Group picture of the attendees of the comparative cognition conference on a stage with two background screens lit up with QR codes behind
Andddddd that's a wrap on #CO32026! A big thank you to all the presenters, both in talks and posters, to everyone who travelled to Montréal, and, of course, to the amazing organizers who made this conference such a success. We are already looking forward to #CO32027! Can't wait to see you there!
Who knew we'd be doing the time warp in the last talk of #CO32026? In his Honoree Lecture, Dr. Bob Cook explored the evolution of #art and #cognition, asking whether the roots of artistic expression extend beyond #humans, and connecting cognition and creativity in fascinating ways!
Bearded man in a blue shirt and tie facing camera.
The special lecture by Dr. Robert Cook is starting! 🎉 A leader in #ComparativeCognition, he is presenting work on #VisualPerception, #Learning, and #Memory, examining how #Animals, from pigeons to humans, process and act on complex sensory information #CO32026 🧪
#ComparativePsychology
As a warm-up to our feature session honoree lecture by Bob Cook, we are fascinated by the #cognitive capacities of #pigeons! Our final symposium covered topics from visual search to spatial maps, and we learned that pigeons reveal powerful associative and flexible cognitive processes. #CO32026
In honor of Dr. Robert Cook's contributions to the field of #ComparativeCognition, this #CO32026 symposium spotlights research on visual cognition and learning in pigeons and beyond, revealing how complex #Behavior can emerge from fundamental perceptual and associative processes 🧪
Rethinking #theory of mind across species!
This session examined how #animals track others’ knowledge, follow gaze, and potentially use symbolic representations, displaying diverse pathways to “mindreading” that extend beyond and are akin to human-like #cognition. #CO32026
From #Apes to #CapuchinMonkeys, this session explores #MentalStates and imagery, examining how #Animals attribute knowledge, use gaze and social cues, and whether they form #MentalRepresentations similar to humans. #CO32026 🧪
#AnimalBehavior #ComparativeCognition
What does #positive #affect look like in #behavior? In bonobos, high-value rewards elicited specific responses, such as head movements, whereas in humans, mood influences how dog emotions are perceived, demonstrating both behavioural signals and observer bias. #CO32026
Red-speckled Australian Cattle Dog with mouth slightly open looking at camera while in a grassy area.
How do we define and measure #Emotion and #Personality in #Animals? From #Bonobo behavior to human perceptions of #Dog emotion, this session explores how we identify, interpret, and standardize #IndividualDifferences across species. #CO32026 🧪
What does “self” look like in #animalbehavior? Our #Development session speaker suggested that #selfhood may emerge through how animals organize experiences into meaningful sequences, moving beyond mirror tests to focus on #agency, goals, and #behavior. #CO32026
How does #Cognition develop across species? From ravens' antipredator behavior to calves engaging with enrichment and new ideas about animal selfhood, this session explores how #Learning, #Behavior, and cognition emerge and change over #Development #CO32026 🧪 🐦⬛🐮
#AnimalBehavior
Brittany Greene tending to a culvert clogged by Castor canadensis below a motion-triggered predator sound device. #ouanimalbehavior #oubiosci
@ba-whittaker shared interesting new data on individual preferences of paired Taeniopygia guttata nest-building decisions in our #CO32026 Decision Making & Learning session this morning 🪺
Ant on mossy log
How do #Animals make decisions and learn? From cichlid fish, and cowbirds to zebra finches, zebrafish, and ants, this session explores how social context shapes learning, decision-making and collective behavior across species. #CO32026 🧪
Ready for round 2 of posters?! Our second #CO32026 Academic Poster Session is about to begin in all four conference rooms. Yes, the cash bar is open once again! Come meet the next generation of students presenting their #ComparativeCognition research 🧪
How do you consider undergrad participation in #AnimalBehavior research? Join this open meeting for faculty, post-docs, and graduate students to discuss undergraduate engagement strategies in #ComparativeCognition #CO32026
Join Dr. Carolyn Ristau, Dr. Stevan Harnad, Dr. James Simmons, Dr. Kristin Andrews and Dr. Colin Allen in a thoughtful digestion of Donald R. Griffin's "Question of Animal Awareness and Beyond" in our upcoming #CO32026 symposium. #Ethology #AnimalMinds #Philosophy 🧪
Forked tubes & a four cup task were featured in a beautifully interconnected #reasoning session at #CO32026. To close it out, Dr Olga Lazareva identified a gap in our literature by highlighting known and unknown similarities & differences between #transitivity & #transitive inference 🧠 #intringuing
New developments in #RelationalLearning theories and supportive technology will be featured in the upcoming #Reasoning session #CO32026 🧪
#AnimalBehavior #ComparativeCognition #ComparativePsychology
Innovation seemed to be the theme of our #CO32026 #mazes and #detours session!
Dr. Joshua Wolf shared his exciting new #apparatus for running amphipod escape behaviour trials and Dr. Fiona Cross shared the detour apparatus she developed for Portia africana motivation trials. 🕷️
Trichechus manatus latirostris, commonly called a manatee, with dorsal boat strike scarring & her calf swimming in Florida waters.
Attend the #AnimalWelfare & #Conservation session to gain insights on evidence-based best practices in managed care & the conservation impacts on wild counterparts. #CO32026 🧪
📷 by Athena Rycyk
#AnimalBehavior #Manatee
New findings in wild parent-offspring feeding interactions of Parus major were shared by Dr. Shana Caro in our #communication session. Welcome to #CO32026 Dr. Caro!
A dark jumping brown spider, Portia africana, on a leaf.
Under what conditions do specialized #Navigation skills falter? Inverted rats, escaping amphipods and intraspecific motivated jumping spiders will all be featured in the mazes and detours #CO32026 session 🧪
📷 Fiona Cross
#AnimalBehavior #ComparativeCognition
#ComparativeCognition research presented in the #Communication session reveals new findings on how information is conveyed and processed by #Primates, #Avians, #Honeybees, and #Dolphins #CO32026 🧪 🐒🐬🦜🐝
#AnimalBehavior #ComparativePsychology
The #AuditoryDiscrimination session at #CO32026 featured cross-modal matching in honeybees, auditory enrichment trials for two groups of elephants in human care, and several new comparative studies in songbird #vocalizations and auditory processing 🐝🐘🐦
#Joy in #Animals isn’t just observed, it’s being tested! Live from #CO32026, this symposium explored how positive #affect is elicited and measured across species, and how it influences #Cognition and social interactions.
Vibrational cues, #Acoustic enrichment, vocalizations and predator sounds will all be featured in our upcoming #CO32026 #AuditorydDscrimination session! 🧪
#ComparativePsychology #AnimalBehavior #DidYouHearThat
A big #Congratulations to our Early Career Award Winner, Stephen Ferrigno! His work with #memory systems suggests that #monkeys not only have the ability to represent recursive sequences but do so like #humans. #CO32026
How do we measure #Joy across species? From #Kea parrots (thermal + hormones) to #Dolphins (vocalizations) and #Bonobos (attention to play faces), this #Symposium explores how positive #Affect can be identified and compared across animals #CO32026 🧪
#AnimalBehavior #ComparativeCognition
Brown haired man in a mauve button up shirt in front of a bookcase, facing the camera.
#FeatureSession Alert! #EarlyCareerAwardWinner Stephen Ferrigno Stephen Ferrigno presents his work showing that monkeys and humans use similar, queue-like memory systems for hierarchical sequences, challenging traditional models of how structured information is represented #CO32026 🧪