Heather L Kosakowski

28 Sept 2025

My lab at USC is recruiting! 1) research coordinator: perfect for a recent graduate looking for research experience before applying to PhD programs: usccareers.usc.edu REQ20167829 2) PhD students: see FAQs on lab website dornsife.usc.edu/hklab/faq/

When and how do newborns see a face? @nmwilkinson.eurosky.social and colleagues identify a serious problem in how a foundational newborn study has been interpreted. But the Bluesky victory lap is leaving out a rather important detail: neonates track FACE drawings! bsky.app/profile/nmwi...

Dr Nick@nmwilkinson.eurosky.social

New paper! Accepted at Perspectives on Psychological Science. A textbook finding in infant psychology is that newborns - within ~1 hour of birth - visually track a simplified 'three blob' facelike stimulus further than its inverted control (see picture). This suggested inborn knowledge of faces!

also shout-out to @levelsof.bsky.social who engaged with what the presence (or absence) of a set of results in neonates means (or doesn't mean) for nativist accounts of development. bsky.app/profile/leve...

This post is unavailable.

researchgate.net(PDF) Is there an innate face detection module in the human newborn? A systematic review, meta- analysis and theoretical examination of the newborn face preference and its implications (accepted at Pe...PDF | Reports of 'newborn face preference' are widely cited as evidence for an innate face detector, yet the literature has not been systematically... | Find, read and cite all the research you need o...

in sum, if the criticism is that researchers selectively transmitted findings to support a preferred theory, selectively transmitting findings to celebrate its demise seems an unfortunate response. Correct the three-blob story. Explain the face preference. Both are important parts of the paper.

Dr Nick@nmwilkinson.eurosky.social

And @deontbenton.bsky.social, this in no way challenges domain specificity.. babies still prefer and track faces! They just aren’t satisfied with three blobs. How does a preference that requires MORE than a face-like configuration become evidence against domain specificity? bsky.app/profile/deon...

Deon T. Benton@deontbenton.bsky.social

Are the original Johnson et al. 1991 findings evidence of a face-template or something more general, and is this bias to orient towards stimuli like them reflective of an domain-specific mechanism? This excellent paper challenges the face-template interpretation as well as the domain-specific one.

And yes @vayzenb.bsky.social, infant studies are definitely hard and we certainly need more meta-analyses of existing literature without sacrificing rigor (shout out to all involved with @manybabies.org ). bsky.app/profile/vayz...

Vlad Ayzenberg@vayzenb.bsky.social

We need more meta-analytic and big science work on newborns like this. Research w/ newborns is HARD 1. Measurements are noisy and often ambiguous 2. Number of drop outs is high 3. Sample sizes are usually <20 This puts the newborn work highly at risk of spurious results and poor replicability

Dr Nick@nmwilkinson.eurosky.social

Yet a theory (CONSPEC) treated that simplification as sufficient and generations of dev psyc students learned it was true. @nmwilkinson.eurosky.social is right to challenge that interpretation. But, we need to preserve the positive findings, too! not repeat the same mistakes

So... @numcog.bsky.social, this paper STRENGTHENS, not weakens, arguments for nativism: Within an hour of birth, newborns track schematic faces but not scrambled face parts. The template fails to capture that pattern and the explanatory problem just got more interesting! bsky.app/profile/numc...

Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦@numcog.bsky.social

I grew up as a Developmental Psychologist in a era of almost unbridled Nativism. To see so many of its foundations crumble and being exposed for lack of rigour is fascinating to witness

Dr Nick@nmwilkinson.eurosky.social

Goren et al. (1975) found that newborns tested within an hour of birth preferentially tracked schematic faces over scrambled controls. Johnson et al. (1991) replicated that preference. That finding survives the review & meta-analysis & deserves at least as much attention as the debunking.

@nancykanwisher.bsky.social

What Johnson et al. did NOT establish was preferential tracking of three blobs arranged like a face (“config”) over the inverse config or scrambled face parts. The FACE preference survived! But, the proposed three-blob simplification did not establish the preference subsequently attributed to it.

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

Nancy Kanwisher

Our paper showing privileged representational axes in brains and ANNS, by the amazing @meenakshikhosla.bsky.social, w/ @joshhmcdermott.bsky.social and @itsneuronal.bsky.social, is finally out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Meenakshi's tweet thread here: x.com/meenakshik93... and in this thread....

nature.comPrivileged representational axes in biological and artificial neural networks - Nature Human BehaviourKhosla et al. show that both brains and neural networks consistently favoured certain axes for representing the natural world.

Across studies, neonates prevented from seeing a face in the first hours of birth track faces more than scrambled face parts. But when you replace the eyes, nose, and mouth with three squares, this effect goes away. Sum: babies prefer faces! But…subcortical face “template”… not so much Great job! 👏

Dr Nick@nmwilkinson.eurosky.social

Society for Scholarly Publishing

Also, the sheer number of people the authors call out for mis-citing the evidence in Johnson et al., is ridiculous. Mind blown 🤯 seriously.

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

@scholarlypub.bsky.social

What's driving today's research integrity challenges? Respondents to SSP's latest Pulse Check ranked publish-or-perish incentive structures as the most impactful root cause, followed closely by generative AI outpacing policy and detection. Explore the full findings >>

sspnet.orgLatest “Pulse Check” Results Reveal How Our Community is Grappling with Research Integrity ChallengesSSP’s latest Pulse Check poll explores how scholarly publishing organizations rank their current priorities, confidence levels, and the drivers behind these challenges.

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

Rebecca Peretz-Lange

@rebeccaperetzlange.bsky.social

9 Sept

Vassar is hiring a clinical psychologist!! This is a terrific position for someone seeking a true balance of research & teaching responsibilities on a gorgeous campus 75 miles north of NYC. Please repost!

Rebecca Peretz-Lange@rebeccaperetzlange.bsky.social

Vassar's Dept of Psychological Science is hiring an Assistant Prof (tenure-track) specializing in clinical psych or psychopathology. Come join me in the beautiful Hudson Valley! 🍁🍃🍎 vassar.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Vassar... Please repost!! 🔁

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

Lindsey Powell

@lindseypowell.bsky.social

9 Sept

UCSD Psychology is hiring!! We’re seeking a new assistant professor colleague who studies high-level human cognition, broadly construed. Please share and/or apply! apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04646

apol-recruit.ucsd.eduAssistant Professor in High-level Human CognitionUniversity of California, San Diego is hiring. Apply now!

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

Dr Anna Leshinskaya

@annaleshinskaya.bsky.social

9 Sept

Thrilled to announce that my department, UCI cognitive sciences, is hiring a tenure-track assistant professor in the area of computational social cognition. Further information including the application can be found at: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF10411

recruit.ap.uci.eduAssistant Professor - Cognitive SciencesUniversity of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

Lillian Behm

@lillianbehm.bsky.social

31 Jan

Awake infant fMRI offers a rare window into early brain and cognitive development. In a new paper out now in Infancy, we leverage data from hundreds of infant scans from the Saxe and Turk-Browne Labs to reveal what factors drive scanning success — and how future studies can maximize data retention!

onlinelibrary.wiley.comFunctional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Infants: Insights From More Than 750 Scanning SessionsFunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses signifi....

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

tedlab.mit.edutedlab.mit.edu

31 Jan

Congratulations to @lillianbehm.bsky.social, Nick Turk-Browne, and a huge team for putting together this paper (out today) on lessons from a decade of attempts to study awake infants with fMRI: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

languagemit.bsky.social

@languagemit.bsky.social

24 Dec 2025

New book! I have written a book, called Syntax: A cognitive approach, published by MIT Press. This is open access; MIT Press will post a link soon, but until then, the book is available on my website: tedlab.mit.edu/tedlab_websi...

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

Sam Nastase

@samnastase.bsky.social

1 Oct 2025

I'm recruiting PhD students to join my new lab in Fall 2026! The Shared Minds Lab at @usc.edu will combine deep learning and ecological human neuroscience to better understand how we communicate our thoughts from one brain to another.

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

Association for Psychological Science

@psychscience.bsky.social

18 Aug 2025

In the latest #UndertheCortex episode, cognitive scientists @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social‬ of ‪@mit.edu ‬and @kosakowski.bsky.social of ‪@harvard.edu‬ discuss their groundbreaking findings about the development of the brain’s face-processing network.

psychologicalscience.orgHow Our Brains Grasp FacesPodcast: In this episode, cognitive scientists Rebecca Saxe of MIT and Heather Kosakowski join host Scott Sleek to discuss their groundbreaking findings about the development of the brain’s face-proce...

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

Tristan Yates

@tristansyates.bsky.social

28 Apr 2025

We were blown away by the public response to our findings that the infant brain can store memories. Many people wrote to share with us their first memories. To help us capture these reports, we created a short, anonymous survey. We hope you might also consider taking it. Please share with others! 🧠🧪

yalesurvey.ca1.qualtrics.comSurvey of Earliest MemoriesThis survey pertains to your earliest memories. It is anonymous and all participation is voluntary.

Tristan Yates@tristansyates.bsky.social

Why do we not remember being a baby? One idea is that the hippocampus, which is essential for episodic memory in adults, is too immature to form individual memories in infancy. We tested this using awake infant fMRI, new in @science.org #ScienceResearch www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.orgHippocampal encoding of memories in human infantsHumans lack memories for specific events from the first few years of life. We investigated the mechanistic basis of this infantile amnesia by scanning the brains of awake infants with functional magne...

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

24 Apr 2025

The question we ask: when do face responses arise in human infant cortex? Neuroscientists and developmental psychologists (my two disciplines) have different intuitions.

Rebecca Saxe @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social

Very excited to share this new paper, out this week. An attempt to express an idea I have been working on for more than a decade. Responses, questions, critiques, suggestions encouraged!

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

Very excited to share this new paper, out this week. An attempt to express an idea I have been working on for more than a decade. Responses, questions, critiques, suggestions encouraged!

Heather L Kosakowski@kosakowski.bsky.social

In our recent review, @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social & I bring together fMRI & fNIRS findings from the last decade to argue that babies not only perceive faces but they also attribute meaning to those faces. It’s a short read and we’d love to hear your thoughts. (4/5) doi.org/10.1177/0963...

When you see this image, does it make you wonder what that baby is thinking. Do you think the baby is merely perceiving a set of shapes or do you think that the baby is also inferring meaning from the face they are looking at? (1/5)

And if you have an extra minute, read the story @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social wrote about making a modern Mother and Child image in an MRI machine. (5/5) www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

There many reasons the Madonna and Child image holds diverse audiences captive. It evokes not just the love a parent has a child but also the love a child has for a parent. The art depicts a relationship between 2 people, going beyond merely perceiving a collection of shapes. (2/5)

@thetransmitter.bsky.social

Do babies really infer meaning from the people around them? Are their brains able to process more than the onslaught of sights & sounds hitting their sensory organs? These Qs have fascinated philosophers & scientists for millennia. How do babies experience their environments? (3/5)

Heather L Kosakowski reposted

The Transmitter

14 Mar 2025

This month’s “Liftoff” features @jocelynbreton.bsky.social discussing the importance of patience when opening a lab. And @vivianpaulun.bsky.social shares how she'll use a traditional German custom in her lab to foster a supportive and uplifting culture. #neuroskyence bit.ly/4hFNosx

thetransmitter.orgLiftoff: New lab alertsLearn about early-career scientists starting their own labs.

Heather L Kosakowski reposted