Us enlightened ones should start a WhatsApp group!
10.03.2026 21:58
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Us enlightened ones should start a WhatsApp group!
I mentioned this to Gavin earlier, but a few years ago I heard a cracking talk by Ellen Sandseter in Aarhus on her work on risky play and using VR. I was so impressed by it, I used the work in a new Psychology in Action section in the next edition of Psychology. Sneak peek.
It's called peel if you peel it and chuck away the peel! (Like a banana)
I'm making the active inference that you'd enjoy it if you tried it
Kiwi without the skin on is just a controlled hallucination
I just ate two with the skin on (but I did cut off the 'head' and 'tail' if that makes you feel any better)
I might actually even prefer it with the skin on
Want to learn how to contribute to #opensource? 👩💻👨💻
Never used #Git before?
Join us for our free beginner-friendly workshop and learn the basics of contributing to open source projects like #psychopy
🗓 March 19th
⏰ 12:00 PM (UK time)
Everyone is welcome 🚀
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/my-first-p...
I too saw a cracking talk from her a couple of years back - very cool stuff!
PSA - eating a kiwi with the skin on is actually quite palatable, and much better for you than with the skin removed
7. There's almost no evidence for inherent risks of VR for the 'developing visual system', but there's a very real physical risk of injury by smashing your hand into a fall or bashing your face on a countertop. VR in young people should certainly be supervised!
6. Overall though, I'd probably buy my kid a VR headset and encourage them to use it instead of a tablet if I had concerns about their coordination and movement and had the space for them to engage with it properly
Also some media coverage, where I'm disproportionately proud to get both dyspraxia and Crediton mentioned on the BBC
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
5. The differences between the interventions might have been driven by engagement with the interventions - we have no data about how that engagement looked, and it's likely VR was a single massive chunk of time, rather than the more spaced out tablet gameplay.
4. The biggest outcome improvement (box and block test) isn't something typically used to assess motor control in this population - it probably could be, but certainly hasn't been normed/validated in this way (yet)
3. Hard to tell if the improvement in performance was driven by the VR or by the game itself (Beatsaber) - we had a long pre-study engagement with dyspraxic children and families to determine what intervention would be most enjoyable for our participants, and Beatsaber came out on top
2. Control condition is pretty distinct from the intervention, but was at least a pretty cerebral tablet game (cut the rope) and something that felt pretty representative of what children are often doing after a day at school when they are allowed on their screens
Obvious caveats
1. Early days with a short-term follow up - we will need to see if/how this alters longer-term outcomes
Paper: games.jmir.org/2026/1/e84995/
Data and Materials: osf.io/87qk3/overview
New paper from @m93-alharbi.bsky.social's PhD, where we show that short sessions of @beatsaberofficial.bsky.social over a week can improve motor performance in dyspraxic young people, significantly more so than a tablet-based control task for some outcomes. [data and paper linked below]
We are hosting a free conference at the @exeter.ac.uk on the 20th July, with a focus on immersive technologies in sport and exercise. Sign up, and spread the word!
www.exeter.ac.uk/events/detai...
Screenshot of job ad: How do Bayesian brains acquire priors? APPLICATIONS CLOSE 20/4/2026 11:55 PM Summary of the Project This project explores how the brain constructs perceptual experience from visual input, focusing on the role of Bayesian models in perception. A key challenge in vision science is understanding how humans interpret complex scenes from the limited information available in retinal images. Modern theories suggest that perception involves probabilistic inference, where the brain integrates sensory signals with prior expectations to make sense of the world. However, the origins and nature of these expectations remain poorly understood. This research aims to advance our understanding of perceptual experience by examining how structured patterns in visual input can inform models of perception. The work spans computational modelling and experimental approaches to uncover principles that explain how visual systems interpret properties such as shape, material, and lighting from images. By addressing fundamental questions about perception, this project will contribute to psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, offering insights into how biological and artificial systems can learn to interpret complex environments.
I'm looking for a skilled PhD student who doesn't want to work too hard but still do great science:
unisc-cp.enquire.cloud/round/RND-00...
Seat aside, I'm captivated by that art image
Another gem from Marketplace
Elicited an instant 'ew' response from me
I once had a paper reviewed, where the reviewer reconstructed the data from a scatterplot to make some point about an analysis I could do, instead of just downloading the raw data from the linked OSF 🫠
Definitely wishing I'd gotten my oil tank filled up last week...
People trying to hide themselves when taking photos of mirrors to sell is a bit of an artform, but I really love to people who decide to lean into the fact that they cannot hide
Conference announcement, and call for abstracts
Immersive Technologies in Sport and Exercise
Held at the University of Exeter on the 20th of July 2026
Free to attend!
Register here (also including the abstract submission link) www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/immersive-...
Spread the word!
UM YES
So after a week in Málaga and Seville, I'm curious about if anyone at these institutions would like to start a long term collaboration which would allow me to visit regularly