Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
@drkaminske.bsky.social
Cognitive psychologist and science communicator. Views are my own.
The Learning Scientists:
@learningscientists.bsky.social
The Learning Scientists:
@learningscientists.bsky.social
"One must imagine Sisyphus happy," I mumble to myself as I restart my computer a second time in an attempt to access a file I created on Teams.
July 20, 2026 at 1:58 PM
"One must imagine Sisyphus happy," I mumble to myself as I restart my computer a second time in an attempt to access a file I created on Teams.
I have considered learning German because there's a lot of early work in problem solving and decision making in German. If I can't track down a translation of the source, then I don't cite it. A citation of an article means you have read that article to confirm it says what you say it does.
I'm sorry, what? In writing my first monograph, I spent six weeks trying to track down a citation in TWO languages I didn't know. And good thing too, because the citation was wrong. That's scholarship. That's research. You know, the thing we're trained to do?!?
May 17, 2026 at 4:39 PM
I have considered learning German because there's a lot of early work in problem solving and decision making in German. If I can't track down a translation of the source, then I don't cite it. A citation of an article means you have read that article to confirm it says what you say it does.
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
Full-time salaries for most categories of faculty have remained about the same since 2002, adjusting for inflation, while admin pay soars.
Faculty have had enough. We’re fighting back nationwide.
✊🏽✊🏻✊🏿
www.chronicle.com/article/amid...
Faculty have had enough. We’re fighting back nationwide.
✊🏽✊🏻✊🏿
www.chronicle.com/article/amid...
April 2, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Full-time salaries for most categories of faculty have remained about the same since 2002, adjusting for inflation, while admin pay soars.
Faculty have had enough. We’re fighting back nationwide.
✊🏽✊🏻✊🏿
www.chronicle.com/article/amid...
Faculty have had enough. We’re fighting back nationwide.
✊🏽✊🏻✊🏿
www.chronicle.com/article/amid...
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
“The VA General Assembly voted to give over half a million public sector workers collective bargaining rights. But not me. I'm an adjunct faculty member who was just left behind to endure the exploitation of higher education.”
@abigailspanberger.com, please correct course & add us back in.
@abigailspanberger.com, please correct course & add us back in.
Collective Bargaining is One Solution to Ending Higher Ed Worker Exploitation – I Should Know.
One adjunct professor argues that without the legal leverage of collective bargaining, she is a 'sitting duck' for institutions to profit from her expertise while leaving her vulnerable to financial i...
www.theeduledger.com
March 17, 2026 at 9:42 PM
“The VA General Assembly voted to give over half a million public sector workers collective bargaining rights. But not me. I'm an adjunct faculty member who was just left behind to endure the exploitation of higher education.”
@abigailspanberger.com, please correct course & add us back in.
@abigailspanberger.com, please correct course & add us back in.
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
Plato is one of the most famous ancient philosophers of all time. He also thought there were more than 2 genders & homosexuality was normal — that's why Texas A&M wants to censor him.
"How can a serious research university, an R1 university, censor Plato in a philosophy class?"
— Martin Peterson
"How can a serious research university, an R1 university, censor Plato in a philosophy class?"
— Martin Peterson
January 22, 2026 at 9:34 PM
Plato is one of the most famous ancient philosophers of all time. He also thought there were more than 2 genders & homosexuality was normal — that's why Texas A&M wants to censor him.
"How can a serious research university, an R1 university, censor Plato in a philosophy class?"
— Martin Peterson
"How can a serious research university, an R1 university, censor Plato in a philosophy class?"
— Martin Peterson
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
“The humanities simply don’t fit a corporate model because they are just not monetizable in the same way the sciences or even the social sciences are. And the deeper reason they’re coming under attack is that free thought and rigorous, free inquiry is dangerous to executive power.”
January 20, 2026 at 2:44 PM
“The humanities simply don’t fit a corporate model because they are just not monetizable in the same way the sciences or even the social sciences are. And the deeper reason they’re coming under attack is that free thought and rigorous, free inquiry is dangerous to executive power.”
The best NYE party I ever went to timed the beat drop with midnight. It was the last time I felt like I was able to dance myself clean.
Millennials haven’t had easy lives but at least we’ll always have this beat drop at 3:07
November 7, 2025 at 7:41 PM
The best NYE party I ever went to timed the beat drop with midnight. It was the last time I felt like I was able to dance myself clean.
I wrote about ADHD in adults this week for The Learning Scientists! I've been thinking about this a lot lately as the standard advice we give to medical students is often counterproductive for ADHD.
NEW BLOG: "Adult Learners with ADHD" by @drkaminske.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/9/18
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/9/18
Adult Learners with ADHD — The Learning Scientists
As of last October, the CDC estimates that approximately 1 in 16 adults in the United States have been diagnosed with ADHD (1). Despite the high prevalence of ADHD in adults, there are few resources f...
www.learningscientists.org
September 19, 2025 at 8:31 PM
I wrote about ADHD in adults this week for The Learning Scientists! I've been thinking about this a lot lately as the standard advice we give to medical students is often counterproductive for ADHD.
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
NEW POST: "AI and Adolescent Well-Being: New APA Health Advisory" by @drkaminske.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/6/26
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/6/26
AI and Adolescent Well-Being: New APA Health Advisory — The Learning Scientists
With Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications expanding rapidly into daily life, The American Psychological Association (APA) has issued a health advisory on the impacts of AI on adolescent well-bei...
www.learningscientists.org
August 1, 2025 at 2:16 PM
NEW POST: "AI and Adolescent Well-Being: New APA Health Advisory" by @drkaminske.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/6/26
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/6/26
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
Greebles are back!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Humans learn generalizable representations through efficient coding - Nature Communications
Reinforcement learning models of human behavior are limited in explaining the capacity for generalization. Here, the authors propose an efficient coding principle for reinforcement learning, whereby a...
www.nature.com
April 30, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Greebles are back!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I'm excited to read this! I've seen a lot of evidence that cardio exercise protects against cognitive decline, and suspected that endurance does too, but that seems trickier to study.
🆕 Ageing is associated with cognitive decline & an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases.
A new Review explores the neuroprotective mechanisms of endurance exercise & highlights the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness in healthy brain ageing: tinyurl.com/4asc4wp3 #MedSky
A new Review explores the neuroprotective mechanisms of endurance exercise & highlights the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness in healthy brain ageing: tinyurl.com/4asc4wp3 #MedSky
March 31, 2025 at 11:29 PM
I'm excited to read this! I've seen a lot of evidence that cardio exercise protects against cognitive decline, and suspected that endurance does too, but that seems trickier to study.
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
My 2nd post on AI in education. I explain ways that generative AI can be disruptive to learning while also recognizing that other AI tools exist and, under limited circumstances, might be useful. I just don't think those are the tools that are actually being used when we talk about AI in education.
NEW POST: "Expert Thinking and AI (Part 2)" by @drkaminske.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/3/4
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/3/4
Expert Thinking and AI (Part 2) — The Learning Scientists
The first post in this series gave an overview of Artificial Intelligence - a broad field that seeks to both better understand human cognition through computer models and to improve task-based compu...
www.learningscientists.org
March 6, 2025 at 8:52 PM
My 2nd post on AI in education. I explain ways that generative AI can be disruptive to learning while also recognizing that other AI tools exist and, under limited circumstances, might be useful. I just don't think those are the tools that are actually being used when we talk about AI in education.
Looking through my copy of The Mind's New Science to get a refresher on the history of AI and found this note I wrote to myself as a joke a few years back. It is less funny now.
Step 1: Produce intelligent computer.
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Profit!
Step 1: Produce intelligent computer.
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Profit!
February 18, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Looking through my copy of The Mind's New Science to get a refresher on the history of AI and found this note I wrote to myself as a joke a few years back. It is less funny now.
Step 1: Produce intelligent computer.
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Profit!
Step 1: Produce intelligent computer.
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Profit!
About to pack up for the day when I saw an email alert for a new article, "Relationship Between Bullshit, Cognitive Skills, and Belief Systems: A Meta-Analytic Review".
Sometimes it's fun being a cognitive psychologist.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Sometimes it's fun being a cognitive psychologist.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Relationship Between Bullshit, Cognitive Skills, and Belief Systems: A Meta‐Analytic Review
Bullshit—verbal statements with little or no concern for the truth—has sparked a growing interest in individual traits, with an increase in the number of studies aimed at understanding why people are...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 10, 2025 at 9:50 PM
About to pack up for the day when I saw an email alert for a new article, "Relationship Between Bullshit, Cognitive Skills, and Belief Systems: A Meta-Analytic Review".
Sometimes it's fun being a cognitive psychologist.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Sometimes it's fun being a cognitive psychologist.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
I used to teach a class on critical thinking that covered how language influences thinking. One of the tools of framing that I see most often (mis)used is negation. This headline from last week is an excellent example.
February 3, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I used to teach a class on critical thinking that covered how language influences thinking. One of the tools of framing that I see most often (mis)used is negation. This headline from last week is an excellent example.
Taking a break from doom-scrolling to get some writing done. Delighted to realize the E.E. Abbott, as in Abbott (1909) the first to conduct experiments on what we now call retrieval practice, was Edwina Eunice Abbott. So many pioneers of memory research were women!
January 24, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Taking a break from doom-scrolling to get some writing done. Delighted to realize the E.E. Abbott, as in Abbott (1909) the first to conduct experiments on what we now call retrieval practice, was Edwina Eunice Abbott. So many pioneers of memory research were women!
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...
This site has info on the economic impact of NIH in your state, if you want to write your senators about this.
This site has info on the economic impact of NIH in your state, if you want to write your senators about this.
NIH In Your State - United For Medical Research
Select a state on the map to see the impact of NIH funding across America.
www.unitedformedicalresearch.org
January 23, 2025 at 1:36 AM
www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...
This site has info on the economic impact of NIH in your state, if you want to write your senators about this.
This site has info on the economic impact of NIH in your state, if you want to write your senators about this.
Increasingly, when I mention that I study memory, people will ask how to protect against dementia. My response is to 1. talk with your doctor about your risk factors and 2. Advocate for policies that reduce air pollution in your city.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Air pollution and brain damage: what the science says
Epidemiological studies have linked dirty air to dementia and other brain disorders. Now researchers are trying to determine how pollutants do their damage, and how much harm they cause.
www.nature.com
January 14, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Increasingly, when I mention that I study memory, people will ask how to protect against dementia. My response is to 1. talk with your doctor about your risk factors and 2. Advocate for policies that reduce air pollution in your city.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
NEW VLOG: Learning in Medical School by @drkaminske.bsky.social & @drcindynebel.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/12...
#edusky
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/12...
#edusky
The Learning Scientists Blog
View all of our posts on our website!
www.learningscientists.org
December 5, 2024 at 5:59 PM
NEW VLOG: Learning in Medical School by @drkaminske.bsky.social & @drcindynebel.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/12...
#edusky
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/12...
#edusky
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
NEW POST: "Improving College Student Outcomes with Course Policies that Support Autonomy (Part 2)" by @drsumeracki.bsky.social.
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/11...
#academicsky #edusky
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/11...
#academicsky #edusky
www.learningscientists.org
November 22, 2024 at 4:22 PM
NEW POST: "Improving College Student Outcomes with Course Policies that Support Autonomy (Part 2)" by @drsumeracki.bsky.social.
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/11...
#academicsky #edusky
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/11...
#academicsky #edusky
Reposted by Dr. Althea Need Kaminske
NEW POST: "Improving College Student Outcomes with Course Policies that Support Autonomy" by @drsumeracki.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/11...
#edusky #academicsky
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/11...
#edusky #academicsky
The Learning Scientists Blog
View all of our posts on our website!
www.learningscientists.org
November 15, 2024 at 5:58 PM
NEW POST: "Improving College Student Outcomes with Course Policies that Support Autonomy" by @drsumeracki.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/11...
#edusky #academicsky
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/11...
#edusky #academicsky