i miss this so much! i was thinking about our AI GenEd class the other day 🥹

be so good you can't be ignored

6/ Check out the full paper in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social!
📄 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lMMD2Hx2-...
🧠 With @gershbrain.bsky.social and @annhuang42.bsky.social
This study took almost 4 years of on-and-off work! The lesson learned here was to persevere on your ideas, even when you hit roadblocks! 🤩

5/ ✅ When memory is scarce, people chunk even more—they reduce their response time more when they have to remember more items (Ns=6).
💡𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: chunking is an efficient and adaptive strategy to conserve cognitive resources.

4/ ✅ Our model also predicts (and our data confirm) that chunking in structured environments 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 (the memory demands of the policy) while 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱.

3/ We tested the predictions of our model in behavioral experiments and found that:
✅ People chunk by leveraging temporal structure in the environment, making action selection 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙮-𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚, 𝙛𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚!

2/ We proposed that people learn and utilize action chunks because they are easier to store in memory. We formalized this idea in a model of 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣:

Finally, if you are interested in teaching-focused faculty positions, please reach out to me anytime. I’ll also be sharing a guide on how to apply for such faculty positions very soon, so stay tuned! 🔔 #gotritons 6/6

These past two years in Japan 🇯🇵 have been so much more than I could have asked for. Thank you @oistedu.bsky.social for all the beautiful friendships made and for hosting me as a visiting scholar (when I wasn’t off exploring Asia 🌏✈️) 5/

I want to thank my mentors @gershbrain.bsky.social, @neurovenki.bsky.social, and @taralyntan.bsky.social for believing in my potential as a scientist and educator. And special shoutouts to @analog-ashley.bsky.social and Shannon Ellis for introducing me to teaching-focused faculty positions! 4/

Outside the classroom, my research will explore questions about 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲, 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻-𝗔𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 🤖🧠 3/

After a wonderful sabbatical year, I’m so excited to begin my career at UCSD doing what I love most: teaching students and making discoveries about human behavior and cognition 🧠 2/