Comparative Cognition Society

Our call for symposia now open!

We are now accepting submissions for symposia, with submissions for oral/poster presentations invited from 31 January 2026.

For more info, or to download the proposal form, visit our conference page 👇
www.aru.ac.uk/science-and-...

There's still time to submit your abstract for #CO32026! 🙌 The submission deadline is on Friday Dec 12th, all information about registration, membership, and the conference is on the website: www.comparativecognition.org/conference.php 🧪
See you in Montréal! 🐶🐝🐟🐦🐀🐍🦧🦝🐢🐘🐬🦦🕷️🐖🐆
#CompCog #AnimalBehavior

New study of personality variability across social contexts in common marmosets 🧪 🐒
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
#AnimalBehavior #CompCogPapers #Personality #Monkey #Primate #IndividualVariation #Marmoset

📣 Interdisciplinary workshop on animal minds! There's still time to submit an abstract before the Dec 1 deadline 🧪

#AnimalMinds #Psychology #Cognition #CompCog #Philosophy #Neuroscience #Ethology #Biology

Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials - Nature Human Behaviour Howard-Spink et al. develop an empirically based model of orangutan diet development, which suggests that social learning is vital for orangutans to acquire varied diets.

Our New Paper is out in Nature Human Behaviour: 🚨 Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials! 🦧 www.nature.com/articles/s41.... See 🧵

On behalf of @ethophilia.bsky.social , I am organising a hublet in Santiniketan, India for Winter ASAB 2025. Please feel free to contact me for any further information.
#ASAB #WinterASAB2025 #hublet
@asab.org
Link:

asabwinter.github.io/2025/

📣 Register for #CO32026 and join our diverse community of comparative cognition researchers in Montréal this coming April (15-18)! 🍁🎉🙌🧪 Become a society member and submit an abstract by December 12th: www.comparativecognition.org/conference.php

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

The social origins of consciousness | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences We present the social origins of consciousness hypothesis, according to which the ability to coordinate with group members was the original adaptive function of consciousness. We offer three arguments...

Loved this paper by @kristinandrews.bsky.social and Noam Miller. A very convincing argument for the function of consciousness.

Peek a boo! Information seeking about food and functionality in capuchin monkeys - Animal Cognition The ability to be aware of your own knowledge state (metacognition) can be investigated by examining an individual’s information-seeking behaviour. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) perform strategic sear...

📣 New paper alert! Capuchin monkeys showed selective information seeking behaviour, suggesting that this is a flexible & domain general behaviour, not just a foraging strategy 🧪 🐒 #CompCogPapers #ComparativeCognition #Monkey #AnimalBehavior #ComparativePsychology
doi.org/10.1007/s100...

Bee positive! 🐝 A new study found evidence for positive affective contagion in bumblebees, this is an exciting direction for studying affect and emotion beyond vertebrates 🧪 #CompCogPapers #AffectiveScience #ComparativeCognition #BumbleBee #SocialBehavior #AnimalBehavior #Invertebrate #Insect

Abstract submission for #CO32026 is now open, join us next April in Montreal 🎉🍁🦫 Submit for a symposium by November 14th, or for an individual talk or poster by December 12th.
Information on the conference and a link to the member portal where you can submit: comparativecognition.org/conference.php

The MBirds paper is out! Congratulations to all collaborators on this major accomplishment 🧪 The study found interesting differences in neophobia between migratory and non-migratory species: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Dr. Jane made an indelible mark on our understanding of chimpanzees and other species, and also of humankind and the environments we all share.

She inspired curiosity, hope, and compassion in countless people, and paved the way for many others.

#ThankYouJane #RememberingJane

Photo: Marko Zlousic

📣 Call for short commentaries about animal awareness 🧪 There's still time, submit a piece to Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews' target issue by Oct 3rd! comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/calls-for-up... #CompCog #AnimalBehavior #Consciousness #AnimalMinds #ComparativePsychology

Graphic with a teal background and green accents. It reads: “Submissions for the CogSci Mind Challenge will close in 2 WEEKS”. On the right side, there’s the CogSci Mind Challenge 2025 logo with a brain icon.

Times is running out! ⏳

Submit your 5-min video for the CogSci Mind Challenge by Oct 17 📅

Question: How do different minds (humans, animals, AI) learn language, if at all?

💰Prizes up to $1000!
👉 Don’t miss it: cognitivesciencesociety.org/cogsci-mind-...

#CogSciMindChallenge

🧪 #CompCogPapers #ZebraFinch #AnimalBehavior

Social relationships and cooperative behaviour in Common marmosets doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... 🧪 🐒 #CompCog #AnimalBehviour #NewWorldMonkey #Primate #ComparativePsychology #TeamWork

Winter ASAB 2025 December 15th-16th Edinburgh ASABwinter.github.io/2025/ How sensory information affects behaviour

Reminder that today (Sept 12) is the (extended) deadline for submitting abstracts to #ASABWinter2025 ! 🚨

Submit here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/

Also don’t forget the deadline for travel grants for the winter meeting is coming up on October 1 🚂

Known and Unknown Biases: A Framework for Contextualising and Identifying Bias in Animal Behaviour Research As scientists, we are prone to biases. These biases can influence our ideas, how we conduct our research and how we interpret our findings. Individual researchers can take active steps to locate and ...

How do our own biases impact the way we design and interpret research in #AnimalBehaviour and beyond? In our new @ethoges.bsky.social paper tirelessly led by @lucywinder.bsky.social, we discuss where #bias comes from and how we should approach it going forward. Check it out 👇
shorturl.at/Kocly

Tune in This Friday! Dr. @emmatecwyn.bsky.social and Dr. Ben Farrar, two leaders in the field will discuss the application of open science tools in comparative cognition (registration below) 🧪 #OpenScience #Reproducibility #WomenInStem #ComparativeCognition #CompCog #AnimalBehavior #BigTeamScience

Show Your Comparative Cognition Love!🦝♥️ Order your CCS merchandise in our online shop. We have water bottles, hats, mugs & more. We still have the CO3 2025 shirts in honor of Suzanne MacDonald, ft. orangutans & raccoons & we'll make sporadic announcements as new items are added

Obituary of Tammy McKenzie | Brockie Donovan Funeral & Cremation Services To view the Celebration of Tammy's Life, please CLICK HERE. Tammy Laura Beth McKenzie Ph.D It is with heavy hearts that we announce that Tammy passed away the morning of April 19th, 2025 at the age ...

The Comparative Cognition Society mourns the passing of our friend, and colleague, Professor Tammy McKenzie, who died earlier this year at the age of 49. Tammy was a longstanding member of the Society and a frequent CO3 attendee. Tammy's obituary: brockiedonovan.com/tribute/deta...

Scientific conferences are leaving the US amid border fears Nature - Some meetings have been put on hold in response to foreign researchers’ travel concerns.

"Scientific conferences are leaving the US amid border fears" shorturl.at/VwQww

🚨New workshop “Behavior Across the Tree of Life: Theoretical & Methodological Challenges” hosted by Gianmaria Dani, Dr. Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda & Prof. Grant Ramsey at KU Leuven, Sept 26-27, 2025! More info: hiw.kuleuven.be/clps...

See most recent newsletter for full statement from our president.

CO3 2026 will be in Montréal! 🇨🇦
📍 Delta Hotel, Montréal, QC
📅 April 15–18
After careful consideration, the CCS Executive Committee chose based on survey feedback, travel, safety, cost & character. We believe it’s the best option for our community & hope to see you there!

🎇✨Congratulations Prof. Susan Healy, our 2027 Research Award recipient (Uni. St Andrews, UK). A symposium + banquet will honor her contributions at the 2027 conference & a special issue will be published March 2028: 'In Honour of the Contributions of Susan Healy' #WomenInSTEM

L&B Special Issue: Interview with Nicky Clayton Audio Intro Kosovicheva: You’re listening to All Things Cognition, a Psychonomic Society podcast. Now, here is your host, Laura Mickes. Intro to the interview with Professor Nicky Clayton Mickes: Nicky Clayton (pictured below) is a Professor of Comparative Cognition in the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Clare College. She was elected…

L&B Special Issue: Interview w/ Nicky Clayton: https://bit.ly/4jhz2A2

Download the entire special issue for free until the end of May '25: https://bit.ly/3FpnQ5B

@nickyclayton22 @ComparativeCog @compcogsoc.bsky.social @Psychonomic_Soc @royalsociety @royalsociety.org

Thankful to attend the @compcogsoc.bsky.social conference again this year with the SCO group! I always return to campus buzzing with inspiration and optimism, especially seeing how comparative cognition has embraced interdisciplinary research, new frontiers of cognition, and philosophy of the mind.