Tomer Ullman
@tomerullman.bsky.social
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University. Computation, cognition, development.
Caesar crossing the Rubicon (colorized):
December 31, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Caesar crossing the Rubicon (colorized):
הרצתי היום באוניברסיטת תל אביב, כולם מתנצלים על מזג האוויר החורפי במיוחד
מזג האוויר החורפי במיוחד:
מזג האוויר החורפי במיוחד:
December 29, 2025 at 2:35 PM
הרצתי היום באוניברסיטת תל אביב, כולם מתנצלים על מזג האוויר החורפי במיוחד
מזג האוויר החורפי במיוחד:
מזג האוויר החורפי במיוחד:
new British Museum favorite
December 28, 2025 at 3:12 PM
new British Museum favorite
Reposted by Tomer Ullman
Invited speaker lineup is out for SPP 2026! More information on the meeting here: www.socphilpsych.org/meetings.html
Submissions accepted until Jan 16! Come hang in Baltimore; conference is at Johns Hopkins from June 17-20, 2026!
@socphilpsych.bsky.social
@joshrottman.bsky.social
#SPP2026
Submissions accepted until Jan 16! Come hang in Baltimore; conference is at Johns Hopkins from June 17-20, 2026!
@socphilpsych.bsky.social
@joshrottman.bsky.social
#SPP2026
December 27, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Invited speaker lineup is out for SPP 2026! More information on the meeting here: www.socphilpsych.org/meetings.html
Submissions accepted until Jan 16! Come hang in Baltimore; conference is at Johns Hopkins from June 17-20, 2026!
@socphilpsych.bsky.social
@joshrottman.bsky.social
#SPP2026
Submissions accepted until Jan 16! Come hang in Baltimore; conference is at Johns Hopkins from June 17-20, 2026!
@socphilpsych.bsky.social
@joshrottman.bsky.social
#SPP2026
יש מילה פשוטה לקונספט "איזה מישהו שאני עוקב אחריו"? זה מופיע יותר מדי בשיחה יומית בבית בשביל לא לקצר
December 24, 2025 at 10:23 AM
יש מילה פשוטה לקונספט "איזה מישהו שאני עוקב אחריו"? זה מופיע יותר מדי בשיחה יומית בבית בשביל לא לקצר
screaming "NO!" as I do a U-turn
December 21, 2025 at 2:39 PM
screaming "NO!" as I do a U-turn
John Locke, Poster
December 20, 2025 at 12:28 PM
John Locke, Poster
Reposted by Tomer Ullman
Goal selection through the lens of subjective functions:
arxiv.org/abs/2512.15948
I welcome any feedback on these preliminary ideas.
arxiv.org/abs/2512.15948
I welcome any feedback on these preliminary ideas.
Subjective functions
Where do objective functions come from? How do we select what goals to pursue? Human intelligence is adept at synthesizing new objective functions on the fly. How does this work, and can we endow arti...
arxiv.org
December 19, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Goal selection through the lens of subjective functions:
arxiv.org/abs/2512.15948
I welcome any feedback on these preliminary ideas.
arxiv.org/abs/2512.15948
I welcome any feedback on these preliminary ideas.
is there a field in which it is common to cite papers in a nested way? As in, "(Cohen, 2011, as cited by Levi, 2017)"??
(I keep seeing students do this in their class papers and it is odd to me)
(I keep seeing students do this in their class papers and it is odd to me)
December 18, 2025 at 7:19 PM
is there a field in which it is common to cite papers in a nested way? As in, "(Cohen, 2011, as cited by Levi, 2017)"??
(I keep seeing students do this in their class papers and it is odd to me)
(I keep seeing students do this in their class papers and it is odd to me)
oOOOooooOOooooo
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 4:17 PM
oOOOooooOOooooo
i teach a seminar on the Imagination, that I split into 5 Acts, e.g. 'Act 1: Imagery, Scene 1: The Imagery Debate'. A nonsense challenge for myself is to find a somewhat-related quote from Shakespeare for the topic, from any play, but it has to be that Act/Scene combo
December 17, 2025 at 2:04 PM
i teach a seminar on the Imagination, that I split into 5 Acts, e.g. 'Act 1: Imagery, Scene 1: The Imagery Debate'. A nonsense challenge for myself is to find a somewhat-related quote from Shakespeare for the topic, from any play, but it has to be that Act/Scene combo
(walking with daughter, 9, she asks about Hannukah)
me: where to start...so, Alexander the Great, he-
D: wait, is this For Real?
me: hm? Oh yes, yes. So,
(a bit later)
me: ...they went into the Temple, and found a cruse of oil, and-
D: is *this* For Real?
me: ...no, no
me: where to start...so, Alexander the Great, he-
D: wait, is this For Real?
me: hm? Oh yes, yes. So,
(a bit later)
me: ...they went into the Temple, and found a cruse of oil, and-
D: is *this* For Real?
me: ...no, no
December 16, 2025 at 2:01 PM
(walking with daughter, 9, she asks about Hannukah)
me: where to start...so, Alexander the Great, he-
D: wait, is this For Real?
me: hm? Oh yes, yes. So,
(a bit later)
me: ...they went into the Temple, and found a cruse of oil, and-
D: is *this* For Real?
me: ...no, no
me: where to start...so, Alexander the Great, he-
D: wait, is this For Real?
me: hm? Oh yes, yes. So,
(a bit later)
me: ...they went into the Temple, and found a cruse of oil, and-
D: is *this* For Real?
me: ...no, no
Reposted by Tomer Ullman
New preprint on prosody in the brain!
tinyurl.com/2ndswjwu
HeeSoKim NiharikaJhingan SaraSwords @hopekean.bsky.social @coltoncasto.bsky.social JenniferCole @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Prosody areas are distinct from pitch, speech, and multiple-demand areas, and partly overlap with lang+social areas→🧵
tinyurl.com/2ndswjwu
HeeSoKim NiharikaJhingan SaraSwords @hopekean.bsky.social @coltoncasto.bsky.social JenniferCole @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Prosody areas are distinct from pitch, speech, and multiple-demand areas, and partly overlap with lang+social areas→🧵
A distinct set of brain areas process prosody--the melody of speech
Human speech carries information beyond the words themselves: pitch, loudness, duration, and pauses--jointly referred to as 'prosody'--emphasize critical words, help group words into phrases, and conv...
tinyurl.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:28 PM
New preprint on prosody in the brain!
tinyurl.com/2ndswjwu
HeeSoKim NiharikaJhingan SaraSwords @hopekean.bsky.social @coltoncasto.bsky.social JenniferCole @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Prosody areas are distinct from pitch, speech, and multiple-demand areas, and partly overlap with lang+social areas→🧵
tinyurl.com/2ndswjwu
HeeSoKim NiharikaJhingan SaraSwords @hopekean.bsky.social @coltoncasto.bsky.social JenniferCole @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Prosody areas are distinct from pitch, speech, and multiple-demand areas, and partly overlap with lang+social areas→🧵
oh what fun it is to have this paper out :)
December 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
oh what fun it is to have this paper out :)
kids: we built a Lego Phoenix!
me: wow! now you can take it apart and build a Lego Phoenix!
kids: ?......😡
me: wow! now you can take it apart and build a Lego Phoenix!
kids: ?......😡
December 14, 2025 at 3:08 PM
kids: we built a Lego Phoenix!
me: wow! now you can take it apart and build a Lego Phoenix!
kids: ?......😡
me: wow! now you can take it apart and build a Lego Phoenix!
kids: ?......😡
how your end-of-semester email finds me
December 12, 2025 at 2:41 PM
how your end-of-semester email finds me
Reposted by Tomer Ullman
The Press and @openmindjournal.bsky.social are pleased to announce a partnership with Lyrasis through the Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP).
Learn how your institution can support this initiative to continue providing the latest #cogsci research—free of charge—here: bit.ly/452nMma
Learn how your institution can support this initiative to continue providing the latest #cogsci research—free of charge—here: bit.ly/452nMma
The MIT Press and Open Mind partner with Lyrasis to support diamond open access publishing through the Open Access Community Investment Program
The Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP), an innovative model for community action, will seek support for MIT Press journal Open Mind through July 2026
bit.ly
December 11, 2025 at 2:30 PM
The Press and @openmindjournal.bsky.social are pleased to announce a partnership with Lyrasis through the Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP).
Learn how your institution can support this initiative to continue providing the latest #cogsci research—free of charge—here: bit.ly/452nMma
Learn how your institution can support this initiative to continue providing the latest #cogsci research—free of charge—here: bit.ly/452nMma
new: Eric Bigelow @ericbigelow.bsky.social suggests the 2 main ways of controlling LLMs (prompting & steering) can be understood as changing model beliefs (as in Bayesian belief updating)
"Belief Dynamics Reveal the Dual Nature of In-Context Learning & Activation Steering"
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00617
"Belief Dynamics Reveal the Dual Nature of In-Context Learning & Activation Steering"
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00617
December 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
new: Eric Bigelow @ericbigelow.bsky.social suggests the 2 main ways of controlling LLMs (prompting & steering) can be understood as changing model beliefs (as in Bayesian belief updating)
"Belief Dynamics Reveal the Dual Nature of In-Context Learning & Activation Steering"
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00617
"Belief Dynamics Reveal the Dual Nature of In-Context Learning & Activation Steering"
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00617
Reposted by Tomer Ullman
When we see something that's moving, our memories about it end up projected forward in time: We remember it further along than it was. In a new paper in 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, out today and led by @dillonplunkett.bsky.social, we demonstrate that this happens even when there is 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙤𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧.🧵
Representational Momentum Transcends Motion
Dillon Plunkett & Jorge Morales (2025) Psychological Science
subjectivitylab.org
December 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM
When we see something that's moving, our memories about it end up projected forward in time: We remember it further along than it was. In a new paper in 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, out today and led by @dillonplunkett.bsky.social, we demonstrate that this happens even when there is 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙤𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧.🧵
time for some escapist reading on the legal system in imperial China well damn
December 9, 2025 at 1:56 PM
time for some escapist reading on the legal system in imperial China well damn
fun pre-print for your start of week reading:
"People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable"
(by Hu, Sosa, and me)
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
"People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable"
(by Hu, Sosa, and me)
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
December 8, 2025 at 2:18 PM
fun pre-print for your start of week reading:
"People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable"
(by Hu, Sosa, and me)
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
"People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable"
(by Hu, Sosa, and me)
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
you have climbed the mountain to learn Kung Fu from the ancient Master, but you are not worthy
December 8, 2025 at 1:38 AM
you have climbed the mountain to learn Kung Fu from the ancient Master, but you are not worthy