Rajat Ravi Rao
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rajatrrao.bsky.social
Rajat Ravi Rao
@rajatrrao.bsky.social
PhD Candidate at the HATLAB, Leiden University.
Currently exploring ambiguity in visual art. What are the different forms of ambiguity? How can we measure these in brain and behaviour? https://francescowalker.com/hatlab/
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
I've finally got around to curating a selection of films about the #climate crisis 🎥

There's lot of mediocre climate films out there, but for me these stand out head & shoulders above the rest 🎞️

They make excellent resources for classrooms, lecture halls, or community cinema's 🎬

Thread:🧵Plz RT
November 1, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
Excited to release the SPOT grid: a new image set that factorially crosses scene-object & texture-pattern pairings.

We hope these stimuli will be useful to researchers aiming to (partially) disentangle the contributions of lower- and higher-level visual features to behavior & brain activity.

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September 22, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
Had a great time at SRIP conference this week in Liverpool. Learned a lot about perinatal mental health, saw inspiring talks, was able to present my own work and met many other researchers. It was a success, thanks for organizing and having me @thesrip.bsky.social!
August 30, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
It was great to be part of a symposium at @escaponline.bsky.social on Parental Adversity in the Perinatal Period. I shared a project of my (almost-finished) PhD on how infant crying links to child behavioral problems and maternal trauma and attachment. Thanks for having me! #ESCAP2025
July 2, 2025 at 11:02 AM
My amazing winning team from the @odissei.bsky.social Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations Workshop benchmark challenge with our project “Green talk, brown walk: Computing the gap between firms polluting & sustainability discourse.”
#linguistic-features #greenwashing
June 27, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Attended my first PhD conference “Cognitive Futures in The Arts and Humanities” where I got to present my poster titled “Do we appreciate ambiguity in art?”. Had the opportunity to travel to Sicily, bond with my supervisor, Francesco Walker, eat amazing food, and make some great connections!
May 31, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
Do aesthetic experiences require real sensory input, or can mental imagery evoke them just as powerfully?
Our study shows that vivid mental imagery alone can trigger aesthetic experiences nearly indistinguishable from those caused by real sensory input! doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112588
May 19, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
Oh yeah nice one kid hook that hope for humanity right into my veins
May 8, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
When cherished beliefs and intuitions turn out to not be confirmed. Not a lot of difference in the impact of art seen in museums versus on a screen in the lab. Reasons to actually test intuitions. With @kohinoordarda.bsky.social and others. 🧪 #sciart www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A comparison of art engagement in museums and through digital media - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - A comparison of art engagement in museums and through digital media
www.nature.com
March 17, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Do children care about abstract art such as Josef Albers’ ‘Homage to the square’? Zsofia Pilz recently conducted at the Josef Albers museum in Bottrop Germany. This was done under the supervision of Dr. Francesco Walker from HATLAB, Leiden University
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
In this museum, psychologists explore how to bring abstract art closer to children
Children are generally not drawn to abstract art, research shows. But how exactly does abstract art affect our emotions? Through empirical research, psychologists from Leiden University are investigat...
www.universiteitleiden.nl
May 8, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
An open letter supporting the international bachelor’s psychology programs threatened for cuts. Proceeding with these cuts would damage some of the most important and impactful psychology departments globally. #supportdutchpsychology

openletter.earth/against-lang...
Against Language Barriers: A Call to Protect International Education in Dutch Academia
openletter.earth
April 28, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
Four large Dutch universities, including Leiden University where I work, have decided to throw international psychology bachelor programs under the bus in an effort to appease the rightwing government.

Here's my blog why this is a terrible idea.

eiko-fried.com/cutting-inte...
Cutting international bachelor programs threatens psychological science » Eiko Fried
Two days ago, four Dutch universities announced discontinuing their English-speaking psychology bachelor programs (1, 2). I will briefly explain (1) how this decision came to be, (2) why this is such ...
eiko-fried.com
April 17, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @brain1878.bsky.social If you agree with the sentiments please repost. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness
academic.oup.com/brain/articl...
March 6, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
🛠️☀️ 4 of 4 Hybrid Summer Workshops:

Ever wanted to learn Bayesian statistics?
Here´s your gentle introduction!

Intuitive graphical user interface without coding.
Taught by experts @richarddmorey.bsky.social & @ejwagenmakers.bsky.social

ECs for students available.

jasp-stats.org/2025/03/06/h...
Hybrid Workshop "Theory and Practice of Bayesian Hypothesis Testing with JASP", July 3 & 4 - JASP - Free and User-Friendly Statistical Software
We are happy to announce that the JASP team will offer a week of workshops in Amsterdam this summer.  In this blogpost we’ll highlight the last workshop: “Theory and Practice of Bayesian Hypothesis Te...
jasp-stats.org
March 7, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
Interested in fresh new #neuroaesthetics research? Want to hear from brilliant keynotes @neurobea.bsky.social, @anjanchatterjee.bsky.social & Fredrik Ullén from @ae.mpg.de, and an all-⭐ cast of speakers? Then submit your abstract & join us in Ascona🇨🇭 this Sept! Plz share! sbs.ethz.ch/conference.h...
Aesthetics 2025
Submission period: 10 February 2025 - 31 March 2025
sbs.ethz.ch
March 5, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Rajat Ravi Rao
Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Predictive coding: a more cognitive process than we thought?

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Predictive coding: a more cognitive process than we thought?
In predictive coding (PC), higher-order brain areas generate predictions that are sent to lower-order sensory areas. Top-down predictions are compared…
www.sciencedirect.com
March 2, 2025 at 4:25 AM