Sally Berson
sallyberson.bsky.social
Sally Berson
@sallyberson.bsky.social
psychology phd student @ johns hopkins | cognitive development & explanation
Reposted by Sally Berson
Happy to share that our BBS target article has been accepted: “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇
October 9, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Last month, I launched my lab at Ohio State. Our lab website is now live, and we're recruiting graduate students this cycle! If you're interested in the cognitive (neuro)science of learning & memory, please reach out!

www.momentslab.org
Moments Lab
www.momentslab.org
September 19, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
I am recruiting graduate students for Fall 2026 through both the cognitive and developmental areas at Ohio State. If you are interested in spatial cognition, visual perception, and/or mental representation -- please reach out! I'd love to hear from you.

www.cogdevlab.org
PCDL @ OSU
www.cogdevlab.org
September 15, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Great to have another paper with @chazfirestone.bsky.social @ianbphillips.bsky.social and the brilliant Hanbei Zhou out! In this paper we demonstrate that stimuli within events are perceived further apart in time — an event-based analog of “object-based warping”. psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
September 4, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Really happy to have a new paper forthcoming at PPR!

Ever wondered if there’s any point in feeling regret? In this paper, I argue that regret is valuable because it helps us overcome temptation. Check it out: philpapers.org/rec/GOHRLA
September 2, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Visual adaptation is viewed as a test of whether a feature is represented by the visual system.

In a new paper, Sam Clarke and I push the limits of this test. We show spatially selective, putatively "visual" adaptation to a clearly non-visual dimension: Value!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Can we “see” value? Spatiotopic “visual” adaptation to an imperceptible dimension
In much recent philosophy of mind and cognitive science, repulsive adaptation effects are considered a litmus test — a crucial marker, that distinguis…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 28, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
When an animals' groupmates go out of sight, do they also go out of mind?

In a new paper in Proc B @royalsocietypublishing.org, Luz Carvajal and I show that a bonobo (Kanzi) can keep mental tabs on the whereabouts of multiple hidden social partners

royalsocietypublishing.org/eprint/4GI7G...
Mental representation of the locations and identities of multiple hidden agents or objects by a bonobo | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Humans are adept at navigating the social world in part because we flexibly map the locations and identities of agents around us. While field studies suggest primates can track individual conspecifics...
royalsocietypublishing.org
August 20, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
this is extremely cool;

I also think it's important for people to know Tal made coasters of these
August 19, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
On the left is a rabbit. On the right is an elephant. But guess what: They’re the *same image*, rotated 90°!

In @currentbiology.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show how these images—known as “visual anagrams”—can help solve a longstanding problem in cognitive science. bit.ly/45BVnCZ
August 19, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
I am excited to announce my first ever paper (w/ @samiyousif.bsky.social ) about a new illusion of *number*: the “Crowd Size Illusion”. osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
June 26, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
June 21, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Reposted by Sally Berson
New preprint! How do we integrate new information into prior knowledge? We find that existing knowledge enables rapid new learning but that interleaved replay during sleep promotes integration of new and old information. Modeling suggests a sleep context suppression mechanism.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
June 10, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Looking at Van Gogh’s Starry Night, we see not only its content (a French village beneath a night sky) but also its *style*. How does that work? How do we see style?

In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I take an experimental approach to style perception! osf.io/preprints/ps...
May 14, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Science and DEI in the sciences and the arts is what makes America great #standupforscience
March 7, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Watch this video.

Do you remember seeing a ball in the second half of the video? Up to 37% of our participants reported seeing a ball, even though it wasn’t there. Why?

In a new paper in press @ Cognition, Brent Strickland and I ask what causes event completion. osf.io/preprints/ps...
March 4, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Are humans the only species that communicates when a collaborator is missing information?

In @pnas.org, Luke Townrow and I show that our closest relatives, bonobos, can track when a partner is knowledgeable or ignorant, and tailor communication accordingly

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
February 3, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Suppose you generated a sequence of 100 random numbers. Then one year later, you did it again. Do you think we could predict one sequence from the other? It turns out, we can!

Now in press @ JEP:G with @samiyousif.bsky.social @actlab.bsky.social @robbrutledge.bsky.social; osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
February 5, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Sally Berson
Which is more complex: A bicycle or a car?

Object complexity comes in many different kinds — such as visual, mechanistic, and more. How are these kinds related?

Now out @ JEP:G, Frank Keil and I argue that mechanistic complexity is fundamental.

psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
February 4, 2025 at 4:18 PM