megan peters 🧠
@meganakpeters.bsky.social
assoc prof, uc irvine cogsci & LPS: perception+metacognition+subjective experience, fMRI+models+AI
phil sci, education for all
2026: UCI-->UCL!
prez+co-founder, neuromatch.io
fellow, CIFAR brain mind consciousness
meganakpeters.org
she/her💖💜💙views mine
phil sci, education for all
2026: UCI-->UCL!
prez+co-founder, neuromatch.io
fellow, CIFAR brain mind consciousness
meganakpeters.org
she/her💖💜💙views mine
Pinned
📣 BIG NEWS EVERYONE. I am so excited to announce…
🎉 I’m moving to University College London @ucl.ac.uk to join the Experimental Psychology department in @uclpals.bsky.social! 🎉
The big move happens in spring/summer. So I’m already exploring recruiting staff & students at UCL for fall 2026!
🎉 I’m moving to University College London @ucl.ac.uk to join the Experimental Psychology department in @uclpals.bsky.social! 🎉
The big move happens in spring/summer. So I’m already exploring recruiting staff & students at UCL for fall 2026!
Folks: a few weeks ago, I came across a post on bsky about genAI in the classroom, linking to a google doc that was essentially "Yes, we thought about that" for *all* the ways to combat cheating with genAI. "Don't do cop shit" was a repeating theme. I have tried so hard to find it, but failed. Help?
November 10, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Folks: a few weeks ago, I came across a post on bsky about genAI in the classroom, linking to a google doc that was essentially "Yes, we thought about that" for *all* the ways to combat cheating with genAI. "Don't do cop shit" was a repeating theme. I have tried so hard to find it, but failed. Help?
dry run for turkeyday. oh yeah.
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 AM
dry run for turkeyday. oh yeah.
Reposted by megan peters 🧠
Want to see what a Neuromatch course is like…on your own time? Our full course materials are freely available for anyone to explore, anytime.
While the live courses include team projects, TAs, and learning pods, the content itself is always open.
➡️ neuromatch.io/open-educati...
While the live courses include team projects, TAs, and learning pods, the content itself is always open.
➡️ neuromatch.io/open-educati...
November 6, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Want to see what a Neuromatch course is like…on your own time? Our full course materials are freely available for anyone to explore, anytime.
While the live courses include team projects, TAs, and learning pods, the content itself is always open.
➡️ neuromatch.io/open-educati...
While the live courses include team projects, TAs, and learning pods, the content itself is always open.
➡️ neuromatch.io/open-educati...
go work with Rachel!
My lab at Boston University has open positions for a postdoc and PhD students. We study visual perception, attention, and decision making with a focus on temporal dynamics. Check out our recent work here sites.bu.edu/denisonlab/ and email me if you're interested in learning more
November 5, 2025 at 3:10 PM
go work with Rachel!
Reposted by megan peters 🧠
Neuromatch will be at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting #SfN,2025 (15–19 Nov, San Diego, USA) and we’d love to meet you at our community meetup!
➡️Let us know if you're attending & we will send you the meetup & our booth details: airtable.com/appWO8lu7xm3...
➡️Let us know if you're attending & we will send you the meetup & our booth details: airtable.com/appWO8lu7xm3...
November 5, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Neuromatch will be at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting #SfN,2025 (15–19 Nov, San Diego, USA) and we’d love to meet you at our community meetup!
➡️Let us know if you're attending & we will send you the meetup & our booth details: airtable.com/appWO8lu7xm3...
➡️Let us know if you're attending & we will send you the meetup & our booth details: airtable.com/appWO8lu7xm3...
Reposted by megan peters 🧠
I am accepting graduate students for the UCI Cognitive Sciences PhD program for Fall 2026. Check out my lab website - www.relcoglab.org for our recent themes. Our funded work focuses on combinatorial reasoning, moral decision-making, and conceptual cognition in humans and large language models.
Relational Cognition Lab
www.relcoglab.org
November 5, 2025 at 8:09 AM
I am accepting graduate students for the UCI Cognitive Sciences PhD program for Fall 2026. Check out my lab website - www.relcoglab.org for our recent themes. Our funded work focuses on combinatorial reasoning, moral decision-making, and conceptual cognition in humans and large language models.
Reposted by megan peters 🧠
PSA for prospective grad students: Professors usually have no clue what labs' names are. If you say you worked in the Perception Lab at U of X *maybe* I can make an educated guess of who the PI is but not always (lab names are too generic). Always use the lab PI's name in your CV/emails/applications
November 4, 2025 at 3:28 PM
PSA for prospective grad students: Professors usually have no clue what labs' names are. If you say you worked in the Perception Lab at U of X *maybe* I can make an educated guess of who the PI is but not always (lab names are too generic). Always use the lab PI's name in your CV/emails/applications
This is wild!
Introducing CorText: a framework that fuses brain data directly into a large language model, allowing for interactive neural readout using natural language.
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
November 3, 2025 at 6:12 PM
This is wild!
read this.
US citizen shot from behind as he warned ICE agents children would be coming to get bus, lawyers say
U.S. citizen shot from behind as he warned ICE agents about children gathering at bus stop, lawyers say
Lawyers for Carlos Jimenez said he was in fear after an agent threatened him with chemical spray, then pointed a gun at him.
www.latimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 4:47 AM
read this.
Reposted by megan peters 🧠
Of all the bad stories, this is one of the worst. Read the thread if you want to really understand the current barbarism
🧵Trump's masked thugs shot a 24-year-old US citizen last Thurs in Ontario, Calif.
He had just left his home and saw a bunch of ICE agents surrounding a car.
He stopped and simply told them, "Hey, there's a bunch of kids about to be across the street because they're going to school."
He had just left his home and saw a bunch of ICE agents surrounding a car.
He stopped and simply told them, "Hey, there's a bunch of kids about to be across the street because they're going to school."
November 3, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Of all the bad stories, this is one of the worst. Read the thread if you want to really understand the current barbarism
happy halloween!
November 1, 2025 at 4:40 AM
happy halloween!
Reposted by megan peters 🧠
Neuromatch will be at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting #SfN,2025 (15–19 Nov, San Diego, USA) and we’d love to meet you at our community meetup!
➡️Let us know if you're attending & we will send you the meetup & our booth details: airtable.com/appWO8lu7xm3...
➡️Let us know if you're attending & we will send you the meetup & our booth details: airtable.com/appWO8lu7xm3...
October 30, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Neuromatch will be at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting #SfN,2025 (15–19 Nov, San Diego, USA) and we’d love to meet you at our community meetup!
➡️Let us know if you're attending & we will send you the meetup & our booth details: airtable.com/appWO8lu7xm3...
➡️Let us know if you're attending & we will send you the meetup & our booth details: airtable.com/appWO8lu7xm3...
oh my god how long is this game are we stuck in groundhog day all the innings are the same now...
October 28, 2025 at 6:35 AM
oh my god how long is this game are we stuck in groundhog day all the innings are the same now...
This is such a horrifically bad idea that I don't even know where to begin.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Oh wait, yes I do. I wrote a whole article about it last year: www.thetransmitter.org/publishing/a...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Oh wait, yes I do. I wrote a whole article about it last year: www.thetransmitter.org/publishing/a...
Google Scholar tool gives extra credit to first and last authors
Researchers welcome the initiative, but say it doesn’t go far enough to capture the nuance of researcher productivity and impact.
www.nature.com
October 26, 2025 at 6:36 PM
This is such a horrifically bad idea that I don't even know where to begin.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Oh wait, yes I do. I wrote a whole article about it last year: www.thetransmitter.org/publishing/a...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Oh wait, yes I do. I wrote a whole article about it last year: www.thetransmitter.org/publishing/a...
This article is well worth reading.
The siren call of wanting to "just get it" is also more intoxicating when you're stressed, tired, overburdened--i.e. when symbolic/effortful thinking might best help avoid heuristic mistakes. So populists will of course strive to make those conditions manifest.
The siren call of wanting to "just get it" is also more intoxicating when you're stressed, tired, overburdened--i.e. when symbolic/effortful thinking might best help avoid heuristic mistakes. So populists will of course strive to make those conditions manifest.
If populism is (as this argues) a rebellion against System 2 thinking—which requires symbols and remains frustratingly hard for most of us—it seems we’re stuck with it forever.
If only we could make some kind of, idk, cognitive prosthesis for symbolic reasoning? Yeah, never mind. Sounds hard. +
If only we could make some kind of, idk, cognitive prosthesis for symbolic reasoning? Yeah, never mind. Sounds hard. +
Populism fast and slow
It is natural that a person who is both concerned by the rise of right-wing populism and possessed of a bookish disposition might turn to the academic political science literature in search of a bette...
josephheath.substack.com
October 26, 2025 at 4:33 PM
This article is well worth reading.
The siren call of wanting to "just get it" is also more intoxicating when you're stressed, tired, overburdened--i.e. when symbolic/effortful thinking might best help avoid heuristic mistakes. So populists will of course strive to make those conditions manifest.
The siren call of wanting to "just get it" is also more intoxicating when you're stressed, tired, overburdened--i.e. when symbolic/effortful thinking might best help avoid heuristic mistakes. So populists will of course strive to make those conditions manifest.
Such a pleasure to discuss this with Lauren! Thank you Tev Naidu for the opportunity!
Enjoyed discussing "Why Science & Philosophy Need Each Other" w Megan Peters @meganakpeters.bsky.social
We discuss the importance of engagement between science & philosophy, our experience w this & simplified conceptions of science & philosophy 🧠📕
Thanks Tev Naidu! #philsky #philsci #sciencesky
We discuss the importance of engagement between science & philosophy, our experience w this & simplified conceptions of science & philosophy 🧠📕
Thanks Tev Naidu! #philsky #philsci #sciencesky
Why Science and Philosophy Need Each Other | Lauren Ross & Megan Peters
YouTube video by Mind-Body Solution
www.youtube.com
October 25, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Such a pleasure to discuss this with Lauren! Thank you Tev Naidu for the opportunity!
The Trump Administration is demanding/stealing California taxpayer dollars through extorting UCLA, & top-level UC officials were trying to hide details from us all.
Massive kudos to the UCLA faculty for fighting for transparency. The UC system belongs to ALL the people of CA, not the UC Regents.
Massive kudos to the UCLA faculty for fighting for transparency. The UC system belongs to ALL the people of CA, not the UC Regents.
BREAKING: The California Supreme Court has DENIED the University of California's request that it block the release of a 28-page, $1.2-billion fine Trump administration UCLA settlement offer. UC is required to give a faculty group the document today. www.latimes.com/california/s...
UC must publicly release Trump administration's $1.2-billion settlement proposal
The California Supreme Court on Friday declined a request from the University of California to block the release of a roughly $1.2-billion Trump UCLA settlement. UCLA is required to share the document...
www.latimes.com
October 25, 2025 at 2:59 AM
The Trump Administration is demanding/stealing California taxpayer dollars through extorting UCLA, & top-level UC officials were trying to hide details from us all.
Massive kudos to the UCLA faculty for fighting for transparency. The UC system belongs to ALL the people of CA, not the UC Regents.
Massive kudos to the UCLA faculty for fighting for transparency. The UC system belongs to ALL the people of CA, not the UC Regents.
"In February 2024, then–UC President Michael Drake announced all employee computers connected to university networks would be required to install Trellix by May 2025. Campuses failing to comply would face penalties of up to $500,000 per ... incident."
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
University of California faculty push back against Big Brother cybersecurity mandate
School officials defend software as bulwark against ransomware, but professors fear potential surveillance of their devices
www.science.org
October 25, 2025 at 1:21 AM
"In February 2024, then–UC President Michael Drake announced all employee computers connected to university networks would be required to install Trellix by May 2025. Campuses failing to comply would face penalties of up to $500,000 per ... incident."
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by megan peters 🧠
Travel awards are available for undergraduate students looking to attend #Cosyne25! The application is short, and the deadline is Nov 12. @cosynemeeting.bsky.social
Application: shorturl.at/6NEyk
More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants
(1/2)
Application: shorturl.at/6NEyk
More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants
(1/2)
Travel Grants — COSYNE
Apply for COSYNE 2026 Travel Grants to support your participation in Lisbon and Cascais, Portugal. Grants are available for students, postdocs, and PIs, including programs for Childcare, Presenters, N...
www.cosyne.org
October 3, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Travel awards are available for undergraduate students looking to attend #Cosyne25! The application is short, and the deadline is Nov 12. @cosynemeeting.bsky.social
Application: shorturl.at/6NEyk
More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants
(1/2)
Application: shorturl.at/6NEyk
More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants
(1/2)
what a beautiful and powerful sentiment! thank you so much for being part of our family!
“In 2020, I saw what open, rigorous, and collaborative science could look like…Five years later, I’m Neuromatch’s Instruction Chair. The program that opened the door for me is one I now help shape for thousands."
➡️ www.linkedin.com/posts/neurom...
#Neuromatch #MyNeuromatchStory
➡️ www.linkedin.com/posts/neurom...
#Neuromatch #MyNeuromatchStory
#neuromatch #myneuromatchstory #impactstory #computationalneuroscience #globaleducation #stemeducation #neuroscience #scientificcommunity #machinelearning #datascience #mentorship #neuromatchacademy |...
From Neuromatch Academy student from Egypt to Neuromatch’s Instruction Chair, Kirollus A.’s journey highlights how taking the first step can lead to big opportunities
🎤 “In 2020, I was a med student,...
www.linkedin.com
October 24, 2025 at 6:11 PM
what a beautiful and powerful sentiment! thank you so much for being part of our family!
i wholeheartedly agree.
even if you think there's subverting special about biology, eschewing functionalism will not drive progress towards explanation or understanding.
even if you think there's subverting special about biology, eschewing functionalism will not drive progress towards explanation or understanding.
My commentary on @anilseth.bsky.social's BBS article: philpapers.org/rec/MICBOF. We should bet on functionalism.
Matthias Michel, Bet on functionalism - PhilPapers
I argue that there is currently no alternative to functionalism. Functionalism explains the differences between types of mental states. No biological theory does. Functionalist theories account for th...
philpapers.org
October 24, 2025 at 2:46 PM
i wholeheartedly agree.
even if you think there's subverting special about biology, eschewing functionalism will not drive progress towards explanation or understanding.
even if you think there's subverting special about biology, eschewing functionalism will not drive progress towards explanation or understanding.
woohoo, congratulations!
Congrats to Neuromatch Impact Scholar grads @sofiazang.bsky.social & Mathilde Martin!
They presented their poster at the #BernsteinConference thanks to the Travel Grant they shared.
➡️https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7386783179950682112/?actorCompanyId=68285163
They presented their poster at the #BernsteinConference thanks to the Travel Grant they shared.
➡️https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7386783179950682112/?actorCompanyId=68285163
October 22, 2025 at 4:35 PM
woohoo, congratulations!
Reposted by megan peters 🧠
We’ve recently updated our collaborative open-access book, “Neural Networks in Cognitive Science”, adding a few new authors, chapters, and lots of content.
downloads.jeffyoshimi.net/NeuralNetwor...
downloads.jeffyoshimi.net/NeuralNetwor...
October 21, 2025 at 8:44 PM
We’ve recently updated our collaborative open-access book, “Neural Networks in Cognitive Science”, adding a few new authors, chapters, and lots of content.
downloads.jeffyoshimi.net/NeuralNetwor...
downloads.jeffyoshimi.net/NeuralNetwor...
❤️🙌🫶
Can AI simulations of human research participants advance cognitive science? In @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social, @lmesseri.bsky.social & I analyze this vision. We show how “AI Surrogates” entrench practices that limit the generalizability of cognitive science while aspiring to do the opposite. 1/
AI Surrogates and illusions of generalizability in cognitive science
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated enthusiasm for using AI simulations of human research participants to generate new know…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:35 PM
❤️🙌🫶