PEC Exeter

New paper out!

Early-life social instability increases aggression in chickens, but does not affect response inhibition 🐤
We discuss what this means for developmental links between social environments, cognition, and social behaviour, highlighting strong context dependence

Full text: rdcu.be/eYOzC

I'm recruiting a PhD student to study how predation shapes animal cognition and the conservation opportunities of animal cognition. Lots of fun field work in beautiful places : )

Please share !!

www.eifwooster.org/opportunities

Postdoctoral fellow

🐦 EcoBird is hiring a Postdoc in animal cognition!

Join us + @themanybirds.bsky.social to investigate innovation & problem-solving in birds.

📅 Start: as early as Jan 2026
🌍 Funded through UGent’s international mobility scheme

More info & how to apply ↓
www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...

Almost pheasants! A new review that we've contributed to looking at causes and consequences of ranging behaviour in reared chickens, led by @birgitszabo.bsky.social

Many chickens don't seem to want to use the additional space that they are offered. Can we change this?

Less than a week left to apply!

Rather feels like reading my obituary! 😬

But thanks Jen and Sophia for putting that together👍 I really enjoyed working with the ASAB team and recommend any AB folk consider joining and contributing. Looking forward to Edinburgh for the winter meeting. See you there.

The origins and functions of bowers in the Bowerbirds: a review and synthesis | doi.org/10.1080/0158... | Emu | #ornithology 🪶

🚨 Calling researchers, students, technicians in cognition 🚨

We’re running a 10-min anonymous survey on how animal cognition is defined and studied across disciplines (from ecology, ethology, psychology, neurology, etc). 🧠✨

Scan the QR code & share widely

#AnimalCognition #ResearchSurvey #Science

Sam in front of a slide reading Social behaviour, and the evolution of menopause in toothed whales

It may be 9am on Day 5, but of course nobody couldn’t miss @samellisq.bsky.social’s fascinating plenary on menopause in whales! 😍👵🐳 #Behaviour2025

Out last week - our #evidence review and assessment for @jncc.bsky.social of the #data and methods for assessing #sustainability of wild waterbird #harvest from recreational #hunting in the United Kingdom #wildlife #people led by @jomadden.bsky.social with Matt Ellis & myself #ecology #policy

How robust is current hunting bag data, and can we rely on it to manage sustainable harvest of UK waterbirds?

For most species, it's pretty good, but released mallard🦆🦆can confuse the picture

Recent collaboration with @ecoevoenviro.bsky.social and Matt Ellis

‪Come join us at the @asab.org Winter Conference 2025: how sensory info affects behaviour.

15th & 16th Dec, abstracts due end Aug. More info and registration asabwinter.github.io/2025

Co-hosted with @jtroscianko.bsky.social and Innes Cuthill

Publication alert! ✨ Our recent paper in Ecology & Evolution addresses how to make conferences more inclusive. We collected observational and experimental data during Q&A sessions at the Behaviour 2023 congress hosted by Bielefeld University, and circulated a survey among conference attendees [1/4]

Opportunities — ASAB

🚨JOB alert🚨 Full-time Managing Editor role for @asab.org journal Animal Behaviour. Applicants must have animal #behaviour background; previous editorial experience would be ideal.
Apply by 31st July 2025.
#publishing #editor #job

More details: www.asab.org/opportunities

PLEASE share widely.

Opportunities — ASAB

We are seeking a full-time Managing Editor for our journal Animal Behaviour. This editor will be involved in all stages of the publication process & must have a general understanding of the topics covered. Position starts Oct 1, application deadline July 31.

More details:
www.asab.org/opportunities

Cognitive Level

Specificity of Entities

Structure of Cognition

Cognition

Cognitive Entity

Cognitive Performance

What are we talking about when we're talking about "cognition"?

Terminology in this field has become confused and confusing. While writing our recent review, we tried to structure terms for our own sanity, and provide a template in a Glossary

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

The survival of the smartest? Assessing how cognition shapes fitness in animals. A really fun collaboration to be part of—thread below! 👇

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1929

Selection Shapes Diverse Animal Minds: our special issue of @royalsocietypublishing.org Phil Trans B on the diverse evolutionary processes underlying cognitive evolution is out today. Thanks to all our contributors! royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1929 Can't sign in? Forgot your password?

It forms part of an exciting Special Issue of Phil Trans, "Selection shapes diverse animal minds", edited by @ellileadbeater.bsky.social & @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social

Co-authors include @ecobird.bsky.social @samellisq.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Recent efforts to understand the evolution of cognition have adopted a within-species approach where cognitive performance, and its effects on behaviour, is correlated with fitness benefits and, if related, is assumed to be selected for. We reviewed 45 ...

The paper is Open Access royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Why is the apparent link between cognition and fitness so weak?

Could it be that our proposed causal link between cognition, behaviour and fitness/selection is too simplistic and linear? We discuss possible alternative models

Studies that measured fitness as "survival" (survival to next season, mass gain, foraging success etc) were more likely to report sig relationships than those measuring "reproductive" fitness (attractiveness, provisioning levels, offspring production etc)

Studies that measured "broad" forms of cognition (innovation, problem solving) were more likely to report sig relationships than those measuring more "specific", defined forms (reversal learning, spatial memory etc)

Studies using larger sample sizes were LESS likely to report a significant relationship

Positive relationships (‘smarter is better’) outnumbered negative ones (‘dumber is better’) among the significant results, but these still comprised >20%

Selection might reduce cognitive performance as well as enhance it

We found generally weak support for a relationship between cognition & fitness, with >70% of raw PUBLISHED relationships being statistically non-significant, with an even smaller likelihood once co-variates were accounted for

(what if any publication bias were accounted for?)

We reviewed 45 studies that adopted a within-species approach where cognitive performance is correlated with fitness benefits and assumed to be selected for

Included 26 species & 211 relationships between behavioural measures of cognition & fitness

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

NEW PAPER🎺
How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals

Lots of studies try to explain how cognition might evolve, by taking a behavioural ecology approach

Has this approach made any progress?🧵