this project was a fun intro to computational modeling 🤖 for me & a dream collab w/ @markkho.bsky.social, @marjorierhodes.bsky.social & Sarah-Jane Leslie! learn more at our 🧑‍🏫 #CogSci2025 talk this Fri 4pm (Language and Computation 3) or 📄 proceedings paper escholarship.org/uc/item/2rs3...

capturing the effect of generics requires a semantic understanding of how generics are related to categories 🐯, while the effect of specifics requires pragmatic reasoning 🤔(speaker could have said a generic but chose to say a specific)! (5/6)

our model predicts that learners generalize a novel feature of a category member 🐯 to other members 🐅 *more* after hearing generics about the category, and *less* after hearing specifics. both were confirmed by adults learning about a novel social category! (4/6)

in our model, a learner learns about a category's coherence and linked features by reasoning about what a speaker meant to communicate about the latter. (coherence = our formalization of inductive potential, an overhypothesis about a feature of an individual being category-linked) (3/6)

our proposal: people learn about the inductive potential of categories (how well they support generalization) from language 🗣️, including generic language about categories and specific language about individuals (2/6)

📣 new paper! people use some categories to generalize (e.g., we generalize something we learn about one tiger 🐯 to other tigers 🐅), but not others (e.g., we don't generalize from one pedestrian 🚶 to other pedestrians 🚶‍♂️). how do people learn what categories allow for generalization? 🧵

also, children are largely fine with these practices?! they rate a teacher who assigns activities or clubs in a stereotypical way *positively*, just as much as a teacher who assigns evenly, and better than a teacher who assigns counter to stereotype (👦➡️📖, 👧➡️⚙️)

even children who didn't believe in stereotypes had this expectation! 5-7yo expected that a teacher would assign reading 📖 to girls and engineering ⚙️ to boys, even when children themselves didn't believe in stereotypes 🤯

thank you for organizing and getting us all together!

from an incredible conference talk today:

yesterday, my postdoc funding (salary and research funds) was cancelled by the National Science Foundation, effective immediately. I received the same generic, vaguely threatening, typo-ridden email as many of my colleagues who have had their awards terminated recently. (1/n)

I'm finally finishing my PhD! 🎓

I'll be defending my dissertation on children's reasoning about the structural origins of social disparities this coming Weds 3-4pm Pacific (380-380F or dm me for zoom)

feel free to join if you'd like to hear a bit about my research!

new year, new office, same view