Studying social structure and the evolution of sociality
I was very excited a resume giving invited talks in person this fall! I was invited to give a colloquium talk at McMaster Psychology (thanks to Reuven Dukas for the invitation!) and to Texas A&M Biology (thanks to Courtney Fitzpatrick for the invitation!).… [Read full details]
My postdoc Grace Smith-Vidaurre just posted a new preprint about her work with monk parakeet vocalizations. The preprint is posted on EcoEvoRxiv.
Animals can actively encode different types of identity information in communication signals, such as group membership, individual identity, or social status.… [Read full details]
New preprint is available on ecoevorxiv here! With gorgeous art by V. Darby Moore.
We used data on 12 species of parrots who form mixed species groups to eat clay from exposed cliffs along rivers in Peru to determine the simplest methods each species could be using to make co-occurrence and joining decisions involving other species.… [Read full details]
New paper, led by Allison Roth!! See the full text here at Behavioral Ecology
There exists growing evidence that animal personality (consistent between individual differences in behavior) can influence an individual’s fitness. Furthermore, limitations in behavioral plasticity may cause personality-mediated tradeoffs to occur, for example, between speed and accuracy in decision making.… [Read full details]
| 2022 | ||
| 22 Sept | Liz will be giving a seminar talk at McMaster University’s Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, invited by Reuven Dukas | |
| 27 Sept | Liz will be giving a seminar talk at Texas A&M University’s Biology Department, invited by Courtney Fitzpatrick | |
I was invited to contribute to a new comparative psychology textbook, and roped one of my favorite collaborators into writing a chapter together. The book is now out! It’s available here.
In our chapter, Gerry and I wrote about how cooperation and conflict are really two sides of the same coin, and tend to be much more similar than many initially appreciate.… [Read full details]
Julie Barnes: “A Big Data Approach to Studying Feline Welfare in Shelters “
My first graduate student, Julie Barnes, finished her Masters project this summer and graduated! Julie did a great job on her project, which integrated aspects of animal welfare with big data and technology.… [Read full details]
I was really excited to be awarded the University of Cincinnati “Forward Faculty” award for Transformational Experiential Learning this year. This award is for my learn-to-code course for undergraduates which introduces them to coding in R using topics in Animal Behavior and data from the Cincinnati Zoo’s penguins. … [Read full details]
With Marcela Benítez, I co-organized a symposium at the Animal Behavior Conference focused on Social Competency. We had a great mix of speakers, with some longer keynote talks, regular research talks, and several short lightning talks all centered on work touching on ideas of social competency in animals.… [Read full details]
We were very excited to travel to Costa Rica this summer for the 2022 Animal Behavior Conference. In all, Hobson Lab members presented 8 talks (all within the Social Competency Symposium) and a poster. Whew!
Here is an overview of everyone’s presentations:
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Liz Hobson: Co-organized and co-moderated the Social Competency Symposium with Marcela Benítez. |