Yichen Li

New preprint! "Non-commitment in mental imagery is distinct from perceptual inattention, and supports hierarchical scene construction" (by Li, Hammond, & me) osf.io/preprints/psya… the title's a lot, but at least it's a decent summary

nifty write-up of cool stuff on diversity-of-thought vs. alignment, by Sonia Murthy and Jenn Hu (and I'm there too) (to be presented at #NAACL2025)

I'm recruiting PhD students + postdocs for my lab, coming to @JohnsHopkins in Fall 2025! Our brand new lab is at the intersection of cognitive science and AI, using computational + behavioral methods to understand how language works in minds and machines. Details below! (1/4)

hooray, the "Bayesian Models of Cognition" book is out, for all your Bayesian models of cognition needs :) (I contributed to 3 chapters in the book -- development, intuitive physics, theory of mind -- that can be read on the ol' website)

New preprint! The first from my postdoc, on work with @basvanopheusden @evanrussek and @cocosci_lab. We use a data set of over two million decisions to show that people employ sophisticated learning algorithms in naturalistic strategic behavior. More in 🧵osf.io/preprints/psya…

One of my fav recent projects is "What is Where", out in Open Mind (w/ @talboger) doi.org/10.1162/opmi_a… to get a quick sense, pick an object & suppose a friend asked ‘where is [Object]?’ it seems obvious: ‘over there’. But where do you actually point? Give it a try!

come hear excellent people talk excellent stuff at #CogSci2024 (also excellent)

Lab's first paper on procrastination, by @peiyuan9. Sixteen years after I told Read Montague in my job interview that I wanted to study the topic (and he didn't laugh at me). nature.com/articles/s4159…

We at @ANDL_Harvard anticipate an open Research Assistant/Lab Manager position starting this summer, contributing to our work on brain and psychological development through adolescence. Official ad coming soon (we will update it on our lab’s News page)!

commentary out now in BBS (with Sophie Bridgers): "Genies, lawyers, and smart-asses: Extending proxy failures to intentional misunderstandings" (a response to John et al.'s recent fun piece on "proxy failures") free pre-print here: tomerullman.org/papers/genieBB…

If you have a background in cellular/molecular biology and are interested in studying the mechanisms of learning and memory in unicellular organisms, come do a postdoc in my lab! More info here: gershmanlab.com/news.html

📣I'm hiring a lab coordinator! This position is ideal for someone looking for research experience before applying to graduate school. Deadline is April 1st—flexible summer start date. Details and instructions below! employment.ucsd.edu/laboratory-coo…

excited to give this talk! here is a sneak peak of the content

I'd like to hire a post-doc, to start this summer or fall. It'd be great if you could share this widely with people you think might be interested. More details on the position & how to apply: bit.ly/cocodev_postdo… Official posting: academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/13532

woo, several chapters now available from upcoming book "Bayesian Models of Cognition: Reverse Engineering the Mind": 1) Theory of mind and inverse decision-making (Chapter 14): tomerullman.org/papers/BBB_cha…

New paper on @PsyArXiv: “Shape Guides Visual Pretense” (By Peng Qian and me) psyarxiv.com/zv8nb

cool new preprint: "Blending Simulation and Abstraction for Physical Reasoning" (by @flxsosa , @gershbrain , and me) psyarxiv link: osf.io/preprints/psya…

Excited to share our review on the successor representation and two important generalizations: successor features and successor models! These provide answers spanning AI, cognitive science, and neuroscience for how agents can efficiently reuse their knowledge in new situations

Come join us! @weijima01 and I are recruiting a postdoc to study human planning in chess using a massive dataset of online chess matches. The postdoc will join both of our labs, as well as an NSF-funded collaboration with the @cocosci_lab at Princeton. apply.interfolio.com/139253

(corrected link/title): How close are we to a machine smart-ass? "Comparing the Evaluation and Production of Loophole Behavior in Humans and Large Language Models" Lead & presented in EMNLP Findings by @soniakmurthy (support by @KempnerInst) aclanthology.org/2023.findings-…