Jonathan Phillips

We'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/

Applications still open until February 4! Important note for US applicants: We do consider applicants with only a bachelor's degree and some research experience! You don't need a masters. #CogSci #PsychSciSky

📣 #CogSci2026 submissions now OPEN! 🔍 Review the submission guidelines ⬇️ Download the required templates 📅 Make note of key deadline dates cognitivesciencesociety.org/submissions/

Excited that this is now out in @nathumbehav.nature.com 🎉 David Rose (davdrose.github.io) led this project on how children's understanding of causal language develops. 📃 (preprint): osf.io/preprints/ps... 📎: github.com/davdrose/cau...

Just a quick reminder that applications for our new cross-lab PhD training model in cognitive science at Dartmouth are due Dec. 1. We're quite excited about this new approach, so please reach out if you have any questions!!

🧠 New paper alert! Can people infer others’ values not from what they choose, but simply from what comes to mind? Across four studies, we show they can—drawing on an intuitive theory of how options are generated. doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238 👇

New article w/ M Pabla & @orifriedman.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... When children claim an unexpected event is impossible they also claim it's never happened, even for immoral events, suggesting their judgments reflect beliefs about what could happen & not merely what should.

In case you don't know already, the journal Open Mind has a Bluesky account that automatically posts new papers: @openmindjournal.bsky.social The journal is diamond open access (free to read, free to publish) thanks to the support of MIT Press, Harvard Library, & MIT Library.

Happy 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!

If you’ll be at #CogSci2025, consider (or at least consider considering) attending our @cogscisociety.bsky.social workshop on meta reasoning 🤔🤨🧐 We’ll be discussing problem selection through various lenses represented by a great lineup of speakers!

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/...

In the second most important election happening today, I'm on the slate for potential new members of the governing board for the Cognitive Science Society! If you're a member, check your email for a link to vote and #DontRankCuomo

JOB! 3yr funded post-doc in Theory of Mind inspired by the knowledge first epistemology of Williamson, and the work of @jsphillips.bsky.social. Looking at knowledge and ignorance processing in adults with me and Richard O'Connor at the Uni of Hull. Please re-post. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNE794/p...

🏔️ Brad is lost in the wilderness—but doesn’t know there’s a town nearby. Was he forced to stay put? In our #CogSci2025 paper, we show that judgments of what’s possible—and whether someone had to act—depend on what agents know. 📰 osf.io/preprints/ps... w/ Matt Mandelkern & @jsphillips.bsky.social

Couldn't be more thrilled that Fred is coming to join us!! Dartmouth Cognitive Science is quickly growing into a group of amazing colleagues that I feel lucky to have around and think with!

Now out in JPSP ‼️ "Inference from social evaluation" with Zach Davis, Kelsey Allen, @maxkw.bsky.social, and @julianje.bsky.social 📃 (paper): psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-... 📜 (preprint): osf.io/preprints/ps...

Are humans the only species that communicates when a collaborator is missing information? In @pnas.org, Luke Townrow and I show that our closest relatives, bonobos, can track when a partner is knowledgeable or ignorant, and tailor communication accordingly www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Are you interested in research experience before applying to PhD programs? Or just want to learn more about cognitive science? Consider joining my lab as a lab manager (joint w/the Griffiths Lab). We will begin reviewing applications one week from today: cognition.princeton.edu/news/2025/op...

Our new paper with Max Taylor-Davies introduces a resource-rational model of Theory of Mind. The model can explain many of the successes and failures of mindreading in human adults and children, and non-human primates. 🧵

For anybody interested in this sort of thing, I think this is a valuable resource. A graph of articles in the SEP (standord encyclopaedia of philosophy), showing connections; it can help explore the field. www.visualizingsep.com#/domain/epis... #Philosophy #philsky #SEP #graph #catalogue

🚨 Now accepting commentary proposals!! 🚨Thrilled to share that our paper --- "Resource-rational contractualism: A triple theory of moral cognition" --- was accepted for publication at Behavioral and Brain Sciences and is open for commentary!

🔊 New paper just accepted in JPSP 🥳 In "Inference from social evaluation", we explore how people use social evaluations, such as judgments of blame or praise, to figure out what happened. 📜 osf.io/preprints/ps... 📎 github.com/cicl-stanfor... 1/6

psyarxiv.com/y3dzn preprint from the time i spent at @hartleylabnyu.bsky.social 💜 - we were puzzled by past findings suggesting that children learn about the structure of the world, but don't use this knowledge to flexibly guide their decision-making as much as adults do.

For the Dartmouth PBS graduate student visiting day this year, we introduced a new format based on the "Hot Ones" talk show: faculty and current graduate students ate nuggets with a series of increasing spicy hot sauces as they answered questions from prospective grad students! 🌶️🔥🥵

do people have a favorite ai for reading text out loud? I hit my limit for staring at screens way too easily, but would still love to be able to read papers while woodworking, cooking, driving, etc.

Three ManyBabies projects - big collaborative replications of infancy phenomena - wrapped up this year. The first paper came out this fall. I thought I'd take this chance to comment on what I make of the non-replication result. 🧵 bsky.app/profile/laur...

My favorite conference ❤️

(1/5) Very excited to announce the publication of Bayesian Models of Cognition: Reverse Engineering the Mind. More than a decade in the making, it's a big (600+ pages) beautiful book covering both the basics and recent work: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204941...

I’m recruiting PhD students to join the Computational Minds and Machines Lab at the University of Washington in Seattle! Join us to work at the intersection of computational cognitive science and AI with a broad focus on social intelligence. (Please reshare!)

🚨 Steven Frankland and I are recruiting jointly-advised graduate students to work on high-level cognition! They will be part of the Cognitive Science Program at Dartmouth and earn their Ph.D. in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Deadline: Dec 1: pbs.dartmouth.edu/graduate-pro...

✨ Now out in Psychological Review! ✨ We present a new account of relevance that weighs both *epistemic* and *decision-theoretic* utility: statements are relevant if they improve the accuracy of listener’s beliefs *and* their future decision-making. www.tedsumers.info/_files/ugd/2...