Aaron Wright

Aaron Wright

Post-Baccalaureate Research Scholar @ MIT Brain & Cognitive Sciences {EvLab} 🧠

readings & resources

One of the marks of a diligent scholar is the ability to engage with a variety of literature, appreciate its contributions, and yet exercise selectivity in adopting its perspectives.

Below are several readings and resources I've found useful for navigating all that cognitive science has to offer. I've included pieces I agree with, as well as ones with which I don't –– the common denominator is that they've made me (re–)think critically. I hope you find them as engaging as I have!

Readings
Articles and scholars that have captured my attention, challenged my scientific convictions, shaped my understanding, and inspired my favorite discussions.

Legend (click tabs to filter)

{›} language | {›} emotion | {›} computational | {›} behavioral | {›} neuroimaging | {›} culture | {›} favorites | {›} all

  • Celen, E., van Rijn, P., Lee, H., & Jacoby, N. (2025). Are Expressions for Music Emotions the Same Across Cultures?. arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.08744. {››››}
  • Fedorenko, E., Duncan, J., & Kanwisher, N. (2013). Broad domain generality in focal regions of frontal and parietal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(41), 16616–16621. {›}
  • Fedorenko, E., Ivanova, A. A., & Regev, T. I. (2024). The language network as a natural kind within the broader landscape of the human brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 25(5), 289–312. {››}
  • Fedorenko, E., Piantadosi, S. T., & Gibson, E. A. (2024). Language is primarily a tool for communication rather than thought. Nature, 630(8017), 575–586. {›}
  • FeldmanHall, O., & Heffner, J. (2022). A generalizable framework for assessing the role of emotion during choice. American Psychologist, 77(9), 1017. {››}
  • Heffner, J., & FeldmanHall, O. (2022). A probabilistic map of emotional experiences during competitive social interactions. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1718. {››}
  • Houlihan, S. D., Kleiman-Weiner, M., Hewitt, L. B., Tenenbaum, J. B., & Saxe, R. (2023). Emotion prediction as computation over a generative theory of mind. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 381(2251), 20220047. {››}
  • Hoemann, K., Lee, Y., Kuppens, P., Gendron, M., & Boyd, R. L. (2023). Emotional granularity is associated with daily experiential diversity. Affective Science, 4(2), 291–306. {››}
  • Hoemann, K., Warfel, E., Mills, C., Allen, L., Kuppens, P., & Wormwood, J. B. (2024). Using freely generated labels instead of rating scales to assess emotion in everyday life. Assessment, 10731911241283623. {››}
  • Jackson, J. C., Watts, J., Henry, T. R., List, J. M., Forkel, R., Mucha, P. J., ... & Lindquist, K. A. (2019). Emotion semantics show both cultural variation and universal structure. Science, 366(6472), 1517–1522. {›››}
  • Jonauskaite, D., Abu-Akel, A., Dael, N., Oberfeld, D., Abdel-Khalek, A. M., Al-Rasheed, A. S., ... & Mohr, C. (2020). Universal patterns in color-emotion associations are further shaped by linguistic and geographic proximity. Psychological Science, 31(10), 1245-1260. {››}
  • Kroll, J. F., Bobb, S. C., & Hoshino, N. (2014). Two languages in mind: Bilingualism as a tool to investigate language, cognition, and the brain. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(3), 159–163. {›}
  • Malik-Moraleda, S., Ayyash, D., Gallée, J., Affourtit, J., Hoffmann, M., Mineroff, Z., ... & Fedorenko, E. (2022). An investigation across 45 languages and 12 language families reveals a universal language network. Nature Neuroscience, 25(8), 1014–1019. {››}
  • Matalon, N., Weinreb, E., Freche, D., Volk, E., Biron, T., Moses, E., & Biron, D. (2025). Structure in conversation: Evidence for the vocabulary, semantics, and syntax of prosody. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(17), e2403262122. {›}
  • Saxe, R., & Houlihan, S. D. (2017). Formalizing emotion concepts within a Bayesian model of theory of mind. Current Opinion in Psychology, 17, 15–21. {››}
  • Skerry, A. E., & Saxe, R. (2015). Neural representations of emotion are organized around abstract event features. Current biology, 25(15), 1945-1954. {››}
  • Thompson, B., Roberts, S. G., & Lupyan, G. (2020). Cultural influences on word meanings revealed through large-scale semantic alignment. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(10), 1029–1038. {›››}
  • Tuckute, G., Lee, E. J., Ou, Y., Fedorenko, E., & Kay, K. (2025). A two-dimensional space of linguistic representations shared across individuals. bioRxiv. {›››}
  • Tuckute, G., Kanwisher, N., & Fedorenko, E. (2024). Language in brains, minds, and machines. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 47(2024), 277–301. {›››}
  • Van Heijst, K., Kret, M. E., & Ploeger, A. (2025). Basic emotions or constructed emotions: Insights from taking an evolutionary perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 20i>(3), 377-391. {›}
  • Wolna, A., Szewczyk, J., Diaz, M., Domagalik, A., Szwed, M., & Wodniecka, Z. (2024). Domain-general and language-specific contributions to speech production in a second language: an fMRI study using functional localizers. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 57. {››}
  • Wolna, A., Szewczyk, J., Diaz, M., Domagalik, A., Szwed, M., & Wodniecka, Z. (2024). Tracking components of bilingual language control in speech production: An fMRI study using functional localizers. Neurobiology of Language, 5(2), 315–340. {››}

Resources
A collection of useful materials I've run into during my time in science, intended to help facilitate research, coding, and scientific exploration in various domains.

Packages, Repositories, & Tools
  • {here} | A simpler way to find your files
  • {tidypandas} | A grammar of data manipulation for pandas inspired by tidyverse
  • Meaning Extraction Helper | A program to help with text analysis, topic modeling, and language exploration
  • MKernel | A Jupyter Kernel for Matlab
Wikis, Walkthroughs, & Community EffortsArticles, Blogs, & Databases