A new preprint is bioRxiv: This study tested whether dogs interpret human pointing as a precise referential cue or mainly as a broader spatial guide. Dogs completed a six-cup object-choice task with either a symmetric 3-vs-3 layout or an asymmetric 2-vs-4 layout. The asymmetric arrangement allowed performance to be separated into side guidance and exact cup localisation. Three outcomes were analysed: reaching the correct side, choosing the correct cup overall, and choosing the correct cup after already reaching the correct side. The clearest effect of pointing occurred at the side level. Dogs were especially likely to reach the correct side when the baited cup was on the larger four-cup side. Exact cup choice was weaker and less robust. Conditional cup accuracy was only modestly above within-side chance and showed no reliable group differences. Mixed-effects analyses and generative model comparison both supported the same conclusion: dog point-following was dominated by attentional/spatial guidance, with limited target-specific localisation.

A new preprint is bioRxiv: The study introduces an information-theoretic framework for analysing category maps as target-preserving compressions of stimulus spaces. Using synthetic demonstrations and neural-network activation data, it shows that category structure depends on the target variable, abstraction level, and robustness demands. The framework quantifies category systems through entropy, mutual information, residual target uncertainty, and robustness, providing a way to compare how well different category maps preserve behaviourally or computationally relevant information.

A new preprint is available on SSRN on a minimal dynamical model used to examine whether democratic and autocratic regime outcomes can emerge as competing long-run basins under coupled interactions among norm compliance, elite pressure, institutional strength, and polarization. 

Congratulations to Hsin-En to her first pre-print on the work on Ecological context gates numerosity-based affiliation decision in zebrafish!

Our preprint on fish quantity discrimination is out as a preprint. We show that  zebrafish prefer larger groups with conspecific-like (small-fish) line drawings over smaller groups. We also found that predator-like (large-fish) line drawings abolish or reverse this numerosity-driven approach.

Our lab congratulates Chakriya Sakunputtipaiboon on a successful thesis defence. We wish you continued success in your future endeavours! Be proud of your hard work and accomplishments. 

Publication on spider individuation featured at elife: 

Individual recognition is conceptually complex and computationally intense, leading to the general assumption that this social knowledge is solely present in vertebrates with larger brains, while miniature-brained animals in differentiating societies eschew the evolutionary pressure for individual recognition by evolving computationally less demanding class-level recognition, such as kin, social rank, or mate recognition. Arguably, this social knowledge is restricted to species with a degree of sociality (sensu , for a review ). Here we show the exception to this rule in an asocial arthropod species, the jumping spider (Phidippus regius). Using a habituation - dishabituation paradigm, we visually confronted pairs of spatially separated spiders with each other and measured the ‘interest’ of one spider towards the other. The spiders exhibited high interest upon initial encounter of an individual, reflected in mutual approach behaviour, but adapted towards that individual when it reoccurred in the subsequent trial, indicated by their preference of staying farther apart. In contrast, spiders exhibited a rebound from habituation, reflected in mutual approach behaviour, when a different individual occurred in the subsequent trial, indicating the ability to tell apart spiders’ identities. These results suggest that P. regius is capable of individual recognition based on long-term social memory.