BJKS Podcast
Benjamin James Kuper-Smith
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A podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related. Long-form interviews with people whose work I find interesting.
Available episodes
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Mar 19, 2023
68. Isabel Thielmann: Economic games, personality, and affordances
Isabel Thielmann is a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the study of crime, security and law. In this conversation, we talk about her background as a competitive sprinter, her research on prosocial behaviour and personality, the role of affordances, how game theory and interdependence theory can helpus understand human social behaviour, and Isa's experiences in having started a lab.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:04: Isa used to be a pretty good sprinter
0:11:03: Lessons from athletics
0:16:40: How Isa got into psychology and doing science
0:26:47: Breadth vs depth in research topics
0:33:32: Start discussing Isa's review article 'Economics Games: an introduction and guide for research'
0:46:06: What are game theory and interdependence theory?
0:59:06: Affordances and economic games
1:10:44: Personality and economic games
1:34:20: Isa's experiences starting her lab and becoming a PI
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Isa's links
* Website: https://geni.us/thielmann-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/thielmann-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/Thielmann-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References
Amir, Rand & Gal (2012). Economic games on the internet: The effect of $1 stakes. PloS one.
Cameron (1999). Raising the stakes in the ultimatum game: Experimental evidence from Indonesia. Econ Inquiry.
Columbus, Münich & Gerpott (2020). Playing a different game: Situation perception mediates framing effects on cooperative behaviour. J Exp Soc Psych.
Diehl, Thielmann, Thiel, Mayer, Zipfel & Schneider (2014). Possibilities to support elite adolescent athletes in improving performance: Results from a qualitative content analysis. Science & sports.
Galizzi & Navarro-Martinez (2019). On the external validity of social preference games: a systematic lab-field study. Management Science.
Halevy, Chou & Murnighan (2012). Mind games: the mental representation of conflict. J perso and soc psych.
Kuper-Smith, Voulgaris, Briken, Fuss & Korn (2022). Social preferences and psychopathy in a sample of male prisoners. PsyArXiv.
Liebrand (1984). The effect of social motives, communication and group size on behaviour in an N‐person multi‐stage mixed‐motive game. Eur J soc psych.
Peysakhovich, Nowak & Rand (2014). Humans display a ‘cooperative phenotype’that is domain general and temporally stable. Nat Comm.
Thielmann, Böhm, Ott & Hilbig (2021). Economic games: An introduction and guide for research. Collabra: Psych.
Thielmann & Hilbig (2015). Trust: An integrative review from a person–situation perspective. Review of Gen Psych.
Thielmann, Spadaro & Balliet (2020). Personality and prosocial behavior: A theoretical framework and meta-analysis. Psych Bull.
Adam Mastroianni's article on conversational doorknobs: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/good-conversations-have-lots-of-doorknobs
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Feb 12, 2023
67. Daniela Schiller: Social spaces, cognitive maps, and clinical applications
Daniela Schiller is a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she studies the neural mechanisms of emotional control and flexibility. In this conversation, we talk about her work on cognitive maps for social behaviour, the importance of power and affiliation for our social lives, the difficulties of measuring spatial navigation with fMRI, and potential psychiatric applications of cognitive maps.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/bjks_podcast
Timestamps
00:04: Daniela's drumming
03:31: How Daniela started working on (social) cognitive maps
08:42: The 2 perspectives on the hippocampus: spatial navigation and episodic memory for relational learning and cognitive maps
15:22: Power and affiliation as fundamental social dimensions
19:24: Start discussing Daniela's paper 'A map for social navigation in the human brain'
28:45: The difficulty of measuring spatial navigation with fMRI
42:51: Clinical applications of cognitive maps
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Daniela's links
* Website: https://geni.us/schiller-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/schiller-scholar
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References and links
The Amygdaloids: https://www.youtube.com/@theamygdaloids
Bellmund, De Cothi, Ruiter, Nau, Barry & Doeller (2020). Deforming the metric of cognitive maps distorts memory. Nature Human Behaviour.
Constantinescu, O’Reilly & Behrens (2016). Organizing conceptual knowledge in humans with a gridlike code. Science.
Doeller, Barry & Burgess (2010). Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network. Nature.
Jacobs, ... & Kahana (2013). Direct recordings of grid-like neuronal activity in human spatial navigation. Nature Neuroscience.
Montagrin, Saiote & Schiller (2018). The social hippocampus. Hippocampus.
Schafer & Schiller (2018). Navigating social space. Neuron.
Schafer, Kamilar-Britt, Sahani, Bachi & Schiller (2022). Hippocampal Place-like Signal in Latent Space. bioRxiv.
Schiller, Eichenbaum, Buffalo, Davachi, Foster, Leutgeb & Ranganath (2015). Memory and space: towards an understanding of the cognitive map. Journal of Neuroscience.
Tavares, Mendelsohn, Grossman, Williams, Shapiro, Trope & Schiller (2015). A map for social navigation in the human brain. Neuron.
Tolman (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review.
Yartsev, Witter & Ulanovsky (2011). Grid cells without theta oscillations in the entorhinal cortex of bats. Nature.
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Feb 5, 2023
66. Rafael Pérez y Pérez: Story Machines, Creative AI, and Mexian serenades
Rafael Pérez y Pérez is a professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Cuajimalpa, where he studies computational creativity, in particular in relation to computer programs that can write stories. In this conversation, we talk about MEXICA, the story generator he has been working on for most of his career, his newly released book Story Machines (with Mike Sharples), the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to creating stories with AI, what the future holds, whether large companies like Amazon are working on these topics, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/bjks_podcast
Timestamps
00:05: How Rafael ended up doing his PhD on artificial creativity in Sussex
07:00: Why did Rafael create MEXICA? / A more human system for generating stories
24:45: Many approaches of generating stories
30:46: Is a combination of symbolic and connectionist approaches (neuro-symbolic AI) the solution to creating machines that write stories?
33:23: Why might GPT-3 not work for stories or The risk of singing a Mexican sereneade to a Norwegian
43:38: Are there fundamental barries for AI writing convincing fiction without actually living in the real world?
47:54: Is Amazon developing AI to write fiction?
53:59: What will happen in the next 5-10 years of AI writing stories?
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Rafael's links
* Website: https://geni.us/perez-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/perez-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/perez-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References and links
Chat GPT: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/
Mnih, Kavukcuoglu, Silver, ... & Hassabis (2015). Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning. Nature.
Mueller (1990). Daydreaming in humans and machines: a computer model of the stream of thought. Intellect Books.
Pérez y Pérez & Sharples (2004). Three computer-based models of storytelling: BRUTUS, MINSTREL and MEXICA. Knowledge-based systems.
Propp (1968). Morphology of the Folktale. University of Texas Press.
Sharples & Pérez y Pérez (2022). Story Machines: How Computers Have Become Creative Writers. Routledge.
Sharples & Pérez y Pérez (2023). Introduction to narrative generators. Oxford University Press
Turner (1993). MINSTREL: A computer model of creativity and storytelling, PhD Dissertation, University of California LA.
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Dec 10, 2022
65. Adam Mastroianni: Conversational doorknobs, improv comedy, and a very dumb academic revolution
Adam Mastroianni is a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School. In this conversation, we talk about his work on conversations, his Substack/blog, his article Things Could Be Better and why he chose to publish it this way, improv comedy, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:01:20: Did Adam fake having a girlfriend when he appeared on Come Dine With Me?
0:08:51: Adam's Substack called 'Experimental History'
0:10:51: Good conversations have lots of doorknobs
0:15:33: What can people learn from improv comedy?
0:23:10: Why did Adam start his Substack? / A discussion of academia, alternative ways of doing science, and the problems with academic publishing
1:12:26: Start discussing Adam's paper 'Do conversations end when people want them to?'
1:27:28: What makes for a good conversation?
1:29:59: Some words of advice from Adam
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Adam's links
* Website: https://geni.us/mastroianni-web
* Substack: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/mastroianni-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/mastroianni-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
Links
Rowan Atkinson saying words in a funny way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UhHrtKx8-s
Substack article on conversational doorknobs: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/good-conversations-have-lots-of-doorknobs
https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2022/02/10/the-scientific-virtues/
Episode with Joe Hilgard about scientific fraud: https://geni.us/bjks-hilgard
Get me off your mailing list: https://www.vox.com/2014/11/21/7259207/scientific-paper-scam
Dan Quintana's YouTube with Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/@dsquintana
Adam's Rhodes speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H68w3543lk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/style/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html
References
Gilbert (2009). Stumbling on happiness.
Mastroianni, Gilbert, Cooney, & Wilson (2021). Do conversations end when people want them to? PNAS.
Mastroianni, AM & Ludwin-Peery, EJ. (2022). Things could be better. https://psyarxiv.com/2uxwk
Schwartz (2008). The importance of stupidity in scientific research. Journal of Cell Science.
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Nov 17, 2022
64. Gareth Barnes: MEG, OPM-MEG and the beauty of tinkering
Gareth Barnes is a professor at University College London, where he is Head of Magnetoencephalography. We talk about how Gareth randomly stumbled into working on MEG, what MEG is, and some of his recent projects, including the exciting new generation of MEG scanners: OPM-MEG.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes appear roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:03: How I found out about Gareth's work
0:02:31: What is MEG?
0:07:04: Flexible headcasts for MEG
0:19:49: How Gareth accidentally started working on MEG (after writing fiction in France)
0:28:46: The early days of MEG at Aston University (starting with a single channel)
0:40:58: The new generation of MEG: Optically pumped magnetometers (OPM-MEG)
1:13:33: Mouth MEG and measuring hippocampus with MEG
1:21:06: The relationship between methods development and discovery in basic science
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Gareth's links
* Website: https://geni.us/barnes-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/barnes-scholar
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
Links
MEG in the UK: https://meguk.ac.uk/
MEG image: https://biomaglaboratory.fi/wp-content/themes/biomagille/images/meg_image_20210422b.jpg
Cerca MEG: https://www.cercamagnetics.com/
Fieldline MEG: https://fieldlineinc.com/
Young Epilepsy: https://www.youngepilepsy.org.uk/
Sphenoidal electrodes: https://www.epilepsybehavior.com/article/S1525-5050(03)00023-4/fulltext
References
Boto, ... & Brookes (2018). Moving magnetoencephalography towards real-world applications with a wearable system. Nature.
Boto, ... & Brookes (2019). Wearable neuroimaging: Combining and contrasting magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography. NeuroImage.
Hill, ... & Brookes (2019). A tool for functional brain imaging with lifespan compliance. Nature Communications.
Meyer, ... & Barnes (2017). Flexible head-casts for high spatial precision MEG. Journal of neuroscience methods.
Sander, ... & Knappe (2012). Magnetoencephalography with a chip-scale atomic magnetometer. Biomedical optics express.
Seymour, ... & Maguire (2021). Using OPMs to measure neural activity in standing, mobile participants. NeuroImage.
Stangl, ... & Suthana (2021). Boundary-anchored neural mechanisms of location-encoding for self and others. Nature.
Tierney, ... & Barnes (2019). Optically pumped magnetometers: From quantum origins to multi-channel magnetoencephalography. NeuroImage.
Tierney, ... & Barnes (2021). Mouth magnetoencephalography: A unique perspective on the human hippocampus. NeuroImage.
Vivekananda, ... & Walker (2020). Optically pumped magnetoencephalography in epilepsy. Annals of clinical and translational neurology.
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Sep 28, 2022
63. Adeyemi Adetula: ManyLabs Africa, psychology should generalise from Africa, and multicultural collaborations
Adeyemi Adetula is a PhD student at the University of Grenoble, where he is leading the ManyLabs Africa project. In this conversation, we talk about that project, his recent commentary 'Psychology should generalize from - not just to - Africa', how Western researchers can best collaborate with African researchers, and much more.
Timestamps
0:00:05: How Adeyemi went from psychology student in Nigeria to PhD student in France
0:13:27: ManyLabs Africa
0:18:54: Synergy between the Credibility Revolution and research development in Africa
0:25:26: How and why Adeyemi crowdfunded his PhD
0:36:42: Psychology should generalize from - not just to - Africa
0:54:47: How can Western researchers test their theories in more diverse samples?
1:03:47: Pounded yam with Egusi soup and bushmeat
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Adeyemi's links
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/adetula-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/adetula-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References and links
ManyLabs Africa: https://osf.io/vh6td/
Collaborative Replications and Education Project: https://www.crep-psych.org/
CREP Africa: https://osf.io/kvhzg/
Sci-Hub: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub
Adeyemi's GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-african-scholar-in-financial-distress
Adeyemi's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/support_adeyemi_adetula_dream
Adetula, ... IJzerman (2022). Psychology should generalize from—not just to—Africa. Nat Rev Psych.
Adetula, ... IJzerman (2021). Synergy Between the Credibility Revolution and Human Development in Africa. AfricArXive.
Adetula, … IJzerman, H. (2021). The Evaluation of Harm and Purity Transgressions in Africans: A Paradigmatic Replication of Rottman and Young (2019). AfricArXive
Klein, ... Nosek (2014). Investigating variation in replicability: A “many labs” replication project. Soc Psych.
Rottman & Young (2019). Specks of dirt and tons of pain: Dosage distinguishes impurity from harm. Psych Sci.
The 5 shortlisted African papers for the ManyLabs Africa replication:
Bevan-Dye & Akpojivi (2016). South African Generation Y students’ self-disclosure on Facebook. South African J of Psych.
Kombo, S. (n.d.). Using behavioural informed communication to drive civic engagement. [Unpublished paper] https://busaracenter.org/case_studies/behaviorally-informed-communication-to-drive-civic-engagement/
Mgbokwere, Esienumoh & Uyana (2015). Perception and attitudes of parents towards teenage pregnancy in a rural community of Cross river state, Nigeria. Global J of Pure & Applied Sci.
Ojedokun (2015). Extramarital affair as correlate of reproductive health and home instability among couples in Ibadan, Nigeria. African J of Social Work.
Teye-Kwadjo, Kagee & Swart (2018). Condom use negotiation among high school adolescents in Ghana: The role of gender. South African J of Psych.
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Sep 13, 2022
62. Nils Köbis: AI, corruption, and deepfakes
Nils Köbis is a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, where he studies the intersection of AI and corruption. In this conversation, we talk about how Nils got into working on this topic, and some of his recent papers on AI, corruption, deepfakes, and AI poetry.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month.
Timestamps
0:00:04: Moral Games
0:13:09: How Nils started working at the intersection of AI and corruption
0:30:12: Start discussing 'Bad machines corrput good morals'
1:01:00: Start discussing Nils's papers on whether people can detect AI-generated poems and videos
1:25:59: Learning to say no and to not get sidetracked
1:31:05: Writing a PhD thesis
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Nils's links
* Website: https://geni.us/koebis-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/koebis-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/Koebis-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References & links
Moral Games (in German): https://geni.us/moral-games
Nils's podcast KickBack: https://www.icrnetwork.org/what-we-do/kickback-global-anticorruption-podcast/
Replika AI app: https://replika.com/
Science fiction science: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/guiding-concepts/concept-2-science-fiction-science
Collingridge dilemma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collingridge_dilemma
GPT-3: https://openai.com/api/
Fotos of people who don't exist: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
Abdalla & Abdalla 2021. The Grey Hoodie Project: Big tobacco, big tech, .... Proc of 2021 AAAI/ACM Conf.
Crandall ... 2018. Cooperating with machines. Nat Comm.
Goffman 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Harari 2016. Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow.
Hawking 2018. Brief answers to the big questions.
Kehlmann 2021: Mein Algorithmus und ich.
Köbis ... 2021. Bad machines corrupt good morals. Nat Hum Behav.
Köbis ... 2021. Fooled twice: People cannot detect deepfakes but think they can. Iscience.
Köbis & Mossink, 2021. Artificial intelligence versus Maya Angelou... . Comp in hum behav.
Köbis ... 2022. The promise and perils of using artificial intelligence to fight corruption. Nat Mach Intell.
Leib ... 2021. The corruptive force of AI-generated advice. arXiv.
Leib ... 2021. Collaborative dishonesty: A meta-analytic review. Psych Bull.
Mnih ... 2015. Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning. Nature.
Rahwan ... 2019. Machine behaviour. Nature.
Silver ... 2016. Mastering the game of Go with deep neural networks and tree search. Nature.
Tegmark 2017. Life 3.0: Being human in the age of artificial intelligence.
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Aug 13, 2022
61. Eva Krockow: Social dilemmas, antimicrobial resistance, and the value of qualitative studies
Eva Krockow is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Leicester, where her research focusses on the psychology of antimicrobial resistance. We talk about her educational background, her work on the Centipede Game, social dilemmas, antimicrobial resistance, and the value of qualitative studies.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month.
Timestamps
0:00:04: How Eva ended up studying psychology in Leicester
0:07:16: Before her PhD, Eva worked in international relations
0:13:06: The Centipede Game/Eva's PhD work
0:23:49: What is 'antimicrobial resistance' and why is it a problem?
0:41:52: The social dilemma of antimicrobial resistance
0:52:05: The benefits of qualitative studies
1:04:53: What can we do about antimicrobial resistance?
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Eva's links
* Website: https://geni.us/krockow-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/krockow-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/krockow-twt
* Blog: https://geni.us/krockow-blog
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References/links
The Centipede Game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede_game
AMR studio podcast: https://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/
Colman, ... (2019). Medical prescribing and antibiotic resistance: a game-theoretic analysis of a potentially catastrophic social dilemma. PloS one.
Flood (1958). Some experimental games. Management Sci.
Hardin (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science.
Harring & Krockow (2021). The social dilemmas of climate change and antibiotic resistance: an analytic comparison and discussion of policy implications. Humanities and Soc Sci Comm.
Krockow, ... (2022). Prosociality in the social dilemma of antibiotic prescribing. Cur Op in Psych.
Krockow (2020). Nomen est omen: why we need to rename ‘antimicrobial resistance’. JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance.
Krockow, ... (2016). Exploring cooperation and competition in the Centipede game through verbal protocol analysis. Euro J of Soc Psych.
Krockow, ... (2016). Cooperation in repeated interactions: A systematic review of Centipede game experiments, 1992–2016. Euro Rev of Soc Psych.
Pulford, ... (2016). Social value induction and cooperation in the Centipede game. PloS one.
Pulford, ... (2017). Reasons for cooperating in repeated interactions: Social value orientations, fuzzy traces, reciprocity, and activity bias. Decision.
Pulford, ... (2021). A five-factor integrative model of strategic reasoning in dyadic games. Eur J of Soc Psych.
Rosenthal (1981). Games of perfect information, predatory pricing and the chain-store paradox. J of Econ theo.
Tarrant, ... (2021). Drivers of Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Overuse across Diverse Hospital Contexts—A Qualitative Study of Prescribers in the UK, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Antibiotics.
Tarrant, ... (2020). Moral and contextual dimensions of “inappropriate” antibiotic prescribing in secondary care: a three-country interview study. Front
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Jul 3, 2022
60. Rickesh Patel: Mantis Shrimp navigation, walking bumblebees, and scientific illustrations
Ricky Patel is a postdoc at Lund University, where he studies the neural basis of navigation behaviours in arthropods. In this conversation, we talk about his work on spatial navigation in Mantis Shrimp and bumblebees, the difficulty of recording from moving insects, science communication, and scientific illustrations.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:04: What is a Mantis Shrimp?
09:53: How Ricky started studying Mantis Shrimp navigation
16:00: Start discussing Ricky's 2020 Current Biology paper on path integration in Mantis Shrimp
25:03: A hierarchy of compass cues
34:10: Start discussing Ricky's 2020 Proceedings B paper on landmark navigation in Mantis Shrimp
38:11: Complex behaviour doesn't require a large brain
40:16: Start discussing Ricky's 2022 Current Biology paper about path integration in walking bumblebees
46:14: How well can we record neural activity from moving insects?
49:54: Twitter in academia
53:51: Rickesh's work as a scientific illustrator
57:57: There really has been a rich history of studying navigation in non-mammals
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Ricky's links
* Website: https://geni.us/patel-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/patel-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/patel-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References
Beetz, Kraus, Franzke, Dreyer, Strube-Bloss, Rössler, Warrant, Merlin, & El Jundi, B. (2022). Flight-induced compass representation in the monarch butterfly heading network. Current Biology.
O'Keefe & Dostrovsky (1971). The hippocampus as a spatial map: Preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat. Brain research.
Patel, Kempenaers & Heinze. (2022). Vector navigation in walking bumblebees. Current Biology.
Patel & Cronin (2020). Mantis shrimp navigate home using celestial and idiothetic path integration. Current Biology.
Patel & Cronin (2020). Landmark navigation in a mantis shrimp. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Patel & Cronin (2020). Path integration error and adaptable search behaviors in a mantis shrimp. Journal of Experimental Biology.
Santschi (1911). Obervations et remarques critiques sur le mécanisme de l'orientation chez les fourmis. Rév Suisse Zool.
Tolman (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological review.
Wehner (1990). On the brink of introducing sensory ecology: Felix Santschi (1872–1940) — Tabib-en-Neml. Behav Ecol Sociobiol .
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Jun 19, 2022
59. Chris Frith: Two Heads, social neuroscience, and the history of the FIL
Chris Frith is an Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at University College London. His research has spanned several topics, including social cognition, schizophrenia, volition, and consciousness. We talk about Two Heads (a book co-written with his wife and son), his career, and the history of the FIL.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:04: Why did Chris not become a musician?
06:14: How Chris became a comic book hero
14:31: Collaborating with economists (as a neuroscientist or psychologist)
22:34: A triple history of Chris's career, neuroimaging, and the FIL at UCL
47:14: Career advice: explorers and exploiters in science, and skills to learn
57:00: Was all the effort worth it?
1:00:10: Sci-fi and detective story recommendations
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Chris's links
* Website: https://geni.us/frith-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/frith-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/frith-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References
Blakemore ... (1998). Central cancellation of self-produced tickle sensation. Nature neuroscience.
Cook ... (2012). Automatic imitation in a strategic context ... Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Corcoran ... (1995). Schizophrenia, symptomatology and social inference ... Schizophrenia research.
Feinberg ... (1999). Schizophrenia–a disorder of the corollary discharge ... The British Journal of Psychiatry.
Fletcher ... (1995). Other minds in the brain ... Cognition.
Frith ... (2022). Two Heads: A Graphic Exploration of How Our Brains Work with Other Brains.
Frith (2013). Making up the mind: How the brain creates our mental world.
Frith ... (1991). Willed action and the prefrontal cortex in man: a study with PET. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.
Haruno ... (2010). Activity in the amygdala elicited by unfair divisions predicts social value orientation. Nature neuroscience.
Haruno ... (2014). Activity in the nucleus accumbens and amygdala ... Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Helmholtz (1867). Treatise on physiological optics.
Johnstone ... (1976). Cerebral ventricular size and cognitive impairment in chronic schizophrenia. The Lancet.
Medwed (2007). The innocent prisoner's dilemma: ... Iowa Law Review.
Posner ... (1988). Localization of cognitive operations in the human brain. Science.
Shelley (1818). Frankenstein.
Wegner (2004). Précis of the illusion of conscious will. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
Links
Seiber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pqqfWfwRlQ
Ma mère l'oye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEC_XGjgluo
Dolly Suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA-VOOVN2XQ
Chris's interview with the BPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjku9ASscis
https://interactingminds.au.dk/
https://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie
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Jun 12, 2022
58. Cameron Brick: climate change, pro-environmental behaviour, and illusory essences
Cameron Brick is an Assistant Professor in Social Psychology at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on the psychological aspects of climate change. In this conversation, we talk about climate change, the psychological aspects behind it, the difficulty of defining pro-environmental behaviour, and his recent article on Illusory Essences in psychological (and neuroscientific) research.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:04: How Cameron started working on the psychology of climate change
0:06:24: What is the actual problem of climate change? And what can we do about it?
0:21:47: What actually is "pro-environmental behaviour" and how can we measure it?
0:32:35: What kind of person is pro-environemtnal, and…
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May 28, 2022
57. Peter Vuust: music in the brain, predictive coding, and jazz
Peter Vuust is a Professor at the Center for Music in the Brain in Aarhus, a jazz musician, and composer. In this conversation , we talk about his recent review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, how he got to where he is, active inference in music, jazz improvisation, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:05: How Peter became a jazz musician
04:54: How Peter became professor of neuroscience
08:20: How to combine two different professions practically?
11:50: Start discussing 'Music in the brain'
24:53: How do prediction errors change with familiarty of a piece of music?
38:18: How does moving to the beat (active inference) reduce prediction errors?
46:48: The 3 dynamics in musical synchronisation
55:10: How…
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May 21, 2022
56. Mary Elizabeth Sutherland: scientific editing, behavioural sciences at Nature, and how to improve submissions
Mary Elizabeth Sutherland is senior editor at Nature, where she edits submissions in the behavioural sciences and cognitive neuroscience. In this conversation, we talk about how she became an editor, what editors do all day, how to improve your submissions, the future of publishing at Nature, the harp, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:00: Introduction
0:05:51: How Mary Elizabeth started playing the harp
0:11:19: Harp music recommendations
0:13:09: How Mary Elizabeth became senior editor at Nature
0:18:11: What do editors do all day?
0:31:04: What's the difference between Nature, Nature Communications, and Scientific Reports?
0:38:53: How representative do samples need to be for Nature?
0:44:12: Wha…
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May 1, 2022
55. Angelika Stefan: p-hacking, simulations, and Shiny Apps
Angelika Stefan is a PhD student at the University of Amsterdam in the Psychological Methods group (lead by Eric-Jan Wagenmakers). In this conversation, we talk about her preprint 'Big little lies: A Compendium and Simulation of p-Hacking Strategies', which she just uploaded to PsyArXiv. We also discuss how she created the Shiny App that allows users to play around with the simulations and run simulations that didn't make it into the paper.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:05: How did Angelika start working on her paper 'Big little lies'
05:22: P-hacking and human error
07:47: Different p-hacking strategies
29:34: What are good solutions against p-hacking?
40:56: Future directions for this kind of research
45:32: H…
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Apr 7, 2022
54. Jessica Kay Flake: Schmeasurement, making stats engaging, and the Psychological Science Accelerator
Jessica Flake is Assistant Professor for quantitative psychology and modeling at McGill University, where she studies measurement. In this conversation, we talk about her recent paper 'Measurement Schmeasurement: Questionable measurement practices and how to avoid them' (with former guest of the podcast Eiko Fried), how she makes stats lectures interesting, and her work on the Psychological Science Accellarator.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:04: Eiko Fried is maybe not that good at p-hacking
0:02:03: How Jessica got into researching measurement
0:10:42: The title of 'Measurement Schmeasurement'
0:16:15: So what is Schmeasurement?
0:24:47: How does Jessica ('literally the best prof ever') make statistics engagi…
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Mar 16, 2022
53. Chris Chambers: Registered Reports, scheduled peer-review, and science without journals
Chris Chambers is professor at Cardiff University where he is Head of Brain Stimulation. He is also one of the pioneers behind Registered Reports, a type of article where researchers receive peer review and in-principle acceptance before the results are known. In this conversation, we focus on Registered Reports and talk about how Chris got Registered Reports started at Cortex, how the review process differs between Registered Reports and regular papers, whether they are suited for scientists on short-term contracts, and what the future holds for Registered Reports and scientific publishing in general.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
01:51: What are Registered Reports?
07:24: How Chris got Registered Reports starte…
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Mar 6, 2022
52. Postdoc fellowship applications (with Toby Wise)
In this conversation, I talk with Toby Wise about applying for postdoc fellowships. Toby has received and completed the Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship, where he worked with Ray Dolan and Dean Mobbs. He answers some of the questions I have about applying for postdoc fellowships in general, such as how to write a proposal, how to contact potential supervisors/sponsors for your application, when to start, and what kind of scientist a fellowship is even for.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Toby's links
* Website: https://geni.us/wise-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/wise-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/wise-twt…
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Feb 19, 2022
51. Hugo Spiers: Taxi Brains, cognitive maps in humans, and working with humans and non-human animals
Hugo Spiers is professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London. His research explores how our brain constructs representations of the world and uses them to recall the past, navigate the present and imagine the future. In this episode, we talk about his work on Sea Hero Quest (with Michael Hornberger, former guest of this podcast), his new research project Taxi Brains, the difficulties and joys of working with more than one species, and cognitive maps in humans.
Time stamps
0:00:05: Dealing with email
0:04:42: Sea Hero Quest
0:25:53: Taxi Brains project
0:55:18: The difficulties and benefits of working with humans and non-human animals in the same lab
1:11:48: Discussing Hugo's review "The cognitive map in humans: spatial navigation and beyond"
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Hugo's links
* Website: https://geni.us/spiers-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/spiers-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni…
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Dec 31, 2021
50th episode special: reviewing one year of the podcast, lessons learnt, and plans for the future
This is the 50th episode of this podcast and we're doing something a little different: Cody Kommers, PhD student, fellow podcaster, and one of the first guests of my podcast, interviewed me about the first year of my podcast: what did I learn, what went differently than expected, and what do I plan on changing in the future? We also discuss podcasting more generally and use Cody's experience in running his podcasts as a counterexample in our discussion.
Time stamps
0:00:05: Cody's introduction
0:01:37: Why did I start the podcast?
0:04:32: Expectation vs reality of running a podcast
0:12:05: Other podcasts I enjoy and that influenced me
0:26:50: What am I trying to do when I'm interviewing someone?
0:36:03: Who's the target audience for this podcast?
0:43:22: The podcast's format
0:47:19: How could I save time doing the podcast?
1:02:52: Distribution and marketing of podcasts
1:15:35: Focussing the scope of my topics
1:31:25: The future of this podcast
Podcast links
* Website: htt…
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Dec 24, 2021
49. Book club: Conceptual Spaces by Peter Gärdenfors, chapters 7 & 8, & general discussion
This is the fourth and final episode of a book club series on Peter Gärdenfors's book Conceptual Spaces. In this episode, we will discuss chapters 7 and 8, in which Gärdenfors discusses computational aspects his theory of conceptual spaces, and provides a general discussion of the topics covered in the book.
For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichcs, who was already my cohost for the books club series on Lee Child's Killing Floor. Koen and I are PhD students in the same lab.
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Koen's links
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/frolichs-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/frolichs-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References
First AI conference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_workshop
Bauby, J. D. (2008). The diving bell and the butterfly. Vintage.
Bellmund, J. L., Gä…
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Dec 17, 2021
48. Book club: Conceptual Spaces by Peter Gärdenfors, chapters 5 & 6
This is the third episode of a book club series on Peter Gärdenfors's book Conceptual Spaces. In this episode, we will discuss chapters 5 and 6, in which Gärdenfors explains how semantics and induction fit into his theory of conceptual spaces.
For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichcs, who was already my cohost for the books club series on Lee Child's Killing Floor. Koen and I are PhD students in the same lab.
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Koen's links
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/frolichs-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/frolichs-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References
Gärdenfors, P. (2004). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. MIT press.
Hohwy, J. (2013). The predictive mind. Oxford University Press.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_economicus
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Dec 10, 2021
47. Book club: Conceptual Spaces by Peter Gärdenfors, chapters 3 & 4
This is the second episode of a book club series on Peter Gärdenfors's book Conceptual Spaces. In this episode, we will discuss chapters 3 and 4, in which Gärdenfors explains how properties and concepts fit into his theory of conceptual spaces.
For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichcs, who was already my cohost for the books club series on Lee Child's Killing Floor. Koen and I are PhD students in the same lab.
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Koen's links
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/frolichs-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/frolichs-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
References
Gärdenfors, P. (2004). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. MIT press.
Kahneman, D, & Tversky, A (1979). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk. Econometrica. *47* (2): 263–291.
Kriegeskorte, N., Mu…
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Dec 3, 2021
46. Book club: Conceptual Spaces by Peter Gärdenfors, chapters 1 & 2
This is the first episode of a book club series on Peter Gärdenfors's book Conceptual Spaces. In this episode, we will discuss chapters 1 and 2, which provide an overview over the book, and a discussion of the three kinds of representation: subconceptual, conceptual, and symbolic.
For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichcs, who was already my cohost for the books club series on Lee Child's Killing Floor. Koen and I are PhD students in the same lab.
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Koen's links
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/frolichs-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/frolichs-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
My interview with Jacob Bellmund: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/1390924/9275803-37-jacob-bellmund-deformed-cognitive-maps-abstract-cognitive-spaces-and-how-many-dimensions-can-grid-cells-encode
Bri…
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Nov 26, 2021
45. Michael Hornberger: Sea Hero Quest, developing games for science, and Alzheimer's disease
Michael Hornberger is a professor of applied dementia research at the University of East Anglia who developed Sea Hero Quest, a mobile game for studying spatial navigation that was downloaded more than 4 million times. In this conversation, we talk about Sea Hero Quest, how Michael (together with Hugo Spiers) developed it, the first findings, and dementia in general.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:04: How Michael started doing research on dementia
02:32: What is Sea Hero Quest?
05:18: How Sea Hero Quest got started and developed
31:45: Start discussing some results from Sea Hero Quest
38:16: How does Sea Hero Quest relate to Michael's work on dementia?
43:16: How far are we from using (something like) Sea Hero Quest as an early biomarker for…
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Nov 19, 2021
44. Dan Quintana: Synthetic datasets, science communication, and podcasting
Dan Quintana is a senior researcher at the University of Olso, where his research focuses on oxytocin, autism, and meta-analyses. In this conversation, we talk about Dan's primer on synthetic datasets, science comunication, Everything Hertz, and podcasting in general.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday, available on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:04: From Australia to Norway
0:09:37: Synthetic datasets
0:41:15: Software tools in science (for writing and analysing data)
0:58:41: Dan's multifaceted online presence / science communication on social media
1:06:32: How to grow on Twitter with no followers
1:15:45: The sound of your own voice
1:22:30: Some of Dan's favourite podcasts
1:25:53: How Everything Hertz grew over time
1:33:04: Finances of podcasts
1:41:45: Podcast editing
Podcast links
* Website…
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Nov 12, 2021
43. Postdoc applications (with Matthias Stangl)
In episode 42 I interviewed Matthias Stangl about his work on spatial navigation. I wanted to ask him a few questions about postdoc applications, but we ran out of time. Matthias kindly agreed to meet again for a few questions that I would add to the end of our conversation. We ended up speaking for almost an hour, so instead of adding this to an episode that was already more than an hour long, we decided to release this part of our conversation as a separate episode for people who might also be applying for postdocs.
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Matthias's links
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/stangl-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/stangl-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
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Nov 5, 2021
42. Matthias Stangl: grid cells in aging, path integration, and neural representations of actual physical movement in humans
Matthias Stangl is a postdoc at UCLA, where he studies the neural representations of spatial navigation in social situations. In this conversation, we talk about his PhD work about aging, grid cells, and path integration, about his recent Nature paper, about the difference between movement in VR and actual physical movement, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:04: Stangl.Stangl.eu
0:02:13: Start discussing Matthias's Current Biology paper on aging, grid cells, and spatial navigation
0:07:10: The temporal stability of grid cells
0:16:10: Start discussing Matthias's Nature Communications paper on path integration errors in aging
0:26:07: Sensory effects on path integration in humans and other animals
0:37:45: Does actual movement lead to stron…
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Oct 29, 2021
41. Reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma" Part 2: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (Stewart), and Prisoner's Dilemma (Yardley)
This is the second episode of an experiment: I'll be reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma". Today I'm reviewing The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart and Prisoner's Dilemma by Ilexa Yardley.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:00: Intro
01:07: Reviewing Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma
18:04: Reviewing Ilexa Yardley's Prisoner's Dilemma: Conservation of the Circle
Podcast links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt
Ben's links
* Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
* Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
* Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt
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Oct 22, 2021
40. Reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma" Part 1: A Prisoner's Dilemma (Karabache) and Prisoner's Dilemma (Feiklowicz)
This episode is the start of an experiment: I'll be reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma", and today I'm starting with the first two books. Basically, I use the Prisoner's Dilemma in my own work and realised that there are 26 books with that title (or minor variant thereof). So, as a very silly idea, I decided to review them all and see whether there is anything I can learn from them about the Prisoner's Dilemma. This episode will be the first, and I'm reviewing A Prisoner's Dilemma by Matthew Karabache and Prisoner's Dilemma by Damien Mitchell Feiklowicz. Over the course of the next two years or so, I'll occasionally review the other books.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:00: Why will I be reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dile…
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Oct 15, 2021
39. Nikolai Axmacher: Reduced grid cells in Alzheimer's risk carriers, landmarks in abstract cognitive space, and clinical translation
Nikolai Axmacher is professor at the Institue for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Ruhr University Bochum where his research focuses on memory, spatial navigation, and neurodegenerative diseases. In this conversation, we talk about how he and his colleagues found that people with a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's showed reduced grid-cell like activity and path integration ability, despite having no symptoms and still being in their 20s.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:05: The history of Nikolai's 2015 Science paper "Reduced grid-cell-like representations in adults at genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease"
0:15:57: Discussing the paper's main findings
0:38:35: Discussing Bierbauer...Axmacher (2020), Science Advances
0:49:03: Applying (abstrac…
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Oct 8, 2021
38. Keno Juechems: Where does value (in RL) come from, optimality with finite computational resources, and learning as a PhD student
Keno Juechems is a Junior Research Fellow at St John's College in Oxford. He studies how humans make decisions, using computational modelling, behavioural tasks, and fMRI. In this conversation, we talk about his papers "Optimal utility and probability functions for agents with finite computational precision" and "Where does value come from?", and various related topics.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:05: Where does the name "Keno" come from?
0:01:47: How Keno got into his current research area
0:14:09: Start discussing Keno's paper "Optimal utility and probability functions for agents with finite computational precision"
0:26:46: Rationality and optimality
0:38:58: Losses, gains, and how much does a paper need to include?
0:51:04: Start discussing Ken…
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Oct 1, 2021
37. Jacob Bellmund: Deformed cognitive maps, abstract cognitive spaces, and how many dimensions can grid cells encode?
Jacob Bellmund is a postdoc at the Max Planck in Leipzig, studying spatial navigation, cognitive maps, and episodic memory. In this conversation, we talk about his research on deforming cognitive maps, abstract cognitive maps, and the translation of the spatial navigation literature to abstract spaces.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:05: How Jacob started working on cognitive maps
02:05: What are place cells, grid cells, and cognitive maps?
08:49: Discussing Jacob's paper "Deforming the metric of cognitive maps distorts memory"
28:34: Abstract cognitive spaces
41:57: How far do findings from spatial navigation translate to cognitive spaces?
50:40: How many dimensions can grid cells encode?
58:01: What is Jacob going to work on next?
Podcast links
* W…
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Sep 24, 2021
36. Book club: The Invention of Nature (Humboldt biography) by Andrea Wulf, part 5 & general discussion
This is the third and final episode of our discussion of Andrea Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature. In this episode, we will discuss part 5 and have a general discussion about the entire book. As always with the book club, in each episode we will talk about whatever happened, so there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have.
For this series, I'm joined by Cody Kommers, former guest of the podcast (episode 4), fellow podcaster, and fellow PhD student in cognitive neuroscience. Cody has a particular interest in travel and psychology.
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Cody's links
* Website: https://www.codykommers.com/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ImTtx_kAAAAJ
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/codykommers
* Newsletter: https://codykommers.substack.com/
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google S…
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Sep 17, 2021
35. Book club: The Invention of Nature (Humboldt biography) by Andrea Wulf, parts 3 & 4
This is the second episode of our discussion of Andrea Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature. In this episode, we will discuss parts 3 and 4. As always with the book club, in each episode we will talk about whatever happened, so there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have.
For this series, I'm joined by Cody Kommers, former guest of the podcast (episode 4), fellow podcaster, and fellow PhD student in cognitive neuroscience. Cody has a particular interest in travel and psychology.
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Cody's links
* Website: https://www.codykommers.com/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ImTtx_kAAAAJ
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/codykommers
* Newsletter: https://codykommers.substack.com/
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-n…
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Sep 10, 2021
34. Book club: The Invention of Nature (Humboldt biography) by Andrea Wulf, parts 1 & 2
This is the first episode of the third edition of the book club. This time, we're reading Andrea Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature. In this episode, we will discuss parts 1 and 2. As always with the book club, in each episode we will talk about whatever happened, so there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have.
For this series, I'm joined by Cody Kommers, former guest of the podcast (episode 4), fellow podcaster, and fellow PhD student in cognitive neuroscience. Cody has a particular interest in travel and psychology.
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Cody's links
* Website: https://www.codykommers.com/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ImTtx_kAAAAJ
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/codykommers
* Newsletter: https://codykommers.substack.com/
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google Scholar: http…
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Sep 3, 2021
33. Bryan Bruns: Applied sociology, 2x2 games, and how to transform tragedy into win-win
Bryan Bruns is an independent consultant sociologist, working mainly on water irrigation systems in southeast Asia. He also publishes academic papers about game theory. In this conversation, we talk about how he became a consultant sociologist, what that even means, how to learn foreign languages, his work on 2x2 games, how to transform a social dilemma into a win-win situation, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:05: How Bryan became a consultant sociologist, working in southeast Asia on water management
0:21:31: How to learn foreign languages
0:31:35: But what does a consultant sociologist actually do? And what makes you good at it?
0:49:36: Why not be a "regular" academic (instead of doing applied work)?
0:54:32: Elinor Ostrom and the com…
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Aug 27, 2021
32. Book discussion: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
In this episode, we discuss Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. Unlike the book club episodes (in which we read around 100 pages per week of the book), the book discussions will be one-off discussions of books that for one reason or another affected me.
For this book discussion, I'm again joined by Antonia Eisenköck, who works in academic publishing and with whom I did a series on Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment on this podcast.
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets
References for books mentioned in the episode:
Huxley, A. (1932). Brave New World. Chatto & Windus.
Huxley, A. (1959). Brave New World Revisited. Chatto & Windus.
Huxley, A., The Gioconda Smile; in: 50 Great Short Stories. Bantham Classics.
Murray, N. (2009). Aldous Huxley: An English Int…
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Aug 20, 2021
31. Stuart Ritchie: Science Fictions, fraud, and open science
Stuart Ritchie is Lecturer at King's College London, where he studies behavioural genetics in relation to personality and cognitive ability. In this conversation, we don't talk about any of that though but instead focus on his book Science Fictions, a book about how science goes wrong, and the topics covered therein.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:41: Trying to replicate Bem (2011) Feeling the future
0:09:58: Wy write Science Fictions?
0:17:24: How to (get people to) adopt open science practices?
0:36:31: Stuart will pay you if you find errors in Science Fictions
0:46:44: Should scientific journals have an automatic way for reporting errors?
0:56:52: Gorecki, Boulez, and cultural references
1:01:45: Scientific fraud: Stapel, Macchiarini, an…
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Aug 13, 2021
30. Book club: Killing Floor by Lee Child, chapters 27-end
This is the third and final episode of our book club on Lee Child's first novel Killing Floor, the novel that introduced Jack Reacher. As always with the book club, there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. I will also be reading some quotes I highlighted from Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, a book I'm reading in parallel in which Andy Martin watches Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel.
For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichs, fellow PhD student in the same lab that I'm in.
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Koen's links
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=E65Fv74J0ywC
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/koenfused
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets
References
Jocko Willink's video 'GOOD': https://www.youtu…
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Aug 6, 2021
29. Anna Riedl: Cognitive science, effective altruism, and science communication
Anna Riedl is a cognitive scientist, currently finishing her MSc in cognitive science in Vienna. She is also founder of Effective Altruism Austria, and co-organiser of the Rationality Vienna Meetup. In this conversation, we talk about cognitive science, rationality, effective altruism, visualisation in science communication, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:04: Studying as a firstgen
07:35: Anna's MSc in cognitive science
20:01: What real-world problem is Anna trying to solve?
26:46: When are you qualified to give a talk on a topic?
35:20: Depth vs. breadth and fun vs. precision in science communication
43:21: Visualisation in science (communication)
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://t…
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Jul 30, 2021
28. Book club: Killing Floor by Lee Child, chapters 15-21 & 22-26
This is the second episode of our book club on Lee Child's first novel Killing Floor, the novel that introduced Jack Reacher. As always with the book club, there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. I will also be reading some quotes I highlighted from Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, a book I'm reading in parallel in which Andy Martin watches Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel.
For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichs, fellow PhD student in the same lab that I'm in.
Timestamps
00:04: Beginning discussing chapters 15-21
58:23: Beginning discussing chapters 22-26
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Koen's links
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=E65Fv74J0ywC
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/koenfused
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
* Twitter: ht…
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Jul 23, 2021
27. Nichola Raihani: The evolution of punishment, ultimate & proximate explanations, and cleaner fish
Nichola Raihani is a professor of evolution and behaviour at University College London. Her research focuses on the evolution of punishment and paranoia. In this conversation, we talk about the fieldwork she did for her PhD in the Kalahari desert, the evolution of punishment, proximate and ultimate explanations, cleaner fish, and Nichola's book The Social Instinct.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
00:05: Surnames in science
03:33: Behavioural ecology or psychology?
13:37: What's it like to do fieldwork in the Kalahari desert, habituating birds to humans?
20:41: The evolution of punishment
29:51: Proximate and ultimate explanations in evolution
46:05: What can we learn about human cooperation by studying cleaner fish?
Podcast links
* Website: h…
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Jul 16, 2021
26. Book club: Killing Floor by Lee Child, chapters 1-7 & 8-14
This is the first episode of our book club on Killing Floor by Lee Child, his first novel, the novel that introduced Jack Reacher. As always with the book club, there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. I will also be reading some quotes I highlighted from Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, a book I'm reading in parallel in which Andy Martin watches Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel.
For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichs, fellow PhD student in the same lab that I'm in.
Timestamps
00:05: Beginning discussing chapters 1-7
52:30: Beginning discussing chapters 8-14
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Koen's links
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=E65Fv74J0ywC
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/koenfused
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
* Twitter: h…
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Jul 9, 2021
25. Désirée Brucks: Inequity aversion in dogs, ecologically realistic experiments, parrots help others obtain food rewards
Désirée Brucks is a postdoc at the University of Giessen and studies social cognition in animals, having worked with dogs, wolves, parrots, and a few more species. She is currently studying farm animals. In this conversation, we talk mainly about her work on inequty aversion in dogs and helping behaviour in parrots. Along the way, I get to ask all sorts of questions about animal cognition.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:05: How has COVID affected work with animals?
0:02:52: What is Désirée currently studying with farm animals?
0:16:02: Parrots in Heidelberg
0:25:44: Curious cows
0:34:29: Inequity aversion in dogs
0:55:03: Ecologically realistic experimental settings
1:06:47: What's it like to get lots of media attention for a study?
1:1…
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Jul 2, 2021
24. Book club: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, epilogue & general discussion
This is the final episode of our discussion of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics), in which we discuss the epilogue and have a more general discussion about the book.
For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia Eisenköck. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing.
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets
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Jun 25, 2021
23. Pete Trimmer: Croquet, from maths anxiety to maths degree, and ecological rationality
Pete Trimmer is a behavioural scientist who works as a senior teaching fellow at the University of Wawrick. His research, almost exclusively theoretical, focuses on the evolution of learning, decision-making, and physiological processes. In this conversation, we talk about a wide range of topics: how Pete became a world-class croquet player (former World No. 3), how he got into academia, how he overcame maths anxiety to become a mathematical biologist, and his work on ecological rationality.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:04: Pete Trimmer, former world-class croquet player
0:15:01: Combining outside activities with work
0:22:14: Pete's path from industry to academia
0:30:30: How to reduce time marking exams by almost 50%
0:36:41: How Pete o…
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Jun 18, 2021
22. Book club: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Parts 5 & 6
In this episode, we discuss part 5 and then part 6 of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics).
For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia Eisenköck. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing.
Timestamps
0:00:05: Start part 5
0:49:45: Start part 6
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets
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Jun 11, 2021
21. Giuliana Spadaro: Cooperation Databank, payoff matrices, and meta-analyses
Giuliana Spadaro is a postdoc in the Amsterdam Cooperation Lab, directed by Daniel Balliet. Her research focuses on cooperation and prosociality. In this conversation, we talk about Giuliana's recent work on the Cooperation Databank (https://cooperationdatabank.org/), a database that contains around 2,600 studies on cooperation, coded by experts to facilitate meta-analyses and other tasks about cooperation research.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:05: Giuliana's career before working on the Cooperation Databank (coda)
0:13:09: What is coda and what can it do?
0:18:58: Different payoff matrices in the Prisoner's Dilemma
0:24:25: The benefits of annotating hundreds of studies
0:28:57: Further uses of coda (e.g., search engine)
0:33:28: How can…
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Jun 4, 2021
20. Book club: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Parts 3 & 4
In this episode, we discuss part 3 and then part 4 of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics).
For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia Eisenköck. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing.
Timestamps
0:00:05: Beginning discussing Part 3
0:56:00: Beginning discussing Part 4
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Ben's links
* Website: www.bjks.blog/
* Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets
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May 28, 2021
19. Erik Wengström: Loss aversion when deciding for others, the relationship between economics & psychology, and prosociality during the COVID-19 pandemic
Erik Wengström is a Professor of Economics at Lund University where he studies how people behave in economic and financial situations. In this conversation, we talk about his study about loss aversion when deciding for others and his recent study on prosociality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, we also discuss the differences and similarities between economics and psychology.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:04: What is loss aversion?
0:05:45: Start discussing Erik's paper Deciding For Others Reduces Loss Aversion
0:16:01: Generalising decision-making across different contexts
0:20:28: The relationship between economics and psychology
0:30:45: Peer-review and publishing in economics
0:44:14: Start discussing Erik's study on proso…
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May 21, 2021
18. Book club: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Parts 1 & 2
This is a new kind of episode for this podcast: in addition to the interviews, I will now do a book club in which I and a friend read a long book (>500 pages) I've always wanted to read but haven't gotten around to. We will read around 100 pages per week and sit down for an hour to chat about the book. To not clog up the podcast feed, I'll publish two discussions in one episode every other week.
The first book in this book club is Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics). In this episode, we introduce the series in general and discuss parts 1 and 2 of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia Eisenköck. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing.
Some important notes:
1) Spoiler alert: we will discuss whatever happened in the book so far
2) You can listen to the episode…
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May 14, 2021
17. Bianca Trovò: Ants-Review, rethinking peer review, and blockchain
Bianca Trovò is a PhD student at Neurospin and Sorbonne Université, where she studies self-initiated movements. Recently, she is a developer of Ants-Review, a blockchain-based protocol for incentivising scientific peer review. In this conversation, we talk mainly about Ants-Review and I ask questions from the perspective of a scientist who isn't particularly familiar with blockchain and cryptography.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:10: How Ants-Review got started
0:14:07: So what's wrong with peer review (in its current form)?
0:26:14: Incentives in Ants-Review
0:40:02: Can people cheat on Ants-Review?
0:52:44: Will reviews on Ants-Review be many micro-reviews, rather than a few traditional reviews?
0:59:47: Why does Ants-Review need to be…
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Apr 30, 2021
16. Brock Bastian: Pain, cooperation, and the benefits of difficulty
Brock Bastian is a professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne whose research focuses on pain, happiness, and morality.
In this conversation, we talk about Brock's work on how and why pain is meaningful. We talk about Brock's work on pain and cooperation, reproducibility in social psychology, his books The Other Side of Happiness, the value of doing shit jobs, Brave New World, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:05: Pain and cooperation
0:18:22: When is a paper ready?
0:22:37: Reproducibility: when can you trust a paper?
0:28:44: Discussing the making of Brock's book The Other Side of Happiness
0:42:39: When should something be easy and when is it good for something to be difficult?
0:52:59: Brock's dog adds a valuable…
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Apr 16, 2021
15. Kate Jeffery: A brief history of spatial navigation, place cells & grid cells in 3D, and brain evolution
Kate Jeffery is a professor of behavioural neuroscience at University College London, where she works on spatial navigation. In this conversation, we talk about the history of spatial navigation, Kate's work on grid cells and place cells in 3D, and her recent work on entropy and brain evolution.
Timestamps
0:00:05: Kate's journey from medicine to neuroscience
0:10:57: A brief history of spatial navigation
0:30:43: PhD applications now and in 1990
0:34:38: Kate recorded grid cells 10 years before their discovery, without realising it
0:52:00: Prizes in science
1:05:20: A brief interlude as Kate gives her cat a treat
1:05:48: Lessons from working with Richard Morris and John O'Keefe
1:09:28: Spatial navigation in 3D
1:34:54: How many dimensions can the hippocampal formation track?
1:40:50: Kate's collaboration with Carlo Rovelli
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Kate's links
* Website: https://jefferylab.com/
*…
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Apr 2, 2021
14. Tessa Rusch: COVID-Dynamic, an extremely variable year, and theory of mind
Tessa Rusch is a postdoc working on computational modelling of social interactions at Caltech in the labs of Ralph Adolphs and John O'Doherty. She is also part of COVID-Dynamic project, a large-scale longitudinal study on the psychological effects of the COVID pandemic.
In this conversation, we talk about Tessa's experiences of being part of such a large project, about her move to the US just before the pandemic, and about her review on computational models and bevioural tasks of Theory of Mind.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:04: Before Tessa's PhD
0:04:07: Tessa's first year in the US, during the pandemic
0:16:51: Tessa's original plan for her postdoc with Ralph Adolphs and John O'Doherty
0:24:22: How COVID-Dynamic got started
0:32:42: Th…
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Mar 19, 2021
13. Joe Hilgard: Scientific fraud, reporting errors, and effects that are too big to be true
Joe Hilgard is Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at Illinois State University. In this conversation, we discuss his work on detecting and reporting scientific fraud.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:05: Are we only catching the dumb fraudsters?
0:08:45: Why does Joe always sign his peer reviews?
0:11:51: Detecting errors during peer review
0:17:44: Retractions motivated by Joe's work
0:22:19: The whole Zhang affair
0:49:19: Ben found errors in a paper. Joe advises what to do next
1:04:06: How to separate negligible errors from serious errors that require action
1:11:37: When effects are too big to be true
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast
Joe's links
* Website: ht…
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Mar 5, 2021
12. Eiko Fried: Being a generalist, theory building in psychology, and useful fictions
Eiko Fried is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at Leiden University. He recently published a target article in Psychological Inquiry about the lack of theory building in network and factor models, and how this impedes progress.
In this conversation, we talk about that article, problems with theories in psychology, Eiko's general approach to science, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:04: Eiko's photography
0:03:33: The Lancet Psychiatry profile about Eiko / being a generalist
0:15:42: Eiko's "No Committee"
0:26:33: Begin discussing Eiko's paper "Lack of theory..."
0:49:55: Theories don't have to be correct
0:53:02: Model comparison in network and factor models, and constraints of the scientific (publishing) industry…
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Feb 19, 2021
11. Jesse Geerts: Finding a good PhD project, reinforcement learning & cognitive maps, and deciding when a paper is ready
Jesse Geerts is a PhD student at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL, in the lab of Neil Burgess. We met a few years ago when we were in the same cohort of the Dual Masters in Brain and Mind Sciences, hosted in the first year in London by UCL and in the second year in Paris by UPMC and ENS.
In this conversation, we talk about Jesse's new paper in PNAS, what it's like to do his PhD programme, how to know when a paper is ready to be submitted, and a bunch of other topics.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:05: During the recording, there was a 4-second delay, but I hope I edited it out alright
0:01:16: Finishing our PhDs
0:15:23: Jesse's experience in the Sainsbury Wellcome PhD Programme
0:23:41: Deciding what PhD project to do (and with whom)…
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Feb 5, 2021
10. Hanne Watkins: From academia to behavioural insights in government, Registered Reports, and morality in war
Hanne Watkins is an adviser for the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government. Previously, she was a PhD student and postdoc studying how humans think about morality in the context of war.
In this conversation, we talk about Hanne's move from academia to governmental work, and about her previous work on morality in a war context. We also talk about her experience of running a Registered Report, something I've read a fair bit about, but haven't yet gotten around to doing myself.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:57: How Hanne's work in behavioural insight for the Australian government relates to her previous academic work
0:35:34: Registered Reports: Hanne's practical experiences writing a Registered Report
0:56:16: Morality in w…
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Jan 22, 2021
9. Corinna Kühnapfel and Ian Stewart: EDGE, art & neuroscience, and empirical aesthetics
This episode features two guests: Coco Kühnapfel and Ian Stewart, who are half of the team behind EDGE. EDGE is an organisation that tries to bring together neuroscientists and artists to enable communication and to strengthen the intersection between the two fields. EDGE organises workshops and art exhibitions.
In this conversation, we talk about the relationship between art and science, how EDGE started and has been evolving, and Coco gives a brief overview of empirical aesthetics. As always, there are plenty of random tangents.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:01:02: What are EDGE workshops and who takes part?
0:12:08: The evolution of EDGE part 1
0:24:00: Metaphors in art and science
0:32:58: The evolution of EDGE part 2
0:41:05: The magic…
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Jan 8, 2021
8. Paul Smaldino: Cubist chickens, formal models, and the psychology curriculum
Paul Smaldino is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Merced. His research focus is broad and includes cultural and social evolution, cooperation, and philosophy of science.
In this conversation, we focus on Paul's recent papers on modelling, which I have found very useful in my own attempts of getting started with creating formal models.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:20: The parable of the cubist chicken & the need for formal models in psychology
0:15:48: Why do psychologists not use formal models more?
0:26:23: Models specify the relationship between variables
0:40:02: What is the difference between a formal model and a theory?
0:50:46: If we add formal modelling to the curriculum, what should we take out?
Podcast li…
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Dec 25, 2020
7. Jonathan Berman: Moral choice when harming is unavoidable, simple experiments, and open science
Jonathan Berman is Associate Professor of Marketing at the London Business School. His main research focus is on judgment and decision-making.
In this conversation, we talk predominately about Jonathan's paper "Moral Choice When Harming is Unavoidable" that came out this year in Psychological Science. As part of our conversation about this paper, we also discuss open science practices, especially preregistration.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all major podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:08: How Jonathan got into the field he currently works in
0:18:55: Discussing Jonathan's paper "Moral choice when harming is unavoidable"
0:35:03: Framing of moral decisions
0:42:43: Which studies to include in a paper?
0:48:46: Simple experiments
0:55:39: How Jonathan's research fits into a ma…
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Dec 11, 2020
6. Toby Wise: Risk perception about COVID-19, natural experiments, and open science
Toby Wise is a postdoc at UCL and Caltech. He uses computational modelling and neuroimaging to study the mechanisms underlying anxiety and depression. I first encountered Toby when he and I published separate preprints on PsyArXiv on the same topic (risk perception for COVID-19) within a few hours of each other.
In this conversation, we talk about doing research about COVID-19: why we decided to do it, practical considerations, and differences and similarities between our studies. We also talk about open science practices.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (Apple/Google Podcasts, Spotify, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:11: The origin of Toby's research project on risk perception about COVID-19
0:13:18: What Toby would do differently if he could go back in time
0:20:45: Criticism of COVID-19 research
0:29:17: Ho…
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Nov 27, 2020
5. Antonia Wesseloh: Fashion during COVID, Antonia's path as a fashion model, and tips for photographers
Antonia Wesseloh is a fashion model who has worked with some of the most esteemed fashion brands (including Prada, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton, and Dior). We first met when Antonia did an internship for her Bachelor's degree in Psychology in our lab.
In this conversation, we talk about Antonia's path in fashion, and I ask Antonia for some advice for taking photos of people.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New long-form conversations every other third Friday. You can find the podcast on all major podcasting platforms (e.g., Apple/Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc.) and on YouTube.
Timestamps
0:00:50: Fashion modelling in times of COVID
0:05:40: Antonia's path in modelling (with many digressions on the fashion industry and life as a model)
0:51:34: Tips for photographers from a professional model
Podcast links
* Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
* Twitter: https://twitt…
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Nov 13, 2020
4. Cody Kommers: Podcasting as a PhD student, intuitive anthropology, and finding a good problem
Cody Kommers is a PhD student in experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, focussing on social cognition. He also writes popular science and hosts two podcasts: Cognitive Revolution and Notes From The Field.
In this conversation, we talk about a variety of topics, including how to start a podcast, how to run a podcast while doing a PhD, Cody's new travel-podcast, his preprint on intuitive anthropology, and the problem of finding a good problem.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New long-form conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all major podcasting platforms (e.g., Apple/Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc.) and on YouTube.
Timestamps
0:00:05: Inviting guests onto a podcast
0:09:45-0:16:30: An interlude on Steven Pinker
0:30:57: Building a podcast
0:41:00: Conversation or interview?
0:47:00: How to conduct a good interview
1:05:00: Combining PhD work wi…
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Oct 30, 2020
3. Catherine Preston: Bodily illusions, eating disorders, and pregnancy
Catherine Preston is a cognitive neuroscientist, studying body perception and self-awareness. Catherine and I first met in Stockholm in 2014 when I was doing an internship in Henrik Ehrsson's lab. Catherine was my day-to-day supervisor, and our project investigated full-body illusions viewed in a mirror. Catherine has since moved to York, where she works as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor).
In this conversation, we talk about Catherine's recent research on bodily illusions, including applications to eating disorders and pregnancy. We also talk more broadly about her experiences of starting her own lab and work as a new faculty member.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New long-form conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all major podcasting platforms (e.g., Apple/Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc.) and on YouTube.
Timestamps
0:00:05 How Catherine got into studying…
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Oct 16, 2020
2. Aaron Schurger: The readiness potential, auto-correlated noise, and the weather
Aaron is a cognitive neuroscientist, working on volition and consciousness. Aaron and I met in 2016 in Paris when I did my MSc thesis in his lab at Neurospin on decoding planned and spontaneous movements, using M/EEG. Aaron has since moved to California where he is Assistant Professor at Chapman University.
In this conversation, we talk about Aaron's work in trying to understand the readiness potential. We talk about the classic interpretation, Aaron's interpretation, and how Aaron's interpretation can be applied to non-movement contexts, including the stock market and meteorology.
Time stamps
0:00:40 We don't really know what the readiness potential is
0:01:52 The classic interpretation of the readiness potential
0:16:39 Aaron's interpretation of the readiness potential
0:31:04 The origin of Aaron's interpretation
0:42:33 Applying Aaron's model to non-movement contexts: the stock market and meteorology
0:54:40 - Aaron's plans for studying the readiness potential in the next fe…
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Oct 2, 2020
1. Matthias Nau: MR-based eye-tracking, cognitive maps & vision, science communication
Matthias Nau is a cognitive neuroscientist at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim, Norway. He finished his PhD recently in Christian Doeller's group at the Kavli, where he currently works as a postdoc. Whenever the current pandemic cools down, Matthias will start a position as a postdoc at NIH with Chris Baker (this position was supposed to start in early 2020).
In this conversation, we talk about a variety of topics, from Matthias's recent research (the link between vision and high-level spatial coding principles in the brain (e.g. grid cells), the development of cognitive maps in humans, and a novel form of using fMRI for eye-tracking he co-developed with Markus Frey), to the relationship between electrophysiology studies in animals and fMRI studies in humans, education in neuroscience, and science communication.
Timestamps:
* 0:00:15 MR-based eye-tracking
* 0:22:50 Switching to Python
* 0:26:20 Grid Cells and vision
* 0:39:59 Development of the cogni…
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