Anthony Atkinson
@socialvisionlab.bsky.social
Experimental psychologist & cognitive neuroscientist. I research the mechanisms that allow us to perceive social information from faces and bodies.
Professor at Durham University
https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/a-p-atkinson/
https://atkinsonap.github
Professor at Durham University
https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/a-p-atkinson/
https://atkinsonap.github
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
New paper! By brilliant Emma Kilford and Sophie Fielmann and others - a great collaboration between researchers in South Africa, Uganda, UK and US.
The Limpopo Facial Emotion Stimulus Set: Locally Validated Stimuli for Emotion Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
Thread👇
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
The Limpopo Facial Emotion Stimulus Set: Locally Validated Stimuli for Emotion Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
Thread👇
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
September 24, 2026 at 6:52 AM
New paper! By brilliant Emma Kilford and Sophie Fielmann and others - a great collaboration between researchers in South Africa, Uganda, UK and US.
The Limpopo Facial Emotion Stimulus Set: Locally Validated Stimuli for Emotion Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
Thread👇
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
The Limpopo Facial Emotion Stimulus Set: Locally Validated Stimuli for Emotion Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
Thread👇
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
#cogpsyc #AcademicSky🧪 🧠 If you justify your sample size as "comparable to prior work", we will ask you to remove that claim. Precedent is not a justification — it moves the question one paper back. Prior work can still inform your expected effect size, with due caution about published estimates.
September 13, 2026 at 1:24 PM
#cogpsyc #AcademicSky🧪 🧠 If you justify your sample size as "comparable to prior work", we will ask you to remove that claim. Precedent is not a justification — it moves the question one paper back. Prior work can still inform your expected effect size, with due caution about published estimates.
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Losing Exeter philosophers of science would be devastating to our field and to the international standing of U.K. universities. Please help us publicise this letter and put pressure to the Exeter execs. Their work as teachers and researchers is irreplaceable #philsci #HigherEd
We have published an open letter to the University of Exeter Executive Board expressing our concerns about proposed redundancies. Read it here: www.thebsps.org/news/open-le...
Open Letter to University of Exeter Executive Board regarding proposed redundancies
- BSPS
www.thebsps.org
August 10, 2026 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Hello world! 👋
We’re Minds, Machines, and Brains (MMB) 👤🤖🧠 a new open access journal from @mitpress.bsky.social exploring the principles of intelligence and cognition across natural and artificial minds.
Submissions open this Fall! 🔗 direct.mit.edu/mmb
We’re Minds, Machines, and Brains (MMB) 👤🤖🧠 a new open access journal from @mitpress.bsky.social exploring the principles of intelligence and cognition across natural and artificial minds.
Submissions open this Fall! 🔗 direct.mit.edu/mmb
Minds, Machines, and Brains | MIT Press
direct.mit.edu
August 2, 2026 at 4:26 PM
Hello world! 👋
We’re Minds, Machines, and Brains (MMB) 👤🤖🧠 a new open access journal from @mitpress.bsky.social exploring the principles of intelligence and cognition across natural and artificial minds.
Submissions open this Fall! 🔗 direct.mit.edu/mmb
We’re Minds, Machines, and Brains (MMB) 👤🤖🧠 a new open access journal from @mitpress.bsky.social exploring the principles of intelligence and cognition across natural and artificial minds.
Submissions open this Fall! 🔗 direct.mit.edu/mmb
We are hiring! If you use computational approaches to address research questions in psychology and/or neuroscience, then please consider applying! We are a friendly, thriving department, in beautiful northeast England. Closing date 20 August. eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Assistant Professor (Research %26 Education)
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
July 22, 2026 at 1:44 PM
We are hiring! If you use computational approaches to address research questions in psychology and/or neuroscience, then please consider applying! We are a friendly, thriving department, in beautiful northeast England. Closing date 20 August. eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Have we, at Exeter, really all of a sudden reached a tipping point where 150-200 academic job losses will save the institution? We aren't even currently in the red...
June 29, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Have we, at Exeter, really all of a sudden reached a tipping point where 150-200 academic job losses will save the institution? We aren't even currently in the red...
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Scientists say the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc), a crucial circulation of water, is weakening, but it struggles to make the headlines.
Dr Fionagh Thomson @durhamphysics.bsky.social @icc-durham.bsky.social looks at Amoc’s image problem 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/research/cur...
Dr Fionagh Thomson @durhamphysics.bsky.social @icc-durham.bsky.social looks at Amoc’s image problem 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/research/cur...
June 19, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Scientists say the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc), a crucial circulation of water, is weakening, but it struggles to make the headlines.
Dr Fionagh Thomson @durhamphysics.bsky.social @icc-durham.bsky.social looks at Amoc’s image problem 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/research/cur...
Dr Fionagh Thomson @durhamphysics.bsky.social @icc-durham.bsky.social looks at Amoc’s image problem 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/research/cur...
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
I am INCREDIBLY lucky to get to be an astronomer as my day job - and if it has taught me anything, it is that 99.99999999999% of our Universe is an inhospitable shithole.
This blue speck in a sea of darkness is the only place we have, and we should really start treating it like that.
This blue speck in a sea of darkness is the only place we have, and we should really start treating it like that.
June 25, 2026 at 7:50 AM
I am INCREDIBLY lucky to get to be an astronomer as my day job - and if it has taught me anything, it is that 99.99999999999% of our Universe is an inhospitable shithole.
This blue speck in a sea of darkness is the only place we have, and we should really start treating it like that.
This blue speck in a sea of darkness is the only place we have, and we should really start treating it like that.
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
This is one of the dumbest and saddest things I've ever seen. We should not think of universities in this way, and if we do that'll destroy everything that is both useful and good about them.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Find out which university degrees could earn you most across your lifetime
New data suggests which university degrees have the highest and lowest financial returns over a lifetime.
www.bbc.co.uk
June 25, 2026 at 9:57 AM
This is one of the dumbest and saddest things I've ever seen. We should not think of universities in this way, and if we do that'll destroy everything that is both useful and good about them.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Tip for junior authors: "Filling a gap" is not a theoretical motivation. Before submitting a paper, ask which theory or model predicts a different pattern from yours. If no rival prediction is at stake, you're likely testing an effect, not a theory. #cogpsyc #AcademicSky🧪
June 5, 2026 at 12:38 PM
Tip for junior authors: "Filling a gap" is not a theoretical motivation. Before submitting a paper, ask which theory or model predicts a different pattern from yours. If no rival prediction is at stake, you're likely testing an effect, not a theory. #cogpsyc #AcademicSky🧪
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Tip for junior authors: What matters isn't whether a power analysis was run before or after data collection, but whether it depends on the observed effect size. If based on theory, prior studies, or meta-analysis, it remains independent of the data. The problem is circularity, not timing.
June 2, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Tip for junior authors: What matters isn't whether a power analysis was run before or after data collection, but whether it depends on the observed effect size. If based on theory, prior studies, or meta-analysis, it remains independent of the data. The problem is circularity, not timing.
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Daniel Dennett's influence on modern philosophy cannot be overstated. Today, in his honour, Lisa Bortolotti presents a special issue of Philosophical Psychology dedicated to the legacy of his philosophy.
#philsky
imperfectcognitions....
#philsky
imperfectcognitions....
May 28, 2026 at 7:00 AM
Daniel Dennett's influence on modern philosophy cannot be overstated. Today, in his honour, Lisa Bortolotti presents a special issue of Philosophical Psychology dedicated to the legacy of his philosophy.
#philsky
imperfectcognitions....
#philsky
imperfectcognitions....
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Tip for junior authors: Keep your cover letter short. Clarify (1) the fit to the journal’s mission and (2) what kinds of reviewers would be most appropriate. Especially for work that bridges areas, or if the paper could be misread as belonging to a different area than the one you see as central.
May 20, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Tip for junior authors: Keep your cover letter short. Clarify (1) the fit to the journal’s mission and (2) what kinds of reviewers would be most appropriate. Especially for work that bridges areas, or if the paper could be misread as belonging to a different area than the one you see as central.
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
This Saturday at Hay Festival - I'll be chatting to @claudiahammond.bsky.social about reading and the brain for #AllInTheMind. Come along at 5.30pm!
www.hayfestival.com/p-25581-bbc-...
www.hayfestival.com/p-25581-bbc-...
BBC Radio 4: All in the Mind - Hay Festival
<p>Why do novels make us more human? Claudia Hammond hosts a live recording of Radio 4's <em>All in the Mind</em>.</p>
www.hayfestival.com
May 17, 2026 at 11:21 AM
This Saturday at Hay Festival - I'll be chatting to @claudiahammond.bsky.social about reading and the brain for #AllInTheMind. Come along at 5.30pm!
www.hayfestival.com/p-25581-bbc-...
www.hayfestival.com/p-25581-bbc-...
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Sign the petition to save humanities, including philosophy, at the University of Hertfordshire.
(Also highly recommend reading Daniel Hutto's comment in the Daily Nous piece below, which wonderfully captures the dismal state of UK Higher Ed at the moment.)
c.org/GXTLwHcLB2
(Also highly recommend reading Daniel Hutto's comment in the Daily Nous piece below, which wonderfully captures the dismal state of UK Higher Ed at the moment.)
c.org/GXTLwHcLB2
May 13, 2026 at 1:43 PM
Sign the petition to save humanities, including philosophy, at the University of Hertfordshire.
(Also highly recommend reading Daniel Hutto's comment in the Daily Nous piece below, which wonderfully captures the dismal state of UK Higher Ed at the moment.)
c.org/GXTLwHcLB2
(Also highly recommend reading Daniel Hutto's comment in the Daily Nous piece below, which wonderfully captures the dismal state of UK Higher Ed at the moment.)
c.org/GXTLwHcLB2
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
VCs are often a bit tone deaf, but this really takes the biscuit
2700 academic staff at @uniofnottingham.bsky.social received formal notice today that their job is at risk. Approximately 1-in-5 (22%) will lose their job. In an interview in today’s @timeshighered.bsky.social the university’s VC responded “it’s an exciting time for higher education”.
Photo by @tregenza.bsky.social
May 12, 2026 at 6:57 PM
VCs are often a bit tone deaf, but this really takes the biscuit
All they will find is sand www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Eyal Weizman · All they will find is sand: Gaza’s Yellow Line
Most of the Gaza Strip – cities, refugee camps, schools, universities, mosques, the health infrastructure, agriculture...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 12, 2026 at 8:45 PM
All they will find is sand www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
That is one of the creepiest phrases I've heard this crank say. Total Gilead-speak.
May 11, 2026 at 7:12 PM
That is one of the creepiest phrases I've heard this crank say. Total Gilead-speak.
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Hung parliaments or coalition governments in Scotland and Wales, while lots of English councils are now under no overall control. The UK has multi-party democracy, but not a multi-party voting system (the exception being Wales, which has PR with multi-member constituencies). Time for change.
May 9, 2026 at 10:34 AM
Hung parliaments or coalition governments in Scotland and Wales, while lots of English councils are now under no overall control. The UK has multi-party democracy, but not a multi-party voting system (the exception being Wales, which has PR with multi-member constituencies). Time for change.
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
Heading into May of 2026 and so far this year, no new grants have been issued by the National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute.
No council meetings have been scheduled.
An absolute, unmitigated disaster for vision research is setting up.
No council meetings have been scheduled.
An absolute, unmitigated disaster for vision research is setting up.
April 27, 2026 at 7:46 PM
Heading into May of 2026 and so far this year, no new grants have been issued by the National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute.
No council meetings have been scheduled.
An absolute, unmitigated disaster for vision research is setting up.
No council meetings have been scheduled.
An absolute, unmitigated disaster for vision research is setting up.
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
This is good. Very light on the research side of the equation but more than sane and informed on the teaching side, including failure of marketisation and a recognition that ‘cheap’ subjects subsidise expensive one. Well worth reading.
I'm in @theobserveruk.bsky.social today looking at why so many unis are in financial trouble and what the government needs to do to save HE.
observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk/news/columni...
Why saving universities is far more than academic
Modern Britain needs young people with degrees – here’s how to make sure they still have somewhere to study them
observer.co.uk
April 26, 2026 at 9:48 AM
This is good. Very light on the research side of the equation but more than sane and informed on the teaching side, including failure of marketisation and a recognition that ‘cheap’ subjects subsidise expensive one. Well worth reading.
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
🚨🚨JOB ALERT🚨🚨
I'm hiring a cogsci/philosophy/compneuro postdoc at @ucl.ac.uk @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclpals.bsky.social!
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRH486/p...
Come to London & work on frameworks for "testing" for consciousness using Bayesian belief updating & latent variable modeling.
Pls share!
I'm hiring a cogsci/philosophy/compneuro postdoc at @ucl.ac.uk @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclpals.bsky.social!
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRH486/p...
Come to London & work on frameworks for "testing" for consciousness using Bayesian belief updating & latent variable modeling.
Pls share!
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL
Discover Postdoctoral Research Fellow jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.
www.jobs.ac.uk
April 22, 2026 at 7:30 PM
🚨🚨JOB ALERT🚨🚨
I'm hiring a cogsci/philosophy/compneuro postdoc at @ucl.ac.uk @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclpals.bsky.social!
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRH486/p...
Come to London & work on frameworks for "testing" for consciousness using Bayesian belief updating & latent variable modeling.
Pls share!
I'm hiring a cogsci/philosophy/compneuro postdoc at @ucl.ac.uk @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclpals.bsky.social!
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRH486/p...
Come to London & work on frameworks for "testing" for consciousness using Bayesian belief updating & latent variable modeling.
Pls share!
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
I always assumed that brain function had to line up with cytoarchitectonics.
It turns out I was wrong.
Human cortex, especially PFC, is tiled by chains of functional patches that subdivide and interlink architectonic areas into parallel processing streams.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
It turns out I was wrong.
Human cortex, especially PFC, is tiled by chains of functional patches that subdivide and interlink architectonic areas into parallel processing streams.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
April 22, 2026 at 9:37 PM
I always assumed that brain function had to line up with cytoarchitectonics.
It turns out I was wrong.
Human cortex, especially PFC, is tiled by chains of functional patches that subdivide and interlink architectonic areas into parallel processing streams.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
It turns out I was wrong.
Human cortex, especially PFC, is tiled by chains of functional patches that subdivide and interlink architectonic areas into parallel processing streams.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
"All of these things frighten me, and they should frighten you as well. I made the decision to create a life for myself here, because I viewed this as a place that rewarded determination, hard work, and integrity. It still has a chance to be that place again."
open.substack.com/pub/ofthebra...
open.substack.com/pub/ofthebra...
I’m a Nobel Prize-winning immigrant. I can no longer recognize this country.
Attacks on science and immigrants are destroying America.
open.substack.com
April 10, 2026 at 1:40 PM
"All of these things frighten me, and they should frighten you as well. I made the decision to create a life for myself here, because I viewed this as a place that rewarded determination, hard work, and integrity. It still has a chance to be that place again."
open.substack.com/pub/ofthebra...
open.substack.com/pub/ofthebra...
Reposted by Anthony Atkinson
This is not a 'masculinity crisis', it's a misogyny crisis. This is not a problem with 'masculinity'-- millions of men model positive masculinity every day. This is a problem of male violence. Stop calling it 'masculinity'.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
A ‘masculinity crisis’ is brewing in UK schools, union says
Misogynistic abuse of female staff is increasing, leaving teachers feeling ‘traumatised’ and ‘humiliated’
www.theguardian.com
April 4, 2026 at 7:30 AM
This is not a 'masculinity crisis', it's a misogyny crisis. This is not a problem with 'masculinity'-- millions of men model positive masculinity every day. This is a problem of male violence. Stop calling it 'masculinity'.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...