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Dr. Sarah Chen
Stanford · NLP & interpretability
91
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Fairness + NLP projects overlap with her recent work.
Strong methods fit: model evaluation and interpretability.
Clear outreach angle for current trustworthy AI research.
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Ask how her lab is extending interpretability methods into fairness audits for real-world AI systems.
John Coley
· Professor, Marine and Environmental Sciences | PsychologyVerified
Northeastern University · Civil and Environmental Engineering
John Coley is a professor of psychology and director of the Conceptual Organization, Reasoning, and Education (CORE) Lab at Northeastern University. His research focuses on understanding the structure of knowledge, reasoning processes, and conceptual development. He investigates how humans organize what they know, how they use knowledge to make guesses about unknown information, and how relevance of knowledge is determined in various situations. His work explores how the acquisition of expertise influences knowledge organization and reasoning, as well as how these cognitive processes change during childhood development and across different environments.
Dr. Coley and his team employ an experimental approach to examine overt reasoning behavior in both children and adults, aiming to characterize the breadth, depth, and flexibility of human cognition. His research includes studying reasoning about real-world knowledge domains such as plants, animals, food, and people. Additionally, he explores the relationship between cognition and environmental issues, including how decreasing psychological distance to nature can promote environmental care. His contributions extend to understanding the cognitive foundations of environmental science education and the role of human reasoning in addressing climate change and environmental challenges.
What counts as "nature" is increasingly central to public policies, investment decisions, and scientific assessments, yet the term is often left undefined or implicit. Because nature is a complex, value-laden concept, a universal definition is unlikely to serve all uses, creating problems for comparability and auditability of claims. When users document what counts as nature and disclose the basis for their claims, measurement becomes more comparable, and accountability improves. We present a framework that pairs a concise definition with its purpose, context, and boundary rules, and apply it to develop a definition of nature that can reveal how benefits, harms, and stewardship responsibilities are distributed across people and places. Definitions should be treated as public commitments: articulating both a definition and a replicable process for revision makes governance more transparent, auditable, and open to legitimate contest.
Abstract To examine cultural differences in beliefs about social categories, two studies examined whether there are differences between Northern Ireland and the US in the strength of essentialist beliefs about eleven social dimensions including culturally salient dimensions of religion and race. In both studies religion categories were essentialized more by participants in Northern Ireland who viewed them as more natural but no more cohesive than US participants. Essentialist beliefs about race categories did not differ cross-culturally. In general, these findings suggest that – as in the case of belief about religion categories in Northern Ireland – social categories may be essentialized because they are culturally salient or in the absence of salience – as in the case of beliefs about race categories in Northern Ireland – because of more general conceptual proclivities. These findings also suggest a potentially important role for ontological beliefs about religion categories in the formation of religious prejudice.
Aquanauts—people who live and work underwater for extended periods—have anecdotally reported cognitive shifts in how they perceive the ocean environment and their role in it. This experience bears resemblance to the cognitive shift astronauts have experienced when first seeing our planet from space, dubbed “The Overview Effect.” This shift involves an intense feeling of awe that increases astronauts’ sense of connection to humanity and the entire planet. In this study, we used semi-structured interviews with aquanauts to document their experiences living underwater. Results show that aquanauts do indeed experience shifts in cognitive, affective, behavioral, perspectival, and relational areas that strengthen feelings of connectedness and commitment to the marine environment. However, the effects of the experience varied between aquanauts, indicating a potential “Underview Effect” that may occur on a spectrum of intensity with a number of core features.
No model to date has integrated findings from teleological explanation with findings from moral reasoning to explore an underlying mechanism of moral cognition. We hypothesize that a preference for teleology, whereby consequences are assumed to be intentional, can explain instances where adults make judgments that seemingly neglect to account for intent. Across two studies, we investigated whether manipulating teleological reasoning influences moral judgment. 291 participants were evaluated in a 2 × 2 experimental design to assess the effects of teleology priming on adults' endorsement of teleological misconceptions and moral judgments. Results provide some evidence that teleological reasoning influences moral judgment, but the findings are limited, context-dependent, and suggest that teleology is unlikely to be a strong influence in the explanation of outcome-based moral judgments.
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment · 2025-04-01 · 1 citations
reviewOpen access
where there once was prairiea few remaining fireflies abstract themselvesover roads and concrete pathsprairie wants to stretch full out again and sigh(Dungy 2023) In 2022, the US Global Change Research Program initiated the first National Nature Assessment (NNA) via presidential Executive Order, addressing the need to “take stock of US lands, waters, wildlife and the benefits they provide to our economy, health, climate, environmental justice, and national security” (Global Change Research Act of 1990). This order was rescinded in January 2025, effectively cancelling the NNA before the final assessment was published. However, many of its authors deemed this multi-year endeavor important enough to keep alive because the NNA was needed to provide the American public with a “comprehensive understanding of nature, an assessment enriched by braiding together the stories, scientific findings, Indigenous knowledge, and lived experiences of people from across the US” (Tallis et al. 2023). Performing such an assessment requires moving beyond a mere snapshot of the status and trends of environmental features, ecosystems, and organisms, and weaving in diverse perspectives and knowledge systems representing the cultural complexity and heritage of American communities (Chan et al. 2016). As experts convened by the NNA, we—the authors of this commentary—represent different scientific disciplines including ecology, genomics, entomology, science communication, psychology, natural resource management, Earth and environmental sciences, and human dimensions of natural resources. We explored the status, trends, and future projections of nature but recognized that our own perspectives and training represent only a slice of the many cultural perspectives and knowledge systems addressing the human–nature nexus. Regardless, we were tasked, as part of the NNA, with assessing the available scientific literature and associated knowledge sources (including information from museums, zoos, participatory databases, and government agencies). We were and are deeply committed to the view that humans are part of nature, and that human values and perceptions of nature shape what we measure, protect, manage, and love in the environments that surround and sustain us. The original vision of the NNA is still critically important as it required us to interlink social perceptions with scientific information and knowledge gaps as ways to understand how the nature of today is uniquely shaped by American society, what the nature of the future will likely be, and how we can use that understanding to support nature that benefits all Americans. We argue that interlinkages among people's perceptions of nature and the data available to measure nature across different biological scales—including populations, communities, and ecosystems—shape a future nature in complex and potentially unpredictable ways. Here, we share our approach of using constructive dialogues and storytelling as exemplified by the Talanoa Dialogues introduced by Fiji to the UNFCCC in 2017. We frame the status and trends of nature as being informed by the perceptions and values of American society, which shape future projections of nature. Our writing here is based on Talanoa: Where are we now, where do we want to go, and how are we going to get there? Perceptions of humanity's place within or apart from nature, and our shared responsibilities toward nature, shape assessments of nature. These different perceptions of nature and how to assess it can be based on occupation (eg farmer, scientist), landscape (eg urban, rural), or social-cultural groupings within America. Past international assessments of the status of nature have been conducted through the IPCC and IPBES (Pörtner et al. 2021) and have included human values of nature. However, incorporating how these conceptions of nature shape perceptions and motivate actions in the US and its territories (hereafter, the US)—given the complexity of American landscapes, coupled with the rich diversity of peoples residing in those landscapes—is a unique and challenging undertaking. One of the most common ways to describe the status of nature is to focus on the most well-defined units of biodiversity—species. In this approach, “status” is based on the species’ likelihood of going extinct throughout all or a significant portion of its range (Endangered Species Act of 1973, 16 USC § 1532(6)). However, species’ definitions become problematic as technological advances highlight how few species we know. Species new to science are being described with startling regularity. Additionally, a multitude of species unrecognized by academic science may already be documented by traditional knowledge and other sources of information, and their status could be either known or unknown. Thus, our knowledge of which species are important within the US is skewed, based on what some people observe or have direct interest in. Larger and less cryptic vertebrates appear in the forefront of most assessments, while invertebrates (which comprise the bulk of biodiversity) are mostly in the shadows with insufficient information to determine their status or population trends. The demographics and beliefs of the peoples of America are dynamic, and this dynamism shapes our construction of what nature is and how to assess it. During the NNA's development, we sought to construct a future projection of nature that reflects the diversity of people's beliefs. Doing so has sometimes revealed conflicts among different people's behaviors, as we attempt to do justice to varying economic, political, social, cultural, or geographical concerns and priorities. One important way to meet the challenges this presents is acknowledging community-based knowledge, which can increase participation in science and data collection, and can often inform community-based endeavors to make environments more hospitable for biodiversity in ways that meet the needs of multiple groups of people. For example, urban residents can incorporate native flowering plants in place of—or in addition to—lawns in their yards, providing suitable nesting and foraging resources for pollinators including native bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds (Cooper et al. 2021). Likewise, in agricultural landscapes, the inclusion of flowering habitats in marginal lands along field edges and as inter-row cover crops in orchards improves species diversity and abundance of beneficial organisms, thus reducing the need for agrochemicals. In coastal communities, hardened seawalls are being replaced with living shorelines, which improve the safety and well-being of coastal residents, enhance local biodiversity as well as fish stocks, and ensure ecosystem health. Lastly, although land degradation and recovery are often linked to soil microbes, some of which have yet to be identified, new technologies are rapidly revealing essential information about these taxa. These efforts are all indicative of proactively creating future visions of nature and where we want to go. We see all these efforts—from cutting-edge science, to community participation, to local knowledge, values, and solutions—merging into a vision of a future nature. Several approaches transcend the conventional focus on species and assess nature in a way that is comprehensive and considers diverse perspectives and knowledge systems. Emerging technologies can engage communities as active participants in creating a vision of a future nature that benefits all. AI-informed databases that gather community-based knowledge, such as iNaturalist and eBird, have become the fastest growing online databases of species, representing one-quarter of described species, with non-expert participants documenting most of these observations. These databases rely on participatory science efforts and the resulting data reduce information gaps for organisms that belong to small, understudied, or less accessible taxa, including invertebrates and nonvascular plants. Also, initiatives tracking community-based restoration projects, such as the Homegrown National Park or the National Wildlife Federation's Native Plant Habitats, are informed by stakeholders reporting data using taxonomic identification tools built on AI and include digitized museum specimens aggregated in platforms like GBIF. The management of American lands, waters, and protected areas reflects how society values and perceives nature's contributions to people. Federal agencies have been directed by Congress and past presidents to monitor and assess the nation's shared resources through laws and executive orders, respectively, and as such, there is a wealth of data collected and assessed by these agencies. Continued access to these data is vital to the well-being of all Americans. Integration of local community knowledge of species within these assessments is important and the increasingly accurate species identification that this knowledge enables is notable. In addition, while often quite small, urban greenspaces provide crucial opportunities for urban dwellers to interact with nature. In a future America, consideration of how and where nature is experienced by humans should include these small spaces as they sometimes have a startling wealth of species, while providing a place to sit and benefit from connecting to nature. …prairie wants to stretch full out again and sigh—purple prairie clover prairie zinniaprairie dropseed nodding into solidagobee balm brushing rabbitbrush—prairie wants prairie wants prairie wants(Dungy 2023) Human actions shape the natural world and nature's future will be influenced not only by our ability to monitor and understand it, but also and especially by our shared societal values and actions, which are shaped by our perceptions of how we are connected to nature. Any assessment of nature will invariably contain data gaps that prevent a truly holistic snapshot, unknowingly ignoring a wealth of species—unappreciated and undescribed by humankind, yet indispensable for ecological viability. “Prairie wants prairie wants prairie wants” perhaps best expresses future projections of nature that will be shaped through the geographical and biological diversity, as well as the complex cultural heritages, of America. As scientists assessing perspectives, values, ecosystems, and species, we need to analyze our current knowledge about biodiversity and ecosystem functions, gather evidence to fill the gaps, and describe a future nature that could benefit all. Although the cost of such efforts might superficially appear too high for society to address, the cost of silent extinctions and the loss of the many benefits that nature provides will undeniably be even higher. Special thanks to Professor Camille T Dungy for inclusion of excerpts from her poem “let grow more winter fat wine-cup western wild rose” and to Jill Baron for early comments on the manuscript. This is an independent commentary of our views and experiences as an expert team convened by the first NNA.
Mental models—internal, dynamic, incomplete representations of the external world that people use to guide cognitive processes such as reasoning, decision making, and language comprehension—have practical implications for predicting attitudes and behaviors across various domains. This study examines how mental models of the human–nature relationship predict pro-environmental behavioral intentions directly and indirectly as mediated through anthropocentric and biocentric environmental attitudes. To address these aims, participants were asked about mental model components of the human–nature relationship (human exceptionalism, beliefs about human impact on nature, and beliefs about nature’s impact on humans), pro-environmental attitudes (biocentric and anthropocentric), and their pro-environmental behavioral intentions (protection and investment). We found that protection intentions were (1) directly predicted by human exceptionalism beliefs (negatively) and perceived human impact on nature (positively) and (2) indirectly predicted by mental model components via biocentric attitudes. Investment intentions were directly predicted by nature’s perceived impact on humans, and were similarly indirectly predicted by mental model components via biocentric attitudes. The results suggest that mental models of the human–nature relationship provide a cognitive foundation for environmental behavioral intentions both directly and through their association with environmental attitudes. These findings have implications for pro-environmental interventions that deal with conceptual and attitudinal change.
The Developing Belief Network is a global research collaborative studying religious development in diverse social-cultural settings, with a focus on the intersection of cognitive mechanisms and cultural beliefs and practices in early and middle childhood. The current manuscript describes the study protocol for the network's second wave of data collection, which aims to further explore the development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior using a multi-time point approach. This protocol is designed to investigate three key research questions-how children represent and reason about religious and supernatural agents, how children represent and reason about religion as an aspect of social identity, and how religious and supernatural beliefs are transmitted within and between generations-via a set of eight tasks for children between the ages of 5 and 13 years and a survey completed by their parents/caregivers. This study is being conducted in 41 distinct cultural-religious settings, spanning 16 countries and 12 written languages. In this manuscript, we provide detailed descriptions of all elements of this study protocol, and give a brief overview of the ways in which this protocol has been adapted for use in diverse religious communities. As one example of how this protocol has been implemented outside of the United States, we present Arabic- and English-language study materials for children being raised in one of the following religious traditions in Lebanon: the Druze faith, Maronite Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, Shia Islam, or Sunni Islam. We end with reflections on the challenges of developing and implementing large-scale, multi-site, multi-time point studies of child development; our approach to navigating these challenges; and our suggestions for how future researchers might learn from our experiences and build on the work presented here.
The #BuffaloSyllabus emerged in the aftermath of the May 2022 mass shooting, which claimed ten lives, devastated Buffalo’s predominantly Black East Side, and reverberated across the nation as a white supremacist attack. The authors formed the Black Buffalo Syllabus Collective as a way to continue conversations about racial violence, restorative justice, and community repair beyond the short-lived cycle of national media attention. Channeling collective mourning and despair into intellectual and cultural production, the Collective curated nearly 200 materials—including readings, videos, songs, poems, podcasts, and historical markers—designed to illuminate the historical, social, political, and economic contexts that have shaped Black life in Buffalo and Western New York more broadly. This article examines the development of the #BuffaloSyllabus, highlighting the intellectual and methodological significance of the project. It demonstrates how the syllabus operates simultaneously as a memorial, a pedagogical tool, and a form of digital public scholarship rooted in scholarly research and community knowledge. The authors walk readers through three of many important themes explored in the #Buffalosyllabus, concluding with a discussion on the future direction of their efforts. More broadly, the article situates the syllabus within traditions of Black abolitionist thought, Black radicalism, and activist archiving in order to illuminate how digital resources can serve as vehicles for healing, historical consciousness, and sustained struggle against racial violence.
Previous research has shown that students employ intuitive thinking when understanding scientific concepts. Three types of intuitive thinking—essentialist, teleological, and anthropic thinking—are used in biology learning and can lead to misconceptions. However, it is unknown how commonly these types of intuitive thinking, or cognitive construals, are used spontaneously in students’ explanations across biological concepts and whether this usage is related to endorsement of construal-consistent misconceptions. In this study, we examined how frequently undergraduate students across two U.S. universities ( N = 807) used construal-consistent language (CCL) to explain in response to open-ended questions related to five core biology concepts (e.g., evolution), how CCL use differed by concept, and how this usage was related to misconceptions agreement. We found that the majority of students used some kind of CCL in the responses to these open-ended questions and that CCL use varied by target concept. We also found that students who used CCL in their response agreed more strongly with misconception statements, a relationship driven by anthropocentric language use, or language that focused on humans. These findings suggest that American university students use intuitive thinking when reasoning about biological concepts with implications for their understanding.
The Developing Belief Network is a global research collaborative studying religious development in diverse social-cultural settings, with a focus on the intersection of cognitive mechanisms and cultural beliefs and practices in early and middle childhood. The current manuscript describes the study protocol for the network’s second wave of data collection, which aims to further explore the development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior using a multi-time point approach. This protocol is designed to investigate three key research questions—how children represent and reason about religious and supernatural agents, how children represent and reason about religion as an aspect of social identity, and how religious and supernatural beliefs are transmitted within and between generations—via a set of eight tasks for children between the ages of 5 and 13 years and a survey completed by their parents/caregivers. This study is being conducted in 41 distinct cultural-religious settings, spanning 16 countries and 12 written languages. In this manuscript, we provide detailed descriptions of all elements of this study protocol, and give a brief overview of the ways in which this protocol has been adapted for use in diverse religious communities. As one example of how this protocol has been implemented outside of the United States, we present Arabic- and English-language study materials for children being raised in one of the following religious traditions in Lebanon: the Druze faith, Maronite Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, Shia Islam, or Sunni Islam. We end with reflections on the challenges of developing and implementing large-scale, multi-site, multi-time point studies of child development; our approach to navigating these challenges; and our suggestions for how future researchers might learn from our experiences and build on the work presented here.
