Morten H. Christiansen
@mh-christiansen.bsky.social
Cognitive scientist interested in the processing, acquisition and evolution of language; statistical learning; computational modeling.
Lab website: https://csl-lab.psych.cornell.edu
Lab website: https://csl-lab.psych.cornell.edu
Pinned
Just migrated here from academic twitter. Good to get back in touch with old connections and look forward to making new ones. I will post on all things #language, including #processing, #acquisition, and #evolution; #statistical-earning, #corpus-analyses, #LLMs, #L2-learning, #conversation and more
📣 Very happy to announce a new BBS target article with Nick Chater in which we propose a new theory of cultural evolution, highlighting the importance of bottom-up social interaction in explaining the emergence of cultural complexity
🧵 1/8
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
🧵 1/8
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Social Tinkering: The Social Foundations of Cultural Complexity | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Social Tinkering: The Social Foundations of Cultural Complexity
www.cambridge.org
November 28, 2025 at 3:36 PM
📣 Very happy to announce a new BBS target article with Nick Chater in which we propose a new theory of cultural evolution, highlighting the importance of bottom-up social interaction in explaining the emergence of cultural complexity
🧵 1/8
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
🧵 1/8
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
CogSci in Aarhus is hiring, open rank (assi, asso or full prof).
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Full Professor of Cognitive Science - Vacancy at Aarhus University
Vacancy at School of Communication and Culture - Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Dept. of, Aarhus University
international.au.dk
November 26, 2025 at 11:38 AM
CogSci in Aarhus is hiring, open rank (assi, asso or full prof).
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
Congratulations to Dr. @sere-yu-wang.bsky.social for defending her PhD dissertation with flying colors! 👏
Many congrats to Dr. Serene Wang @sere-yu-wang.bsky.social -- the newest PhD to come out of the @csl-lab.bsky.social. 🥳
She expertly defended her dissertation on "Chunking In the Second Language: Connecting Sentence Processing, Proficiency, and Memory Outcomes" 👏
She expertly defended her dissertation on "Chunking In the Second Language: Connecting Sentence Processing, Proficiency, and Memory Outcomes" 👏
November 18, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Congratulations to Dr. @sere-yu-wang.bsky.social for defending her PhD dissertation with flying colors! 👏
I am very saddened to see Cornell comply with the Trump administration’s dictatorial demands. @cornellaaup.bsky.social provides a careful analysis of the potential dire consequences of this capitulation
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. At best, we can say that this deal could have been worse.
Read our full statement here:
Read our full statement here:
Statement on Cornell’s agreement with federal government
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. We ar…
aaup-cornell.org
November 8, 2025 at 12:47 AM
I am very saddened to see Cornell comply with the Trump administration’s dictatorial demands. @cornellaaup.bsky.social provides a careful analysis of the potential dire consequences of this capitulation
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
Conversational turn-taking feels effortless, but it's a complex dance. We find social context—who you're talking to and what you're talking about—fundamentally changes conversational dynamics in both autistic & TD children. 1/
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... w @chrismmcox.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... w @chrismmcox.bsky.social
Social Context Matters for Turn‐Taking Dynamics: A Comparative Study of Autistic and Typically Developing Children
Engaging in fluent conversation is a surprisingly complex task that requires interlocutors to promptly respond to each other in a way that is appropriate to the social context. In this study, we dise...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 15, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Conversational turn-taking feels effortless, but it's a complex dance. We find social context—who you're talking to and what you're talking about—fundamentally changes conversational dynamics in both autistic & TD children. 1/
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... w @chrismmcox.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... w @chrismmcox.bsky.social
Human language acquisition and use is fundamentally interactive. By contrast, LLMs are generally assumed to be passive learners that merely soak up vast amounts of data, like a sponge. In this opinion piece, we argue that the picture is more nuanced 1/2
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
LLMs highlight the importance of interaction in human language learning
Recent years have seen large language models (LLMs) achieve impressive performance with core linguistic abilities. This can be taken as a demonstration that, contrary to long-held assumptions about in...
www.degruyterbrill.com
October 12, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Human language acquisition and use is fundamentally interactive. By contrast, LLMs are generally assumed to be passive learners that merely soak up vast amounts of data, like a sponge. In this opinion piece, we argue that the picture is more nuanced 1/2
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
Know someone whose excellence in research and contributions to the CogSci community should be recognized? Nominate them to be a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society!
Deadline: Nov 1
More info: cognitivesciencesociety.org/fellows/
Deadline: Nov 1
More info: cognitivesciencesociety.org/fellows/
The CogSci Society is accepting nominations for 🌟Fellows of the Society🌟
Fellows are individuals whose research has exhibited sustained excellence and had sustained impact on the #CogSci community.
Visit cognitivesciencesociety.org/fellows/ and submit your nomination until November 1st!
Fellows are individuals whose research has exhibited sustained excellence and had sustained impact on the #CogSci community.
Visit cognitivesciencesociety.org/fellows/ and submit your nomination until November 1st!
October 8, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Know someone whose excellence in research and contributions to the CogSci community should be recognized? Nominate them to be a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society!
Deadline: Nov 1
More info: cognitivesciencesociety.org/fellows/
Deadline: Nov 1
More info: cognitivesciencesociety.org/fellows/
Come see Cris Rivera's poster tomorrow at #AMLaP2025
👇
👇
📣 If you're at #AMLaP2025 in Prague, come see the poster #184 by CSL Lab's Cris Rivera and @mh-christiansen.bsky.social:
👉 "Comparing natural language statistical learning and human intuition for chunking language"
🗓️ Thursday afternoon (Sept 4), 17:20-18:50
👉 "Comparing natural language statistical learning and human intuition for chunking language"
🗓️ Thursday afternoon (Sept 4), 17:20-18:50
September 3, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Come see Cris Rivera's poster tomorrow at #AMLaP2025
👇
👇
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
3️⃣ 2️⃣ 1️⃣ Just three days left to submit your nomination for the Early Career Talk at the #IASL26 conference.
🔗 ugent.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
🔗 ugent.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
August 12, 2025 at 12:31 PM
3️⃣ 2️⃣ 1️⃣ Just three days left to submit your nomination for the Early Career Talk at the #IASL26 conference.
🔗 ugent.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
🔗 ugent.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Check out the two posters from @csl-lab.bsky.social at #CogSci2025 on Friday and Saturday in Salon 8.
📣Come see the two posters from the CSL Lab at #CogSci2025! 👀
👉 @elmlingersteven.bsky.social is presenting his on Friday 10:30AM-12PM
👉 Calen MacDonald is presenting his on Saturday 1-2:15PM
👉 @elmlingersteven.bsky.social is presenting his on Friday 10:30AM-12PM
👉 Calen MacDonald is presenting his on Saturday 1-2:15PM
July 30, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Check out the two posters from @csl-lab.bsky.social at #CogSci2025 on Friday and Saturday in Salon 8.
Just in time for the @cogscisociety.bsky.social conference and the Rumelhart 25th Anniversary Event, the 2023 Rumelhart Prize Issue Honoring Nick Chater is out in TopiCS in Cognitive Science, edited by Mike Oaksford and me:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17568765...
🧵 1/3
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17568765...
🧵 1/3
July 28, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Just in time for the @cogscisociety.bsky.social conference and the Rumelhart 25th Anniversary Event, the 2023 Rumelhart Prize Issue Honoring Nick Chater is out in TopiCS in Cognitive Science, edited by Mike Oaksford and me:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17568765...
🧵 1/3
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17568765...
🧵 1/3
Happy to contribute an article on #LanguageEvolution to the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science @oecs-bot.bsky.social
Everything you ever wanted to know about language evolution in ~1K words—well just scratching the surface 😉 dig into the references for more info
oecs.mit.edu/pub/18miikqb...
Everything you ever wanted to know about language evolution in ~1K words—well just scratching the surface 😉 dig into the references for more info
oecs.mit.edu/pub/18miikqb...
Language Evolution
oecs.mit.edu
July 22, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Happy to contribute an article on #LanguageEvolution to the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science @oecs-bot.bsky.social
Everything you ever wanted to know about language evolution in ~1K words—well just scratching the surface 😉 dig into the references for more info
oecs.mit.edu/pub/18miikqb...
Everything you ever wanted to know about language evolution in ~1K words—well just scratching the surface 😉 dig into the references for more info
oecs.mit.edu/pub/18miikqb...
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
🏅 💬 At the '22 edition of our conference, we launched the Early Career Talk, giving a platform to an outstanding early-career scientist. We are now seeking nominations for the Early Career Talk at the #IASL26 edition.
The deadline for nominations is August 15, 2025. Instructions in the thread.
The deadline for nominations is August 15, 2025. Instructions in the thread.
July 21, 2025 at 2:53 PM
🏅 💬 At the '22 edition of our conference, we launched the Early Career Talk, giving a platform to an outstanding early-career scientist. We are now seeking nominations for the Early Career Talk at the #IASL26 edition.
The deadline for nominations is August 15, 2025. Instructions in the thread.
The deadline for nominations is August 15, 2025. Instructions in the thread.
📣 Save the date 🗓️ to present your exciting statistical learning research at the 6th Interdisciplinary Advances in Statistical Learning Conference June 10-12 2026 in San Sebastián 🇪🇸
Keynotes by
@jennysaffran.bsky.social
@noranewcombe.bsky.social
@pyoudeyer.bsky.social
More info to follow #IASL26
Keynotes by
@jennysaffran.bsky.social
@noranewcombe.bsky.social
@pyoudeyer.bsky.social
More info to follow #IASL26
July 18, 2025 at 3:38 PM
📣 Save the date 🗓️ to present your exciting statistical learning research at the 6th Interdisciplinary Advances in Statistical Learning Conference June 10-12 2026 in San Sebastián 🇪🇸
Keynotes by
@jennysaffran.bsky.social
@noranewcombe.bsky.social
@pyoudeyer.bsky.social
More info to follow #IASL26
Keynotes by
@jennysaffran.bsky.social
@noranewcombe.bsky.social
@pyoudeyer.bsky.social
More info to follow #IASL26
I'm excited about this TICS Opinion with @yngwienielsen.bsky.social, challenging the view that structural priming—the tendency to reuse a recent syntactic structure—provides evidence for the psychological reality of grammar-based constituent structure.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lIFK4sIRv...
🧵1/4
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lIFK4sIRv...
🧵1/4
June 25, 2025 at 5:46 PM
I'm excited about this TICS Opinion with @yngwienielsen.bsky.social, challenging the view that structural priming—the tendency to reuse a recent syntactic structure—provides evidence for the psychological reality of grammar-based constituent structure.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lIFK4sIRv...
🧵1/4
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lIFK4sIRv...
🧵1/4
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
Nick Chater now introducing the idea of social tinkering and spontaneous order and their role in the origin of language @mh-christiansen.bsky.social #LLGAwayDay @warwickpsych.bsky.social
June 9, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Nick Chater now introducing the idea of social tinkering and spontaneous order and their role in the origin of language @mh-christiansen.bsky.social #LLGAwayDay @warwickpsych.bsky.social
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
Nick Chater joins us online to present his work on spontaneous communicative conventions with @mh-christiansen.bsky.social @warwickpsych.bsky.social #LLGAwayDay
June 9, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Nick Chater joins us online to present his work on spontaneous communicative conventions with @mh-christiansen.bsky.social @warwickpsych.bsky.social #LLGAwayDay
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
Last was "The Language Game" by @mh-christiansen.bsky.social & Nick Chater, who cover the neurological underpinnings of language, linguistic theory, and the philosophy of language with scientific rigor and an engaging narrative. Highly recommend
Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (12/12)
Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (12/12)
The Language Game
Forget the language instinct—this is the story of how we make up language as we go Language is perhaps humanity’s most astonishing capacity—and...
www.hachettebookgroup.com
May 21, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Last was "The Language Game" by @mh-christiansen.bsky.social & Nick Chater, who cover the neurological underpinnings of language, linguistic theory, and the philosophy of language with scientific rigor and an engaging narrative. Highly recommend
Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (12/12)
Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (12/12)
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
Our daily lives are packed w complex behaviours: reading a novel & piecing together the plot; negotiating decisions w family... How do we build mathematical models of the underlying cognitive mechanisms? Our new preprint osf.io/d2v54_v1 argues for a community approach A 🧵 1/
May 9, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Our daily lives are packed w complex behaviours: reading a novel & piecing together the plot; negotiating decisions w family... How do we build mathematical models of the underlying cognitive mechanisms? Our new preprint osf.io/d2v54_v1 argues for a community approach A 🧵 1/
Every year at the end of the semester, I ask the students in my Psych of Language class to create memes about what they've learned. They then vote for their favorites.
Here's the winner about how the idea of a universal grammar is no longer as compelling as it once seemed.
1/5
Here's the winner about how the idea of a universal grammar is no longer as compelling as it once seemed.
1/5
April 29, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Every year at the end of the semester, I ask the students in my Psych of Language class to create memes about what they've learned. They then vote for their favorites.
Here's the winner about how the idea of a universal grammar is no longer as compelling as it once seemed.
1/5
Here's the winner about how the idea of a universal grammar is no longer as compelling as it once seemed.
1/5
Reposted by Morten H. Christiansen
We are looking for a Phd student for a project on modeling second language learning using adaptive cognitive tutors.
Please share with anyone who might be interested! phd.arts.au.dk/applicants/o...
Please share with anyone who might be interested! phd.arts.au.dk/applicants/o...
An investigation of cognitive processing in second-language learning using adaptive cognitive tutors (4+4 or 5+3), 2025-9
phd.arts.au.dk
January 31, 2025 at 12:56 PM
We are looking for a Phd student for a project on modeling second language learning using adaptive cognitive tutors.
Please share with anyone who might be interested! phd.arts.au.dk/applicants/o...
Please share with anyone who might be interested! phd.arts.au.dk/applicants/o...
What is human #StatisticalLearning for? The standard assumption is that the goal of SL is to learn the regularities in the environment to guide behavior. In our new Psych Review paper, we argue that SL instead is provides the basis for novelty detection within an information foraging system
1/2
1/2
February 27, 2025 at 2:07 PM
What is human #StatisticalLearning for? The standard assumption is that the goal of SL is to learn the regularities in the environment to guide behavior. In our new Psych Review paper, we argue that SL instead is provides the basis for novelty detection within an information foraging system
1/2
1/2
Before joining Bluesky, I gave a talk in the Language Circle speaker series organized by @languagecycles.bsky.social. If you're interested, there's a link to the video below (and feel to also follow @csl-lab.bsky.social for further updates on our work).
In September 2024, CSL Lab's @mh-christiansen.bsky.social gave a talk in the Language Circle series on how chunking affects language across multiple timescales with implications for the nature of language processing, acquisition, and evolution:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOD1...
Abstract in 🧵 1/4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOD1...
Abstract in 🧵 1/4
January 13, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Before joining Bluesky, I gave a talk in the Language Circle speaker series organized by @languagecycles.bsky.social. If you're interested, there's a link to the video below (and feel to also follow @csl-lab.bsky.social for further updates on our work).
This is really intriguing work! Cave art is not just for (and by) grownups! Children are often left out of the picture when it come to prehistory but no longer. Well worth a read!
Children as Artists: A New Perspective on Upper Paleolithic Cave Art www.anthropology.net/p/children-a...; here some coverage of our new paper led by the amazing @izzywisher.bsky.social!
Children as Artists: A New Perspective on Upper Paleolithic Cave Art
How Play and Creativity Shaped Upper Paleolithic Art
www.anthropology.net
December 5, 2024 at 1:11 AM
This is really intriguing work! Cave art is not just for (and by) grownups! Children are often left out of the picture when it come to prehistory but no longer. Well worth a read!
This is a great loss for his family, his friends, his colleagues, and AU. I will miss my friend and dear colleague deeply. He was an excellent scientist and a wonderful human being.
Last week my dearest colleague & friend & truly generous human being Kristian Tylén passed away (arts.au.dk/en/news-and-...). He had the great talent of helping you transform vague crazy ideas into *your* genuine scientific contributions - tho honestly all the brilliance was his. A paper thread: 1/
Obituary: Kristian Tylén had a unique combination of intellect, creativity and collaborative spirit
Aarhus University has lost an ingenious scientist and a generous friend and mentor for his colleagues and students.
arts.au.dk
November 29, 2024 at 4:56 PM
This is a great loss for his family, his friends, his colleagues, and AU. I will miss my friend and dear colleague deeply. He was an excellent scientist and a wonderful human being.