Do you research social interactions and collective behavior?
IIMAS-UNAM is hiring an Associate Researcher "C". PhD in psychology, anthropology or sociology + publications required. Women encouraged to apply. Maximum age 39 (♀️) and 37 (♂️).
📅 Deadline: June 1, 2026
📄 tinyurl.com/3dzc5nz4

We advocate for an expanded notion of ecological validity along three dimensions: subject phenotype, task naturalness, and environmental fidelity.

You can read the full open access paper here: wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

E.g., that laboratory animals, model species, and digital simulations enable generalizations from lab to wild, from animal to human, and from virtual to physical environments. These assumptions enabled much of the field's progress but they can constrain generalizability and real-world relevance.

New paper alert with Stephan Kaufhold, Mia Borzello and David Kirsh!

How well does cognition studied in the lab reflect cognition in the real world?

Much of what we think we know about cognition rests on methodological assumptions that have become so established that they often go unexamined.

Social living does not increase the propensity to cooperate per se. Semi-solitary apes can assess the likelihood of cooperation from a partner based on incentives. However, social living makes communication between individuals more salient, turning it into a key tool towards successful cooperation.

Both species initiated cooperation when partners had incentive to cooperate in return. Critically, chimpanzee tool givers were more responsive to recipients’ attention-getting signals than orang-utans. So how does social living affect cooperation?

Critically, the partner would also have a solo reward.
Notwithstanding the different gregariousness of the species, the cooperation rate did not differ between them. Both species based decisions primarily on the individual immediate payoffs.

We set out to study the proximate mechanisms that would affect their willingness to cooperate. We investigated this in a tool-transfer task in which a participant can decide to either use a tool for a reward for themselves or pass the tool hoping the partner would cooperate for a different reward.

Orang-utans and chimpanzees cooperate strategically based on the partner’s incentives Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, are often regarded as a model species for the evolution of human cooperation. However, whether chimpanzees' decision-mak…

Thrilled to announce our new paper with @elisafelsche.bsky.social , @christophvoelter.bsky.social and Josep Call on how orang-utans and chimpanzees cooperate strategically based on the partner's incentives. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Only 12 years from the day we collected the first data point for this fun project… all my fault! Sorry! Very proud of the spaghetti tube apparatus. As an Italian, walking into the zoo with a pack of spaghetti every testing day made for some fun interactions. Thank you Christoph, Elisa and Josep!

Can Dogs Talk? 🐕 💬 A Deep Dive with Christina Hunger & Federico Rossano | NOVA | PBS YouTube video by NOVA PBS Official

Deep dive: youtube.com/live/-o7x8tZ...
Study signup: cclab.ucsd.edu
Documentary: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vi...

I had a blast participating in a @novapbs.bsky.social
deep dive with Christina Hunger, hosted by Julia Cort and Chris Schmidt.
If you are interested or skeptical about dogs trained with soundboards to communicate with humans, I hope you will check it out. And check out the NOVA documentary as well

Can Dogs Talk? Do speech buttons really allow dogs to talk to us? Scientists investigate.

Today at 9pm ET/PT is the US premiere of the @pbs.org NOVA documentary "Can Dogs Talk?". It covers the project @cclabucsd.bsky.social has been running with thousands of button trained dogs. It is a true honor to be on NOVA and we hope you will find it engaging: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vi...

Giving Pets A Voice: Experts Discuss The Science Behind Pet Communication YouTube video by Purina

If you want to see the full livestream, check out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEFo...

A brief extract from a fun livestream with awesome colleagues hosted by Dr. Anne Valuska, organized by
@templetonworld.bsky.social and Purina.
Let's give non-human animals a real chance to show us how intelligent and capable they are. We can only benefit from engaging with nature with an open mind

"Can our pets tell us what they are thinking?" with Federico Rossano YouTube video by Interspecies Internet

If you want to know more about the ongoing research, you can check out this online lecture: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjF...

Pet Cognition & Communication - Comparative Cognition Lab at UC San Diego We are studying dog and cat social cognition and interspecies communication. We're looking for citizen scientists!

And if you want to join our citizen science, you can sign up here: cclab.ucsd.edu/pet-cognitio...

Can Dogs Talk? | Idéacom International

For more info about the documentary you can check out: ideacom.tv/en/productio...
A special thank you to @rverdecchia.bsky.social, Olly Bootle, Joseph Russell, Emma Ross, Kirstie McLure and all people involved in this production for making this possible.

On September 28th at 18:30 the French language premiere of the documentary "Can dogs talk?" will air on @iciradiocanada.bsky.social Découverte series
@cclabucsd.bsky.social work on soundboard trained dogs is a central piece of this documentary. English versions will air on NOVA and CBC in early 2026

I had the most wonderful time presenting our current progress on this project to the amazing @interspecies-io.bsky.social community! If you could not attend but are interested in finding out more about our work, check out the lecture here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjF...

Thank you so much for the invitation! Very much looking forward to giving this talk and connecting with your community!

A new global study allows dogs to ‘talk’ to their owners by pressing buttons that say human words - The World from PRX Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, owners have been training their dogs to “tell” them what they want by mashing buttons with their paws to express words in various human languages. A UCSD study began...

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, owners have been training their dogs to “tell” them what they want by mashing buttons with their paws to express words in various human languages. A UCSD study began to explore the practice further and now includes participants in dozens of countries worldwide.

Today (April 30th) is 🔱 #TritonGivingDay Please donate to support the students in @cclabucsd.bsky.social studying 10,000 pets from 47 countries in the largest Animal Communication study ever attempted! We need your help tinyurl.com/2s3ksem2 ! This beauty is Parker! @ucsandiego.bsky.social

Thank you to @npr.org , @kpbssandiego.bsky.social @theworld.org and @MarcoWerman for covering our study on pets communication: theworld.org/segments/202...
If you are interested in participating in the study check out: cclab.ucsd.edu

We have a few more on the way (one about cats) that we hope you will find interesting. Critically, we are trying hard to be careful and systematic and we are NOT saying that they are "talking". If you want to participate in the study (or donate to support the work) check out: cclab.ucsd.edu

Soundboard-trained dogs produce non-accidental, non-random and non-imitative two-button combinations - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Soundboard-trained dogs produce non-accidental, non-random and non-imitative two-button combinations

This is the first large dataset longitudinal analysis of how 152 dogs were using those buttons (based on 260,000 presses collected over 21 months). They were using them intentionally and non-randomly and they were not merely mimicking the training they received.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How do soundboard-trained dogs respond to human button presses? An investigation into word comprehension Past research on interspecies communication has shown that animals can be trained to use Augmentative Interspecies Communication (AIC) devices, such as soundboards, to make simple requests of their ca...

This is the first experimental paper we published, where we show that they pay attention to the sounds produced by the buttons and they seem to comprehend the meaning of at least some of them. And we rule out Clever Hans effect
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Soundboard-using pets?: Introducing a new global citizen science approach to interspecies communication | Request PDF Request PDF | Soundboard-using pets?: Introducing a new global citizen science approach to interspecies communication | The first studies that sought to establish two-way communication between humans ...

This paper explains why we started the project, why we thought it was reasonable and timely, what we were initially after and some initial descriptive data from Bunny using the buttons
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Use of Augmentative Interspecies Communication devices in animal language studies: A review Similar in function and design to Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices—interfaces originally developed and used to produce words on behalf of language-impaired human users—Augmentative ....

This is a review of prior research on Augmentative Interspecies Communication devices (such as lexigrams and buttons) with animals. Some of the things we learn and some of the mistakes that were made.

wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....