Samuel Recht @SamuelRecht@qoto.org

1/ PyVBMC 1.0 is out! 🎉

https://github.com/acerbilab/pyvbmc

A new Python package for efficient Bayesian inference.

Get a posterior distribution over model parameters + the model evidence with a small number of likelihood evaluations.

No AGI was created in the process!

This is *not* the way scientific papers typically begin:
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We are running out of time. Ecosystems across the planet are being destroyed at an accelerating rate. The life sciences – once a field dedicated to the study of living systems and our interactions with them – are increasingly becoming sciences of the dead. Up to one million species are currently threatened with extinction, many of them within decades.
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It's a very good sign, however, an indication that at least some scientists are now ready to speak boldly and unequivocally about the greatest emergency our species has ever faced.

SEE THE FULL PAPER -- https://elifesciences.org/articles/83292

#ClimateEmergency #BiodiversityLoss #Extinction

Applications open until March 10 for the Cogmaster, indisciplinary research masters in cognitive science in Paris:
https://cogmaster.ens.psl.eu/en

Tribute to Mark Stokes.
I was saddened to learn of the passing of my colleague Mark Stokes. Here is a video tribute I recorded for his festschrift in June 2022.
https://youtu.be/CpNLvFDMbhI

#neuroscience

R.I.P. Mark

Get Stoke(s)d!
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (2022) 35 (1): 1–3.
https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_e_01938

Something exciting has been happening over the last decade: Perception scientists, increasingly inspired by philosophy, are now putting philosophical thought experiments to empirical test. In a forthcoming article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, @chazfirestone and I review this trend. https://psyarxiv.com/9mskz/

We are excited to announce that Cognitive Computational Neuroscience (CCN) 2023 will take place this year in Oxford from August 24 - 27, 2023! The conference will take place at the Examination Schools – more information can be found here:
https://www.venues.ox.ac.uk/our-venues/examination-schools/

My paper on the molecular memory code is now published!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303264722002064?dgcid=author
Now the task is to work out the details and test the theory experimentally. Let me know if you want to help!

This #ReceptioGate article is interesting because it considers wider issues for scholars, research, and academia: https://thecritic.co.uk/receptiogate-and-the-absolute-state-of-academia/

My paper, "Distinguishing guesses from fuzzy memories: Further evidence for item limits in visual working memory" with @kcs_adam, Joshua Foster and Edward Awh is published!

https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13414-022-02631-y

#psychology #workingmemory #visualworkingmemory

"Even when the decisions themselves appeared bias free, women still bore extra time costs throughout the review process and were held to higher standards."

"female authors spent about 12 more days than comparable men revising their manuscripts. Women were also more likely to go through more rounds of review — three or more, compared with one or two for men."

#sexism #PeerReview

https://www.chronicle.com/article/are-women-held-to-a-higher-standard-in-publishing

My book📚, “A Student’s Guide to Open Science: Using the Replication Crisis to Reform Psychology” is available to pre-order now! (https://tinyurl.com/59zk7m5y; https://tinyurl.com/2cukuy9v). A thread of why this book is important to both the field and me! 🧵

🍣We are hiring! 🍣 A postdoc or research scientist position in the Computational Group Dynamics Unit, RIKEN CBS, Tokyo (Wako). Expected starting in April 2023 (negotiable). Interested in social and collective human behaviour? See full details! 👉 https://cbs.riken.jp/en/careers/20221226_w22240_w.toyokawa_r.html