Samuel Recht
@sam.re
Cognitive scientist @ Oxford. Studying attention, metacognition and curiosity / learning.
Pinned
Samuel Recht
@sam.re
· Dec 20
Humans are curious not just about the world, but also about their own minds. In our new paper, we describe a specific form of curiosity in which people strategically seek information not only about their decisions but also about the accuracy of their self-evaluations. psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
Reposted by Samuel Recht
This is 🤯
All publicly available. Looks like an amazing new histology-based human probabilistic atlas and parcellation tool.
#neuroskyence #mri #brainmapping
A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation | Nature share.google/5AD0iW7pxgb4...
All publicly available. Looks like an amazing new histology-based human probabilistic atlas and parcellation tool.
#neuroskyence #mri #brainmapping
A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation | Nature share.google/5AD0iW7pxgb4...
A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation - Nature
NextBrain is an open source, probabilistic atlas of the entire human brain, assembled using artificial-intelligence-enabled registration and segmentation methods to reconstruct the multimodal serial h...
share.google
November 6, 2025 at 5:35 AM
This is 🤯
All publicly available. Looks like an amazing new histology-based human probabilistic atlas and parcellation tool.
#neuroskyence #mri #brainmapping
A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation | Nature share.google/5AD0iW7pxgb4...
All publicly available. Looks like an amazing new histology-based human probabilistic atlas and parcellation tool.
#neuroskyence #mri #brainmapping
A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation | Nature share.google/5AD0iW7pxgb4...
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Decoding the rhythmic representation and communication of visual contents
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
#neuroscience
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
#neuroscience
Decoding the rhythmic representation and communication of visual contents
Rhythmic neural activity is considered essential for adaptively modulating responses
in the visual system. In this opinion article we posit that visual brain rhythms also
serve a key function in the r...
www.cell.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Decoding the rhythmic representation and communication of visual contents
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
#neuroscience
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
#neuroscience
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs
The selective revision of beliefs in light of new evidence has been considered one of the hallmarks of human-level rationality. However, tests of this ability in other species are lacking. We examined...
www.science.org
October 30, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Pleased to say "Space, Time, and Memory", an academic book by Oxford University Press edited by the inimitable Lynn Nadel & Sara Aronowitz is now out.
I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines".
You can download the entire book for free:
library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...
I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines".
You can download the entire book for free:
library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...
June 9, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Pleased to say "Space, Time, and Memory", an academic book by Oxford University Press edited by the inimitable Lynn Nadel & Sara Aronowitz is now out.
I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines".
You can download the entire book for free:
library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...
I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines".
You can download the entire book for free:
library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...
Reposted by Samuel Recht
like a metacognitive evaluation? in my understanding metacog is at best weird, but more likely just not even present in most if not all LLMs. they don't do anything like "decide when more context is needed" anything like we do.
not an LLM expert but i do know abt metacog!
arxiv.org/abs/2504.14045
not an LLM expert but i do know abt metacog!
arxiv.org/abs/2504.14045
Metacognition and Uncertainty Communication in Humans and Large Language Models
Metacognition, the capacity to monitor and evaluate one's own knowledge and performance, is foundational to human decision-making, learning, and communication. As large language models (LLMs) become i...
arxiv.org
June 10, 2025 at 4:39 AM
like a metacognitive evaluation? in my understanding metacog is at best weird, but more likely just not even present in most if not all LLMs. they don't do anything like "decide when more context is needed" anything like we do.
not an LLM expert but i do know abt metacog!
arxiv.org/abs/2504.14045
not an LLM expert but i do know abt metacog!
arxiv.org/abs/2504.14045
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Great work by Changde Du from Huiguang He's lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. How similar are visual and conceptual representations in (multimodal) large language models to those found in humans? It turns out quite similar!
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Human-like object concept representations emerge naturally in multimodal large language models - Nature Machine Intelligence
Multimodal large language models are shown to develop object concept representations similar to those of humans. These representations closely align with neural activity in brain regions involved in o...
www.nature.com
June 10, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Great work by Changde Du from Huiguang He's lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. How similar are visual and conceptual representations in (multimodal) large language models to those found in humans? It turns out quite similar!
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Samuel Recht
We have a PhD position for an upcoming project in metacognition research in Potsdam / Berlin. A great opportunity for those interested in cognitive modeling of confidence and EEG.
More information at coconeuro.github.io/phd2025
Kindly share this opportunity with potential candidates - Thanks!
More information at coconeuro.github.io/phd2025
Kindly share this opportunity with potential candidates - Thanks!
Computation and Cognition @ HMU Potsdam
Computation and Cognition @ HMU Potsdam
coconeuro.github.io
June 4, 2025 at 11:07 AM
We have a PhD position for an upcoming project in metacognition research in Potsdam / Berlin. A great opportunity for those interested in cognitive modeling of confidence and EEG.
More information at coconeuro.github.io/phd2025
Kindly share this opportunity with potential candidates - Thanks!
More information at coconeuro.github.io/phd2025
Kindly share this opportunity with potential candidates - Thanks!
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Harvard today, your institution tomorrow.
It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America.
All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.
It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America.
All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.
May 22, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Harvard today, your institution tomorrow.
It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America.
All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.
It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America.
All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Very happy this is finally out 🎉. In this paper, we show that conf. reports are biased by a visual illusion, an asymmetrical base rate and a payoff scheme. Crucially, we show that only the visual illusion affects subj. experience, suggesting decision bias leaks onto confidence reports.
Using explicit measures of subjective experience & Bayesian ordinal modeling, this study shows that confidence reports in perceptual decisions are influenced by nonperceptual biases.
@n41c0.bsky.social @fahrenfort.bsky.social @smfleming.bsky.social @juliaha.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@n41c0.bsky.social @fahrenfort.bsky.social @smfleming.bsky.social @juliaha.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Confidence reports during perceptual decision making dissociate from changes in subjective experience - Communications Psychology
Using explicit measures of subjective experience and a Bayesian ordinal modeling framework, this study shows that confidence reports in perceptual decisions are influenced by nonperceptual biases.
www.nature.com
May 22, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Very happy this is finally out 🎉. In this paper, we show that conf. reports are biased by a visual illusion, an asymmetrical base rate and a payoff scheme. Crucially, we show that only the visual illusion affects subj. experience, suggesting decision bias leaks onto confidence reports.
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Our study using layer fMRI to study the direction of communication between the hippocampus and cortex during perceptual predictions is finally out in Science Advances! Predicted-but-omitted shapes are represented in CA2/3 and correlate specifically with deep layers of PHC, suggesting feedback. 🧠🟦
Communication of perceptual predictions from the hippocampus to the deep layers of the parahippocampal cortex
High-resolution neuroimaging reveals stimulus-specific predictions sent from hippocampus to the neocortex during perception.
www.science.org
May 22, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Our study using layer fMRI to study the direction of communication between the hippocampus and cortex during perceptual predictions is finally out in Science Advances! Predicted-but-omitted shapes are represented in CA2/3 and correlate specifically with deep layers of PHC, suggesting feedback. 🧠🟦
Reposted by Samuel Recht
New preprint! Serial dependence is assumed to be attractive, but some studies consistently show repulsion. We tried to replicate a surprising repulsive serial bias that switches to an attractive one when people get distracted during the memory maintenance. It worked! osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵
May 21, 2025 at 9:48 AM
New preprint! Serial dependence is assumed to be attractive, but some studies consistently show repulsion. We tried to replicate a surprising repulsive serial bias that switches to an attractive one when people get distracted during the memory maintenance. It worked! osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Episode II of how are durations stored in working memory:
Besides replicating our previous findings, we find that
alpha power reflects a universal signature of WM load and mediates recall precision, even for abstract information like duration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🔽 co-authors below
Besides replicating our previous findings, we find that
alpha power reflects a universal signature of WM load and mediates recall precision, even for abstract information like duration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🔽 co-authors below
Alpha power indexes working memory load for durations
Timing, that is estimating, comparing, or remembering how long events last, requires the temporary storage of durations. How durations are stored in working memory is unknown, despite the widely held ...
www.biorxiv.org
May 15, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Episode II of how are durations stored in working memory:
Besides replicating our previous findings, we find that
alpha power reflects a universal signature of WM load and mediates recall precision, even for abstract information like duration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🔽 co-authors below
Besides replicating our previous findings, we find that
alpha power reflects a universal signature of WM load and mediates recall precision, even for abstract information like duration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🔽 co-authors below
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Great to see our research, led by @johannakuci.bsky.social, covered in The Transmitter. One of the more surprising findings to have come out of the lab.
Neuroscientists should embrace variability in neuroimaging studies, according to researchers who showed that decision-making is associated with subtypes of brain activity.
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/behavior/dur...
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/behavior/dur...
During decision-making, brain shows multiple distinct subtypes of activity
Person-to-person variability in brain activity might represent meaningful differences in cognitive processes, rather than random noise.
www.thetransmitter.org
April 30, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Great to see our research, led by @johannakuci.bsky.social, covered in The Transmitter. One of the more surprising findings to have come out of the lab.
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Dynamic modulation of confidence based on the metacognitive skills of collaborators! Now out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social New work from
@felixhermans.bsky.social Simon Gaia @majafr.bsky.social
and me! Paper here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40262423/ Details ↓↓↓
@felixhermans.bsky.social Simon Gaia @majafr.bsky.social
and me! Paper here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40262423/ Details ↓↓↓
April 30, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Dynamic modulation of confidence based on the metacognitive skills of collaborators! Now out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social New work from
@felixhermans.bsky.social Simon Gaia @majafr.bsky.social
and me! Paper here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40262423/ Details ↓↓↓
@felixhermans.bsky.social Simon Gaia @majafr.bsky.social
and me! Paper here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40262423/ Details ↓↓↓
Reposted by Samuel Recht
I'm super excited that our new preprint titled "Intrinsic rewards guide visual resource allocation via reinforcement learning" with Rodrigo Raimundo and Paul Bays (@bayslab.org) is finally out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n
#visionscience #compneurosky #neuroskyence
1/n
#visionscience #compneurosky #neuroskyence
April 28, 2025 at 4:06 PM
I'm super excited that our new preprint titled "Intrinsic rewards guide visual resource allocation via reinforcement learning" with Rodrigo Raimundo and Paul Bays (@bayslab.org) is finally out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n
#visionscience #compneurosky #neuroskyence
1/n
#visionscience #compneurosky #neuroskyence
Reposted by Samuel Recht
If you work with perceptual confidence judgments, you may be interested in our CNCB model of confidence ratings. Joint work with Vincent de Gardelle.
Uncorrected proofs here:
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
(🧵 1/4)
Uncorrected proofs here:
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
(🧵 1/4)
April 22, 2025 at 1:51 PM
If you work with perceptual confidence judgments, you may be interested in our CNCB model of confidence ratings. Joint work with Vincent de Gardelle.
Uncorrected proofs here:
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
(🧵 1/4)
Uncorrected proofs here:
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
(🧵 1/4)
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Very happy to see our work finally in print!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
TLDR: Tilt illusion is not a bug, but a feature of a well-designed visual system that maximizes information capacity adaptively based on spatial context. (1/6)
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
TLDR: Tilt illusion is not a bug, but a feature of a well-designed visual system that maximizes information capacity adaptively based on spatial context. (1/6)
The tilt illusion arises from an efficient reallocation of neural coding resources at the contextual boundary | PNAS
The tilt illusion—a bias in the perceived orientation of a center stimulus induced
by an oriented surround—illustrates how context shapes visual pe...
www.pnas.org
April 24, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Very happy to see our work finally in print!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
TLDR: Tilt illusion is not a bug, but a feature of a well-designed visual system that maximizes information capacity adaptively based on spatial context. (1/6)
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
TLDR: Tilt illusion is not a bug, but a feature of a well-designed visual system that maximizes information capacity adaptively based on spatial context. (1/6)
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Very proud of João VX Cardoso from the #DugueLab for the first preprint of his PhD on a computational model of traveling waves. Work in collaboration with David J. Heeger and Hsin-Hung Li.
@erc.europa.eu
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@erc.europa.eu
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Attention induced perceptual traveling waves in binocular rivalry
Cortical traveling waves -smooth changes of phase over time across the cortical surface- have been proposed to modulate perception periodically as they travel through retinotopic cortex. Yet, little i...
www.biorxiv.org
April 24, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Very proud of João VX Cardoso from the #DugueLab for the first preprint of his PhD on a computational model of traveling waves. Work in collaboration with David J. Heeger and Hsin-Hung Li.
@erc.europa.eu
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@erc.europa.eu
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Hey Bluesky! I’m excited to share my new preprint with @matanmazor.bsky.social and @ruvidar.bsky.social, where we show that surface-level questionnaire filling behaviours drive correlations between mental health and metacognition (confidence ratings). osf.io/preprints/ps... [1/14]
a close up of a man wearing glasses and a hat with abc family on the bottom
ALT: a close up of a man wearing glasses and a hat with abc family on the bottom
media.tenor.com
March 17, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Hey Bluesky! I’m excited to share my new preprint with @matanmazor.bsky.social and @ruvidar.bsky.social, where we show that surface-level questionnaire filling behaviours drive correlations between mental health and metacognition (confidence ratings). osf.io/preprints/ps... [1/14]
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Our "I would have seen it if it were there" paper — a collaboration with @ranimo.bsky.social and @clarepress.bsky.social — is now out in Psych. Review.
There’s a lot in this paper, but here are what I see as the 3 main takeaways:
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
There’s a lot in this paper, but here are what I see as the 3 main takeaways:
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
March 21, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Our "I would have seen it if it were there" paper — a collaboration with @ranimo.bsky.social and @clarepress.bsky.social — is now out in Psych. Review.
There’s a lot in this paper, but here are what I see as the 3 main takeaways:
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
There’s a lot in this paper, but here are what I see as the 3 main takeaways:
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Lovely/comprehensive review of metacognition and functional neurological disorder; a condition that demands a metacognitive interpretation: doi.org/10.1093/brai...
The emerging picture aligns with findings in psychopathology more broadly—metacognitive performance is often equivalent to controls.
The emerging picture aligns with findings in psychopathology more broadly—metacognitive performance is often equivalent to controls.
Going ‘meta’: a systematic review of metacognition and functional neurological disorder
Sadnicka et al., overview experimental data that has examined metacognition in patients with functional neurological disorders (FND). Interestingly, most s
doi.org
January 17, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Lovely/comprehensive review of metacognition and functional neurological disorder; a condition that demands a metacognitive interpretation: doi.org/10.1093/brai...
The emerging picture aligns with findings in psychopathology more broadly—metacognitive performance is often equivalent to controls.
The emerging picture aligns with findings in psychopathology more broadly—metacognitive performance is often equivalent to controls.
Reposted by Samuel Recht
Why does it feel good to be sure? In new work @voalan.bsky.social @andero.bsky.social and I bridge confidence and affect. In perceptual DM, we found a remarkably consistent association between both measures! ↓↓↓
link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence
link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence
Metacognitive confidence and affect – two sides of the same coin?
Decision confidence is a prototypical metacognitive representation that is thought to approximate the probability that a decision is correct. The perception of being correct has also been associate...
www.tandfonline.com
January 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Why does it feel good to be sure? In new work @voalan.bsky.social @andero.bsky.social and I bridge confidence and affect. In perceptual DM, we found a remarkably consistent association between both measures! ↓↓↓
link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence
link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence
Reposted by Samuel Recht
My article "A comprehensive assessment of current methods for measuring metacognition" is finally out in Nature Communications 🎉 If you work on metacognition and think you know the psychometric properties of your favorite measure, you may be surprised.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A comprehensive assessment of current methods for measuring metacognition - Nature Communications
Measuring metacognitive ability is one of the enduring challenges in cognitive science. The current paper develops formal tests of the quality of different measures and assesses how current metrics pe...
www.nature.com
January 16, 2025 at 8:17 PM
My article "A comprehensive assessment of current methods for measuring metacognition" is finally out in Nature Communications 🎉 If you work on metacognition and think you know the psychometric properties of your favorite measure, you may be surprised.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Samuel Recht
How aggregated opinions shape beliefs
Review by Kerem Oktar & Tania Lombrozo
Web: go.nature.com/40lJX56
PDF: rdcu.be/d5tor
Review by Kerem Oktar & Tania Lombrozo
Web: go.nature.com/40lJX56
PDF: rdcu.be/d5tor
January 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
How aggregated opinions shape beliefs
Review by Kerem Oktar & Tania Lombrozo
Web: go.nature.com/40lJX56
PDF: rdcu.be/d5tor
Review by Kerem Oktar & Tania Lombrozo
Web: go.nature.com/40lJX56
PDF: rdcu.be/d5tor