Greater Toronto Area Animal Cognition Group

24 January 2025 - Cooperative puzzle solving in ants 

meeting lead: Marriah Alcantara (York University)

Dreyer, T., Haluts, A., Korman, A., Gov, N., Fonio, E., & Feinerman, O. (2025). Comparing cooperative geometric puzzle solving in ants versus humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(1), e2414274121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2414274121 

14 February 2025 - Dunbar on the evolution of cognitive traits for group living

meeting lead: Tyler Delmore (York University)

Reading:

Dunbar, R. (2025). Structural and Cognitive Mechanisms of Group Cohesion in Primates. Behav Brain Sci. 2024 Apr 30:1-80

20 March 2025 - Cognitive characters w/ Carrie Figdor

Carrie Figdor (Iowa / Edinburgh)

Reading:

Figdor, C. (2024). "Individuating Cognitive Characters: Lessons from Praying Mantises and Plants." Philosophy of Science, 91(4), 930–949

18 January 2024 - Mental imagery in nonhuman animals

meeting lead: Tyler Delmore (York University)

Reading:

Hassett, T. C., Lord, V. K., & Hampton, R. R. (2022). Rhesus monkeys manipulate mental images. Cognition, 228, 105225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105225 

8 February 2024 - Compositionality and replay in the brain

meeting lead: Johannes Mahr (York University)

Reading:

Kurth-Nelson, Z., Behrens, T., Wayne, G., Miller, K., Luettgau, L., Dolan, R., Liu, Y., & Schwartenbeck, P. (2023). Replay and compositional computation. Neuron, 111(4), 454–469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.12.028 

28 March 2024 - Cumulative culture and innovation in chimpanzees and bees

meeting lead: Brandon Tinklenberg (York University)

Readings 

van Leeuwen, E. J. C., DeTroy, S. E., Haun, D. B. M., & Call, J. (2024). Chimpanzees use social information to acquire a skill they fail to innovate. Nature Human Behaviour, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01836-5  

Bridges, A. D., Royka, A., Wilson, T., Lockwood, C., Richter, J., Juusola, M., & Chittka, L. (2024). Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone. Nature, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07126-4  

25 April 2024 - Conference recaps and animal gestures

Member recaps of (1) Comparative Cognition Society's CO3 conference and (2) the The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness / The Emerging Science of Animal Consciousness conference. 

https://comparativecognition.org/CO3/CO3_2024_Program.pdf

https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/nydeclaration/declaration

20 September 2024 - Social dynamics in vervet monkeys 

meeting lead: Marriah Alcantara (York University)

Readings:

Kerjean, E., Waal, E. van de, & Canteloup, C. (2024). Social dynamics of vervet monkeys are dependent upon group identity. iScience, 27(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.108591

Leeuwen, E. J. C. van, Bryon, E., Rogers, A., Balaran, A., Motsch, P., & Brooker, J. S. (2024). Getting to the bottom of social learning: Chimpanzees copy arbitrary behavior from conspecifics (p. 2024.08.30.607436). bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.30.607436

18 October 2024 - Great ape and other animal gestures (w/ Richard Moore)

Readings:

Graham, Rossano, and Moore (2024). "The origin of great ape gestural forms." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39192562/  

22 November 2024 - The evolution or brains and cognition across phyla

meeting lead: Tyler Delmore (York University)

Readings:

Coombs & Trestman (Forthcoming). "A multi-trait embodied framework for the evolution of brains and cognition across animal phyla". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000335

12 January 2023 - Do nonhuman animals have social norms?

with Kristin Andrews (York University)

26 January 2023 - Animal play

meeting lead Tyler Delmore (York University)

Reading:

Burghardt, G. M. (2010). Defining and Recognizing Play. In P. Nathan & A. D. Pellegrini (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Development of Play. Oxford University Press. 

Galpayage Dona, H. S., Solvi, C., Kowalewska, A., Mäkelä, K., MaBouDi, H., & Chittka, L. (2022). Do bumble bees play? Animal Behaviour, 194, 239–251. 

16 February 2023 - Goffin's cockatoos using tool-sets 

meeting lead Tyler Delmore (York University)

Reading: 

Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró (2023), Flexible tool set transport in Goffin's cockatoos, Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.023.

9 March 2023 - Great apes and human children rationally monitor their decisions.

meeting lead Tyler Delmore (York University)

Reading: 

O'Madagain et al. (2022). Great apes and human children rationally monitor their decisions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

23 March 2023 - Bonobos' flexible signalling of emotions  

with Dennis Papadopoulus (Messerli Research Institute)

Reading: 

Heesen, R., Austry, D. A., Upton, Z., & Clay, Z. (2022). Flexible signalling strategies by victims mediate post-conflict interactions in bonobos. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377(1860), 20210310. 

20 April 2023 - Conference wrap up: Comparative Cognition Society's CO3 

https://www.comparativecognition.org/conferencespast.php

4 May 2023 - Conference wrap up: Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behaviour Association (PAMBA)'s Madrid conference

https://www.the-pamba.com/events-1/inaugural-meeting-of-pamba

2 June 2023 - Is comparative cognition WEIRD?

with Kristin Andrews (York University) and Susana Monsó (UNED)

28 September 2023 - Machine learning and animal communication

with Kristin Andrews (York University)

Reading:

Rutz, C., Bronstein, M., Raskin, A., Vernes, S. C., Zacarian, K., & Blasi, D. E. (2023). Using machine learning to decode animal communication. Science, 381(6654), 152–155. 

Dantzker, M., & Brown, D. O. (2009). Signals for Survival. Oxford University Press.

26 October 2023 - Major transitions in cognitive evolution

meeting lead Tyler Delmore (York University)

Reading:

Barron, A. B., Halina, M., & Klein, C. (2023). Transitions in cognitive evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 290(2002), 20230671. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0671

16 November 2023 - Disagreement & classification in comparative cognitive science

with Ali Boyle (London School of Economics)

Reading:

Boyle, A. (2023). Disagreement & classification in comparative cognitive science. Noûs, nous.12480. https://doi.org/10.1111/nous.12480 

8 December 2023 - Fish sentience

with Georgia Mason (University of Guelph)

Readings:

• Mason and Lavery (2022). What is it like to be a bass? 

• Talks by Culum Brown and Brian Key from the CCSAW forum on fish sentience

7 January 2022 - Animal Culture

•  Kristin Andrews (York University)

28 January 2022 - Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod Crustaceans (LSE Report)

•  Jonathan Birch, Heather Browning, and Andrew Crump (London School of Economics)

11 Feb 2022 - Brainless Cognition (readings from Lyon, Levin, Cheng...)

• Tyler Delmore (York University)

11 Mar 2022 - Reasoning by Exclusion

• Suzanne L. Gray (Tufts)

25 Mar 2022 - Understanding Human Cognitive Uniqueness (reading Laland & Seed)

• Tyler Delmore (York University)

22 April 2022 - CO3 Wrap-up 

27 May 2022 - Group decision-making, collective movement in baboons 

• Virendra Mathur (University of Toronto)

24 June 2022 - Intentional Recruitment in Macaques

6 October 2022 - Place cells, spatial representations, and 'ConSinks' in the mammalian hippocampus (Ormond and O'Keefe article)

• Tyler Delmore (York University)

20 October 2022 - The phylogeny and ontogeny of temporal cognition (Hoerl and McCormack BBS article) 

17 November 2022 - Perception of others' attentional control 

• Muhammed Ali Qadri (Holy Cross) 

8 December 2022 - The loss of cognitive skills

• Noam Miller (Wilfred Laurier) 

29 January 2021 - The Number Sense

• • Jacob Beck (York University) and Sam Clarke (York University)

5 March 2021 - Social Learning in Apes (Tennie et al., 2020)

• • Claudio Tennie (University of Tübingen)

16 April 2021 - C03 Wrap-Up

26 May 2021 - Tool use in crows and Goffin's cockatoos

• • Sara Shettleworth (University of Toronto) and Tyler Delmore (York University)

24 June 2021 - Perception of Eurasian jays 

•  Kristin Andrews (York University)

1 October 2021 - Animal Ethnography 

•  Brenda de Groot (Leiden University)

29 October 2021 - Non-Cognitive Explanations

•  Noam Miller (Wilfrid Laurier)

26 November 2021 - Replication in Comparative Cognition

•  Sara Shettleworth (University of Toronto) 

2 October, 2019 - Exploring Elephant Cognition

• • Joshua Plotnik (Hunter College)

15 October, 2019 - Measuring Animal Personality

• • Noam Miller (Wilfrid Laurier University) 

23 October, 2019 - Expanding Core Systems of Knowledge

• • Elizabeth Spelke (Harvard University)

26 November, 2019 - Overimitation in primates and canines

• • Kristin Andrews (York University)

27 February, 2020 - Morgan's canon 

• • Kevin Lande (York University)

  • Kristin Andrews (York University)

29 May, 2020 - Animal concept of death

• • Susana Monsó (Messerli Research Institute in Vienna)

  • Antonio Osuna-Mascaró (Messerli Research Institute in Vienna)

19 June 2020 - Historical writing: The Descent of Man and Margaret Washburn

• • Kristin Andrews (York University)

  • Sara Shettleworth (University of Toronto, Emerita)

13 July 2020 - Plant minds

• • Noam Miller (Wilfrid Laurier University) 

12 Aug 2020 - Invertebrate cognition

• • Irina Mikhalevich (Rochester Institute of Technology) 

  • Russell Powell (Boston University)

16 Oct 2020 - Methods in Animal Consciousness Research

• • Brandon Tinklenberg & Dylan Ludwig (York University)

20 Nov 2020 - Sensory Consciousness and Memory Awareness, in Crows and Monkeys

• • Sara Shettleworth (University of Toronto, Emerita)

11 Dec 2020 - Olfactory Mirrors - Tests for Self-recognition in Snakes

• • Noam Miller (Wilfrid Laurier University) 

20 September, 2018 - Cumulative Cultural Evolution

• • Kristin Andrews (York University), Noam Miller (Wilfrid Laurier University), & Brandon Tinklenberg (York University)

24 October, 2018 - Measurement methods for inferring cognitive mechanisms

• • Laura Adams (Seneca College)

15 November, 2018 - Social Learning Strategies

• • Lindsey Kitchenham & Georgia Mason (University of Guelph)

17 January, 2019 - Exploring Animal Minds

• • Kristin Andrews (York University)

28 February, 2019 - Pantomime in Great Apes

• • Anne Russon (York University) 

21 March, 2019 - Minimalism vs. Intellectualism Approaches to Attributing Concepts

• • Kevin Temple (University of Toronto)

8 May, 2019 -  "The replication crisis” and research in animal cognition and behaviour

• • Sara Shettleworth (University of Toronto)

21 June, 2019 - Empathy in Animals

• • Kristin Andrews (York University) & Noam Miller (Wilfrid Laurier University)