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lindseypowell.bsky.social
Lindsey Powell
@lindseypowell.bsky.social
1.3K followers 930 following 94 posts
Developmental psych & cog neuro, studying how babies and kids make sense of and learn from their social world. Asst Prof @ UCSD. she/her
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lindseypowell.bsky.social
Move over frogs, we’ve got our own spirit animal #NoKingsSanDiego
Woman in a pink axolotl costume holding a sign that says “Ajolotes against facism”
October 18, 2025 at 9:06 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
The SoCal Lab is headed to #cogsci2025 this week! Here's where you can find us:
A list of the SoCal Lab's presentations at CogSci. In brief: Lindsey Powell is giving talks in Workshop 1 on July 30 at 9:30 am and in Symposium 1 on July 31. Tori Hennessy is giving a talk in the Development of Social Cognition 1 session on July 31. Bill Pepe is giving a talk in the Development of Social Cognition session on August 1. Coxi Jiang is giving a talk in the Emotion session on August 1. Rodney Tompkins is presenting a poster in Session 2 on August 1.
July 28, 2025 at 3:56 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Second, infants could make transitive inferences about the helper's strength of care. After they saw the helper help: 1) target A when A was alone, 2) target B over A, 3) target C over B, infants then saw test trials with targets A & C. They expected the helper to help C.
Figure showing events and displays from Experiment 4 of the preprint. In all events, the helper is up on a plateau at the back of the display. There are three target characters who each appear in one of three low alleyways, with one or two of them present in each trial. The targets each want a toy ball on a high shelf in their alley that they can't reach. The helper jumps down into one of the alleys to help one target get their ball, but can't help more than one target per scene. In three different types of familiarization events, the helper helps a "low value" target when that target is alone, a medium value target instead of the low value target when those two are present, and a high value target instead of the medium value target when those two are present. (Infants saw nine of these events in 1-2-3 or 3-2-1 repeating order). Test trials feature a new situation in which both the low and high value targets need help, and the helper alternates between helping each of them. Infants looked longer, indicating a violation of their expectations, when the helper helped the low value target. This suggests they used the pattern of choices in the familiarization trials to map the helpers' value for the targets onto a common underlying scale.
July 17, 2025 at 1:29 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
First, infants' expectations for consistent future behavior were target-specific. After they saw actors help and hinder a target in one context, they expected the helper & not the hinderer to help in a new situation that featured the same target, but not one that featured a new target.
Figure showing events and data from Experiments 1 and 2 of the preprint. In the familiarization phase of both experiments, one character helps a target up a hill and another character pushes the target down. At test, either the same target character (Experiment 1) or a new target (Experiment 2) wants to get to a bright blue platform, but the platform is blocked by a big wall. On alternating trials, the helper and hinderer from the familiarization phase push it out of the way, and the target then successfully gets to the platform. If infants think the helper and hinderer are nice and mean, respectively, they should expect the helper to help and the hinderer not to help in the test trials of both experiments. However, this is not what we found. Data showed longer looking when the hinderer, rather than the helper, helped the original target character in Experiment 1, but equal looking when the hinderer and helper helped the new target character in Experiment 2. This suggests infants interpreted the helping and hindering in familiarization as evidence of the helper and hinderer's positive and negative relationships with, or attitudes toward, that specific target character, rather than evidence of broader traits or dispositions.
July 17, 2025 at 1:29 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Yesterday @asmithflores.bsky.social successfully defended her PhD and became Dr. Smith-Flores! Then she celebrated with her fantastic committee and lab members :) Congratulations, Alexis!!
Dr. Alexis Smith-Flores with her dissertation committee members: Dave Barner, Desmond Ong, Lindsey Powell, Adena Schachner, and Chris Oveis A glorious cake, made by Bill Pepe, featuring Blender-style social characters and the message "Congrats Doctor Smith-Flores" White board messages to Alexis from labmates & friends After party festivities included a "PhDone" cake and a sign reading: "Even infants expect you to be happy for me. Have a marg and a taco!"
May 17, 2025 at 2:38 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Searching my name in this database of Meta's stolen training library reminded me that the most popular works by Lindsey Powell are actually a bunch of steamy romance novels written by an author in the UK
screenshot showing books by British author Lindsey Powell including "Part of Me," "Dark Roulette," and "Checkmate." Other sample titles include "Taking Control," "Losing Control," and "Too Much, Not Enough."
March 21, 2025 at 1:45 AM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Congrats to Dr. Wenhao (James) Qi on his beautiful dissertation defense yesterday! 🥳 Very proud of this first PhD from the SoCal Lab and excited to see what he does next!
December 7, 2024 at 6:42 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Switched up my pet situation for the week 🐈‍⬛
All black kitten purring in my lap while I drink some tea and respond to reviewer 2 on a fine Sunday morning.
November 24, 2024 at 4:39 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Proof of baking skills submitted for review, hope the slightly cracked pavlova passes muster
(Slightly cracked) pavlova topped with mixed fruit and berries Some Thanksgiving go-tos: Chocolate silk pie, ginger pecan pie, marble Bundt cake
November 16, 2024 at 11:34 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
We came, we saw, we conferenced. Proud of this team & inspired by our field. Looking forward to Montreal!
A group of researchers standing in a hallway outside a gelato shop
March 25, 2024 at 1:41 AM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
It's CDS week!! The SoCal Lab will be there, looking forward to lots of science & fun. Here are some places you'll be able to find us:
March 18, 2024 at 3:51 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Grant Writer’s Diet, Breakfast Edition
Doughnut, coffee, laptop, lucky frog.
January 19, 2024 at 5:22 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Conducting
Girl standing in glowing surf just after sunset, with her arms outstretched
November 8, 2023 at 6:17 AM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
First week of first year on the tenure track vs. first week of fourth year on the tenure track
Glamour shot of dog in armchair next to university mug Rumpled dog curled up asleep in armchair
October 5, 2023 at 12:25 AM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Here's the "waiting room" in the SoCal Lab at UCSD. Our testing rooms (through the three doors in that nook) are much plainer, to minimize distractions.
Room with several chairs and couches. One blue wall with sea creatures and coral, one gray wall with a rainbow. Corner of a changing table in the foreground.
October 1, 2023 at 5:04 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
I call it The Grant Writer’s Diet. Fries for comfort in the face of inevitable rejection, cocktail for the courage to try anyway, and salad to make sure my aging body keeps functioning for the rest of month it will take to write the thing.
September 21, 2023 at 2:56 AM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
The SoCal Lab presented our first fNIRS data at #Flux2023 and #FITNG2023! Lots of fun talking science, eating delicious pasta, and admiring appropriately dendritic local art. #devpsych
September 11, 2023 at 7:07 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
I did do a little work this weekend, but also did lots of great not-work
A trail through some desert scrub View from a mountain trail Mountain view over the Anza-Borrego Desert Girl pointing to the distant mountain she wants to hike next
September 4, 2023 at 9:23 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
This next month is the best part of being on the quarter system. If you need me I’ll be writing, and maybe even reading other people’s writing, under my favorite roof
Chinese elm tree providing shade over outdoor “desk”
August 29, 2023 at 1:24 AM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
Happy to contribute to academic social media utopia. Here’s a pic of my pup, Dex, with a much smaller friend, and also one of the best cookie recipes ever. Best consumed slightly underbaked, 3.5 minutes after they come out of the oven, but won’t disappoint the next day, either.
Two dogs, one big and tan with very large ears, the other a small black and white puppy First half of a recipe for ginger molasses cookies Second half of a recipe for ginger molasses cookies
August 23, 2023 at 8:20 PM
lindseypowell.bsky.social
The SoCal Lab celebrated some milestones today -- 3 years, 30+ papers & conference abstracts, 300 submissions (of all kinds: papers, funding apps, awards, grad school & job apps, visas, etc), and 3 score lab members, past & present, who make this job so much fun <3
(sorry for the X cross-post)
A group of researchers in front of a whiteboard celebrating the lab's 3rd anniversary
August 17, 2023 at 2:41 AM