@tinekolenik
PhD in CogSci&AI for complex systems, human change processes, psychopathology&psychotherapy, post-cognitivism @pmu.ac.at. AI lead @Synergetic Navigation System. #Open∀ Unaspiring musician&writer. Perfect is better than done tinekolenik.github.io
Can large language models stand in for human participants?
Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research.
One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.
THREAD 🧵
Figure 2 from the linked article.
Abstract of the linked article
New paper for anyone working with data:
Better data viz - for free, in few clicks.
Below, all N = 111, M = 0.04, SD = 0.27.
One-sided t-tests vs. 0 yield: t(110) = 1.67, p = .049.
Use raincloud plots. Or risk wrong conclusions!
Plot w/ @jaspstats.bsky.social today!
🧪 📊 #PsychSciSky #StatsSky
🧵👇
I've had people tell me to my face that AI helps avoid biases and I haven't laughed harder in a long time.
Data doesn't grow on trees. We decide who matters and what to quantify about them. The very process bakes in bias.
Would he prefer to fly in an aeroplane built by expert engineers, or one built by a “citizen that had done their own research” and had come to a very different opinion on how flight should work and built a very different plane? Experts are expert for a reason.
A beautiful visualization of the state space of puzzles, 11 min of joy, h/t @danlarremore.bsky.social
Statement from the American Society of Human Genetics in 2020, countering the myth of "good genes". It reads as follows: "Genetics demonstrates that humans cannot be divided into biologically distinct subcategories or races, and any efforts to claim the superiority of humans based on any genetic ancestry have no scientific evidence. Moreover, it is inaccurate to claim genetics as the determinative factor in human strengths or outcomes when education, environment, wealth, and health care access are often more potent factors. There is no factual basis for attempts to define communities or regions of people with "good" or "bad" genes and a century of science has debunked such claims, which can feed discredited views and racist ideologies. Unchecked, unethical application of false genetic "theories" have resulted in past atrocities from forced sterilizations to the Holocaust and can still fuel unethical social policies worldwide today. Over the decades, our field also has reflected on its own role in such now-condemned ideas, and we speak out vocally as a community and as individuals to combat their resurgence. We must protect and advance the ethical use of genetics and genomics knowledge for the profound good it can realize, including better, more precise healthcare that leverages what we are discovering about human genetic commonality and diversity. The human genetics community dedicates itself to this goal each day, and today we are improving and saving hundreds of thousands of lives. As the ASHG community focuses on realizing the benefits of human genetics and genomics research for people everywhere, we also urge societal attention to address profound educational, economic and health inequalities that fuel differences in human experience and well-being. By pursuing all of these activities, humans can celebrate our common heritage as one people, embrace and fully tap our valued diversity, and help achieve optimal life outcomes for all."
A reminder that there is no scientific basis for attempts to define people in terms of “good” or “bad” genes - these are discredited views in service of racist ideologies. For the consensus from the experts, see e.g. this 2020 @geneticssociety.bsky.social statement:
www.ashg.org/publications... 🧬🧪
Anyone interested in autopoiesis and Randall Beer's formalization of it in Conway's Game of Life would probably enjoy looking at Tom's undergrad thesis, where he extends the ideas to the "Larger than Life" and "Real Life" family of cellular automata!
What is emergence? This is one of the most central ingredients of complexity, and a challenging one to formalize. Here's a paper by @seanmcarroll.bsky.social & Achyth Parola that attempts to classify different forms of emergence. @manlius.bsky.social @sfiscience.bsky.social arxiv.org/pdf/2410.15468
AI slop and the destruction of knowledge irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...
NEW PREPRINT
Explainable AI refers to an extremely popular group of approaches that aim to open "black box" AI models. But what can we see when we open the black AI box? We use Galit Shmueli's framework (to describe, predict or explain) to evaluate
arxiv.org/abs/2508.05753
New paper by @bsiepe.bsky.social & WARN-D team out now in JoPACS, on the (lack of) relation between EMA selfreport and Garmin passive data.
Guardian @theguardian.com coverage:
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Paper:
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
🧪 #PsychSciSky #StatsSky #EpiSky
"In recent years the concept of 'system' has gained increasing influence in psychology and psychopathology" - Ludwig von Bertalanffy, 1968
How can scientists compete with pseudoscience in algorithmic ecosystems?
This comes after several discussions with colleagues and friends, such as @ricardsole.bsky.social
I have just dropped this post on Linkedin (see the attached image, in case): www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
Ideas? Answers?
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀?
New approach: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
#complexsystems
The stupidity of this is:
Articles have ABSTRACTS. THAT’s the summary.
They have clearly labelled sections. That’s how you find the definitions, the methods, the results.
AI summaries of academic articles aren’t going to be as reliable as a human finding the same info in a little bit more time.
An introduction Ranulph Glanville gave during the 2013 conference of the American Society for Cybernetics in Bolton, UK, on his *Theory of Objects*, developed first in his 1975 thesis about "a Cybernetic Epistemology of Observation"👇
bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/24...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tACF...
What if positive emotions, not just negative, play a role in self-injury?
Discover the answer in the latest article by Bruckbauer-Schwed et al. in the latest issue of @clinpsycheurope.bsky.social
🔗 doi.org/10.32872/cpe...
#NSSI #PositiveAffect #DynamicComplexity #EMA #ClinicalPsychology #cpe
Sometimes the map really is better than the territory. Check out this paper on causal emergence by Erik Hoel: www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/19....
I made a quick diagram about it below!
#complexity #complex #complexsystems #emergence
👇👇👇
Looks like it’s “what do people think about big questions day” in science today.
What’s life and what’s stuff?
Alex Strudwick Young @AlexTISYoung · 3h The widget pictured below gives you the expected range of predicted IQs (or disease risks) for the number of embryos. The difference between the average and the highest gives you the expected gain in IQ if you were selecting the embryo with the highest predicted IQ. The spread does not depend on the mean you choose. The mean IQ you put in is actually the genotypic mean IQ of the parents (as we state) as we didn't want to get into the complexities of modeling regression to the mean in this widget, although we do of course model regression to the mean in our customer reports. We will be detailing rigorous validation of our IQ predictor in an upcoming publications, along with lots of other exciting science. -Quote tweeting the nazi Jordan Lasker (Cremieux) saying: "The latest embryo selection company is live, and guess what: They're publicly letting people select for IQ!"
New snake oil just dropped
And proudly boosting the nazi approval, bold business strategy!
Psychologists & related fields: what is a big methods question that you believe remains somewhat unanswered & that you'd love to see adressed? There may be an opportunity for a large-scale meta-science project with many teams trying to figure out a question.
Any thoughts welcome! #psychscisky
I'd say it's been called "consciousness studies" more because science ignored it for decades. When it (re-)emerged in the 90s, it came from philosophy, not labs. I guess science came late to the party, and by then, "studies" had decades of use and the name stuck.
I feel like I've seen Consciousness Studies used the most?
Will AI revolutionize or undermine mental health care?
Today's Deep Dive focuses on opportunities & risks of using large language models in psychiatric care & research.
By @skhalsa.bsky.social, @pshrink.bsky.social, @royperlis.bsky.social, @mpwpaulus.bsky.social et al
youtu.be/i8RfTa-dCU0?...
Many good and interesting points made here, including the final point about research papers soon being written by AIs, reviewed by AIs, and then subsequently summarized for us by AIs. At some point we'll need to rethink the current model of the ~10k word research article. #philsci #philsky
van Rooij, I., & Guest, O. (2025). Combining Psychology with Artificial Intelligence: What could possibly go wrong?. doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Table 1. The two steps required for the proposed redefinition of AI. At the top is step 1, where we decide whether a relationship exists between a technology and human cognition. This relationship, represented by the blue-green column between Machine and Human on row 1a, is AI. In 1b are terminological examples, both non-diagnostic on their own and incomplete as a list, that can aid in the diagnosis of a sociotechnical relationship as one of AI. The three columns below in step 2 represent three, not mutually exclusive, types of sociotechnical relationship between humans and artifacts. At this step, we sketch out if AI replaces, enhances, or displaces cognition (row 2a) — with relevant properties and their typical values, non-exhaustively specified, listed on rows 2b–h.
In this paper, @olivia.science Radically Redefines AI as any relationship between humans and artifacts “where it appears as if cognitive labour is offloaded onto such artifacts”. She distinguishes 3 types of relationship: AI that “replaces, enhances, or displaces cognition”.
See Table 1 below.
2/n
Sad to hear that Margaret Boden, pioneer in cognitive science and artificial intelligence, has passed away.
Just a few days ago, someone reactivated the post below. I warmly recommend watching the video.
Thank you Margaret for founding and shaping our field.
www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/re...