Tom McCoy
@rtommccoy.bsky.social
Assistant professor at Yale Linguistics. Studying computational linguistics, cognitive science, and AI. He/him.
Reposted by Tom McCoy
I’m excited to share our Findings of EMNLP paper w/ @cocoscilab.bsky.social , @rtommccoy.bsky.social, and @rdhawkins.bsky.social !
Language models, unlike humans, require large amounts of data, which suggests the need for an inductive bias.
But what kind of inductive biases do we need?
Language models, unlike humans, require large amounts of data, which suggests the need for an inductive bias.
But what kind of inductive biases do we need?
November 7, 2025 at 9:17 AM
I’m excited to share our Findings of EMNLP paper w/ @cocoscilab.bsky.social , @rtommccoy.bsky.social, and @rdhawkins.bsky.social !
Language models, unlike humans, require large amounts of data, which suggests the need for an inductive bias.
But what kind of inductive biases do we need?
Language models, unlike humans, require large amounts of data, which suggests the need for an inductive bias.
But what kind of inductive biases do we need?
An exciting postdoc opportunity for researchers in CogSci!
The deadline is coming up soon: Nov 10
The deadline is coming up soon: Nov 10
📣 Calling experimental, computational, or theoretical researchers!
WTI's Postdoc Fellowships application is now open, offering a competitive salary, structured mentorship, world-class facilities + more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/...
Apply by November 10: apply.interfolio.com/174525
#KnowTogether
WTI's Postdoc Fellowships application is now open, offering a competitive salary, structured mentorship, world-class facilities + more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/...
Apply by November 10: apply.interfolio.com/174525
#KnowTogether
November 2, 2025 at 12:24 AM
An exciting postdoc opportunity for researchers in CogSci!
The deadline is coming up soon: Nov 10
The deadline is coming up soon: Nov 10
Come be my colleague! The Wu Tsai Institute at Yale has two faculty searches ongoing:
- One in computational cognitive science (due Dec 1)
- One in neurodevelopment (rolling)
🧠🤖
- One in computational cognitive science (due Dec 1)
- One in neurodevelopment (rolling)
🧠🤖
📣 WTI is hiring faculty positions! Are you interested in advancing our understanding of the brain + how it gives rise to cognition?
Two calls are open:
Open-rank search, Neurocomputation, deadline: 12.1.25
Senior search, Neurodevelopment, rolling review
🔗 wti.yale.edu/opportunities
#KnowTogether
Two calls are open:
Open-rank search, Neurocomputation, deadline: 12.1.25
Senior search, Neurodevelopment, rolling review
🔗 wti.yale.edu/opportunities
#KnowTogether
November 2, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Come be my colleague! The Wu Tsai Institute at Yale has two faculty searches ongoing:
- One in computational cognitive science (due Dec 1)
- One in neurodevelopment (rolling)
🧠🤖
- One in computational cognitive science (due Dec 1)
- One in neurodevelopment (rolling)
🧠🤖
Much as "cupboard" is pronounced "cubberd", I think that "clipboard" should be pronounced "clibberd"
October 11, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Much as "cupboard" is pronounced "cubberd", I think that "clipboard" should be pronounced "clibberd"
Beginning a Grand Tour of California!
- Oct 6: Colloquium at Berkeley Linguistics
- Oct 9: Workshop at Google Mountain View
- Oct 14: Talk at UC Irvine Center for Lg, Intelligence & Computation
- Oct 16: NLP / Text-as-Data talk at NYU
Say hi if you'll be around!
- Oct 6: Colloquium at Berkeley Linguistics
- Oct 9: Workshop at Google Mountain View
- Oct 14: Talk at UC Irvine Center for Lg, Intelligence & Computation
- Oct 16: NLP / Text-as-Data talk at NYU
Say hi if you'll be around!
October 5, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Beginning a Grand Tour of California!
- Oct 6: Colloquium at Berkeley Linguistics
- Oct 9: Workshop at Google Mountain View
- Oct 14: Talk at UC Irvine Center for Lg, Intelligence & Computation
- Oct 16: NLP / Text-as-Data talk at NYU
Say hi if you'll be around!
- Oct 6: Colloquium at Berkeley Linguistics
- Oct 9: Workshop at Google Mountain View
- Oct 14: Talk at UC Irvine Center for Lg, Intelligence & Computation
- Oct 16: NLP / Text-as-Data talk at NYU
Say hi if you'll be around!
Reposted by Tom McCoy
Exciting talk in the linguistics department at UC Berkeley tomorrow!
@rtommccoy.bsky.social
@rtommccoy.bsky.social
October 5, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Exciting talk in the linguistics department at UC Berkeley tomorrow!
@rtommccoy.bsky.social
@rtommccoy.bsky.social
🤖 🧠 NEW BLOG POST 🧠 🤖
What skills do you need to be a successful researcher?
The list seems long: collaborating, writing, presenting, reviewing, etc
But I argue that many of these skills can be unified under a single overarching ability: theory of mind
rtmccoy.com/posts/theory...
What skills do you need to be a successful researcher?
The list seems long: collaborating, writing, presenting, reviewing, etc
But I argue that many of these skills can be unified under a single overarching ability: theory of mind
rtmccoy.com/posts/theory...
September 30, 2025 at 3:14 PM
🤖 🧠 NEW BLOG POST 🧠 🤖
What skills do you need to be a successful researcher?
The list seems long: collaborating, writing, presenting, reviewing, etc
But I argue that many of these skills can be unified under a single overarching ability: theory of mind
rtmccoy.com/posts/theory...
What skills do you need to be a successful researcher?
The list seems long: collaborating, writing, presenting, reviewing, etc
But I argue that many of these skills can be unified under a single overarching ability: theory of mind
rtmccoy.com/posts/theory...
"Hello world!" sounds like a word followed by a crossword clue for that word: "Hell = Low world"
August 31, 2025 at 10:55 PM
"Hello world!" sounds like a word followed by a crossword clue for that word: "Hell = Low world"
A linguistic note about David Copperfield and Demon Copperhead 🧵
[very minor spoilers for both]
1/n
[very minor spoilers for both]
1/n
August 24, 2025 at 4:57 PM
A linguistic note about David Copperfield and Demon Copperhead 🧵
[very minor spoilers for both]
1/n
[very minor spoilers for both]
1/n
Reposted by Tom McCoy
New position paper! We argue that symbolic and neural network models are not in opposition to each other, but occupy different levels of analysis, and also outline a new research agenda for better understanding the relationship between them. Please check out the paper / thread for more details!
🤖 🧠 NEW PAPER ON COGSCI & AI 🧠 🤖
Recent neural networks capture properties long thought to require symbols: compositionality, productivity, rapid learning
So what role should symbols play in theories of the mind? For our answer...read on!
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05776
1/n
Recent neural networks capture properties long thought to require symbols: compositionality, productivity, rapid learning
So what role should symbols play in theories of the mind? For our answer...read on!
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05776
1/n
August 15, 2025 at 4:40 PM
New position paper! We argue that symbolic and neural network models are not in opposition to each other, but occupy different levels of analysis, and also outline a new research agenda for better understanding the relationship between them. Please check out the paper / thread for more details!
🤖 🧠 NEW PAPER ON COGSCI & AI 🧠 🤖
Recent neural networks capture properties long thought to require symbols: compositionality, productivity, rapid learning
So what role should symbols play in theories of the mind? For our answer...read on!
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05776
1/n
Recent neural networks capture properties long thought to require symbols: compositionality, productivity, rapid learning
So what role should symbols play in theories of the mind? For our answer...read on!
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05776
1/n
August 15, 2025 at 4:27 PM
🤖 🧠 NEW PAPER ON COGSCI & AI 🧠 🤖
Recent neural networks capture properties long thought to require symbols: compositionality, productivity, rapid learning
So what role should symbols play in theories of the mind? For our answer...read on!
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05776
1/n
Recent neural networks capture properties long thought to require symbols: compositionality, productivity, rapid learning
So what role should symbols play in theories of the mind? For our answer...read on!
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05776
1/n
According to Jane Austen, linguists are extraordinarily cold-hearted.
(Though at least we're not as bad as mathematicians!)
(Though at least we're not as bad as mathematicians!)
August 3, 2025 at 4:10 PM
According to Jane Austen, linguists are extraordinarily cold-hearted.
(Though at least we're not as bad as mathematicians!)
(Though at least we're not as bad as mathematicians!)
So much research is being done about LLMs that it's hard to stay on top of the literature.
To help with this, I've made a list of all the most important papers from the past 8 years:
rtmccoy.com/pubs/
I hope you enjoy!
To help with this, I've made a list of all the most important papers from the past 8 years:
rtmccoy.com/pubs/
I hope you enjoy!
Home
rtmccoy.com
July 16, 2025 at 4:35 PM
So much research is being done about LLMs that it's hard to stay on top of the literature.
To help with this, I've made a list of all the most important papers from the past 8 years:
rtmccoy.com/pubs/
I hope you enjoy!
To help with this, I've made a list of all the most important papers from the past 8 years:
rtmccoy.com/pubs/
I hope you enjoy!
July the 4th be with you!
July 4, 2025 at 2:45 PM
July the 4th be with you!
Reposted by Tom McCoy
New paper: "Large Language Models and Emergence: A Complex Systems Perspective" (D. Krakauer, J. Krakauer, M. Mitchell).
We look at claims of "emergent capabilities" & "emergent intelligence" in LLMs from the perspective of what emergence means in complexity science.
arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11135
We look at claims of "emergent capabilities" & "emergent intelligence" in LLMs from the perspective of what emergence means in complexity science.
arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11135
arxiv.org
June 16, 2025 at 1:15 PM
New paper: "Large Language Models and Emergence: A Complex Systems Perspective" (D. Krakauer, J. Krakauer, M. Mitchell).
We look at claims of "emergent capabilities" & "emergent intelligence" in LLMs from the perspective of what emergence means in complexity science.
arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11135
We look at claims of "emergent capabilities" & "emergent intelligence" in LLMs from the perspective of what emergence means in complexity science.
arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11135
The word "laundry" contains both steps of the laundry process:
1. Undry
2. Dry
1. Undry
2. Dry
June 4, 2025 at 7:14 PM
The word "laundry" contains both steps of the laundry process:
1. Undry
2. Dry
1. Undry
2. Dry
Reposted by Tom McCoy
Happy to announce the first workshop on Pragmatic Reasoning in Language Models — PragLM @ COLM 2025! 🎉
How do LLMs engage in pragmatic reasoning, and what core pragmatic capacities remain beyond their reach?
🌐 sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/praglm/
📅 Submit by June 23rd
How do LLMs engage in pragmatic reasoning, and what core pragmatic capacities remain beyond their reach?
🌐 sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/praglm/
📅 Submit by June 23rd
PragLM @ COLM '25
IMPORTANT DATES
sites.google.com
May 28, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Happy to announce the first workshop on Pragmatic Reasoning in Language Models — PragLM @ COLM 2025! 🎉
How do LLMs engage in pragmatic reasoning, and what core pragmatic capacities remain beyond their reach?
🌐 sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/praglm/
📅 Submit by June 23rd
How do LLMs engage in pragmatic reasoning, and what core pragmatic capacities remain beyond their reach?
🌐 sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/praglm/
📅 Submit by June 23rd
Had a fun visit to UChicago/TTIC over the past couple days - really great group doing NLP/CompLing there!
May 24, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Had a fun visit to UChicago/TTIC over the past couple days - really great group doing NLP/CompLing there!
🤖🧠 Paper out in Nature Communications! 🧠🤖
Bayesian models can learn rapidly. Neural networks can handle messy, naturalistic data. How can we combine these strengths?
Our answer: Use meta-learning to distill Bayesian priors into a neural network!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1/n
Bayesian models can learn rapidly. Neural networks can handle messy, naturalistic data. How can we combine these strengths?
Our answer: Use meta-learning to distill Bayesian priors into a neural network!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1/n
May 20, 2025 at 7:04 PM
🤖🧠 Paper out in Nature Communications! 🧠🤖
Bayesian models can learn rapidly. Neural networks can handle messy, naturalistic data. How can we combine these strengths?
Our answer: Use meta-learning to distill Bayesian priors into a neural network!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1/n
Bayesian models can learn rapidly. Neural networks can handle messy, naturalistic data. How can we combine these strengths?
Our answer: Use meta-learning to distill Bayesian priors into a neural network!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1/n
At MIT for the day to speak at the NLP seminar! Say hi if you're around and need a break from NeurIPS drafting!
May 14, 2025 at 2:32 PM
At MIT for the day to speak at the NLP seminar! Say hi if you're around and need a break from NeurIPS drafting!
I constructed today's NYT crossword!
This one has some personal connections, described at the WordPlay article by @samcorbin.bsky.social (contains spoilers): www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/c...
I hope you enjoy!
This one has some personal connections, described at the WordPlay article by @samcorbin.bsky.social (contains spoilers): www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/c...
I hope you enjoy!
May 7, 2025 at 5:32 PM
I constructed today's NYT crossword!
This one has some personal connections, described at the WordPlay article by @samcorbin.bsky.social (contains spoilers): www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/c...
I hope you enjoy!
This one has some personal connections, described at the WordPlay article by @samcorbin.bsky.social (contains spoilers): www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/c...
I hope you enjoy!
🧩🦾New paper🦾🧩
We use Linguistics Olympiad puzzles to test Large Language Models
Check it out if you're at NAACL! It's being presented by Nathan Chi at 4:00 today in the LoResMT workshop
aclanthology.org/2025.loresmt...
We use Linguistics Olympiad puzzles to test Large Language Models
Check it out if you're at NAACL! It's being presented by Nathan Chi at 4:00 today in the LoResMT workshop
aclanthology.org/2025.loresmt...
ModeLing: A Novel Dataset for Testing Linguistic Reasoning in Language Models
Nathan Andrew Chi, Teodor Malchev, Riley Kong, Ryan Andrew Chi, Lucas Huang, Ethan A Chi, R. Thomas McCoy, Dragomir Radev. Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop on Technologies for Machine Translation of...
aclanthology.org
May 3, 2025 at 2:41 PM
🧩🦾New paper🦾🧩
We use Linguistics Olympiad puzzles to test Large Language Models
Check it out if you're at NAACL! It's being presented by Nathan Chi at 4:00 today in the LoResMT workshop
aclanthology.org/2025.loresmt...
We use Linguistics Olympiad puzzles to test Large Language Models
Check it out if you're at NAACL! It's being presented by Nathan Chi at 4:00 today in the LoResMT workshop
aclanthology.org/2025.loresmt...
Made a new assignment for a class on Computational Psycholinguistics:
- I trained a Transformer language model on sentences sampled from a PCFG
- The students' task: Given the Transformer, try to infer the PCFG (w/ a leaderboard for who got closest)
Would recommend!
1/n
- I trained a Transformer language model on sentences sampled from a PCFG
- The students' task: Given the Transformer, try to infer the PCFG (w/ a leaderboard for who got closest)
Would recommend!
1/n
May 2, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Made a new assignment for a class on Computational Psycholinguistics:
- I trained a Transformer language model on sentences sampled from a PCFG
- The students' task: Given the Transformer, try to infer the PCFG (w/ a leaderboard for who got closest)
Would recommend!
1/n
- I trained a Transformer language model on sentences sampled from a PCFG
- The students' task: Given the Transformer, try to infer the PCFG (w/ a leaderboard for who got closest)
Would recommend!
1/n
The past few years have been a wild time to work in NLP - huge amounts of progress, hype, uncertainty, and excitement. This piece does a fantastic job of documenting what that's been like.
I had fun being one of the interviewees!
By John Pavlus in @quantamagazine.bsky.social
I had fun being one of the interviewees!
By John Pavlus in @quantamagazine.bsky.social
When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field: An Oral History | Quanta Magazine
Researchers in “natural language processing” tried to tame human language. Then came the transformer.
www.quantamagazine.org
May 1, 2025 at 3:01 PM
The past few years have been a wild time to work in NLP - huge amounts of progress, hype, uncertainty, and excitement. This piece does a fantastic job of documenting what that's been like.
I had fun being one of the interviewees!
By John Pavlus in @quantamagazine.bsky.social
I had fun being one of the interviewees!
By John Pavlus in @quantamagazine.bsky.social
The initial application deadline is coming up (April 30 - but we will continue to review applications until the position is filled, so it's worth applying even if a little after that).
Please share with any computational linguists and/or syntacticians who may be interested!
Please share with any computational linguists and/or syntacticians who may be interested!
The Department of Linguistics at Yale University is seeking to hire a one-year lecturer with expertise in Computational Linguistics and/or Syntax for the 2025-2026 school year.
See the job ad for more info: linguistlist.org/issues/36/11...
Please send to any who might be interested!
See the job ad for more info: linguistlist.org/issues/36/11...
Please send to any who might be interested!
LINGUIST List 36.1177 Jobs: Computational Linguistics, Syntax: Lecturer, Yale University
The LINGUIST List, International Linguistics Community Online.
linguistlist.org
April 28, 2025 at 6:11 PM
The initial application deadline is coming up (April 30 - but we will continue to review applications until the position is filled, so it's worth applying even if a little after that).
Please share with any computational linguists and/or syntacticians who may be interested!
Please share with any computational linguists and/or syntacticians who may be interested!