Seth Pollak

image shows four children posing as if they are thinking or considering an option with thought bubbles depicted above their heads

Demonstrates that while preschoolers initially rely on perceptual information from faces, this diminishes with age; the crux of emotional development in children shifts to conceptual knowledge gained through social experience. 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#cogsci
#devsci
#AffectSci
#PsychSciSky

Great talk and fun conversations!

Thank you Koraly!

🧪 Call for Papers: Rigorous science that examines children's developmental trajectories in the long shadow of COVID-19, with a special focus on heterogeneity among children’s developmental contexts, social experiences, and outcomes. www.srcd.org/call-papers-...

New issue of Dædalus on caregiving. Megan Gunnar
@rjc3kids.bsky.social and I discuss science parents can rely on to make decisions about care of children. www.amacad.org/sites/defaul... OPEN ACCESS bit.ly/3Qm49ha

www.amacad.org/sites/defaul...

🧪 #devsci #psychology #developmentalpsychology

It is simply not enough for universities to say, “Our grants & research offices are looking into how research will be affected by the latest directive.”

University leaders must actively and very publicly make the case for the kind of work many of us do. The silence on this front is deafening.

Childhood adversity influences future decision-making. This systematic review suggests adversity shifts individuals to prioritize information about risks and de-value information about reward- which is likely adaptive in adverse contexts.

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

@kesmith.bsky.social

Check out this very special Special Issue honoring Dante Cicchetti!

I’m grateful for the opportunity to discuss my ideas about the future of the field and to honor my legendary mentor. Fun to read all the other contributors’ ideas too!

Can’t wait to dive into this special issue, featuring a paper from my lab!

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I have barely opened the Table of Contents and can already feel my heart racing with excitement... This looks like a truly exceptional special issue! I cannot wait to read it.

This was a joy to create, especially with early career scholars in mind. All papers can be found here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The special issue of Development and Psychopathology entitled “The Future of Developmental Psychopathology: Honoring the Contributions of Dante Cicchetti” is published!

My intro to the volume is
doi.org/10.1017/S095...
A link to all of the papers from luminaries is in the field is in the comments

Info about the training program, which is also at risepostdoc.wcer.wisc.edu

Postdoc positions in math cognition & math education! The RISE Postdoctoral Training Program at UW-Madison seeks applicants interested in inclusive mathematics education and in ensuring greater participation in STEM by learners from diverse groups. More info in the flyer and via the QR code.

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens theonion.com/no-way-to-pr...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Posting here as well as on the other app.

Finally getting around to sharing our (@sethpollak.bsky.social) new theoretical paper! We challenge assumptions around the role of arousal in emotion, highlighting ambiguity in how the construct is defined and measured.

journals.sagepub.com/eprint/XWGB4...

“Arousal might refer to some set of processes underlying emotion but evidence for its role in emotional experiences and behavior is at best mixed and imprecise” from @kesmith.bsky.social & @sethpollak.bsky.social

(Reading as I prep an arousal coding template 💃)

Thanks Lior. Always happy to chat more with you!

In modern psychology, “affect” refers to the mental counterpart of internal bodily sensations. Affect is part of all emotions but not specific to any particular emotion.
We explain this more in Box 9 of the paper with Lisa Feldman Barrett I sent you earlier.

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Hi Marco! Affect is not emotion. Affect is a property of consciousness that is "on" at every moment, regardless of whether you are experiencing an instance of emotion or not. You can find some good definitions of these terms at the end of this paper: journals.sagepub.com/stoken/defau...

Postdoctoral positions in Emotion Research. Come and collaborate with 24 training faculty across disciplines in the nation’s longest standing emotion research training program (also home to the country’s largest local farmers market). Applications are due on Friday, February 7,2025. emotion.wisc.edu

Arousal is a construct that feels intuitive and simple but lacks consistent evidence for its role in emotion and is often employed in vague and inconsistent ways, lacking both clarity and usefulness.

Thoughtful commentaries from David Sander, Julian Thayer, Bruce Friedman, and Otniel Dror follow.

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A cheeky new paper that may challenge assumptions about emotion (hopefully, in a productive way).

“Arousal Might Not Be Anything to Get Excited About”
journals.sagepub.com/share/W6VFCD... asks: Is there really evidence for arousal, or is it just a placeholder for unexplained aspects of emotion?

Computational approaches to language at UW-Madison! jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Lots of research attention to how we learn to infer other people's feelings. We always give a nod to the importance of context but don’t often integrate this into a task. Here, we examine how children versus adults combine facial and contextual cues.
rdcu.be/dVjs5

Teaching Faculty - Madison, Wisconsin, United States Job Summary: The Department of Psychology seeks a dynamic and engaging individual with a commitment to teaching as a profession for a full-time, 9-month teaching faculty position. The successful can...

Two renewable teaching faculty positions at UW Madison psychology. Come join us!

jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/teachin...

New work led by Madeline Harms examines the structure of explore-exploit decision making using four commonly used paradigms to advance understanding of how individuals adapt to changing environments over time. authors.elsevier.com/a/1ikHr2Hxod...

Cortisol’s Diurnal Rhythm Indexes the Neurobiological Impact of Child Adversity in Adolescence - Exciting new work led by Birdie Shirtcliff!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Deadline for nominations for the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award is March 15.  Much more efficient and simpler nomination process than in the past:  www.apa.org/about/awards... Help recognize someone who influenced your thinking!

Early experiences influence how humans learn from and adapt to their changing circumstances
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Children who experienced their lives as less predictable explore less, and therefore have fewer opportunities to learn about environments and the people in them

Come study children's emotions and learning with us at the UW-Madison Child Emotion Lab. Post-doc fellowships on the NIMH Training Program in Emotion Research. Apps due February 2, 2024 (but please contact me before applying). childemotion.waisman.wisc.edu
emotion.wisc.edu