Stanford Psychology Podcast
The student-led Stanford Psychology Podcast invites leading psychologists to talk about what’s on their mind lately. Join Eric Neumann, Anjie Cao, Kate Petrova, Bella Fascendini, Joseph Outa and Julia Rathmann-Bloch as they chat with their guests about their latest exciting work. Every week, an episode will bring you new findings from psychological science and how they can be applied to everyday life. The opinions and views expressed in this podcast represent those of the speaker and not necessarily Stanford's. Subscribe at stanfordpsypod.substack.com. Let us hear your thoughts at stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter @StanfordPsyPod. Visit our website https://stanfordpsychologypodcast.com. Soundtrack: Corey Zhou (UCSD). Logo: Sarah Wu (Stanford)
Stanford Psychology Podcast
151 - Robert Hawkins: Language, Collaboration, and Social Reasoning
This week, Misha chats with Robert Hawkins, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University. Robert directs the Social Interaction Lab where he studies the cognitive mechanisms that enable human communication and collaboration. His interdisciplinary work combines interactive experiments with computational models to uncover how people flexibly coordinate with one another.
In this episode, we discuss his recent paper on communication in reference games, exploring how lexical search and social reasoning work together when we try to help others understand what we're talking about. They also dive into Robert's academic journey, his vision for the Social Interaction Lab, and how he successfully navigates the interdisciplinary landscape of cognitive science.
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Links:
Robert's paper on lexical search and social reasoning: https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-03739-001.html
Robert's website: https://rdhawkins.com/
Robert's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rdhawkins.bsky.social
Misha's website: https://www.mishaokeeffe.com/
Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Bluesky: @stanfordpsypod.bsky.social
Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
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