Maths/CogSci/MathPsych lazyweb: Are there any algebras in which you have subtraction but don't have negative values? Pointers appreciated. I am hoping that the abstract maths might shed some light on a problem in cognitive modelling.
The context is that I am interested in formal models of cognitive representations and I want to represent things (e.g. cats), don't believe that we should be able to represent negated things (i.e. I don't think it should be able to represent anti-cats), but it makes sense to subtract representations (e.g. remove the representation of a cat from the representation of a cat and a dog, leaving only the representation of the dog).
We know that the task demands of cognitive tests most scores: if one version of a problem requires more work (e.g., gratuitously verbose or unclear wording, open response rather than multiple choice), people will perform worse.
Training lunch break & watching vids as a brain palate cleanser of sorts. I found this fascinating. Such parenting supports weren't available 20 yrs ago. It's wonderful to see #autism#parenting#pda communities offering validation, support & education. This video reminded me of a time I visited my sister when my niece was a baby. She couldn't stop playing w/a toy that was frustrating her, she cried every time she hit it but kept doing it. #cognitivepsychology https://youtu.be/1ozg_e2XHvI?si=c_CebRLvpPZMvjOr
Most of the Artificial Neural Net simulation research I have seen (say, at venues like NeurIPS) seems to take a very simple conceptual approach to analysis of simulation results - just treat everything as independent observations with fixed effects conditions, when it might be better conceptualised as random effects and repeated measures. Do other people think this? Does anyone have views on whether it would be worthwhile doing more complex analyses and whether the typical publication venues would accept those more complex analyses? Are there any guides to appropriate analyses for simulation results, e.g what to do with the results coming from multi-fold cross-validation (I presume the results are not independent across folds because they share cases).
An easy way to improve scoring of memory span tasks: The edit distance, beyond "correct recall in the correct serial position"
Gonthier in Behav. Res. Methods 2023
"in addition to being more logically consistent, edit-distance scoring demonstrates similar or better psychometric properties than partial-credit, with comparable validity, a small increase in reliability, and a substantial increase of test information"
What makes someone a cognitive scientist? Is it a degree in cognitive science? Or in one of its constitutive disciplines along with a research focus on the mind? Or publishing in cognitive science journals? Or something else? 🤔
Are #philosophy students’ intuitions about thought experiments different because of expertise?
Longitudinal studies of philosophy and #CogSci students (N = 226) didn't seem to reveal as much: there were some group differences in intuitions, but a selection/indoctrination effect seemed more likely than “a general expertise” or “expertise specific to particular subfields”.
Hi everyone, this is my second profile, which I plan to turn into an educational project in the near future. I'm not yet sure on the specifics, so I'm open to suggestions! 🙏🏻
It's the beginnings of an #rstats package for experimental mangling of #MIDI files. TBH, it's my personal experimental hacky-code base wrapped in R package clothing. I'm messing with it constantly, and sharing in case others are interested. #genRativemusic#Rmuzak#rstatsmusic
@ElenLeFoll Thanks, and #rstats {knitr} etc. and now #QuartoPub has been a total game changer for me. Websites galore!
Plus, I think if I keep noodling with {midiblender} I might accidentally push it out of hobby land into #cogsci territory, which should be even more fun!
On #Monday Louie Favela and Edouard Machery summarize the target article: "Investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences."
On #Tuesday and #Thursday, Ben Baker (Colby College) and Inês Hipólito (Macquarie) will comment.
On #Wednesday and #Friday, Louie and Edouard will respond to the comments.
“In the early days of modern consciousness science, back in the 1990s, researchers focused on identifying empirical correlations between aspects of conscious experience and properties of brain activity. […] In recent years, however, there has been a blossoming of neurobiological theories of consciousness.”
It's relatively commonly recognised that AI is a somewhat misleading umbrella term that covers a variety of different scientific and non-scientific projects.
In a new preprint, I articulate, defend, and illustrate a central scientific project for AI that is somewhat neglected or vaguely recognised, which I call AI-as-exploration (taking the cue from a recent paper by @olivia, @Iris et al).
Our Call for Papers is finally up! Come share your representational alignment work at our interdisciplinary workshop at ICLR in beautiful Vienna!
representational-alignment.github.io
The Priesemann Lab ( @ViolaPriesemann) is looking for PhD candidates (12 free positions) and PostDocs (2) in a very interesting project investigating the neural basis and cognitive properties of #curiosity. Start: summer 2024 in #Göttingen
Very excited to share a substantially updated version of our preprint “Language models show human-like content effects on reasoning tasks!” TL;DR: LMs and humans show strikingly similar patterns in how the content of a logic problem affects their answers. Thread: 1/10 #LanguageModels#lms#AI#cogsci#machinelearning#nlp#nlproc#cognitivescience
Do you know of any examples of this type of approach? Especially ones that led to a new type of therapy that is either approved, in clinical trials or just thought of? Maybe cancer?
Albeit then also going forward to therapeutic interventions?
Quite rare, difficult to qualify & interpret!
Just learned:
''Sham stimulation'
as placebo effect equivalent —inactive, brief, or weak form of directed brainwaves— for: #tDCS Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation #tACS Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation #tRNS Transcranial Random Noise Stimulation