Computational Cognition Lab
PI: Dr Christoph D. Dahl (Associate Professor)
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News and announcements
News and announcements
New study accepted!
New study accepted!
Human risk-taking is well known to be influenced by context-dependent factors. In a previous study, we demonstrated that non-human primates similarly exhibit contextual risk-preference: two species of great apes showed risk-prone or risk-neutral choices depending on the manner in which risk was presented. Here, we applied the same experimental paradigm to human participants across different age groups using a computerised online interface. Consistent with the findings in great apes, we observed shifts in risk preference contingent on the experimental context, with these effects particularly pronounced in children. In a subsequent experiment, we explored potential cognitive mechanisms underlying this preference shift, identifying a general propensity for exploration and framing effects as promising explanatory factors common to both humans and animals.
At the recent CORN conference, Jennifer’s poster presentation on The role of domestic dogs’ visual and auditory abilities in discriminating quantities drew significant attention from attendees, sparking in-depth discussions and positive feedback from peers and senior researchers alike. This strong reception was recognised by the conference committee, awarding her second prize for outstanding poster presentation.
Congratulations to Jennifer!!
Also, Congratulations to Christina for her first ever poster presentation!!
We are excited to announce that three students of our Computational Cognition Lab will be presenting their latest research at the CoRN Conference on research in consciousness and neuroscience in Bangkok!
Our group presentations include:
Jennifer D. Mugleston will present work on The role of domestic dogs’ visual and auditory abilities in discriminating quantities, investigating how dogs use both sensory modalities to make quantity judgments and what factors influence their performance.
Chakriya Sakunputtipaiboon will share research on Developmental transitions in infant object categorization, examining how infants differentiate and categorize objects at different hierarchical levels, shedding light on early cognitive development and exploratory strategies.
Christina Huang will present Rethinking perceptual narrowing: Subordinate-level discrimination in faces and objects during infancy, a study challenging classical views on perceptual narrowing in early development.
Also presenting will be the lab PI:
Christoph D. Dahl will present on Computational analysis of collective dynamics in zebrafish (Danio rerio) groups reveals hierarchical social structure, using advanced modeling to uncover the social coordination rules in zebrafish groups, as well as on his recent paper on Individual recognition memory in a spider.
We’re proud of our team for representing the Computational Cognition Lab and GIMBC at this international event. Congratulations to all presenters!
Congratulations to a successful defence! 89 points! Now, let's top it up with some great publications!
Congratulations to a successful defence! 89 points! Now, let's top it up with some great publications!
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.
Jennifer Mugleston recently presented a poster on her dog research at the conference: Taiwan Society of Cognitive Neuroscience Annual Meeting 2025
Congratulations to Hsuan-Kai Weng for winning the third prize in 3MT at the TSfN (Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Congress)!
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.
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