Last year, I attended a symposium hosted by peter kappeler at the german primate center on the topic of “social complexity”. A bunch of evolutionary and behavioral ecologists from different backgrounds got together to argue about stuff like ‘how should we define social complexity?’, ‘is the brain size of a species a good of measure of social complexity? (or anything at all?) and “why does germany have so much more science funding than us?”

cognitive learning theory in the classroom

This was actually one of the best conferences I attended, I met a bunch of people whose work I’d read, and I started useful collaborations, including one with a msc student working on neophobia, who convinced me that bats reacting to novel objects was actually interesting and helped me write this paper.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom with others from damien farine’s lab, I wrote my opinion about the conference here.

What’s more socially complex: a bee or a chimp? (answer: vampire bat).Cognitive learning theory in the classroom biologists tend to define social complexity in such as way that their animal is one of the ‘complex ones’. One possible solution to this that I liked for talking about social complexity was the terms proposed by dieter lukas and tim clutton-brock: “organizational complexity” (exemplified by cooperative breeders and eusocial insects which have a division of reproduction and labor) and “relational complexity” (exemplified by animals with individualized relationships like some primates, elephants, and of course vampire bats).Cognitive learning theory in the classroom they published evidence for these distinct dimensions of complexity in mammals here. Others suggested other frameworks.*

The invited speakers were asked to write up their talks as papers for this special issue in behavioral ecology and sociobiology.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom I gave a talk about vampire bats and I contributed to an invited talk/paper on social complexity across bats, led by jerry wilkinson. An example of social networks in three bats and probably some copyright violations.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

Here’s the link to that paper, kinship, association, and social complexity in bats (if that link doesn’t work look under “publications” above).Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the basic idea is that comparing social networks across species is actually quite difficult and rarely done because different studies measure ‘groups’ and ‘associations’ differently across species.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom but bat researchers tend to do the same thing: we individually mark bats, then observe which bats are in a roost across different days, and when we mark them, we collect a tissue sample to estimate their genetic relatedness.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom several people have done this over several years. So jerry gathered all the data together from different researchers that have done long-term studies** and we did the same basic social network analyses in each species to see if anything interesting came up.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

To be honest, there wasn’t anything too surprising if you know the social and genetic structures of these different bat species, but it was quite nice to put it all together in one place and to measure all these species using the same metrics.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom for some species, it did change my picture of their social structures as being a bit more ‘messy’ that I thought. I also noticed was that we actually had different conclusions about relatedness and association for some species than previous published analyses, suggesting that the details of how you measure relatedness and association can determine what you conclude.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom another lesson was that the link between relatedness and association can depend a lot on what your null model accounts for. This is something damien has often written about.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom for example, if two individuals are always seen together but always in the same roost, then do they actually prefer roosting near each other or do they just prefer the same roost and they don’t actually care about each other?Cognitive learning theory in the classroom it’s actually easier to infer social structure for animals that switch roosts and move around because you can account for spatial effects. Another example is that a null model that does not account for time effects could lead to the idea that two individuals are highly associated simply because they both died in the first year of the study.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom social networks are inherently correlational, and it’s quite easy to draw the wrong conclusions if you don’t think about and correct for these kinds of biases.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

Another nice thing that you don’t see in the paper is that we ran all the same analyses in both matlab (‘socprog’ by hal whitehead) and R (‘asnipe’ by damien farine) to test if both packages gave the same results and if not, why not.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom given all the possible ways to do things, not all of the analyses we did ended up in the paper, and I think there’s a lot more that could possibly be tested.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom for example, if we could get reliable maternity data, perhaps we could test for evidence of within-group maternal inheritance of associations (if you’re reading this and want to see if this analysis is feasible, feel free to email me).Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

** jerry wilkinson had data on evening bats in the USA. Wilkinson and kisi bohn’s had data on greater-spear nosed bats in trinidad. Mirjam knörnschild, linus günther, barbara caspers, martina nagy, and frieder mayer provided data on sac-winged bats and proboscis bats in costa rica.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom gloriana chaverri had data on disc-winged bats in costa rica. Gerald kerth had data on bechstein’s bats in germany. Jorge ortega had data on jamaican fruit bats kin mexico.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom krista patriquin had data on northern long-eared bats in canada. Bryan arnold (pallid bats) and dina dechmann ( lophostoma silvicolum, the bats that live in active termite nests ) also contributed data but were not included in the study because the data were too sparse to estimate good networks.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom victoria flores and rachel page will soon be adding the frog-eating bat to this comparative dataset.

Social bonds facilitate cooperative resource sharing in wild chimpanzees.”the strongest predictor of sharing across food types was the presence of enduring and mutually preferred grooming partners, more than harassment, direct signalling, or trade.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom moreover, urinary oxytocin levels were higher after the sharing of both individually and jointly acquired resources compared with controls.”

cognitive learning theory in the classroom

More than kin: subordinates foster strong bonds with relatives and potential mates in a social bird (the cooperatively breeding purple-crowned fairy-wren).Cognitive learning theory in the classroom “subordinates formed equally strong social bonds with kin and potential mates (unrelated opposite-sex individuals) while they formed antagonistic relationships with reproductive competitors that offered no kin-selected or mating benefits (unrelated same-sex individuals)”

cognitive learning theory in the classroom

By-product group benefits of non-kin resource-sharing in vampire “our study focuses on the contrast in the group estimates between sharing and non-sharing populations.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom for constant ecological resources, sharing behaviour can increase the sustainable population size, increase the total resource stored in the population, and reduce the average resource required per individual, compared to a non-sharing population.” I do not agree that this group-based modeling approach makes the correct assumptions.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

I’ve always been incredibly curious about the natural world and how it works, especially the animal kingdom. As a kid I would spend hours peeking under rocks, watching documentaries, and reading through wildlife encyclopedias.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom my entire childhood was focused around biological exploration, be it outside or in a book, so when I finally found out what “zoology” was in fifth grade, it immediately resonated with me, and it was then that I decided to become a zoologist.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom although it was a vague plan at the time, my motivation only strengthened as I got older, ultimately leading me to apply for my bachelor’s degree in zoology at SUNY oswego.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

At university, I immediately jumped into a two-year long laboratory position as research assistant to dr. Julien bachelier, an evolutionary biologist and plant systematist.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom following this, I began an animal ecology research assistantship to diversify my skillset in the field, first aiding in a study on the behavioral responses of white-footed mice and northern short-tailed shrews to predation threat.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the next year, I collaborated on a project which led to my first publication on same-sex courtship behaviors in fruit flies. Shortly thereafter, I travelled to costa rica with my research advisor, dr.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom maria sagot, to help study the importance of group vocal behavior on roost-finding efficiency in spix’s disc-winged bat. After costa rica, I worked for two months at the bronx zoo in new york city, and while it was fun, it helped me realize just how much I valued the intellectual rigor of research.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom so, when I returned to university, I was confident in my scientific and professional goals. I became a teaching assistant for a mammalogy course, which I found very rewarding, and I further conducted an independent undergraduate thesis on seasonal changes in beaver activity and the impact of beaver presence on diversity at an artificial pond ecosystem.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

Understanding animal behavior at its core has always been my greatest passion, so I’m not surprised to find myself excitedly starting my phd in evolution, ecology, and organismal biology.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom I also look forward to working with dr. Gerry carter, and my plan is to follow up on his most recent work and look more closely at the formation and stability of vampire bat social bonds.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom overall, I hope I can make significant contributions to the fields of behavioral ecology and biology, and one day pay it forward to the next generation of young curious naturalists who find themselves endlessly reading, watching documentaries, or peeking under rocks.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

My entire childhood up until I graduated high school, I was confident that I would be working with animals as a veterinarian. However, after volunteering at small animal clinics for two years, I realized that I no longer desired to become a veterinarian.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom my interests changed to wanting to invest time in conserving wildlife. I was enthralled by conservation courses in college and research that used biology to aid in protecting species.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom my first internship to try to gain experience in the field led me to a research station called para la tierra in paraguay. My independent proposal was looking into the movement of rococo toads.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the study was to look at the homing ranges of these species to determine the effectiveness of pest removal.

My experience in paraguay was so impactful that I wanted to continue fieldwork on similar projects.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom I applied for an internship with the division of wildlife through ohio state university. For three months, I learned how to radio-track and mist-net bats while also conducting vegetation surveys.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the goal of the research was to look at roost selection of eastern red bats in undisturbed and disturbed habitat to determine better management techniques for a new property that the division of wildlife had obtained.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

This internship eventually led into a full-time position where I was also able to manage other projects, such as a mobile acoustic study looking at the change in activity and species composition after white-nose syndrome was discovered in ohio.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom working with state government taught me about the barriers in trying to conserve bats. The division always tries to create policies and standards using the most recent research, but there is surprisingly little information on bat migration patterns, their roosting habits, or even their diets to help guide their protection.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom in addition, the majority of land in the state was privately owned, and many residents held negative stigmas about bats and did not understand their importance.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom my frustration at the lack of data to aid in conservation along with my wonderment at the behavior of bats led me to applying to obtain a masters of science at ohio state university.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

My goal is to incorporate the study of bat behavior with conservation. My thesis project will involve determining the sensory factors that are involved when a bat chooses a roost.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom using experimental roost boxes, we hope to determine if olfactory cues, acoustic cues, or a combination of the two are significant in the choice of roosts by temperate and tropical bats .Cognitive learning theory in the classroom obtaining information about the sensory cues involved in roost selection could aid in attracting bats to artificial roosts for conservation purposes in the future.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

• phd student at UT austin, basti stockmaier, published the first part of his work on the effects of an immune challenge on vampire bat social grooming.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom in this paper, basti shows that vampire bats respond with physiological and behavioral responses to LPS (lipopolysaccharide) injections. We observed a decrease in social grooming, even when we forced the bats into close proximity with just one or three others in small independent cages.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom we are now writing the second part of the study, where we looked at the same effects on grooming and food sharing under less controlled conditions, where the bats are housed all together in a flight cage and proximity between the bats can vary.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

• past intern julia vrtilek published her study testing vampire bats escaping from a maze in the presence or absence of demonstrators that already know how to get out.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the underlying motivation for this study was trying to think of a simple way to study social learning in vampire bats that did not involve food or require fasting the bats, and where the bats could be tested quickly and repeatedly.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom in this test, the bats are rewarded not with food but with being reunited with their group.