Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
@laurasn.bsky.social
Cognitive scientist, postdoc at iSearch lab (TU Munich), studying how children figure out other people. i have a kid & i like cooking & queer stuff. she/her
Pinned
Do kids prefer to play with helpers? Our paper on children's trait attribution and partner choice is out! doi.org/10.1111/cdev... We wanted to know if kids, after observing other agents' behaviors, spontaneously (!) interpret them in terms of traits and choose cooperation partners accordingly. 🧵...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
Great apes may use playful teasing to learn about their social relationships. In a new paper, Erica Cartmill & I propose a bond-testing hypothesis for ape teasing. Out today in Phil Trans Biology: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
Does playful teasing help great apes learn about social relationships?
Abstract. Understanding social relationships is critical to succeeding in primate societies. In species with complex social networks (including humans), co
royalsocietypublishing.org
February 6, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Great apes may use playful teasing to learn about their social relationships. In a new paper, Erica Cartmill & I propose a bond-testing hypothesis for ape teasing. Out today in Phil Trans Biology: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
By age 6, many children in the US believe that numbers are infinite, despite initially representing counting as a meaningless & finite chain of words. In a new paper w/ Jess Sullivan & @drbarner.bsky.social, we explored the basis for this conceptual change. 1/n
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Counting without end: A cross-linguistic exploration of infinity beliefs in English and Hindi learners
Recent studies (Cheung et al., 2017; Chu et al., 2020; Sullivan et al., 2023) argue that children may infer the existence of infinite magnitudes throu…
www.sciencedirect.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:44 PM
By age 6, many children in the US believe that numbers are infinite, despite initially representing counting as a meaningless & finite chain of words. In a new paper w/ Jess Sullivan & @drbarner.bsky.social, we explored the basis for this conceptual change. 1/n
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
Imagination in bonobos!
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
Apes Share Human Ability to Imagine
YouTube video by Johns Hopkins University
youtu.be
February 5, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Imagination in bonobos!
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
Why do otherwise rational people disagree about the same evidence? Our new paper finds that group membership is a deeply rooted influence on how we form beliefs, leading even preschoolers to bias their evidential standards and form inaccurate beliefs.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 5, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Why do otherwise rational people disagree about the same evidence? Our new paper finds that group membership is a deeply rooted influence on how we form beliefs, leading even preschoolers to bias their evidential standards and form inaccurate beliefs.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.
February 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
With most psychedelic drugs, you never know what you're going to get. But this mysterious mushroom from China - without fail - causes users to hallucinate tiny people: crawling up walls, popping out from under furniture and marching under doors. www.bbc.com/future/artic...
'They saw them on their dishes when eating': The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans
Only recently described by science, the mysterious mushrooms are found in different parts of the world, but they give people the same exact visions.
www.bbc.com
January 22, 2026 at 5:31 PM
With most psychedelic drugs, you never know what you're going to get. But this mysterious mushroom from China - without fail - causes users to hallucinate tiny people: crawling up walls, popping out from under furniture and marching under doors. www.bbc.com/future/artic...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
"The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution" with @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social out in Proc B
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 22, 2026 at 1:01 PM
"The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution" with @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social out in Proc B
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
I just created a series of seven deep-dive videos about AI, which I've posted to youtube and now here. 😊
Targeted to laypeople, they explore how LLMs work, what they can do, and what impacts they have on learning, well-being, disinformation, the workplace, the economy, and the environment.
Targeted to laypeople, they explore how LLMs work, what they can do, and what impacts they have on learning, well-being, disinformation, the workplace, the economy, and the environment.
Part 1: How do LLMs work?
YouTube video by Andrew Perfors
www.youtube.com
January 22, 2026 at 12:45 AM
I just created a series of seven deep-dive videos about AI, which I've posted to youtube and now here. 😊
Targeted to laypeople, they explore how LLMs work, what they can do, and what impacts they have on learning, well-being, disinformation, the workplace, the economy, and the environment.
Targeted to laypeople, they explore how LLMs work, what they can do, and what impacts they have on learning, well-being, disinformation, the workplace, the economy, and the environment.
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
Out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social with @jaeminhwang.bsky.social, David Sobel (@candmlab.bsky.social), and @jessicas.bsky.social! Most studies of infants’ fairness expectations focus on resource distribution, but in everyday life, we engage in many different kinds of resource exchanges.
January 21, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social with @jaeminhwang.bsky.social, David Sobel (@candmlab.bsky.social), and @jessicas.bsky.social! Most studies of infants’ fairness expectations focus on resource distribution, but in everyday life, we engage in many different kinds of resource exchanges.
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
New paper with Marina Bedny out in eLife (elifesciences.org/articles/101...). Main takeaway: Different kinds of causal knowledge are supported by different semantic brain networks - consistent with the "intuitive theories" framework from developmental psychology. 1/
Animacy semantic network supports causal inferences about illness
Making causal inferences about illness, compared to making causal inferences about mechanical breakdown and reading causally unconnected sentences, activates a semantic brain network implicated in the conceptual representation of animate entities (e.g. people, animals).
elifesciences.org
November 20, 2025 at 10:15 PM
New paper with Marina Bedny out in eLife (elifesciences.org/articles/101...). Main takeaway: Different kinds of causal knowledge are supported by different semantic brain networks - consistent with the "intuitive theories" framework from developmental psychology. 1/
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
So excited to share this new paper, out in JEP:G with the incredible @jamieamemiya.bsky.social, Gail Heyman, and @carenwalker.bsky.social! We tested how children and adults reason about disparate impact policies: formally neutral laws or rules that are indirectly discriminatory. (1/7)
January 14, 2026 at 3:03 PM
So excited to share this new paper, out in JEP:G with the incredible @jamieamemiya.bsky.social, Gail Heyman, and @carenwalker.bsky.social! We tested how children and adults reason about disparate impact policies: formally neutral laws or rules that are indirectly discriminatory. (1/7)
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
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 Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
🧵New preprint: Adults often agree with their ingroup even when evidence says otherwise. Why?
To find out, we studied kids, who show the same tendency but *before* political identities take hold. With developmental data, we can see the basic psychological ingredients.
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
1/11
To find out, we studied kids, who show the same tendency but *before* political identities take hold. With developmental data, we can see the basic psychological ingredients.
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
1/11
OSF
doi.org
January 6, 2026 at 3:03 PM
🧵New preprint: Adults often agree with their ingroup even when evidence says otherwise. Why?
To find out, we studied kids, who show the same tendency but *before* political identities take hold. With developmental data, we can see the basic psychological ingredients.
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
1/11
To find out, we studied kids, who show the same tendency but *before* political identities take hold. With developmental data, we can see the basic psychological ingredients.
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
1/11
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
a project I really like, now officially out!
"Shape Guides Visual Pretense"
by Qian and me
paper link: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I'll walk through a quick version here
To get a sense of it, first consider:
Would it make more sense to pretend that this block is a car, or a strawberry?
"Shape Guides Visual Pretense"
by Qian and me
paper link: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I'll walk through a quick version here
To get a sense of it, first consider:
Would it make more sense to pretend that this block is a car, or a strawberry?
January 6, 2026 at 2:34 PM
a project I really like, now officially out!
"Shape Guides Visual Pretense"
by Qian and me
paper link: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I'll walk through a quick version here
To get a sense of it, first consider:
Would it make more sense to pretend that this block is a car, or a strawberry?
"Shape Guides Visual Pretense"
by Qian and me
paper link: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I'll walk through a quick version here
To get a sense of it, first consider:
Would it make more sense to pretend that this block is a car, or a strawberry?
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
1/ Romantic kissing 👨❤️💋👨 is common across cultures—but NOT universal.
Of note, societies with little contact seem to “reinvent” it.
We argue this is b/c kissing sits in a cultural basin of attraction carved by our early‑emerging understanding of intimacy. 🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Of note, societies with little contact seem to “reinvent” it.
We argue this is b/c kissing sits in a cultural basin of attraction carved by our early‑emerging understanding of intimacy. 🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Abstract core knowledge may shape the basins of cultural attraction: romantic kissing as a case study
Romantic kissing is prevalent across human societies, yet far from universal—a puzzling pattern given it also appears to have been invented independen…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 3, 2026 at 11:15 AM
1/ Romantic kissing 👨❤️💋👨 is common across cultures—but NOT universal.
Of note, societies with little contact seem to “reinvent” it.
We argue this is b/c kissing sits in a cultural basin of attraction carved by our early‑emerging understanding of intimacy. 🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Of note, societies with little contact seem to “reinvent” it.
We argue this is b/c kissing sits in a cultural basin of attraction carved by our early‑emerging understanding of intimacy. 🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
Check out our new paper on the #development of #gaze-following in wild #chimpanzees, led by @kris-sabbi.bsky.social, @zeppypearl.bsky.social, & Isabelle Monroe!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
January 2, 2026 at 1:41 PM
Check out our new paper on the #development of #gaze-following in wild #chimpanzees, led by @kris-sabbi.bsky.social, @zeppypearl.bsky.social, & Isabelle Monroe!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
A fascinating new paper by Amanda Royka and colleagues explores why monkeys fail false belief tasks.
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Exploring the evolutionary roots of theory of mind: Primate errors on false belief tasks reveal representational limits
Human adults flexibly reason about others' unobservable mental states, a capacity known as Theory of Mind (ToM). Unfortunately, the roots of this capa…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:21 PM
A fascinating new paper by Amanda Royka and colleagues explores why monkeys fail false belief tasks.
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
now out in Decision! 🎉 awspntest.apa.org/manuscript/2...
December 29, 2025 at 6:16 PM
now out in Decision! 🎉 awspntest.apa.org/manuscript/2...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
In this new paper, we look at some different dimensions on which beliefs vary:
- Is the belief deeply important to your identity?
- Would you change your mind if you got evidence against it?
- Is it best described in terms of credences (“pretty sure”), or is it more yes/no?
1/
- Is the belief deeply important to your identity?
- Would you change your mind if you got evidence against it?
- Is it best described in terms of credences (“pretty sure”), or is it more yes/no?
1/
Maybe there are two distinct kinds of belief: they either represent facts (It's rainy) or express identity (My son is the best). We find instead that many beliefs simultaneously represent facts and express identity (but few beliefs do neither).
December 22, 2025 at 6:28 PM
In this new paper, we look at some different dimensions on which beliefs vary:
- Is the belief deeply important to your identity?
- Would you change your mind if you got evidence against it?
- Is it best described in terms of credences (“pretty sure”), or is it more yes/no?
1/
- Is the belief deeply important to your identity?
- Would you change your mind if you got evidence against it?
- Is it best described in terms of credences (“pretty sure”), or is it more yes/no?
1/
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
This paper I have a conflict on since Mathias now works in my lab, but it is so beautiful, claiming that shape processing in humans is not done like modern neural nets, but instead uses a symbolic representation of a program to generate the shape.
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
December 21, 2025 at 3:41 PM
This paper I have a conflict on since Mathias now works in my lab, but it is so beautiful, claiming that shape processing in humans is not done like modern neural nets, but instead uses a symbolic representation of a program to generate the shape.
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
Very excited to share the first empirical paper from LEVANTE: we describe the LEVANTE core tasks, a set of nine open source tasks for measuring learning and development in kids ages 5-12 years.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵
December 18, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Very excited to share the first empirical paper from LEVANTE: we describe the LEVANTE core tasks, a set of nine open source tasks for measuring learning and development in kids ages 5-12 years.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
Excited to announce a new book telling the story of mathematical approaches to studying the mind, from the origins of cognitive science to modern AI! The Laws of Thought will be published in February and is available for pre-order now.
December 18, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Excited to announce a new book telling the story of mathematical approaches to studying the mind, from the origins of cognitive science to modern AI! The Laws of Thought will be published in February and is available for pre-order now.
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
My first PhD paper is published! 🎉 We compared how wild bonobo and chimpanzee infants (0-5.5y) become independent from their mothers. Here is the open-access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
🧵(1/5)
🧵(1/5)
Great Ape Childhoods: Social and Spatial Pathways to Independence in Bonobo and Chimpanzee Infants
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 16, 2025 at 12:19 PM
My first PhD paper is published! 🎉 We compared how wild bonobo and chimpanzee infants (0-5.5y) become independent from their mothers. Here is the open-access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
🧵(1/5)
🧵(1/5)
Reposted by Laura Schlingloff-Nemecz
“Children enter from the door on the left.”
This sentence is what’s called a GENERIC… but it isn’t saying anything general about the nature of children. What then makes it generic?
New theory from @kateritch.bsky.social and Ny Vasil
philpapers.org/archive/RITG...
This sentence is what’s called a GENERIC… but it isn’t saying anything general about the nature of children. What then makes it generic?
New theory from @kateritch.bsky.social and Ny Vasil
philpapers.org/archive/RITG...
December 14, 2025 at 2:47 PM
“Children enter from the door on the left.”
This sentence is what’s called a GENERIC… but it isn’t saying anything general about the nature of children. What then makes it generic?
New theory from @kateritch.bsky.social and Ny Vasil
philpapers.org/archive/RITG...
This sentence is what’s called a GENERIC… but it isn’t saying anything general about the nature of children. What then makes it generic?
New theory from @kateritch.bsky.social and Ny Vasil
philpapers.org/archive/RITG...