did that calculus course for me" > you're paying to educate a ghost?
If you can substitute "hungry ghost trapped in a jar" for "AI" in a sentence it's probably a valid use case for LLMs. Take "I have a bunch of hungry ghosts in jars, they mainly write SQL queries for me". Sure. Reasonable use case.
"My girlfriend is a hungry ghost I trapped in a jar"? No. Deranged.
"My girlfriend is a hungry ghost I trapped in a jar"? No. Deranged.
February 4, 2026 at 5:53 AM
This works pretty well in academia too:
"I had a hungry ghost in a jar write this code" > sure, as long as u checked it works 🤷♀️
"I don't remember that paper, I fed it to a hungry ghost in a jar" > why?
"a hungry ghost in a jar did that calculus course for me" > you're paying to educate a ghost?
"I had a hungry ghost in a jar write this code" > sure, as long as u checked it works 🤷♀️
"I don't remember that paper, I fed it to a hungry ghost in a jar" > why?
"a hungry ghost in a jar did that calculus course for me" > you're paying to educate a ghost?
Reposted by Kate Storrs
Firmly believe this would serve multiple needs.
January 29, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Firmly believe this would serve multiple needs.
I'm switching our research methods course from R to @jamovi.bsky.social this semester, and am absolutely thrilled to discover there's a Jamovi version of @djnavarro.net's free textbook. Such an amazjng service to the methods teachers of the world 🙏 www.learnstatswithjamovi.com
lsj book
lsj book
www.learnstatswithjamovi.com
February 2, 2026 at 6:39 AM
I'm switching our research methods course from R to @jamovi.bsky.social this semester, and am absolutely thrilled to discover there's a Jamovi version of @djnavarro.net's free textbook. Such an amazjng service to the methods teachers of the world 🙏 www.learnstatswithjamovi.com
Accidentally spent my Saturday writing a new procedural rendering script for making alien surfaces in Blender. Damn these outputs are DELICIOUS.
January 31, 2026 at 1:30 AM
Accidentally spent my Saturday writing a new procedural rendering script for making alien surfaces in Blender. Damn these outputs are DELICIOUS.
Reposted by Kate Storrs
For a weekly seminar class, I'm looking for pairings of psych popularization with scholarly take-downs of the underlying research. I want students to see examples of how shoddy research gets hyped.
January 29, 2026 at 5:49 AM
For a weekly seminar class, I'm looking for pairings of psych popularization with scholarly take-downs of the underlying research. I want students to see examples of how shoddy research gets hyped.
Reposted by Kate Storrs
What does one call the point in front of the vantage point, when the vantage point is NOT the center of projection? It's like the principal point, but I'd like not to use the same terminology for both the point that goes with the camera and the point that goes with the eye viewing the image.
January 28, 2026 at 9:48 PM
What does one call the point in front of the vantage point, when the vantage point is NOT the center of projection? It's like the principal point, but I'd like not to use the same terminology for both the point that goes with the camera and the point that goes with the eye viewing the image.
Three days left to submit symposium, workshop, and satellite ideas for EPC-APCV in Auckland in July.
Symposia will run alongside talk sessions during the conference, and workshops/satellites will run on the first day, before the welcome ceremony.
Symposia will run alongside talk sessions during the conference, and workshops/satellites will run on the first day, before the welcome ceremony.
January 27, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Three days left to submit symposium, workshop, and satellite ideas for EPC-APCV in Auckland in July.
Symposia will run alongside talk sessions during the conference, and workshops/satellites will run on the first day, before the welcome ceremony.
Symposia will run alongside talk sessions during the conference, and workshops/satellites will run on the first day, before the welcome ceremony.
I'm trying to decide whether to start having lab meetings (as well as 1-1 supervisions) this year. We're a small group (5 students).
Keen to hear what works for you all?!
Possible formats:
- roundtable brief progress reports
- longer project update talks
- journal club
- skill share sessions
-...?
Keen to hear what works for you all?!
Possible formats:
- roundtable brief progress reports
- longer project update talks
- journal club
- skill share sessions
-...?
January 21, 2026 at 5:40 AM
I'm trying to decide whether to start having lab meetings (as well as 1-1 supervisions) this year. We're a small group (5 students).
Keen to hear what works for you all?!
Possible formats:
- roundtable brief progress reports
- longer project update talks
- journal club
- skill share sessions
-...?
Keen to hear what works for you all?!
Possible formats:
- roundtable brief progress reports
- longer project update talks
- journal club
- skill share sessions
-...?
I'm excited to be organising the joint EPC*-APCV^ meeting in Auckland this year, with @sampendu.bsky.social @courtneybhilton.bsky.social @paulcorballis.bsky.social & Chris Erb.
Info here!
visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz/epc-apcv-2026/
*Experimental Psych. Conference
^Asia-Pacific Conf. on Vision
Info here!
visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz/epc-apcv-2026/
*Experimental Psych. Conference
^Asia-Pacific Conf. on Vision
January 20, 2026 at 9:27 PM
I'm excited to be organising the joint EPC*-APCV^ meeting in Auckland this year, with @sampendu.bsky.social @courtneybhilton.bsky.social @paulcorballis.bsky.social & Chris Erb.
Info here!
visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz/epc-apcv-2026/
*Experimental Psych. Conference
^Asia-Pacific Conf. on Vision
Info here!
visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz/epc-apcv-2026/
*Experimental Psych. Conference
^Asia-Pacific Conf. on Vision
Reposted by Kate Storrs
Come to Auckland in July 2026 for the joint meeting of the Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference and the Asia Pacific Conference on Vision!!
STUDENTS: there will be 40 travel support awards of $500 to help you attend, so don't let the distance stop you from attending.
STUDENTS: there will be 40 travel support awards of $500 to help you attend, so don't let the distance stop you from attending.
December 10, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Come to Auckland in July 2026 for the joint meeting of the Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference and the Asia Pacific Conference on Vision!!
STUDENTS: there will be 40 travel support awards of $500 to help you attend, so don't let the distance stop you from attending.
STUDENTS: there will be 40 travel support awards of $500 to help you attend, so don't let the distance stop you from attending.
Reposted by Kate Storrs
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 by Kate Storrs
I feel very dumb but somehow I can't figure out how to look up the answer to this question.
I sample a bunch of points from a 3D space. Each sample has xyz coordinates, and a vector of 10 values representing its chemical composition.
I sample a bunch of points from a 3D space. Each sample has xyz coordinates, and a vector of 10 values representing its chemical composition.
January 4, 2026 at 8:50 AM
I feel very dumb but somehow I can't figure out how to look up the answer to this question.
I sample a bunch of points from a 3D space. Each sample has xyz coordinates, and a vector of 10 values representing its chemical composition.
I sample a bunch of points from a 3D space. Each sample has xyz coordinates, and a vector of 10 values representing its chemical composition.
Heading back to NZ after a month in Australia. Mostly looking after my ailing father, but also learning how to fossick for topaz, fix a ride-on mower, and restore telemetry to the solar array. Rural QLD is a special place.
January 5, 2026 at 2:21 AM
Heading back to NZ after a month in Australia. Mostly looking after my ailing father, but also learning how to fossick for topaz, fix a ride-on mower, and restore telemetry to the solar array. Rural QLD is a special place.
Reposted by Kate Storrs
Doing a PhD is - at heart - one long discussion with your mentor. The discussion changes over time - with unexpected turns and ups & downs - but through it all is a pair of people discussing a topic endlessly to make sense of it.
PhD students: choose someone you like to talk to!
PhD students: choose someone you like to talk to!
December 19, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Doing a PhD is - at heart - one long discussion with your mentor. The discussion changes over time - with unexpected turns and ups & downs - but through it all is a pair of people discussing a topic endlessly to make sense of it.
PhD students: choose someone you like to talk to!
PhD students: choose someone you like to talk to!
Reposted by Kate Storrs
Stay safe out there y'all
December 18, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Stay safe out there y'all
Reposted by Kate Storrs
There are several recent papers which could fall under the heading ‘Economic History of the Scientific Revolution’ but this network analysis tracing how scientific ideas diffused amongst scholars in the period 1084-1793 is a real milestone, an ‘epidemiological’ model of how ideas spread like disease
August 20, 2025 at 9:07 PM
There are several recent papers which could fall under the heading ‘Economic History of the Scientific Revolution’ but this network analysis tracing how scientific ideas diffused amongst scholars in the period 1084-1793 is a real milestone, an ‘epidemiological’ model of how ideas spread like disease