The dawn of a new year arrives at UC Merced! Here's to a healthy and prosperous 2024 for all of our Bobcat family, friends and community! #fiatlux

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📣We are hiring!! We are looking for two tenure-track assistant professors, one in Human Evolutionary Social Science and one in Computational Social Science. 🚨Deadline Jan 31st Please retweet! Details are here: tse-fr.eu/groups/departm…

Susi Ferrarello (CSU East Bay) will be presenting at UC Merced next Friday, on The Problem of Idealization in Empathy and Ethics. If you're nearby come join us! (If not we'll be posting videos).

How can dissociative states and highly altered states serve as means for therapeutic practices in psychology and psychiatry? A new review from CIS PhD student Joshua Clingo discusses clinical efficacy as well as the proposed mechanisms underlying how such treatments work:

"How Much of the World Is It Possible to Model?" (by Dan Rockmore, in The New Yorker): newyorker.com/culture/annals… [lede: "Mathematical models power our civilization—but they have limits."] (h/t Bard Ermentrout)

I am so excited to share the conversation I had with the brilliant Paul Smaldino. We talk about the importance of models, theory, and good research skills for social sciences. Hope everyone enjoys this one!

"A natural way to bound the system in thinking of creativity is at the skull." "But once you're a card carrying complex systems theorist, you're not tied to classic boundaries." Tyler Marghetis (@UCMerced & Santa Fe Institute ) examines 'creativity'. podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wha…

20 years ago this month I started as a founding faculty member at UC Merced. Here’s what it was like seeing a brand new university grow into an established university with thousands of students. 1/

Hey UC Merced students! Run, don't walk! 🏃‍♀️📷 Don't miss your chance to register for this summer's CogSci courses! Did we mention they're ONLINE!? See you (virtually) this summer!

TOMORROW! Come see our Bobcat Day presentation on how Cognitive Science got a Nobel Prize in AI! We will have a reception (with snacks!) after the presentation for a chance to chat with faculty. WHERE: UC MERCED COB 120 Presentation 11AM-12PM Reception 12PM-1PM

Next week! Come check out Dr. James Holland Jones' presentation on the development of narrative as a decision-making tool in the face of uncertainty!

Last week three of my PhD students defended their dissertations on three consecutive days. From left to right in the picture below are: Andrew Proulx, Me, Joshua Clingo, and Liza Kim.

I just published an article in the MIT Press Reader about my book, Gaming Cancer, which is short and quite readable (thanks to Anar Badalov for excellent editorial support). Check it out! thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how-citizen-sc… #citizenscience #cancer #gaming

I’m excited to say the article I published last week in the MIT Press Reader has now been republished in both Popular Science and Nautilus Magazine. It’s a brief overview of my book, Gaming Cancer. popsci.com/health/gaming-… nautil.us/gaming-cancer-…

Are opinions on controversial political issues as divided as many people perceive them to be? UC Merced Prof. Paul Smaldino and coauthors Peter Steiglechner and Agostino Merico discuss their new study with Neuroscience News neurosciencenews.com/perception-soc…

“We are not evolutionarily, psychologically prepared to understand that AI does not have general intelligence” UC Merced Prof. Colin Holbrook weighed in on trusting AI use. Fresno Unified superintendent called out amidst AI controversy yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-new…

This got a bunch of traction and so I thought I'd post a little thread about Don Norman. Many of the founders of UCMerced CogSci worked with Norman, and so I've got lore, and I also met him myself.