Efficient numerosity estimation under limited time.

The ability to rapidly estimate non-symbolic numerical quantities is a well-conserved sense across species with clear evolutionary advantages. However, despite its importance, this sense is surprisingly imprecise and biased, and a formal explanation for this seemingly irrational behavior remains unclear. We develop a unified normative theory of numerosity estimation that parsimoniously incorporates in a single framework information processing constraints alongside (i) Brownian diffusion noise to capture the effects of time exposure of sensory information, (ii) logarithmic encoding of numerosity representations, and (iii) optimal inference via Bayesian decoding.

The Prevalence and Consequences of Gender-Based Violence Among Trans and Gender Diverse University Students in Ontario.

Community studies documenting gender-based violence (GBV) experienced by trans and gender diverse (TGD) people often find differences in prevalence across TGD subgroups. In contrast, studies with university students tend to treat TGD students as a homogenous group, leaving differences across subgroups unknown. Using data from TGD Ontario university students, we examined the prevalence and impacts of GBV across the spectrum of nonbinary and gender queer, trans women and trans feminine (TWTF), and trans men and trans masculine (TMTM) students.

Representational geometry explains puzzling error distributions in behavioral tasks.

Measuring and interpreting errors in behavioral tasks is critical for understanding cognition. Conventional wisdom assumes that encoding/decoding errors for continuous variables in behavioral tasks should naturally have Gaussian distributions, so that deviations from normality in the empirical data indicate the presence of more complex sources of noise. This line of reasoning has been central for prior research on working memory.

Individual differences in information demand have a low dimensional structure predicted by some curiosity traits.

To understand human learning and progress, it is crucial to understand curiosity. But how consistent is curiosity's conception and assessment across scientific research disciplines? We present the results of a large collaborative project assessing the correspondence between curiosity measures in personality psychology and cognitive science. A total of 820 participants completed 15 personality trait measures and 9 cognitive tasks that tested multiple aspects of information demand.