David Melnikoff
Assistant Prof. at Stanford GSB
- Reposted by David MelnikoffWhat motivates people to engage in climate advocacy? In a new PNAS Nexus megastudy [https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf400] led by @dgoldwert.bsky.social we tested 17 theoretical interventions on a large US sample (N=31,324) to increase public, political, and financial climate advocacy. 1/5
- Reposted by David MelnikoffWell this is exciting! The Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University (@jhu.edu) invites applications for a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member in Cognitive Psychology, in any area and at any rank! Application + more info: apply.interfolio.com/178146
- Reposted by David MelnikoffThe International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) is pleased to announce Dr. April Bailey as the 2025 winner of the Early Career Award! Dr. Bailey is a Lecturer of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. She earned her B.A. from Colgate University and her PhD in 2019 from Yale University.
- Reposted by David MelnikoffWe are recruiting a lab manager/research assistant to start in early 2026! The successful candidate will conduct awake infant fMRI, meet cute babies, and join a fun team! More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join... Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffI'm recruiting a grad student! My lab at NYU (psych dept) studies the computational basis of moral cognition and aims to build AI systems that are aligned with human values. Now admitting a PhD student for Fall 2026. Apps due 12/1. sites.google.com/corp/site/sy...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffPeople are lazy--except when they're watching other people work hard. My student Emily Zohar just published her first first-authored paper, and it reveals something surprising about effort and social norms. /1 osf.io/preprints/ps...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffIt was great to hear from Brian Leahy (brianleahy.net) in the devo lunch at Stanford today!! He presented a beautiful set of studies that suggest that many 4-year-old children have a minimal concept of possibility: they simulate only once and treat the outcome as a fact. 🎱⬅️➡️🤔💭💡
- Reposted by David MelnikoffThe Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Science of Motivation has opened nominations for the editorship of Motivation Science, a multidisciplinary journal that publishes significant contributions to the study of motivation.
- Reposted by David MelnikoffWe're excited to announce that Cognitive Science at Dartmouth is recruiting PhD students to work collaboratively with me, Steven Frankland, and Fred Callaway. Come study the principles and mechanisms that enable us to understand, plan, and act in the world! Info: sites.dartmouth.edu/cogscigrad/
- Reposted by David MelnikoffColumbia Psych is hiring *two* junior faculty in Cognitive Science/Neuroscience this year! If you work on cognition (broadly defined), submit your application materials as soon as possible (review starts Nov 1). If you have questions you can reach out to me by email! apply.interfolio.com/175428
- “Okay great I opened the city gates like you suggested. And yeah, if you could generate a list of fun things to do with a giant wooden horse that would be super.”
- What could possibly go wrong?! nypost.com/2025/10/16/b...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffImplicit bias education has gotten a bad rap recently (and for some very good reasons), but in this paper (newly out in PIBSS) I argue that it could have value if done differently: doi.org/10.1177/2372... (Still also available as a preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...)
- Reposted by David MelnikoffISCON now seeking nominations for the 2024 Best Social Cognition Paper Award! This award recognizes an outstanding article (theoretical or empirical) in the field of social cognition. Papers eligible if published in 2024. More info here: www.socialcognition.net/best-paper-a...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffBrown’s Department of Cognitive & Psychological Sciences is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor, working in the area of AI and the Mind (start July 1, 2026). Apply by Nov 8, 2025 👉 apply.interfolio.com/173939 #AI #CognitiveScience #AcademicJobs #BrownUniversity
- Reposted by David MelnikoffI’m hiring!! 🎉 Looking for a full-time Lab Manager to help launch the Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab at Stanford. We’ll use all-day language recording, eye tracking, & neuroimaging to study how kids & families navigate unequal structural constraints. Please share: phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDWcqUYo
- Reposted by David MelnikoffWant to do a PhD with me and the Emotions in Context Lab? We’re looking for new grad students to join us next fall! Check out the lab website to learn what we’re working on now and in the near future: www.emotionsincontextlab.com/join/
- Reposted by David Melnikoff🚨 New paper alert! (slightly belated) We (with @joshcjackson.bsky.social) suggest that complex technologies, as they need several (often many) people to use them, require innovations that distribute cognition to help regulate cognitive load and coordinate. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffAs wildfires burn at home in 🇵🇹 and here in CA, we have a new paper that finds: exposure to fires doesn’t necessarily predict greater support for climate change mitigation. But people closest to the 2021-2022 fires do prioritize personal adaptive action. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffStanford GSB is hiring a behavioral research coordinator! Fantastic option for a pre-doc. In addition to the faculty and students, the lab director Nick Hall has been there since I was running my grad school expts- he's great, and super knowledgeable. careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/researc...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffJob announcement 📢 @shawnrhoadsphd.bsky.social and I are looking for a joint postdoc interested in computational models of social interaction! Interested? If you’ll be at #rlc2025 (or I missed you at #cogsci2025) feel free to reach out with any questions! apply.interfolio.com/165809
- 📢 @markkho.bsky.social & I are recruiting a joint postdoc interested in computational models of social interaction & mental health 💻 Ideal candidates have experience w/ multi-player web-based experiments & computational modeling 📅 Apps are reviewed on a rolling basis 🔗 apply.interfolio.com/165809
- Reposted by David Melnikoff🔖 NEW PAPER ALERT 🔖 Out in PNAS – we used equation discovery algorithms to improve models of human reinforcement learning. Led by the wonderful Kyle Lafollette with an amazing team Yanni Yuval @roeyschurr.bsky.social and @d-melnikoff.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
- Reposted by David MelnikoffOur *new paper* explores how flexibility in social categories like gender and race can undermine unfair norms. If we can't read an identity, we can't use it to underpin discrimination. We show even a little confusion can be powerful, and advocate identity play philsci-archive.pitt.edu/26062/
- Reposted by David Melnikoff📣 Heads-up that our amazing dept (Berkeley Psych) is anticipating hiring *two* TT Asst Profs this Fall, under the themes of (1) Social & Personality Psychology, and (2) Biological Basis of Behavior. Official job ads coming soon... Send qs for (1) to Iris Mauss/Serena Chen, (2) to Linda Wilbrecht
- Reposted by David MelnikoffHappy to announce that my lab @ Yale Psychology (actcompthink.org) will be accepting PhD applications this year (for start in Fall '26)! Come for the fun experiments on human learning, memory, & skilled behavior, stay for the best 🍕 in the US. Please reach out if you have any questions!
- Reposted by David MelnikoffI'm recruiting a lab manager for my soon-to-be-launched lab at Ohio State! If you know of any recent grads who may be interested both in helping to build the lab and in developing skills in the cognitive neuroscience of memory, please share! osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/OSUCar...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffI have noticed that many cool people are starting labs at Ohio State right now. I've decided to follow their lead. Soon, my lab will be moving to Ohio State as well. You can learn more about our recent and upcoming work here: www.cogdevlab.org
- Reposted by David MelnikoffIncredibly excited and grateful to share that I’ll be starting a lab at The Ohio State University this(!) fall! My lab will study human learning and memory, with related interests in sleep, stress, and time perception. More info soon, but do get in touch if you’re interested in joining!
- Reposted by David MelnikoffCentaur's performance may be largely driven by learning a good model of behavioral auto-regression—independent of the task. An important lesson for cognitive modelers: higher likelihood ≠ better account of behavior. osf.io/preprints/ps...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffCheck out our new TICS paper on disagreement and metacognition! We argue that disagreement drives metacognitive development by expanding children's consideration sets. With Antonia Langenhoff, Bill Thompson @wdt.bsky.social and Mahesh Srinivasan www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by David Melnikoff🎈 Out now: 🎈 "The capacity limits of moving objects in the imagination" (by Balaban & me) of interest to people thinking about the imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, capacity limits, and more www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffThis was a fun paper to write (published 5 years ago now). Here's a non-paywalled preprint version. osf.io/preprints/me... For way more on the subject, see the whole-ass book I wrote. press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
- Flashback Friday: @psmaldino.bsky.social provides a tutorial for "How to Translate a Verbal Theory Into a Formal Model." Check out the 10 lessons here: doi.org/10.1027/1864... #SocialPsych #AcademicSky #SocialPsychology #ResearchPublishing #Psychology
- Reposted by David MelnikoffShort new piece on aphantasia just out in TiCS: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Key idea: aphantasia often involves a lack of *visual-object* imagery (explaining subjective reports & objective correlates) but selectively spared *spatial* imagery (explaining preserved task performance).
- A key takeaway from 20+ years of computational RL is: model-free=automatic, model-based=deliberate. My new paper w/ @benedek.bsky.social challenges this view, suggesting that MB algos are more ubiquitous, & automatic processing more sophisticated, than currently thought: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by David Melnikoff🔆 I'm hiring! 🔆 There are two open positions: 1. Summer research position (best for master's or graduate student); focus on computational social cognition. 2. Postdoc (currently interviewing!); focus on computational social cognition and AI safety. sites.google.com/corp/site/sy...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffJob alert 🚨 We’re hiring a full-time research staff assistant at Columbia starting Fall 2025! The position will focus on several topics in the lab, including the cognitive & neural mechanisms underlying dynamic social perception using fMRI & natural language processing. Link: freemanlab.org/ra2025
- Reposted by David MelnikoffPostdoctoral Position, full ad here: hehmanlab.org/ad Drs. Jordan Axt and Eric Hehman are seeking applications for a jointly funded Post-Doctoral Researcher, beginning Fall 2025. Topic area would broadly be centered on intergroup dynamics and prejudice. 1/2
- Reposted by David MelnikoffUndergrads interested in philosophy of science? Please share that applications are open for our summer development program! lpssdp.com?fbclid=IwY2x...
- Reposted by David MelnikoffHow do children understand causal expressions? In "Cause and burn in development", we explore how children map different causal expressions like "burn" or "caused to burn" to different kinds of causes. 📃 osf.io/preprints/ps... 📎 github.com/davdrose/cau... 🧵
- Reposted by David MelnikoffHello! I'm looking 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_post... Official posting here: academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/14723
- New 📄: Support for a computational model of how task representations (e.g. thinking in terms of binary wins/losses vs. streaks of consecutive wins vs. physical distance to a target, etc.) shape the subjective experience of flow & its benefits of greater enjoyment & performance osf.io/preprints/os...
- This model builds on our informational theory of flow (www.nature.com/articles/s41...). We've used our theory to link flow to objective task *properties*, but not task *representations*, leaving it unclear how—and even whether—task representations shape flow holding tasks themselves constant.
- We address this mystery w/ a model that makes unique, precise predictions about when & how any representation will alter flow. The idea is that task representations shape flow via the information-theoretic quantity I(M;E): the mutual information between desired end states and means of attaining them
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