Paul Sharp
@paulbsharp.bsky.social
Assistant professor of psychology, Bar-Ilan University | computational cognitive science & psychiatry
"Discovery happens less when you're trying to be the expert and more when you're trying to be the learner." - Itai Yanai
Website: sharplabbiu.github.io
"Discovery happens less when you're trying to be the expert and more when you're trying to be the learner." - Itai Yanai
Website: sharplabbiu.github.io
Pinned
1st Sharp Lab preprint! 🚨 We tested how anxiety affects task generalization—not how people generalize threat stimuli, but how they reuse action-outcome structures when planning in new contexts.
Worry makes people avoid reusing actions that co-occurred w/ threat!
📄: osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵 1/12
Worry makes people avoid reusing actions that co-occurred w/ threat!
📄: osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵 1/12
Reposted by Paul Sharp
Anxiety biases task generalization: https://osf.io/c2jz5
October 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Anxiety biases task generalization: https://osf.io/c2jz5
Inspiring!
Wow. The first woman to receive tenure in Physics at Harvard dropped out of high school to form an alternative school with friends and later codiscovered the top quark and Higgs boson. (And psst: she supports PhD students & loves books).💙
www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpa...
www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpa...
Melissa Franklin | Department of Physics
www.physics.harvard.edu
October 30, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Inspiring!
Looking forward to reading! @evanrussek.bsky.social and I found goal perseveration in a multigoal setting , and that it was exaggerated. I think goal stubbornness, and/ or goal myopia, is key to understanding mood and anxiety psychopathology
Super happy to see this review out! We ask why people are so reluctant to abandon goals and how this commitment could be understood computationally. Work with Jill O'Reilly & @yaelniv.bsky.social
Online Now: The adaptive value of stubborn goals
October 29, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Looking forward to reading! @evanrussek.bsky.social and I found goal perseveration in a multigoal setting , and that it was exaggerated. I think goal stubbornness, and/ or goal myopia, is key to understanding mood and anxiety psychopathology
Amazing opportunity!!
🚀 We’re hiring - Join our lab 🚀
🔍 Hiring: PhD (75% TV-L) & Postdoc (100% TV-L)
🧠 fMRI, VR, EEG, modelling
We combine a range of cognitive neuroscience methods to study flexible behaviour.
📅 Start: Feb 2026 or later | ⏳ Apply by Nov 3!
More details:
tinyurl.com/ms3a9ajt
#CognitiveNeuroscience
🔍 Hiring: PhD (75% TV-L) & Postdoc (100% TV-L)
🧠 fMRI, VR, EEG, modelling
We combine a range of cognitive neuroscience methods to study flexible behaviour.
📅 Start: Feb 2026 or later | ⏳ Apply by Nov 3!
More details:
tinyurl.com/ms3a9ajt
#CognitiveNeuroscience
October 27, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Amazing opportunity!!
Reposted by Paul Sharp
🚨 New preprint 🚨
How do people's mental models shape memory, prediction, and generalization? We find that people spontaneously construct goal-dependent causal abstractions that compress experience to privilege relevant information.
📃 osf.io/preprints/ps...
🔗 github.com/cicl-stanfor...
How do people's mental models shape memory, prediction, and generalization? We find that people spontaneously construct goal-dependent causal abstractions that compress experience to privilege relevant information.
📃 osf.io/preprints/ps...
🔗 github.com/cicl-stanfor...
October 24, 2025 at 7:15 PM
🚨 New preprint 🚨
How do people's mental models shape memory, prediction, and generalization? We find that people spontaneously construct goal-dependent causal abstractions that compress experience to privilege relevant information.
📃 osf.io/preprints/ps...
🔗 github.com/cicl-stanfor...
How do people's mental models shape memory, prediction, and generalization? We find that people spontaneously construct goal-dependent causal abstractions that compress experience to privilege relevant information.
📃 osf.io/preprints/ps...
🔗 github.com/cicl-stanfor...
Reposted by Paul Sharp
🚨 New publication: How to improve conceptual clarity in psychological science?
Thrilled to see this article with @ruimata.bsky.social out. We discuss how LLMs can be leveraged to map, clarify, and generate psychological measures and constructs.
Open access article: doi.org/10.1177/0963...
Thrilled to see this article with @ruimata.bsky.social out. We discuss how LLMs can be leveraged to map, clarify, and generate psychological measures and constructs.
Open access article: doi.org/10.1177/0963...
October 23, 2025 at 7:27 AM
🚨 New publication: How to improve conceptual clarity in psychological science?
Thrilled to see this article with @ruimata.bsky.social out. We discuss how LLMs can be leveraged to map, clarify, and generate psychological measures and constructs.
Open access article: doi.org/10.1177/0963...
Thrilled to see this article with @ruimata.bsky.social out. We discuss how LLMs can be leveraged to map, clarify, and generate psychological measures and constructs.
Open access article: doi.org/10.1177/0963...
Reposted by Paul Sharp
📢 Thrilled to share our paper is out now in @natcomms.nature.com
Shared computations underlie how we acquire actions that are mutually beneficial, instrumentally harmful (benefits self at the expense of others), altruistic (benefit others at the expense of self), or mutually costly
🧵 rdcu.be/eL8mZ
Shared computations underlie how we acquire actions that are mutually beneficial, instrumentally harmful (benefits self at the expense of others), altruistic (benefit others at the expense of self), or mutually costly
🧵 rdcu.be/eL8mZ
Neurocomputational basis of learning when choices simultaneously affect both oneself and others
Nature Communications - When learning to make choices that simultaneously affect the self and others, asymmetric encoding of information guides future social behaviors across mutually beneficial,...
rdcu.be
October 22, 2025 at 4:42 PM
📢 Thrilled to share our paper is out now in @natcomms.nature.com
Shared computations underlie how we acquire actions that are mutually beneficial, instrumentally harmful (benefits self at the expense of others), altruistic (benefit others at the expense of self), or mutually costly
🧵 rdcu.be/eL8mZ
Shared computations underlie how we acquire actions that are mutually beneficial, instrumentally harmful (benefits self at the expense of others), altruistic (benefit others at the expense of self), or mutually costly
🧵 rdcu.be/eL8mZ
Reposting our labs first task preprint on task generalization and anxiety - now available on OSF.
1st Sharp Lab preprint! 🚨 We tested how anxiety affects task generalization—not how people generalize threat stimuli, but how they reuse action-outcome structures when planning in new contexts.
Worry makes people avoid reusing actions that co-occurred w/ threat!
📄: osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵 1/12
Worry makes people avoid reusing actions that co-occurred w/ threat!
📄: osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵 1/12
October 21, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposting our labs first task preprint on task generalization and anxiety - now available on OSF.
What do folks thing are the best demonstrations of a (neuro)biological result constraining our theorizing at an algorithmic/psychological level? (If any)!
October 21, 2025 at 9:19 AM
What do folks thing are the best demonstrations of a (neuro)biological result constraining our theorizing at an algorithmic/psychological level? (If any)!
Amazing opportunity!
Fully-funded 4-year #PhD in Cultural Evolution! Join my @erc.europa.eu project exploring how compression & compositionality drive cultural innovation: hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur...
Apply by Nov 12!
Maybe of interest to folks from #COSMOS2025 or @eslr.bsky.social? Please feel free to share! 🙏
Apply by Nov 12!
Maybe of interest to folks from #COSMOS2025 or @eslr.bsky.social? Please feel free to share! 🙏
ERC funded PhD position on Cultural Evolution
ERC funded PhD position on Cultural Evolution
posted on October 16, 2025
We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual for a ful...
hmc-lab.com
October 20, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Amazing opportunity!
Reposted by Paul Sharp
Interested in building computational models of anxiety? See below for a potential PhD opportunity with me
Feel free to reach out if you'd like to know more!
@kingsioppn.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social
kcl-mrcdtp.com/project/unde...
Feel free to reach out if you'd like to know more!
@kingsioppn.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social
kcl-mrcdtp.com/project/unde...
Understanding Negative Cognition in Anxiety Using Artificial Neural Networks - MRC DTP
Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the most common mental health problems, but the mechanisms underpinning its symptoms remain poorly understood, limiting the development of novel interventi...
kcl-mrcdtp.com
September 25, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Interested in building computational models of anxiety? See below for a potential PhD opportunity with me
Feel free to reach out if you'd like to know more!
@kingsioppn.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social
kcl-mrcdtp.com/project/unde...
Feel free to reach out if you'd like to know more!
@kingsioppn.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social
kcl-mrcdtp.com/project/unde...
Congrats to all! Wow, what a journey 🥂
Congrats to everyone who submitted their first ERC today!
Can we all now collectively collapse?
Can we all now collectively collapse?
October 14, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Congrats to all! Wow, what a journey 🥂
1st Sharp Lab preprint! 🚨 We tested how anxiety affects task generalization—not how people generalize threat stimuli, but how they reuse action-outcome structures when planning in new contexts.
Worry makes people avoid reusing actions that co-occurred w/ threat!
📄: osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵 1/12
Worry makes people avoid reusing actions that co-occurred w/ threat!
📄: osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵 1/12
October 13, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1st Sharp Lab preprint! 🚨 We tested how anxiety affects task generalization—not how people generalize threat stimuli, but how they reuse action-outcome structures when planning in new contexts.
Worry makes people avoid reusing actions that co-occurred w/ threat!
📄: osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵 1/12
Worry makes people avoid reusing actions that co-occurred w/ threat!
📄: osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵 1/12
Reposted by Paul Sharp
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 Paul Sharp
Happy to share our new work showing how social emotions such as anger and gratitude establish an interindividual form of actor-critic learning, which leads to the emergence of norms in groups of interacting individuals.
Now published at @apajournals.bsky.social: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
Now published at @apajournals.bsky.social: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
October 3, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Happy to share our new work showing how social emotions such as anger and gratitude establish an interindividual form of actor-critic learning, which leads to the emergence of norms in groups of interacting individuals.
Now published at @apajournals.bsky.social: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
Now published at @apajournals.bsky.social: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
Reposted by Paul Sharp
Online Now: Cognitive modeling of real-world behavior for understanding mental health
Cognitive modeling of real-world behavior for understanding mental health
A core strength of computational psychiatry is its focus on theory-driven research, in which cognitive processes are precisely quantified using computational models that formalize specific theoretical mechanisms. However, the data used in these studies often come from traditional laboratory-based cognitive tasks, which have unclear ecological validity. In this review we propose that the same theoretical frameworks and computational models can be applied to real-world data such as experience sampling, passive data, and digital-behavior data (e.g., online activity such as on social media). In turn, modeling real-world data can benefit from a theory-driven computational approach to move from purely predictive to explanatory power. We illustrate these points using emerging studies and discuss the challenges and opportunities of using real-world data in computational psychiatry.
dlvr.it
September 26, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Online Now: Cognitive modeling of real-world behavior for understanding mental health
Reposted by Paul Sharp
🚨New preprint🚨
osf.io/preprints/ps...
In a sample of ~2 billion comments, social media discourse becomes more negative over time
Archival and experimental findings suggest this is a byproduct of people trying to differentiate themselves
Led by @hongkai1.bsky.social in his 1st year (!) of his PhD
osf.io/preprints/ps...
In a sample of ~2 billion comments, social media discourse becomes more negative over time
Archival and experimental findings suggest this is a byproduct of people trying to differentiate themselves
Led by @hongkai1.bsky.social in his 1st year (!) of his PhD
September 26, 2025 at 8:30 PM
🚨New preprint🚨
osf.io/preprints/ps...
In a sample of ~2 billion comments, social media discourse becomes more negative over time
Archival and experimental findings suggest this is a byproduct of people trying to differentiate themselves
Led by @hongkai1.bsky.social in his 1st year (!) of his PhD
osf.io/preprints/ps...
In a sample of ~2 billion comments, social media discourse becomes more negative over time
Archival and experimental findings suggest this is a byproduct of people trying to differentiate themselves
Led by @hongkai1.bsky.social in his 1st year (!) of his PhD
Looks super cool, looking forward to reading.
Super proud of this collaboration with rockstar Ryan Raut - born out of playing in the sandbox in our last year of grad school! Multi-scale brain activity can be predicted from a simple measure of arousal like pupil diameter. Out with linear causality, in with dynamic systems to explain neurobiology
Arousal as a universal embedding for spatiotemporal brain dynamics - Nature
Reframing of arousal as a latent dynamical system can reconstruct multidimensional measurements of large-scale spatiotemporal brain dynamics on the timescale of seconds in mice.
www.nature.com
September 26, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Looks super cool, looking forward to reading.
Reposted by Paul Sharp
🚨 I am over the moon 🌓 to announce that I am joining University College Dublin @ucddublin.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor this fall to start the Uncertain Mind (UMI) lab 💫
I am looking for PhD/Postdoc candidates to join (more below 👇 ). Please RT as the deadline is pretty soon 🙏
I am looking for PhD/Postdoc candidates to join (more below 👇 ). Please RT as the deadline is pretty soon 🙏
September 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
🚨 I am over the moon 🌓 to announce that I am joining University College Dublin @ucddublin.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor this fall to start the Uncertain Mind (UMI) lab 💫
I am looking for PhD/Postdoc candidates to join (more below 👇 ). Please RT as the deadline is pretty soon 🙏
I am looking for PhD/Postdoc candidates to join (more below 👇 ). Please RT as the deadline is pretty soon 🙏
This problem pervades many areas
Kozak and Miller 1982 have a great paper on this: "Hypothetical constructs versus intervening variables: A re-appraisal of the three-systems model of anxiety assessment"
psycnet.apa.org/record/1983-...
Kozak and Miller 1982 have a great paper on this: "Hypothetical constructs versus intervening variables: A re-appraisal of the three-systems model of anxiety assessment"
psycnet.apa.org/record/1983-...
September 22, 2025 at 9:03 AM
This problem pervades many areas
Kozak and Miller 1982 have a great paper on this: "Hypothetical constructs versus intervening variables: A re-appraisal of the three-systems model of anxiety assessment"
psycnet.apa.org/record/1983-...
Kozak and Miller 1982 have a great paper on this: "Hypothetical constructs versus intervening variables: A re-appraisal of the three-systems model of anxiety assessment"
psycnet.apa.org/record/1983-...
Reposted by Paul Sharp
🚨Our preprint is online!🚨
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How do #dopamine neurons perform the key calculations in reinforcement #learning?
Read on to find out more! 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How do #dopamine neurons perform the key calculations in reinforcement #learning?
Read on to find out more! 🧵
September 19, 2025 at 1:05 PM
🚨Our preprint is online!🚨
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How do #dopamine neurons perform the key calculations in reinforcement #learning?
Read on to find out more! 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How do #dopamine neurons perform the key calculations in reinforcement #learning?
Read on to find out more! 🧵
Reposted by Paul Sharp
🚨 NEW PREPRINT: Multimodal inference through mental simulation.
We examine how people figure out what happened by combining visual and auditory evidence through mental simulation.
Paper: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Code: github.com/cicl-stanfor...
We examine how people figure out what happened by combining visual and auditory evidence through mental simulation.
Paper: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Code: github.com/cicl-stanfor...
September 16, 2025 at 7:04 PM
🚨 NEW PREPRINT: Multimodal inference through mental simulation.
We examine how people figure out what happened by combining visual and auditory evidence through mental simulation.
Paper: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Code: github.com/cicl-stanfor...
We examine how people figure out what happened by combining visual and auditory evidence through mental simulation.
Paper: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Code: github.com/cicl-stanfor...
Reposted by Paul Sharp
📢 Preprint out! biorxiv.org/content/10.1... What gives rise to probability weighting, a cornerstone of Prospect Theory?
We show it comes from the natural boundedness of probabilities + cognitive noise. Adding boundaries adds multiple distortions, across risky choice & perception.
We show it comes from the natural boundedness of probabilities + cognitive noise. Adding boundaries adds multiple distortions, across risky choice & perception.
Probability weighting arises from boundary repulsions of cognitive noise
In both risky choice and perception, people overweight small and underweight large probabilities. While prospect theory models this with a probability weighting function, and Bayesian noisy coding mod...
biorxiv.org
September 16, 2025 at 9:14 AM
📢 Preprint out! biorxiv.org/content/10.1... What gives rise to probability weighting, a cornerstone of Prospect Theory?
We show it comes from the natural boundedness of probabilities + cognitive noise. Adding boundaries adds multiple distortions, across risky choice & perception.
We show it comes from the natural boundedness of probabilities + cognitive noise. Adding boundaries adds multiple distortions, across risky choice & perception.
Reposted by Paul Sharp
Now out in JEP: General, "How working memory and reinforcement learning interact when avoiding punishment and pursuing reward concurrently"
psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
Preprint with final version: osf.io/preprints/ps...
1/n
psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
Preprint with final version: osf.io/preprints/ps...
1/n
September 13, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Now out in JEP: General, "How working memory and reinforcement learning interact when avoiding punishment and pursuing reward concurrently"
psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
Preprint with final version: osf.io/preprints/ps...
1/n
psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
Preprint with final version: osf.io/preprints/ps...
1/n
Reposted by Paul Sharp
📢 New preprint!
How do humans learn from arbitrary, abstract goals? We show that, when goal spaces can be compressed, costly working-memory processes give way to internalized reward functions, enabling efficient goal-dependent reinforcement learning. @annecollins.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2509.06810
How do humans learn from arbitrary, abstract goals? We show that, when goal spaces can be compressed, costly working-memory processes give way to internalized reward functions, enabling efficient goal-dependent reinforcement learning. @annecollins.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2509.06810
Reward function compression facilitates goal-dependent reinforcement learning
Reinforcement learning agents learn from rewards, but humans can uniquely assign value to novel, abstract outcomes in a goal-dependent manner. However, this flexibility is cognitively costly, making l...
arxiv.org
September 9, 2025 at 1:58 AM
📢 New preprint!
How do humans learn from arbitrary, abstract goals? We show that, when goal spaces can be compressed, costly working-memory processes give way to internalized reward functions, enabling efficient goal-dependent reinforcement learning. @annecollins.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2509.06810
How do humans learn from arbitrary, abstract goals? We show that, when goal spaces can be compressed, costly working-memory processes give way to internalized reward functions, enabling efficient goal-dependent reinforcement learning. @annecollins.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2509.06810