@tadegquillien.bsky.social
Cognitive scientist at the University of Edinburgh. Causality, computation, evolution.
Lab: https://quillienlab.github.io/
Lab: https://quillienlab.github.io/
Reposted
🎉 New preprint: Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information search
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
November 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
🎉 New preprint: Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information search
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
Reposted
🧠 New paper alert! Can people infer others’ values not from what they choose, but simply from what comes to mind? Across four studies, we show they can—drawing on an intuitive theory of how options are generated.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
Redirecting
doi.org
November 5, 2025 at 7:31 PM
🧠 New paper alert! Can people infer others’ values not from what they choose, but simply from what comes to mind? Across four studies, we show they can—drawing on an intuitive theory of how options are generated.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
Reposted
I’m recruiting #PhD students to join my Lab for Infant Learning and Cognition (LILAC) at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social! We study how infants learn about the natural world from others 🌱 If you’re interested in #devpsych, #EvPsych, and #infantstudies, please reach out and apply! More info below (1/2)
October 27, 2025 at 4:22 PM
I’m recruiting #PhD students to join my Lab for Infant Learning and Cognition (LILAC) at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social! We study how infants learn about the natural world from others 🌱 If you’re interested in #devpsych, #EvPsych, and #infantstudies, please reach out and apply! More info below (1/2)
Reposted
In case you don't know already, the journal Open Mind has a Bluesky account that automatically posts new papers:
@openmindjournal.bsky.social
The journal is diamond open access (free to read, free to publish) thanks to the support of MIT Press, Harvard Library, & MIT Library.
@openmindjournal.bsky.social
The journal is diamond open access (free to read, free to publish) thanks to the support of MIT Press, Harvard Library, & MIT Library.
October 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM
In case you don't know already, the journal Open Mind has a Bluesky account that automatically posts new papers:
@openmindjournal.bsky.social
The journal is diamond open access (free to read, free to publish) thanks to the support of MIT Press, Harvard Library, & MIT Library.
@openmindjournal.bsky.social
The journal is diamond open access (free to read, free to publish) thanks to the support of MIT Press, Harvard Library, & MIT Library.
Reposted
Thrilled to announce a new paper out this weekend in
@cognitionjournal.bsky.social.
Moral psychologists almost always use self-report scales to study moral judgment. But there's a problem: the meaning of these scales is inherently relative.
A 2 min demo (and a short thread):
1/7
@cognitionjournal.bsky.social.
Moral psychologists almost always use self-report scales to study moral judgment. But there's a problem: the meaning of these scales is inherently relative.
A 2 min demo (and a short thread):
1/7
September 28, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Thrilled to announce a new paper out this weekend in
@cognitionjournal.bsky.social.
Moral psychologists almost always use self-report scales to study moral judgment. But there's a problem: the meaning of these scales is inherently relative.
A 2 min demo (and a short thread):
1/7
@cognitionjournal.bsky.social.
Moral psychologists almost always use self-report scales to study moral judgment. But there's a problem: the meaning of these scales is inherently relative.
A 2 min demo (and a short thread):
1/7
Reposted
Ever wanted to read about an old problem almost nobody cares about anymore?
Well, I wrote about it.
🧵
Well, I wrote about it.
🧵
September 24, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Ever wanted to read about an old problem almost nobody cares about anymore?
Well, I wrote about it.
🧵
Well, I wrote about it.
🧵
A new study by Zach Horne et al. combines history of science and psychology experiments to document the appeal of 'intrinsic' explanations: scientists and laypeople are drawn to explanations that appeal to an object's inherent properties.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
September 22, 2025 at 4:36 PM
A new study by Zach Horne et al. combines history of science and psychology experiments to document the appeal of 'intrinsic' explanations: scientists and laypeople are drawn to explanations that appeal to an object's inherent properties.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Can we use the way that people attribute intentions to others in order to infer people's intuitive preferences and attitudes?
I've written a short letter highlighting ways that this strategy can go wrong:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
I've written a short letter highlighting ways that this strategy can go wrong:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Intention judgments are not a reliable measure of intuitive preferences | PNAS
Intention judgments are not a reliable measure of intuitive preferences
www.pnas.org
September 18, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Can we use the way that people attribute intentions to others in order to infer people's intuitive preferences and attitudes?
I've written a short letter highlighting ways that this strategy can go wrong:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
I've written a short letter highlighting ways that this strategy can go wrong:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted
The human visual system has specialized modular processing for multiple distinct categories of causal events.
My new paper with my lab manager Katharina Wenig in Cognitive Science, "Causal Perception(s)"
Free open access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
#CogSci #PsychSciSky
🧵(1/22)
My new paper with my lab manager Katharina Wenig in Cognitive Science, "Causal Perception(s)"
Free open access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
#CogSci #PsychSciSky
🧵(1/22)
Causal Perception(s)
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 31, 2025 at 7:18 AM
The human visual system has specialized modular processing for multiple distinct categories of causal events.
My new paper with my lab manager Katharina Wenig in Cognitive Science, "Causal Perception(s)"
Free open access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
#CogSci #PsychSciSky
🧵(1/22)
My new paper with my lab manager Katharina Wenig in Cognitive Science, "Causal Perception(s)"
Free open access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
#CogSci #PsychSciSky
🧵(1/22)
Fantastic opportunity to join the cogsci community at Edinburgh:
My Lab at the University of Edinburgh🇬🇧 has funded PhD positions for this cycle!
We study the computational principles of how people learn, reason, and communicate.
It's a new lab, and you will be playing a big role in shaping its culture and foundations.
Spread the words!
We study the computational principles of how people learn, reason, and communicate.
It's a new lab, and you will be playing a big role in shaping its culture and foundations.
Spread the words!
August 20, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Fantastic opportunity to join the cogsci community at Edinburgh:
Reposted
Imagine if all the money academics pour into OA fees at for-profit publishing corporations went instead to academic societies, which exist to support science; or to university presses, which exist to support academia
August 2, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Imagine if all the money academics pour into OA fees at for-profit publishing corporations went instead to academic societies, which exist to support science; or to university presses, which exist to support academia
Reposted
Thanks to a rogue Partiful RSVP form at #cogsci2025, I seem to have collected an unexpectedly large dataset (N=197) of whether cognitive scientists think the mind is composed of innate, domain-specialized modules…
August 2, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Thanks to a rogue Partiful RSVP form at #cogsci2025, I seem to have collected an unexpectedly large dataset (N=197) of whether cognitive scientists think the mind is composed of innate, domain-specialized modules…
Our new #cogsci2025 paper led by @maxtaylordavies.bsky.social is a task analysis of agent representation under resource constraints:
🧵
🧵
At #CogSci2025 and curious about resource-rational models of social cognition? Come to Nob Hill A at 11:14 tomorrow to hear me talk about work with @tadegquillien.bsky.social where we use the information bottleneck to study stereotype use and the outgroup homogeneity bias!
August 2, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Our new #cogsci2025 paper led by @maxtaylordavies.bsky.social is a task analysis of agent representation under resource constraints:
🧵
🧵
Reposted
Recent studies suggest that manipulating "growth mindset" might not improve students' academic performance
This new research suggests that it has a different effect. Growth mindset makes people more inclined to *blame* students for their failures
escholarship.org/content/qt4k...
This new research suggests that it has a different effect. Growth mindset makes people more inclined to *blame* students for their failures
escholarship.org/content/qt4k...
August 1, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Recent studies suggest that manipulating "growth mindset" might not improve students' academic performance
This new research suggests that it has a different effect. Growth mindset makes people more inclined to *blame* students for their failures
escholarship.org/content/qt4k...
This new research suggests that it has a different effect. Growth mindset makes people more inclined to *blame* students for their failures
escholarship.org/content/qt4k...
Reposted
Really loving this kind of engagement between the psychology and philosophy of causation.
So much better than psychologists re-explaining how people are just oh so irrational and philosophers examining their intuitions about increasingly elaborate tales of rock throwing and firing squads 😉
So much better than psychologists re-explaining how people are just oh so irrational and philosophers examining their intuitions about increasingly elaborate tales of rock throwing and firing squads 😉
New short paper with @kevingoneill.github.io and Paul Henne: We re-analyse data from a recent study on causal judgment, and find that a counterfactual model explains why temporal order influences people's intuitions.
🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A counterfactual explanation for recency effects in double prevention scenarios: Commentary on Thanawala and Erb (2024)
Many cognitive scientists and philosophers take cases of double prevention to be one of the primary motivations for accepting causal pluralism, the vi…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 29, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Really loving this kind of engagement between the psychology and philosophy of causation.
So much better than psychologists re-explaining how people are just oh so irrational and philosophers examining their intuitions about increasingly elaborate tales of rock throwing and firing squads 😉
So much better than psychologists re-explaining how people are just oh so irrational and philosophers examining their intuitions about increasingly elaborate tales of rock throwing and firing squads 😉
New short paper with @kevingoneill.github.io and Paul Henne: We re-analyse data from a recent study on causal judgment, and find that a counterfactual model explains why temporal order influences people's intuitions.
🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A counterfactual explanation for recency effects in double prevention scenarios: Commentary on Thanawala and Erb (2024)
Many cognitive scientists and philosophers take cases of double prevention to be one of the primary motivations for accepting causal pluralism, the vi…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 28, 2025 at 5:15 PM
New short paper with @kevingoneill.github.io and Paul Henne: We re-analyse data from a recent study on causal judgment, and find that a counterfactual model explains why temporal order influences people's intuitions.
🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Interesting paper suggesting LLMs don't rely on counterfactual reasoning as much as humans do when judging responsibility.
Our latest on the cognitive science of LLMs! To be presented @CogSci2025 🎉
LLMs are increasingly involved in human collaborations. How do LLMs assign responsibility and reward to collaborators? Is it similar to how humans do it? 🤖🧑
📃 gershmanlab.com/pubs/XiangBi... (1/4)
LLMs are increasingly involved in human collaborations. How do LLMs assign responsibility and reward to collaborators? Is it similar to how humans do it? 🤖🧑
📃 gershmanlab.com/pubs/XiangBi... (1/4)
July 24, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Interesting paper suggesting LLMs don't rely on counterfactual reasoning as much as humans do when judging responsibility.
Counterfactual models predict that normality should influence causal judgments in a different way depending on causal structure.
A fascinating paper by Ozdemir and Walker finds some hints of this pattern in 5- to 7-year old children.
static1.squarespace.com/static/5615d...
A fascinating paper by Ozdemir and Walker finds some hints of this pattern in 5- to 7-year old children.
static1.squarespace.com/static/5615d...
July 22, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Counterfactual models predict that normality should influence causal judgments in a different way depending on causal structure.
A fascinating paper by Ozdemir and Walker finds some hints of this pattern in 5- to 7-year old children.
static1.squarespace.com/static/5615d...
A fascinating paper by Ozdemir and Walker finds some hints of this pattern in 5- to 7-year old children.
static1.squarespace.com/static/5615d...
Reposted
memo is a new probabilistic programming language for modeling social inferences quickly. Looks like a real advance over previous approaches: fast, python-based, easily integrated into data analysis. Super cool!
pypi.org/project/memo...
and
osf.io/preprints/ps...
pypi.org/project/memo...
and
osf.io/preprints/ps...
memo-lang
A language for mental models
pypi.org
July 9, 2025 at 8:56 PM
memo is a new probabilistic programming language for modeling social inferences quickly. Looks like a real advance over previous approaches: fast, python-based, easily integrated into data analysis. Super cool!
pypi.org/project/memo...
and
osf.io/preprints/ps...
pypi.org/project/memo...
and
osf.io/preprints/ps...
New paper from Qi, Vul and Powell introduces a clever way to measure a participant's Welfare-Tradeoff Ratio in a single trial: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
July 9, 2025 at 4:08 PM
New paper from Qi, Vul and Powell introduces a clever way to measure a participant's Welfare-Tradeoff Ratio in a single trial: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Reposted
Occam's razor is sometimes invoked in statistical learning theory to motivate an inductive bias for simple hypotheses, most famously by Blumer et al (1987):
cse.buffalo.edu/~hungngo/cla...
Interestingly, what the theorem really requires is the hypothesis space to be restricted, not simple.
cse.buffalo.edu/~hungngo/cla...
Interestingly, what the theorem really requires is the hypothesis space to be restricted, not simple.
July 8, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Occam's razor is sometimes invoked in statistical learning theory to motivate an inductive bias for simple hypotheses, most famously by Blumer et al (1987):
cse.buffalo.edu/~hungngo/cla...
Interestingly, what the theorem really requires is the hypothesis space to be restricted, not simple.
cse.buffalo.edu/~hungngo/cla...
Interestingly, what the theorem really requires is the hypothesis space to be restricted, not simple.
Really cool paper by Pajot et al. showing that a Language of Thought for arithmetic predicts the frequencies of numbers in natural language.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
July 6, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Really cool paper by Pajot et al. showing that a Language of Thought for arithmetic predicts the frequencies of numbers in natural language.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Our paper on the logic of guesses is now out!
We provide a new information-theoretic perspective on many phenomena (old and new) in judgment under uncertainty.
🧵
We provide a new information-theoretic perspective on many phenomena (old and new) in judgment under uncertainty.
🧵
Just out in Cognitive Psychology
Lossy encoding of distributions in judgment under uncertainty
By @tadegquillien.bsky.social , me & Chris Lucas
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We find people's 'best guesses' sneakily encode distribution information that guesser & others can reconstruct later
Lossy encoding of distributions in judgment under uncertainty
By @tadegquillien.bsky.social , me & Chris Lucas
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We find people's 'best guesses' sneakily encode distribution information that guesser & others can reconstruct later
Lossy encoding of distributions in judgment under uncertainty
People often make judgments about uncertain facts and events, for example ‘Germany will win the world cup’. Judgment under uncertainty is often studie…
www.sciencedirect.com
June 30, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Our paper on the logic of guesses is now out!
We provide a new information-theoretic perspective on many phenomena (old and new) in judgment under uncertainty.
🧵
We provide a new information-theoretic perspective on many phenomena (old and new) in judgment under uncertainty.
🧵
Reposted
Pleased to announce my new open access paper out in Developmental Psychology:
The Development of the “First Thing That Comes to Mind”
with @xphilosopher.bsky.social and @ebonawitz.bsky.social
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-25569-001.html
#CogSci #PsychSciSki #DevSci
(1/10)
The Development of the “First Thing That Comes to Mind”
with @xphilosopher.bsky.social and @ebonawitz.bsky.social
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-25569-001.html
#CogSci #PsychSciSki #DevSci
(1/10)
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
June 17, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Pleased to announce my new open access paper out in Developmental Psychology:
The Development of the “First Thing That Comes to Mind”
with @xphilosopher.bsky.social and @ebonawitz.bsky.social
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-25569-001.html
#CogSci #PsychSciSki #DevSci
(1/10)
The Development of the “First Thing That Comes to Mind”
with @xphilosopher.bsky.social and @ebonawitz.bsky.social
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-25569-001.html
#CogSci #PsychSciSki #DevSci
(1/10)
Reposted
⭐️ From Tiffany Doan, Stephanie Denison, & Ori Friedman:
Doing things intentionally: Probability raising and control
Doing things intentionally: Probability raising and control
Doing things intentionally: Probability raising and control
Intentionality judgments can depend on probability raising—people are more likely to see a desired outcome as intentional if the agent who produced it…
www.sciencedirect.com
June 12, 2025 at 11:52 PM
⭐️ From Tiffany Doan, Stephanie Denison, & Ori Friedman:
Doing things intentionally: Probability raising and control
Doing things intentionally: Probability raising and control