Andrea de Varda
@andreadevarda.bsky.social
Pinned
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
Our paper “The cost of thinking is similar between large reasoning models and humans” is now out in PNAS! 🤖🧠
w/ @fepdelia.bsky.social, @hopekean.bsky.social, @lampinen.bsky.social, and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Link: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (1/6)
w/ @fepdelia.bsky.social, @hopekean.bsky.social, @lampinen.bsky.social, and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Link: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (1/6)
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
Thanks so much for the fun conversation @wiair.bsky.social !
A pleasure to chat about language, LLMs, and memory--covering some work with @bkhmsi.bsky.social @mschrimpf.bsky.social @michael-lepori.bsky.social @klemenkotar.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @thomashikaru.bsky.social, among others!
A pleasure to chat about language, LLMs, and memory--covering some work with @bkhmsi.bsky.social @mschrimpf.bsky.social @michael-lepori.bsky.social @klemenkotar.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @thomashikaru.bsky.social, among others!
New episode of #WiAIRpodcast: Greta Tuckute @gretatuckute.bsky.social talks to @j-novikova-nlp.bsky.social about what brain-LLM alignment does and does not tell us, and why, asked to keep one label out of neuroscience, cognitive science and AI, she drops AI first
September 17, 2026 at 5:23 PM
Thanks so much for the fun conversation @wiair.bsky.social !
A pleasure to chat about language, LLMs, and memory--covering some work with @bkhmsi.bsky.social @mschrimpf.bsky.social @michael-lepori.bsky.social @klemenkotar.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @thomashikaru.bsky.social, among others!
A pleasure to chat about language, LLMs, and memory--covering some work with @bkhmsi.bsky.social @mschrimpf.bsky.social @michael-lepori.bsky.social @klemenkotar.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @thomashikaru.bsky.social, among others!
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
Go, @andreadevarda.bsky.social! A beautiful and comprehensive study! 🔑 findng: behav. measures are ~fully reducible to simple predictors of processing effort (surprisal, word length+frequency), but for 🧠 measures, LLM embeddings carry additional predictive power, likely capturing aspects of meaning.
New preprint! 🧠👀🤖
Behavioral and brain responses to language reflect different levels of linguistic representation
w/ @whylikethis.bsky.social , @evfedorenko.bsky.social , and @rplevy.bsky.social (1/10)
Behavioral and brain responses to language reflect different levels of linguistic representation
w/ @whylikethis.bsky.social , @evfedorenko.bsky.social , and @rplevy.bsky.social (1/10)
September 1, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Go, @andreadevarda.bsky.social! A beautiful and comprehensive study! 🔑 findng: behav. measures are ~fully reducible to simple predictors of processing effort (surprisal, word length+frequency), but for 🧠 measures, LLM embeddings carry additional predictive power, likely capturing aspects of meaning.
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
Wonderful work by @andreadevarda.bsky.social linking behavioral and neural manifestations of language comprehension using language models. With @rplevy.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
New preprint! 🧠👀🤖
Behavioral and brain responses to language reflect different levels of linguistic representation
w/ @whylikethis.bsky.social , @evfedorenko.bsky.social , and @rplevy.bsky.social (1/10)
Behavioral and brain responses to language reflect different levels of linguistic representation
w/ @whylikethis.bsky.social , @evfedorenko.bsky.social , and @rplevy.bsky.social (1/10)
September 2, 2026 at 5:17 AM
Wonderful work by @andreadevarda.bsky.social linking behavioral and neural manifestations of language comprehension using language models. With @rplevy.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
New preprint! 🧠👀🤖
Behavioral and brain responses to language reflect different levels of linguistic representation
w/ @whylikethis.bsky.social , @evfedorenko.bsky.social , and @rplevy.bsky.social (1/10)
Behavioral and brain responses to language reflect different levels of linguistic representation
w/ @whylikethis.bsky.social , @evfedorenko.bsky.social , and @rplevy.bsky.social (1/10)
September 1, 2026 at 6:28 PM
New preprint! 🧠👀🤖
Behavioral and brain responses to language reflect different levels of linguistic representation
w/ @whylikethis.bsky.social , @evfedorenko.bsky.social , and @rplevy.bsky.social (1/10)
Behavioral and brain responses to language reflect different levels of linguistic representation
w/ @whylikethis.bsky.social , @evfedorenko.bsky.social , and @rplevy.bsky.social (1/10)
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
New paper out! 🎉 Can preverbal logical inferences scaffold the early acquisition of logical words? We asked this question with Mahham Fayyaz, Grace Pavalko and Nicolò Cesana-Arlotti, focusing on disjunction: escholarship.org/uc/item/3pf7....
escholarship.org
August 20, 2026 at 11:37 AM
New paper out! 🎉 Can preverbal logical inferences scaffold the early acquisition of logical words? We asked this question with Mahham Fayyaz, Grace Pavalko and Nicolò Cesana-Arlotti, focusing on disjunction: escholarship.org/uc/item/3pf7....
Bowers and colleagues (B&al) have a new response to our paper on the cost of thinking in reasoning models and humans. Here we address the core disagreements.🧵
Here is our latest response regarding the alignment between large reasoning models and human reasoning. The debate hinges around the methods NeuroAI researchers use to study natural intelligence–the focus of our upcoming GAC:
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
bsky.app/profile/cogc...
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
bsky.app/profile/cogc...
OSF
doi.org
August 7, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Bowers and colleagues (B&al) have a new response to our paper on the cost of thinking in reasoning models and humans. Here we address the core disagreements.🧵
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
First up in the Glushko Dissertation Prize Symposium: Andrea de Varda @andreadevarda.bsky.social examines what multilingual neural language models can reveal about language and cognition. #CogSci2026
July 25, 2026 at 2:25 PM
First up in the Glushko Dissertation Prize Symposium: Andrea de Varda @andreadevarda.bsky.social examines what multilingual neural language models can reveal about language and cognition. #CogSci2026
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
How many languages have existed over the Holocene—and what does that reveal about the design space of languages and cultures? Now out in @science.org www.science.org/eprint/QDZNY....
The rise and fall of language diversity through the Holocene
Characterizing the factors that have shaped linguistic diversity is fundamental for understanding human history, culture, and cognition. In this study, we combined statistical and social computational...
www.science.org
July 23, 2026 at 6:46 PM
How many languages have existed over the Holocene—and what does that reveal about the design space of languages and cultures? Now out in @science.org www.science.org/eprint/QDZNY....
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
What makes some stimuli more memorable than others?
In a new paper w/ @davogelsang.bsky.social, we show that the magnitude of a stimulus's ANN representation predicts both image and word memorability
Stimuli that activate more features, more strongly, leave a stronger memory trace
Out now in JML⬇️
In a new paper w/ @davogelsang.bsky.social, we show that the magnitude of a stimulus's ANN representation predicts both image and word memorability
Stimuli that activate more features, more strongly, leave a stronger memory trace
Out now in JML⬇️
July 16, 2026 at 11:38 AM
What makes some stimuli more memorable than others?
In a new paper w/ @davogelsang.bsky.social, we show that the magnitude of a stimulus's ANN representation predicts both image and word memorability
Stimuli that activate more features, more strongly, leave a stronger memory trace
Out now in JML⬇️
In a new paper w/ @davogelsang.bsky.social, we show that the magnitude of a stimulus's ANN representation predicts both image and word memorability
Stimuli that activate more features, more strongly, leave a stronger memory trace
Out now in JML⬇️
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
🧠🤖 It was a pleasure to host @andreadevarda.bsky.social for his talk, "Large Language Models as Models of Human Language(s) and Higher-Level Cognition." A truly inspiring talk!
#NLProc
#NLProc
July 13, 2026 at 9:48 AM
🧠🤖 It was a pleasure to host @andreadevarda.bsky.social for his talk, "Large Language Models as Models of Human Language(s) and Higher-Level Cognition." A truly inspiring talk!
#NLProc
#NLProc
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
I am so excited about this finding from
@pengrui-han.bsky.social and @andreadevarda.bsky.social, also with Jacob Andreas! Perhaps modularity is inevitable in intelligent systems, biological or in silico. :)
@pengrui-han.bsky.social and @andreadevarda.bsky.social, also with Jacob Andreas! Perhaps modularity is inevitable in intelligent systems, biological or in silico. :)
The human brain is strikingly modular: distinct networks for language, formal reasoning, social reasoning, physical reasoning. Is this fundamental to intelligent systems, or an accident of evolution? In our new preprint, we find the same modular organization emerges in LLMs.
June 30, 2026 at 10:17 PM
I am so excited about this finding from
@pengrui-han.bsky.social and @andreadevarda.bsky.social, also with Jacob Andreas! Perhaps modularity is inevitable in intelligent systems, biological or in silico. :)
@pengrui-han.bsky.social and @andreadevarda.bsky.social, also with Jacob Andreas! Perhaps modularity is inevitable in intelligent systems, biological or in silico. :)
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
The human brain is strikingly modular: distinct networks for language, formal reasoning, social reasoning, physical reasoning. Is this fundamental to intelligent systems, or an accident of evolution? In our new preprint, we find the same modular organization emerges in LLMs.
June 30, 2026 at 6:42 PM
The human brain is strikingly modular: distinct networks for language, formal reasoning, social reasoning, physical reasoning. Is this fundamental to intelligent systems, or an accident of evolution? In our new preprint, we find the same modular organization emerges in LLMs.
Like the human brain, LLMs use separate sets of units for language, formal reasoning, social reasoning, and intuitive physical reasoning. A modular organization of cognition may be a fundamental principle of intelligence!
The human brain is strikingly modular: distinct networks for language, formal reasoning, social reasoning, physical reasoning. Is this fundamental to intelligent systems, or an accident of evolution? In our new preprint, we find the same modular organization emerges in LLMs.
July 1, 2026 at 4:48 PM
Like the human brain, LLMs use separate sets of units for language, formal reasoning, social reasoning, and intuitive physical reasoning. A modular organization of cognition may be a fundamental principle of intelligence!
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
Thanks to the Weber School for inviting me to give a #TEDx talk!
I discuss how much people vary in their inner thought — from thinking mainly in words to thinking mostly abstractly — and the implications it has for understanding AI cognition.
youtu.be/WAm0XQIRBMw
I discuss how much people vary in their inner thought — from thinking mainly in words to thinking mostly abstractly — and the implications it has for understanding AI cognition.
youtu.be/WAm0XQIRBMw
Do We Think In Words? Does AI? | Anna Ivanova | TEDxWeber School Youth
YouTube video by TEDx Talks
youtu.be
June 12, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Thanks to the Weber School for inviting me to give a #TEDx talk!
I discuss how much people vary in their inner thought — from thinking mainly in words to thinking mostly abstractly — and the implications it has for understanding AI cognition.
youtu.be/WAm0XQIRBMw
I discuss how much people vary in their inner thought — from thinking mainly in words to thinking mostly abstractly — and the implications it has for understanding AI cognition.
youtu.be/WAm0XQIRBMw
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
🤖🧠NEW PAPER🧠🤖
Children & neural networks can learn syntax from linear strings of words. How do they do it?
Our hypothesis: Word co-occurrence statistics provide cues to syntax!
(I.e., a new type of bootstrapping to consider!)
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2605.20529
1/n
Children & neural networks can learn syntax from linear strings of words. How do they do it?
Our hypothesis: Word co-occurrence statistics provide cues to syntax!
(I.e., a new type of bootstrapping to consider!)
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2605.20529
1/n
May 22, 2026 at 2:22 PM
🤖🧠NEW PAPER🧠🤖
Children & neural networks can learn syntax from linear strings of words. How do they do it?
Our hypothesis: Word co-occurrence statistics provide cues to syntax!
(I.e., a new type of bootstrapping to consider!)
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2605.20529
1/n
Children & neural networks can learn syntax from linear strings of words. How do they do it?
Our hypothesis: Word co-occurrence statistics provide cues to syntax!
(I.e., a new type of bootstrapping to consider!)
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2605.20529
1/n
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
Idan Blank (UCLA, psych) makes the complex intuitive
if you want to learn how LLMs work, watch👇
newly posted to YouTube (no ads)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMn...
if you want to learn how LLMs work, watch👇
newly posted to YouTube (no ads)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMn...
How Transformers Work: A Detailed, Conceptual Explanation (No Coding / Math)
YouTube video by IbanDlank
youtu.be
February 27, 2026 at 1:51 PM
Idan Blank (UCLA, psych) makes the complex intuitive
if you want to learn how LLMs work, watch👇
newly posted to YouTube (no ads)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMn...
if you want to learn how LLMs work, watch👇
newly posted to YouTube (no ads)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMn...
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
Can we process meaning unconsciously? Our new study suggests: not really… unless language has a way to express it!🧵
New paper out with Andrea Nadalini, Daniel Casasanto, @davidecrepaldi.bsky.social and Roberto Bottini
New paper out with Andrea Nadalini, Daniel Casasanto, @davidecrepaldi.bsky.social and Roberto Bottini
March 17, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Can we process meaning unconsciously? Our new study suggests: not really… unless language has a way to express it!🧵
New paper out with Andrea Nadalini, Daniel Casasanto, @davidecrepaldi.bsky.social and Roberto Bottini
New paper out with Andrea Nadalini, Daniel Casasanto, @davidecrepaldi.bsky.social and Roberto Bottini
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
@tylerachang.bsky.social and I will be presenting the Goldfish as an oral at #LREC2026 in Mallorca! 🌴
March 9, 2026 at 4:35 PM
@tylerachang.bsky.social and I will be presenting the Goldfish as an oral at #LREC2026 in Mallorca! 🌴
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
Happy to share that our paper “Mixture of Cognitive Reasoners: Modular Reasoning with Brain-Like Specialization” (aka MiCRo) has been accepted to #ICLR2026!! 🎉
See you in Rio 🇧🇷 🏝️
See you in Rio 🇧🇷 🏝️
🚀 Excited to share a major update to our “Mixture of Cognitive Reasoners” (MiCRo) paper!
We ask: What benefits can we unlock by designing language models whose inner structure mirrors the brain’s functional specialization?
More below 🧠👇
cognitive-reasoners.epfl.ch
We ask: What benefits can we unlock by designing language models whose inner structure mirrors the brain’s functional specialization?
More below 🧠👇
cognitive-reasoners.epfl.ch
January 27, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Happy to share that our paper “Mixture of Cognitive Reasoners: Modular Reasoning with Brain-Like Specialization” (aka MiCRo) has been accepted to #ICLR2026!! 🎉
See you in Rio 🇧🇷 🏝️
See you in Rio 🇧🇷 🏝️
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
Bridge AI and linguistics with the Computational and Theoretical Modelling of Language and Cognition (CLC) track at @cimecunitrento.bsky.social!
Apply to our MSc in Cognitive Science
First-call deadline for non-EU applicants: March 4, 2026.
ℹ️ corsi.unitn.it/en/cognitive-science
#cimec_unitrento #AI
Apply to our MSc in Cognitive Science
First-call deadline for non-EU applicants: March 4, 2026.
ℹ️ corsi.unitn.it/en/cognitive-science
#cimec_unitrento #AI
January 27, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Bridge AI and linguistics with the Computational and Theoretical Modelling of Language and Cognition (CLC) track at @cimecunitrento.bsky.social!
Apply to our MSc in Cognitive Science
First-call deadline for non-EU applicants: March 4, 2026.
ℹ️ corsi.unitn.it/en/cognitive-science
#cimec_unitrento #AI
Apply to our MSc in Cognitive Science
First-call deadline for non-EU applicants: March 4, 2026.
ℹ️ corsi.unitn.it/en/cognitive-science
#cimec_unitrento #AI
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
The last chapter of my PhD (expanded) is finally out as a preprint!
“Semantic reasoning takes place largely outside the language network” 🧠🧐
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
What is semantic reasoning? Read on! 🧵👇
“Semantic reasoning takes place largely outside the language network” 🧠🧐
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
What is semantic reasoning? Read on! 🧵👇
Semantic reasoning takes place largely outside the language network
The brain's language network is often implicated in the representation and manipulation of abstract semantic knowledge. However, this view is inconsistent with a large body of evidence suggesting that...
www.biorxiv.org
December 11, 2025 at 6:34 PM
The last chapter of my PhD (expanded) is finally out as a preprint!
“Semantic reasoning takes place largely outside the language network” 🧠🧐
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
What is semantic reasoning? Read on! 🧵👇
“Semantic reasoning takes place largely outside the language network” 🧠🧐
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
What is semantic reasoning? Read on! 🧵👇
Some words sound like what they mean. In IconicITA we show that the (psycho)linguistic factors that modulate which words are most iconic are similar between English and Italian. Lots more details in the paper!
Say hi to the IconicITA dataset!
We introduce iconicity ratings for Italian produced by L1 and L2 speakers, and show how iconicity relates to key psycholinguistic variables and chronometric data.
Note: Specificity emerges as a good predictor of iconicity! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
We introduce iconicity ratings for Italian produced by L1 and L2 speakers, and show how iconicity relates to key psycholinguistic variables and chronometric data.
Note: Specificity emerges as a good predictor of iconicity! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
IconicITA: Iconicity ratings of the Italian affective lexicon
Iconicity, defined as the potential of linguistic signs to resemble properties or features of their referents, is increasingly recognized as a general property of language. One common approach for qua...
journals.plos.org
December 10, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Some words sound like what they mean. In IconicITA we show that the (psycho)linguistic factors that modulate which words are most iconic are similar between English and Italian. Lots more details in the paper!
Great work led by Daria & Greta showing that diverse agreement types draw on shared units (even across languages)!
How do LLMs process syntax? Do different syntactic phenomena recruit the same model units, or do they recruit distinct model components? And do different languages rely on similar units to process the same syntactic phenomenon?
Check out our new preprint (to appear at ACL 2026)!
shorturl.at/QWU81
Check out our new preprint (to appear at ACL 2026)!
shorturl.at/QWU81
Different types of syntactic agreement recruit the same units within large language models
Large language models (LLMs) can reliably distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical sentences, but how grammatical knowledge is represented within the models remains an open question. We investigate ...
arxiv.org
December 10, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Great work led by Daria & Greta showing that diverse agreement types draw on shared units (even across languages)!
Reposted by Andrea de Varda
What does it mean to understand language? We argue that the brain’s core language system is limited, and that *deeply* understanding language requires EXPORTING info to other brain regions.
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
What does it mean to understand language?
Language understanding entails not just extracting the surface-level meaning of the linguistic input, but constructing rich mental models of the situation it describes. Here we propose that because pr...
arxiv.org
November 26, 2025 at 4:26 PM
What does it mean to understand language? We argue that the brain’s core language system is limited, and that *deeply* understanding language requires EXPORTING info to other brain regions.
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
Computational psycho/neurolinguistics is lots of fun, but most studies only focus on English. If you think cross-linguistic evidence matters for understanding the language system, consider submitting an abstract to MMMM 2026!
November 21, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Computational psycho/neurolinguistics is lots of fun, but most studies only focus on English. If you think cross-linguistic evidence matters for understanding the language system, consider submitting an abstract to MMMM 2026!