Sami Yousif
@samiyousif.bsky.social
Asst Prof @ Ohio State. I study how we perceive and represent the (spatial) world. More here: spatialcognitionlab.org
My lab has been really interested in topological perception the past two years. In a new paper, we ask: How does a topological perspective (re-)shape our understanding of visual complexity?
Work led by one of our many wonderful undergraduate students, Ashna Shah!
link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Work led by one of our many wonderful undergraduate students, Ashna Shah!
link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Topological structure and the creation of visual complexity - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
What does it mean for something to be complex? Fundamentally, complexity is a cue that something is less easily represented by our minds. With this fact in view, complexity becomes a tool: By understa...
link.springer.com
September 15, 2026 at 4:24 PM
My lab has been really interested in topological perception the past two years. In a new paper, we ask: How does a topological perspective (re-)shape our understanding of visual complexity?
Work led by one of our many wonderful undergraduate students, Ashna Shah!
link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Work led by one of our many wonderful undergraduate students, Ashna Shah!
link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Reposted by Sami Yousif
New paper, co-authored with Justin Wood, in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social:
The Nativist-Empiricist Debate Is Broken
We argue that radical nativism and radical empiricism are compatible and, in some cases, both plausibly true. So something is wrong.
🧵
Author share link here, valid til Oct 31:
The Nativist-Empiricist Debate Is Broken
We argue that radical nativism and radical empiricism are compatible and, in some cases, both plausibly true. So something is wrong.
🧵
Author share link here, valid til Oct 31:
September 11, 2026 at 4:25 PM
New paper, co-authored with Justin Wood, in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social:
The Nativist-Empiricist Debate Is Broken
We argue that radical nativism and radical empiricism are compatible and, in some cases, both plausibly true. So something is wrong.
🧵
Author share link here, valid til Oct 31:
The Nativist-Empiricist Debate Is Broken
We argue that radical nativism and radical empiricism are compatible and, in some cases, both plausibly true. So something is wrong.
🧵
Author share link here, valid til Oct 31:
Days after Mahwish stepped on campus as an undergrad two years ago, I recruited her into my lab, and we started talking about pursuing what, at the time, was the most ambitious project of my career - to study geometric representation through drawing.
It was a great joy to work with her on this!
It was a great joy to work with her on this!
After years of analyzing thousands of drawings from hundreds of adults and children, I am excited to share my first ever paper (w/ @samiyousif.bsky.social )! Using a simple drawing task, we show how topological structure is represented in the mind and its importance in spatial memory.
Topological structure in human spatial representation revealed through drawing
elifesciences.org
September 10, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Days after Mahwish stepped on campus as an undergrad two years ago, I recruited her into my lab, and we started talking about pursuing what, at the time, was the most ambitious project of my career - to study geometric representation through drawing.
It was a great joy to work with her on this!
It was a great joy to work with her on this!
For anyone who enjoys thinking about the formats of mental representation: I found this paper from Rodrigo Garro-Rivero to be thought-provoking!
philpapers.org/rec/GARACA-19
philpapers.org/rec/GARACA-19
philpapers.org
August 28, 2026 at 1:00 PM
For anyone who enjoys thinking about the formats of mental representation: I found this paper from Rodrigo Garro-Rivero to be thought-provoking!
philpapers.org/rec/GARACA-19
philpapers.org/rec/GARACA-19
Excited about a new paper (w @russellepstein.bsky.social): "Cognitive maps as a medium for thought", in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social!
We discuss how maps are an important 'middle ground' rep. medium, and how they may interact with a 'language of thought'.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We discuss how maps are an important 'middle ground' rep. medium, and how they may interact with a 'language of thought'.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Cognitive maps as a medium for thought
Cognitive maps are essential for navigation, but to what extent are they involved in thinking more broadly? In this opinion article, we examine whethe…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 26, 2026 at 4:21 PM
Excited about a new paper (w @russellepstein.bsky.social): "Cognitive maps as a medium for thought", in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social!
We discuss how maps are an important 'middle ground' rep. medium, and how they may interact with a 'language of thought'.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We discuss how maps are an important 'middle ground' rep. medium, and how they may interact with a 'language of thought'.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Sami Yousif
@arthurpr4t.bsky.social has a new preprint with important results on a famous psychophysical law (Weber's law). It isn't, in fact, a law, because it can be broken. A more fundamental principle (efficient coding) shows when and why Weber's law holds true.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Efficient coding makes and breaks Weber's law
Weber's law is a rare quantitative regularity in psychology, yet its origins remain debated. Here we provide causal evidence that it arises from the more fundamental principle of efficient coding. Thi...
www.biorxiv.org
August 18, 2026 at 12:28 PM
@arthurpr4t.bsky.social has a new preprint with important results on a famous psychophysical law (Weber's law). It isn't, in fact, a law, because it can be broken. A more fundamental principle (efficient coding) shows when and why Weber's law holds true.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
There's been discussion about Prolific's dynamic pricing model here on bluesky. To learn more about this (and to make loads of cash, apparently!) I decided to become an actual Prolific participant.
See thread below, but TLDR: What's happening on Prolific is not what I expected!👇
See thread below, but TLDR: What's happening on Prolific is not what I expected!👇
After noticing another (significant!) drop in data quality this morning, I saw that Prolific is now recommending that participants be paid $48/hr
August 18, 2026 at 1:11 PM
There's been discussion about Prolific's dynamic pricing model here on bluesky. To learn more about this (and to make loads of cash, apparently!) I decided to become an actual Prolific participant.
See thread below, but TLDR: What's happening on Prolific is not what I expected!👇
See thread below, but TLDR: What's happening on Prolific is not what I expected!👇
Reposted by Sami Yousif
BBS recently published a great piece by @mdubova.bsky.social & @sabinasloman.bsky.social on “Excess capacity learning”. I argue D&S’s framework overlooks a special kind of representation that encodes information both minimally and perfectly: lossless compression.
philpapers.org/archive/BOGC...
philpapers.org/archive/BOGC...
August 13, 2026 at 6:26 PM
BBS recently published a great piece by @mdubova.bsky.social & @sabinasloman.bsky.social on “Excess capacity learning”. I argue D&S’s framework overlooks a special kind of representation that encodes information both minimally and perfectly: lossless compression.
philpapers.org/archive/BOGC...
philpapers.org/archive/BOGC...
Reposted by Sami Yousif
Now out in JEP:G (w/ samiyousif.bsky.social)! Here, we explore what quantities (e.g., number, area, size) are perceived most automatically (and spoiler: it’s more complicated than we thought!).
psycnet.apa.org/record/2028-...
psycnet.apa.org/record/2028-...
August 13, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Now out in JEP:G (w/ samiyousif.bsky.social)! Here, we explore what quantities (e.g., number, area, size) are perceived most automatically (and spoiler: it’s more complicated than we thought!).
psycnet.apa.org/record/2028-...
psycnet.apa.org/record/2028-...
Reposted by Sami Yousif
Now out in an issue! Children find it easier to represent uncertainty about *what* an object is than *where* an object is, with interesting implications for both early possibility reasoning and object representations ~~ Check it out 👉 direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
July 31, 2026 at 11:42 AM
Now out in an issue! Children find it easier to represent uncertainty about *what* an object is than *where* an object is, with interesting implications for both early possibility reasoning and object representations ~~ Check it out 👉 direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
🫨
Do we perceive animacy itself, beyond its lower-level visual correlates?
In @elife.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social and I leverage “visual anagrams” — images whose interpretations change with orientation — to suggest the answer is: yes!
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
In @elife.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social and I leverage “visual anagrams” — images whose interpretations change with orientation — to suggest the answer is: yes!
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
June 15, 2026 at 4:50 PM
🫨
There are many reasons I'm excited about this project. One is just the sheer amount of data involved. There are 13 different experiments included here -- a lab record! -- including several unique paradigms and data from adults and children.
When you look at a complex scene, you perceive various ensembles — sets of items of various sizes, numbers, etc. Are some more salient than others? In a new paper (w/ samiyousif.bsky.social), we provide an answer to this question! osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
June 3, 2026 at 6:46 PM
There are many reasons I'm excited about this project. One is just the sheer amount of data involved. There are 13 different experiments included here -- a lab record! -- including several unique paradigms and data from adults and children.
Reposted by Sami Yousif
Complexity is ubiquitous in the world around us. But different stimuli are complex for different reasons. Does the mind nevertheless represent a ‘unified’ notion of complexity across domains?
In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show the answer is: yes! osf.io/preprints/ps...
In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show the answer is: yes! osf.io/preprints/ps...
May 26, 2026 at 8:01 PM
Complexity is ubiquitous in the world around us. But different stimuli are complex for different reasons. Does the mind nevertheless represent a ‘unified’ notion of complexity across domains?
In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show the answer is: yes! osf.io/preprints/ps...
In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show the answer is: yes! osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Sami Yousif
Thrilled to have this preprint out, from the amazing Zekun Sun!
"Motor abstraction training generalizes to the refinement of specific movement patterns"
In brief, across 8 experiments we found evidence of a causal role for abstract representations in motor learning
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
"Motor abstraction training generalizes to the refinement of specific movement patterns"
In brief, across 8 experiments we found evidence of a causal role for abstract representations in motor learning
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
May 8, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Thrilled to have this preprint out, from the amazing Zekun Sun!
"Motor abstraction training generalizes to the refinement of specific movement patterns"
In brief, across 8 experiments we found evidence of a causal role for abstract representations in motor learning
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
"Motor abstraction training generalizes to the refinement of specific movement patterns"
In brief, across 8 experiments we found evidence of a causal role for abstract representations in motor learning
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Sadly I will not be at VSS this year, but here's what our lab is up to!
(In solidarity with many VSS attendees, however, I may be foregoing many hours of sleep -- not for long walks on the beach but due to the anticipated arrival of a second child any day now...)
(In solidarity with many VSS attendees, however, I may be foregoing many hours of sleep -- not for long walks on the beach but due to the anticipated arrival of a second child any day now...)
May 14, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Sadly I will not be at VSS this year, but here's what our lab is up to!
(In solidarity with many VSS attendees, however, I may be foregoing many hours of sleep -- not for long walks on the beach but due to the anticipated arrival of a second child any day now...)
(In solidarity with many VSS attendees, however, I may be foregoing many hours of sleep -- not for long walks on the beach but due to the anticipated arrival of a second child any day now...)
Reposted by Sami Yousif
Memorability as an Emergent Property: How Representational Structure Creates Apparent Intrinsic Effects osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
May 13, 2026 at 9:38 PM
Memorability as an Emergent Property: How Representational Structure Creates Apparent Intrinsic Effects osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Sami Yousif
After noticing another (significant!) drop in data quality this morning, I saw that Prolific is now recommending that participants be paid $48/hr
May 4, 2026 at 4:13 PM
After noticing another (significant!) drop in data quality this morning, I saw that Prolific is now recommending that participants be paid $48/hr
Reposted by Sami Yousif
New preprint led by awesome undergrad Abby Bonno! By probing temporal memory for individual items in a sequence, we uncover a 'representational space' of memories that reflects the structure of encoded experiences and provides insight into how different kinds of structure shape memory. osf.io/t5kyx
OSF
osf.io
April 21, 2026 at 8:10 PM
New preprint led by awesome undergrad Abby Bonno! By probing temporal memory for individual items in a sequence, we uncover a 'representational space' of memories that reflects the structure of encoded experiences and provides insight into how different kinds of structure shape memory. osf.io/t5kyx
Recently, (recommended) prices at @joinprolific.bsky.social have doubled. Simultaneously, data quality and collection speed seem to have gone down noticeably (especially speed). Are others having this experience?
These changes make the platform significantly less viable for our lab.
These changes make the platform significantly less viable for our lab.
March 25, 2026 at 6:02 PM
Recently, (recommended) prices at @joinprolific.bsky.social have doubled. Simultaneously, data quality and collection speed seem to have gone down noticeably (especially speed). Are others having this experience?
These changes make the platform significantly less viable for our lab.
These changes make the platform significantly less viable for our lab.
Reposted by Sami Yousif
We plan to hire a post doc to start in Fall 2026 (flexible), in the Aulet Lab at UMass Amherst, funded for two years. The postdoc will help establish our developmental fMRI research program studying symbolic number acquisition in 4-8 year old children (among other things!).
March 19, 2026 at 5:16 PM
We plan to hire a post doc to start in Fall 2026 (flexible), in the Aulet Lab at UMass Amherst, funded for two years. The postdoc will help establish our developmental fMRI research program studying symbolic number acquisition in 4-8 year old children (among other things!).
Reposted by Sami Yousif
A few years ago, my favorite website (@puddingviz.bsky.social) put out this great piece analyzing a study of how randomizing ability changes with age. It includes demos where readers produce sequences of random coin flips, dice rolls, and locations in a 3x3 grid. pudding.cool/2022/04/rand...
We think this cool study we found is flawed. Help us reproduce it.
Are 25 year olds really more random than 60 year olds?
pudding.cool
March 6, 2026 at 4:26 PM
A few years ago, my favorite website (@puddingviz.bsky.social) put out this great piece analyzing a study of how randomizing ability changes with age. It includes demos where readers produce sequences of random coin flips, dice rolls, and locations in a 3x3 grid. pudding.cool/2022/04/rand...
(Perceptual) space and time are warped by the gravity of objects and events in their vicinity. There's been a flurry of work recently documenting examples of this gravity, all resulting in some really neat illusions.
@brynnsherman.bsky.social and I discuss all of those, here:
rdcu.be/e5SWo
@brynnsherman.bsky.social and I discuss all of those, here:
rdcu.be/e5SWo
Distortions of space and time in and around objects and events
rdcu.be
February 27, 2026 at 3:53 PM
(Perceptual) space and time are warped by the gravity of objects and events in their vicinity. There's been a flurry of work recently documenting examples of this gravity, all resulting in some really neat illusions.
@brynnsherman.bsky.social and I discuss all of those, here:
rdcu.be/e5SWo
@brynnsherman.bsky.social and I discuss all of those, here:
rdcu.be/e5SWo
Reposted by Sami Yousif
Very proud that this is finally out!
Come for the new auditory illusion, stay for the brain imaging and speech analysis…..
Come for the new auditory illusion, stay for the brain imaging and speech analysis…..
Humans can use positive and negative spectrotemporal correlations to detect rising and falling pitch
Humans can use positive and negative spectrotemporal correlations to detect rising and falling pitch
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 09 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-025-02371-7Vaziri et al. examined how humans detect changes in auditory pitch, revealing that listeners rely on correlations in sound intensity over frequency and time, processing that is reminiscent of visual motion detection.
dlvr.it
February 9, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Very proud that this is finally out!
Come for the new auditory illusion, stay for the brain imaging and speech analysis…..
Come for the new auditory illusion, stay for the brain imaging and speech analysis…..
Reposted by Sami Yousif
first empirical paper from the Aulet lab! What does learning to count do to a brain? We trained neural networks on different tasks and only counting (i.e., predicting the number of dots in a dot array) reorganized representations around number. New preprint:
February 3, 2026 at 3:57 PM
first empirical paper from the Aulet lab! What does learning to count do to a brain? We trained neural networks on different tasks and only counting (i.e., predicting the number of dots in a dot array) reorganized representations around number. New preprint:
Over the past several months, I've been working (in collaboration with www.thoughtscape.com) to rebrand my lab and improve our website. This new version better captures our core interests/ideas. I'm really, really thrilled with how things turned out: spatialcognitionlab.org
Spatial Cognition Lab @ OSU
The Spatial Cognition Lab studies how we perceive, represent, and interact with the spatial world around us — all in the service of understanding how the mind works in general. We're also interested i...
spatialcognitionlab.org
February 3, 2026 at 4:11 PM
Over the past several months, I've been working (in collaboration with www.thoughtscape.com) to rebrand my lab and improve our website. This new version better captures our core interests/ideas. I'm really, really thrilled with how things turned out: spatialcognitionlab.org