LaurenGuillette.bsky.social

Public talk tomorrow (Friday)!

Join us for the next Queer Coffee Hour this Thursday (Nov 20th 11:00-12:00 MST) in BS P328. Queer Coffee provides a space for 2SLGBTQIA+ members at @ualberta.bsky.social. Coffee and cups are provided!

Fear of the flying: new study looks at ‘neophobia’ in birds bit.ly/3LU5IUF Folio write up about our recent collaborative paper

PLoS Biology article: bit.ly/4o4Sdir

#CompCogPapers

@compcogsoc.bsky.social @ualberta.bsky.social @psychualberta.bsky.social

Visual perception of rotated chromatic and achromatic 3D stimuli in goldfish (Carassius auratus) Learning & Behavior - The ability to visually recognize objects despite differences in orientation would be advantageous for fish because they see objects from many viewpoints as they navigate...

New paper #psynomLB 'Visual perception of rotated chromatic and achromatic 3D stimuli in goldfish (Carassius auratus)' https://bit.ly/3LE3M2z by DeLong et al.

#Objectconstancy #Objectdiscrimination #Visualperception

@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social @compcogsoc.bsky.social @urochester.bsky.social

Please message me if you would like to meet with Dr. Gazes

Discrimination of invisible spatial structures by pigeons Learning & Behavior - The study of animal cognition has hosted a long debate about the nature of mental representation. Specifically, whether spatial (map-like) or associative (node-like)...

New paper #psynomLB 'Discrimination of invisible spatial structures by pigeons' https://bit.ly/4nYlJqa by Cook & Cook

#Associativelearning #Patternrecognition #Acquisition #Spatiallearning

@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social @compcogsoc.bsky.social

Willingness to work for sucrose: Impact of schedules, reinforcer alternatives, homeostatic value, and individual differences in male mice Learning & Behavior - Motivated behavior is characterized by a high degree of behavioral activation and effort. Preclinical models of operant effort-based decision-making are useful for...

New paper in #psynomLB 'Willingness to work for sucrose: Impact of schedules, reinforcer alternatives, homeostatic value, and individual differences in male mice' https://bit.ly/4pdA3fA by Arias-Sandoval et al.

@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

Parental investment and body temperature explain encephalization in vertebrates | PNAS The systematic variation in relative brain size among vertebrate classes remains poorly understood. Here, based on the expensive brain hypothesis, ...

Parental investment and body temperature explain encephalization in vertebrates | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New paper from our team: No Sex-Differences in Learning Trap-Gap Problems in Zebra Finches #OA bit.ly/43pY9eB in Ecology and Evolution #nest #AnimalCogniton 🧪

@psychualberta.bsky.social

@ba-whittaker.bsky.social

@compcogsoc.bsky.social

@julself.bsky.social

@ualberta.bsky.social

Evaluating a four-button computerized gaming system for cognitive engagement in dogs Learning & Behavior - Cognitive enrichment is essential for improving the welfare of animals in kennels, shelters, and laboratory environments. Whereas touchscreens have been used to engage...

New #paper in #psynomLB Evaluating a four-button computerized gaming system for cognitive engagement in dogs https://bit.ly/4qEgZZr

#CanineCognition #OperantLearning #videogame

Dog playing computerized game: https://bit.ly/4hIzN5z

@compcogsoc.bsky.social @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

7 basic science discoveries that changed the world Nature - Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier — the very types of study being slashed by the US government.

7 basic science discoveries that changed the world

Sex differences in giant panda paw preferences during bamboo feeding Learning & Behavior - We examined giant panda paw use while feeding on bamboo to determine if this species exhibits manual lateralization. Video recordings of 21 captive giant pandas (15...

New #paper in #psynomLB Sex differences in giant panda paw preferences during bamboo feeding https://bit.ly/47pnzv6 by Snyder et al.

@zooatlanta.bsky.social @sandiegozoo.bsky.social @compcogsoc.bsky.social

#handedness #lateralization #bear

Are mice a bad model for successive negative contrast? Learning & Behavior - Successive negative contrast (SNC) is a procedure in which animals trained with a large reward consume less of a subsequent smaller reward than animals always trained with...

New paper #psynomLB 'Are mice a bad model for successive negative contrast?' http://bit.ly/3WcKUK6 by Daniel

#IncentiveContrast #RewardDownshift #FrustrationEffect #NegativeContrast

@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

Reversal learning and aging: Exploring simple discrimination learning, learning-set, and functional classes Learning & Behavior - Cognitive (or behavioral) flexibility is considered an executive function characterized by patterns of behavioral adjustment in response to changes in environmental...

New paper #psynomLB 'Reversal learning and aging: Exploring simple discrimination learning, learning-set, and functional classes' http://bit.ly/3J9wk2Y by Manfredo et al.

#CognitiveFlexibility #ReversalLearning #Learning-set

@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

Anticipation of cyclical resource availability in the red-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonaria): Implications for seed dispersal Learning & Behavior - Many plant populations are dependent on animal-mediated seed dispersal; however, in the study of mutualistic processes, animals are generally thought of as unselective...

New paper #psynomLB 'Anticipation of cyclical resource availability in the red-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonaria): Implications for seed dispersal' http://bit.ly/4odtHg9 by Soldati et al.

#Anticipation #Timing #Foraging #Reptile

@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

Mechanisms of socially facilitated feeding in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Learning & Behavior - The social facilitation of feeding, where individuals increase their feeding behavior in the presence of conspecifics, is widely documented, but the underlying mechanisms...

New paper in #psynomLB 'Mechanisms of socially facilitated feeding in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)' http://bit.ly/4n87G0y by Sekulovski et al.

#Socialfacilitation #Feedingbehavior #Sex differences
@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

Spatial representation of magnitude in rhesus macaques: Investigating SNARC effects in quantity and size dimensions Learning & Behavior - The Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect reflects an association of magnitude with space. For example, humans typically map small numbers to one...

'Spatial representation of magnitude in rhesus macaques: Investigating SNARC effects in quantity and size dimensions' http://bit.ly/3W46Cjs by Jackson et al.

#numericalprocessing #comparativecognition

#psynomLB @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

The influence of pure tacts and intraverbals on the transfer of verbal learning to new stimuli: An experimental study in children Learning & Behavior - This study investigates learning transfer processes in the teaching of pure tacts and intraverbals within the context of verbal behavior. The objectives were: to assess...

'The influence of pure tacts and intraverbals on the transfer of verbal learning to new stimuli: An experimental study in children' http://bit.ly/4omCYC7 by Maldonado et al.

#impuretacts #verbalbehavior #compoundstimuli #learningtransfer #children

#psynomLB @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

Architectural immunity: Ants alter their nest networks to prevent epidemics | Science www.science.org/doi/...

The impact of an extinction reminder on AAB renewal is sensitive to the level of association with extinction Learning & Behavior - An experiment using a predictive learning task with college students evaluated the impact of a stimulus associated with extinction on an AAB renewal design. Four groups of...

'The impact of an extinction reminder on AAB renewal is sensitive to the level of association with extinction' Learning & Behavior http://bit.ly/3IMsPzB by Matias Gamez et al.

#context #extinction #humans #predictivelearning #renewal #psynomLB

@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

Vocal labeling of others by nonhuman primates: A response to Jaakkola (2025) Learning & Behavior - In this commentary, we respond to Jaakkola, (2025), who raised several concerns regarding our findings on vocal labeling in marmosets (Oren et al. Science, 385,...

#Commentary in Learning & Behavior http://bit.ly/3LaTMNU by Oren & Omer 'Vocal labeling of others by nonhuman primates: A response to Jaakkola'

Jaakkola paper: http://bit.ly/4q6Yf4h @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

Original paper: http://bit.ly/48wG4yP @science.org

#psynomLB

Chickening out: Why some birds fear novelty The largest-ever study on neophobia, or fear of novelty, has discovered the key reasons why some bird species are more fearful of new things than others.

Bird species with specialized diets and migratory habits tend to show higher fear of novelty, a stable trait that may influence their adaptability to environmental change. doi.org/g96v62

A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia Neophobia (the aversive response to novelty) varies considerably across species and individuals, and can impact adaptability and survival. This study assesses neophobia in 1400 subjects from 136 bird species across 25 orders, identifying phylogenetic influences and broad ecological drivers of neophobia.

New paper with 129 collaborators from 82 institutions in 24 countries across six continents, five of these are Animal Cognition Research Groups members! dx.plos.org/10.1371/...

@ba-whittaker.bsky.social @psychualberta.bsky.social

& also in our cross taxon meta-analysis: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih....

@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

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Familiarity Gates Socially Transmitted Aggression via the Medial Amygdala Aggressive behavior can be acquired through observation, providing adaptive advantages but also posing significant social risks. In humans, individuals repeatedly exposed to aggression are more likely to engage in violent behavior later in life. Yet, the environmental factors and neural mechanisms underlying observationally acquired aggression remain unclear. Here, we propose that social familiarity with an aggressor is critical for activating neural circuits in observers that primes aggression. To investigate this, we established a novel behavioral paradigm termed “socially transmitted aggression (STA),” in which witness mice observed either familiar or unfamiliar demonstrators attacking intruder mice. Remarkably, male, but not female, witnesses displayed increased aggression only after observing familiar demonstrators, with no effect from unfamiliar ones. Given that excitatory neurons in the posterior–ventral segment of the medial amygdala (MeApv) have been implicated in aggression priming, we hypothesized these neurons might be involved in STA as well. Supporting this hypothesis, fiber photometry revealed selective activation of excitatory MeApv neurons during familiar, but not unfamiliar, demonstrator attacks. Chemogenetically and optogenetically inhibiting these neurons suppressed STA, while activating them during unfamiliar demonstrator attacks promoted aggression. These results establish social familiarity as essential for the observational transmission of aggression and identify excitatory MeApv neurons as critical mediators of this phenomenon, offering potential avenues for clinical intervention.

Familiarity Gates Socially Transmitted Aggression via the Medial Amygdala www.jneurosci.org/co...

We found similar behavioural 'familiarity gates' w/ our nest-building male zebra finches: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih....

@royalsociety.org
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Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science On 8 April 2024, a total solar eclipse disrupted light-dark cycles for North American birds during the lead-up to spring reproduction. Compiling more than 10,000 community observations and artificial ...

Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Great work Kim and team!

Please follow this link to see how we are honouring National Day for Truth and Reconciliation today Tuesday September 30th @ualberta.bsky.social

www.ualberta.ca/en/psycholog...

Please contact me if you would like to meet with Prof. Gazes.

Protocol to quantify bird nest morphology via image analyses using linear measurements and geometric landmarks Here, we present a protocol to quantify bird nest morphology via image analyses. We describe steps for collecting linear size measurements, placing ge…

Trying to quantify odd- shaped things? Look at our 'Protocol to quantify bird nest morphology via image analyses using linear measurements and geometric landmarks' www.sciencedirect.co...
@psychualberta.bsky.social @ba-whittaker.bsky.social

Categorical and semantic perception of the meaning of call types in zebra finches Vocal communication in social animals involves the production and perception of various calls that ethologists categorize into call types based on their acoustical structure and behavioral context. Wh...

Categorical and semantic perception of the meaning of call types in zebra finches | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...