Tom Wallis
@tsawallis.bsky.social
Vision scientist. Professor at the Centre for Cognitive Science, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. 🇦🇺🇩🇪. pronoun.is/he
https://www.psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de/perception
https://www.psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de/perception
Pinned
Tom Wallis
@tsawallis.bsky.social
· Nov 10
Perception
Perception – Somehow, our minds make sense of sensory data in a way that eludes current machine vision systems. We study visual perception in humans using psychophysics and computational models. A sec...
www.psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de
Welcome new followers (X-iles, Swifties, ... all except Nazis are welcome on my timeline)!
I'm a vision / cognitive scientist studying visual perception in humans and sometimes machines. You can find out more about my lab's work here: www.psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de/perception/h...
#visionscience
I'm a vision / cognitive scientist studying visual perception in humans and sometimes machines. You can find out more about my lab's work here: www.psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de/perception/h...
#visionscience
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Latest academic hot take: it is gross and inhumane and wrong that obituaries are ever held behind a paywall that publishers profit from
November 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Latest academic hot take: it is gross and inhumane and wrong that obituaries are ever held behind a paywall that publishers profit from
Reposted by Tom Wallis
I'm in Sydney until December 15th.
If any tweeps (blueskyers?) are around lets get lunch or coffee!
Also ... if you allow random strangers to join your D&D* group for a few weeks ... pleeeeeeease let me know :)))
___
* or whatever pen & paper y'all are up to
If any tweeps (blueskyers?) are around lets get lunch or coffee!
Also ... if you allow random strangers to join your D&D* group for a few weeks ... pleeeeeeease let me know :)))
___
* or whatever pen & paper y'all are up to
a close up of a feather on a rock with the words `` hello '' written in white letters .
ALT: a close up of a feather on a rock with the words `` hello '' written in white letters .
media.tenor.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:42 AM
I'm in Sydney until December 15th.
If any tweeps (blueskyers?) are around lets get lunch or coffee!
Also ... if you allow random strangers to join your D&D* group for a few weeks ... pleeeeeeease let me know :)))
___
* or whatever pen & paper y'all are up to
If any tweeps (blueskyers?) are around lets get lunch or coffee!
Also ... if you allow random strangers to join your D&D* group for a few weeks ... pleeeeeeease let me know :)))
___
* or whatever pen & paper y'all are up to
Reposted by Tom Wallis
A conversation elsewhere has taken me back to the most difficult challenge I ever faced in my work. 26 years ago to the day I got a phone call from a lawyer asking if I would talk to them about being an expert witness in a public inquiry into a fatal train crash at Ladbroke Grove (London).
November 11, 2025 at 4:30 PM
A conversation elsewhere has taken me back to the most difficult challenge I ever faced in my work. 26 years ago to the day I got a phone call from a lawyer asking if I would talk to them about being an expert witness in a public inquiry into a fatal train crash at Ladbroke Grove (London).
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Anyone need a concrete demo of the cocktail party problem? Conan O'Brien can help.
Jon Dore & Rory Scovel Were Double-Booked | CONAN on TBS
YouTube video by Team Coco
www.youtube.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Anyone need a concrete demo of the cocktail party problem? Conan O'Brien can help.
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Do a postdoc with us in San Francisco! A fellowship slot in vision science, clinical vision, blindness, or rehabilitation is available via a NEI T32 slot: 👇🏼
🚨Postdoc fellowship alert! Applications due Dec. 10🚨
Interested in vision science, accessibility, eye movements, brain plasticity, mobility or related fields? A 1-year #NIH T32-funded opening, extensible contingent on funding, has become available in SKERI’s #postdoc #fellowship program. #neurojobs
Interested in vision science, accessibility, eye movements, brain plasticity, mobility or related fields? A 1-year #NIH T32-funded opening, extensible contingent on funding, has become available in SKERI’s #postdoc #fellowship program. #neurojobs
November 8, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Do a postdoc with us in San Francisco! A fellowship slot in vision science, clinical vision, blindness, or rehabilitation is available via a NEI T32 slot: 👇🏼
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Getting nervous for the talk I'm about to give at a workshop about "using AI to drive impact" which features slides such as these.
November 6, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Getting nervous for the talk I'm about to give at a workshop about "using AI to drive impact" which features slides such as these.
Reposted by Tom Wallis
In the long-running Nativism-Empiricism debate, have the impressive successes of AI based on blank slate-ish connectionist architectures dealt a knock-out blow for Empiricism? Is it game over for Nativism? @oldjerryfodor.bsky.social gently pushes back 🧪 philpapers.org/archive/KARA...
November 5, 2025 at 9:18 PM
In the long-running Nativism-Empiricism debate, have the impressive successes of AI based on blank slate-ish connectionist architectures dealt a knock-out blow for Empiricism? Is it game over for Nativism? @oldjerryfodor.bsky.social gently pushes back 🧪 philpapers.org/archive/KARA...
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Reposted by Tom Wallis
"Scholarly publishing, by contrast, too often feels designed to serve corporate profit margins..
what would it mean to design our infrastructures around the communities that use them, rather than around extractive logics?"
A large fanfiction platform shows the way!
what would it mean to design our infrastructures around the communities that use them, rather than around extractive logics?"
A large fanfiction platform shows the way!
November 1, 2025 at 6:56 PM
"Scholarly publishing, by contrast, too often feels designed to serve corporate profit margins..
what would it mean to design our infrastructures around the communities that use them, rather than around extractive logics?"
A large fanfiction platform shows the way!
what would it mean to design our infrastructures around the communities that use them, rather than around extractive logics?"
A large fanfiction platform shows the way!
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Someday we'll have acknowledgment citation counts and we can better recognize those who are particularly collegial. The image shows the most frequently-acknowledged people in the journal Psychological Review up to 1999.
(Cronin, Shaw, and La Barre, 2003)
(Cronin, Shaw, and La Barre, 2003)
November 2, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Someday we'll have acknowledgment citation counts and we can better recognize those who are particularly collegial. The image shows the most frequently-acknowledged people in the journal Psychological Review up to 1999.
(Cronin, Shaw, and La Barre, 2003)
(Cronin, Shaw, and La Barre, 2003)
Reposted by Tom Wallis
For the past 3 years, I've taught a course on Machine Learning for Climate Change to undergrads. At times, people have asked if the course lectures could be made available online. While I can't offer that, I have decided to start making "5 Minute Papers on AI for the Planet" videos. Hope its useful!
5 Minute Papers on AI for the Planet
AI is more than just chatbots! Learn about how AI can be used to protect biodiversity, fight climate change, and just better understand our planet through 5-minute explainers covering academic papers ...
www.youtube.com
June 20, 2025 at 1:55 AM
For the past 3 years, I've taught a course on Machine Learning for Climate Change to undergrads. At times, people have asked if the course lectures could be made available online. While I can't offer that, I have decided to start making "5 Minute Papers on AI for the Planet" videos. Hope its useful!
Reposted by Tom Wallis
You also get the added benefit of being able to apply a continuous decision function rather than a step function like you get with an sesoi. Maybe not huge in psych but in contexts where you can map the effect to cost benefit it goes a long way to push forward uncertainty into decisions.
October 31, 2025 at 10:26 PM
You also get the added benefit of being able to apply a continuous decision function rather than a step function like you get with an sesoi. Maybe not huge in psych but in contexts where you can map the effect to cost benefit it goes a long way to push forward uncertainty into decisions.
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Can jumping spiders extract implied object shape from motion? Check out our new preprint to find out. Collab with Massimo De Agrò @neuroethology.org
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Biological point-light displays scanning by the principal eyes of a jumping spider
The semi-rigid structure of bodies forces animals to move in rhythmic patterns shared by all creatures with skeletons, exoskeletons, or limb connections. This pattern, known as biological motion, is i...
doi.org
June 25, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Can jumping spiders extract implied object shape from motion? Check out our new preprint to find out. Collab with Massimo De Agrò @neuroethology.org
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Tom Wallis
But here's, the thing, p values and significance become useless at such large sample sizes. When you're dividing the coefficient by the SE and the sample size is in the tens of thousands, EVERYTHING IS SIGNIFICANT. All you're testing is whether the coefficient is different than zero.
October 30, 2025 at 6:59 PM
But here's, the thing, p values and significance become useless at such large sample sizes. When you're dividing the coefficient by the SE and the sample size is in the tens of thousands, EVERYTHING IS SIGNIFICANT. All you're testing is whether the coefficient is different than zero.
Reposted by Tom Wallis
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 10:46 AM
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Huge career highlight for me: I got to chat about the psychological science of horror movies with legendary actor John Jarratt, and about how he created his iconic role in Wolf Creek.
#RecreationalFear
Article written by Thomas Fowles:
www.usc.edu.au/about/unisc-...
#RecreationalFear
Article written by Thomas Fowles:
www.usc.edu.au/about/unisc-...
Holy s**t, something bad is about to happen! The art vs the science of scary cinema
Dr Will Harrison and actor John Jarratt explore the psychological tricks used in Australian horror films Picnic at Hanging Rock and Wolf Creek, and why audiences want to be thrilled.
www.usc.edu.au
October 27, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Huge career highlight for me: I got to chat about the psychological science of horror movies with legendary actor John Jarratt, and about how he created his iconic role in Wolf Creek.
#RecreationalFear
Article written by Thomas Fowles:
www.usc.edu.au/about/unisc-...
#RecreationalFear
Article written by Thomas Fowles:
www.usc.edu.au/about/unisc-...
Reposted by Tom Wallis
📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms).
It’s also concerning. 1/
It’s also concerning. 1/
PSA: we're aware that Signal is down for some people. This appears to be related to a major AWS outage. Stand by.
October 27, 2025 at 10:38 AM
📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms).
It’s also concerning. 1/
It’s also concerning. 1/
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Reposted by Tom Wallis
there's something about LLMs as automation technology that I've been trying to figure out how to phrase, where the "better" they get in the sense of not making obvious errors, the worse they are, because that doesn't mean they're not making errors, it just means the errors are better hidden /
October 28, 2025 at 2:46 AM
there's something about LLMs as automation technology that I've been trying to figure out how to phrase, where the "better" they get in the sense of not making obvious errors, the worse they are, because that doesn't mean they're not making errors, it just means the errors are better hidden /
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Jack DeJohnette RIP.
October 27, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Jack DeJohnette RIP.
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Vision Scientist PsychoPy users, any feedback on experience with modern OLED displays for vision science? we would be interested to hear your feedback on this post!
Thank you!
discourse.psychopy.org/t/modern-ole...
Thank you!
discourse.psychopy.org/t/modern-ole...
Modern OLED displays for vision science
Hello PsychoPy forum users, I know this topic comes up every so often in different lists, but to my surprise there doesn’t seem to be a recent post on the topic on here. I am looking to purchase a…
discourse.psychopy.org
October 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Vision Scientist PsychoPy users, any feedback on experience with modern OLED displays for vision science? we would be interested to hear your feedback on this post!
Thank you!
discourse.psychopy.org/t/modern-ole...
Thank you!
discourse.psychopy.org/t/modern-ole...
Reposted by Tom Wallis
if you see this post, your actions are:
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
I’ve never donated to Wikipedia before but I set up a small monthly donation as a fuck you to the world’s richest psychopath.
Elon Musk takes aim at Wikipedia
Musk has denounced Wikipedia as "Wokepedia" on X and urged people not to donate to the platform.
www.newsweek.com
December 26, 2024 at 12:03 PM
if you see this post, your actions are:
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
Reposted by Tom Wallis
#OAweek Support diamond #openaccess scholar-controlled journals, such as those listed at freejournals.org.
October 23, 2025 at 4:19 AM
#OAweek Support diamond #openaccess scholar-controlled journals, such as those listed at freejournals.org.
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Reposted by Tom Wallis
Happy to share our last article on a computational model of traveling waves! @erc.europa.eu funded work led by Dugué Lab PhD student Joao Cardoso.
@upcite.bsky.social
jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx...
@upcite.bsky.social
jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx...
Attention-induced perceptual traveling waves in binocular rivalry | JOV | ARVO Journals
jov.arvojournals.org
October 10, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Happy to share our last article on a computational model of traveling waves! @erc.europa.eu funded work led by Dugué Lab PhD student Joao Cardoso.
@upcite.bsky.social
jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx...
@upcite.bsky.social
jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx...