{"title":"Statistical learning in spelling and reading.","authors":"Rebecca Treiman, Brett Kessler","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.05.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.05.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The statistical learning view of word reading and spelling is based on the ideas that writing systems have a rich statistical structure and that people implicitly pick up this structure as they learn to read and write. Whereas laboratory studies stress the speed and power of statistical learning, the evidence we review shows that adults with years of reading and writing experience do not always mirror the statistics of their writing system in their behavior. We consider possible reasons for these discrepancies, including the complexity of the statistical relationships, ease of production, and satisficing. The findings suggest that literacy instruction should address the probabilistic patterns in writing systems and the role of context in selecting appropriate pronunciations and spellings.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144318479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Philip Corlett, Rosa Rossi-Goldthorpe, Praveen Suthaharan, Julia M Sheffield, Santiago Castiello de Obeso, Cecilia Heyes
{"title":"Pseudosocial cognition and paranoia.","authors":"Philip Corlett, Rosa Rossi-Goldthorpe, Praveen Suthaharan, Julia M Sheffield, Santiago Castiello de Obeso, Cecilia Heyes","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.05.019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.05.019","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>It has been argued that social processes are relevant to belief formation and maintenance and thence to persecutory delusions - the fixed false beliefs that others intend harm. We call this the social turn in delusions research. It suggests that paranoia is the purview of a specialized mechanism for coalitional cognition - thinking about group membership and reputation management. Here, we suggest instead that a simpler, pseudosocial learning mechanism may underwrite persecutory and other delusions. We make our case in terms of computations (prediction, not coalition), algorithm (association rather than recursion), and implementation (dopaminergic domain-general rather than social-specific regions). We conclude with suggestions for adversarial collaboration that will clarify the contributions of domain-general versus social-specific processes to delusions.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144303373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aphantasia as a functional disconnection.","authors":"Jianghao Liu, Paolo Bartolomeo","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.05.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.05.012","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144235724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cognitive impairments in chronic pain: a brain aging framework.","authors":"Lei Zhao, Libo Zhang, Yilan Tang, Yiheng Tu","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2024.12.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2024.12.004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Chronic pain (CP) not only causes physical discomfort but also significantly affects cognition. This review first summarizes emerging findings that reveal complex associations between CP and cognitive impairments, and then presents neuroimaging evidence showing aging-related brain alterations in CP and proposes a framework where accelerated brain aging links CP to cognitive impairments. This framework explains how CP-related multi-level factors, which either contribute to the onset of CP or arise as a result of CP, influence brain aging in linear and nonlinear ways, leading to cognitive impairments and increased dementia risk. Leveraging interpretable machine learning and molecular brain atlases, this framework enables the development of cognitive risk assessment indicators and elucidates the biological mechanisms underlying cognitive impairments in CP.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"570-585"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142927628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sharna D Jamadar, Anna Behler, Hamish Deery, Michael Breakspear
{"title":"The metabolic costs of cognition.","authors":"Sharna D Jamadar, Anna Behler, Hamish Deery, Michael Breakspear","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2024.11.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2024.11.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cognition and behavior are emergent properties of brain systems that seek to maximize complex and adaptive behaviors while minimizing energy utilization. Different species reconcile this trade-off in different ways, but in humans the outcome is biased towards complex behaviors and hence relatively high energy use. However, even in energy-intensive brains, numerous parsimonious processes operate to optimize energy use. We review how this balance manifests in both homeostatic processes and task-associated cognition. We also consider the perturbations and disruptions of metabolism in neurocognitive diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"541-555"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142985239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Can Fenerci, Ziming Cheng, Donna Rose Addis, Buddhika Bellana, Signy Sheldon
{"title":"Studying memory narratives with natural language processing.","authors":"Can Fenerci, Ziming Cheng, Donna Rose Addis, Buddhika Bellana, Signy Sheldon","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.02.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.02.003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cognitive neuroscience research has begun to use natural language processing (NLP) to examine memory narratives with the hopes of gaining a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms underlying differences in memory recall, both across groups and tasks. However, the diversity of NLP approaches can make it challenging for researchers to know which techniques to use and when to apply them. We outline how different NLP techniques can be applied to narrative descriptions to address specific questions about the neurocognitive processes underlying memory narratives. We also discuss the strengths and limitations of NLP methods for use in memory research, highlighting both their potential and their constraints in uncovering the mechanisms of remembering.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"516-525"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143671526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Models of human hippocampal specialization: a look at the electrophysiological evidence.","authors":"Anne Freelin, Cody Wolfe, Bradley Lega","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2024.11.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2024.11.009","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>From an anatomical perspective, the concept that the anterior and posterior hippocampus fulfill distinct cognitive roles may seem unsurprising. When compared with the posterior hippocampus, the anterior region is proportionally larger, with visible expansion of the CA1 subfield and intimate continuity with adjacent medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures such as the uncus and amygdala. However, the functional relevance emerging from these anatomical differences remains to be established in humans. Drawing on both rodent and human data, several models of hippocampal longitudinal specialization have been proposed. For the brevity and clarity of this review, we focus on human electrophysiological evidence supporting and contravening these models with limited inclusion of noninvasive data. We then synthesize these data to propose a novel longitudinal model based on the amount of contextual information, drawing on previous conceptions described within the past decade.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"556-569"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12137022/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142818860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Artificial intimacy: ethical issues of AI romance.","authors":"Daniel B Shank, Mayu Koike, Steve Loughnan","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.02.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.02.007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ethical frontier of artificial intelligence (AI) is expanding as humans form romantic relationships with AIs. Addressing ethical issues of AIs as invasive suitors, malicious advisers, and tools of exploitation requires new psychological research on why and how humans love machines.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"499-501"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143992444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding (and counteracting) the appeal of transgressive leaders.","authors":"Gerben A van Kleef","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Transgressive leaders enjoy growing popularity. Synthesizing recent evidence, I propose that (i) such leaders are appealing not despite their transgressive behavior, but because of it, and (ii) this appeal hinges on perceived benefits emanating from their transgressions. This analysis points to new strategies for curtailing transgressive leaders.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"495-498"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144059313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antonia Düfeld, Robin Nehler, Emma Peplies, Sarah Jessen
{"title":"Social odor as a source of learning in human infants.","authors":"Antonia Düfeld, Robin Nehler, Emma Peplies, Sarah Jessen","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maternal odor has recently emerged as an important but ill-understood factor in sociocognitive learning in early human development. We propose that social odor plays its unique role in the first year of life through dissociable affective and perceptual mechanisms. These mechanisms yield distinct predictions for future studies of social odor.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"502-504"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144086778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}