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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Sonja Wild @sonjawild.bsky.social · 1d

Out today in @plosbiology.org (1/5)

Siblings and non-parental adults provide alternative pathways to cultural inheritance in juvenile great tits 🐦🧩

Link to study:
10.0.5.91/journal.pbio...

Co-authors:
@lucymaplin.bsky.social
@galarconnieto.bsky.social

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

EHBEA @ehbea.bsky.social · 3d

EHBEA is looking for new PRESIDENT and SECRETARY for 2026-2029! 👀

If you know of anybody who could represent EHBEA, nominate them as president!

If you know with good organisational skills, nominate them as secretary!

DEADLINE: 16/12/2026

HERE IS THE FORM 👇

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

EHBEACommitteeNominationForm_Pres_Sec.doc

EHBEA Committee 2026-2029: Nomination Form The EHBEA Steering Committee is calling for nominations for the following open committee positions for 2026-2029. You are invited to nominate one or more c...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Nico Schuck @nicoschuck.bsky.social · 3d

I am gonna take the option where I get more time to read, understand and write. maybe that AI can go to committee meetings for me?

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Elham Nourani @enourani.bsky.social · 5d

🦅PhD position 🦅 in my new group at @fbm-unil.bsky.social in Switzerland, studying how the social and resource landscapes shape the learning process for soaring flight. Deadline: Oct 30. Pls repost! career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...

Golden eagle on the nest in Finland (by O. Karlin)

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

ESLR @eslr.bsky.social · 9d

📢🚀 Are you an early-career researcher working on anything related to culture, behaviour or learning? 🧠🌍 Join ESLR, an interdisciplinary research community! We have a NEW website and our membership is now FREE. 👉 Sign up here to get updates and become a member: www.eslrsociety.com/membership

ESLR | Membership

www.eslrsociety.com

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Haneul Jang @haneuljang.bsky.social · 10d

Finally in my hands! A new book from @mgurven.bsky.social on why we age, and how we can age better, through the lens of evolutionary anthropology💙 Very excited to dive in!

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Ruben C. Arslan @ruben.the100.ci · 12d

Our fragmentation paper is now finally out! I put some of the dumb quips that didn't make the cut in the alt texts.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

A fragmented field. If we conceive of the constructs and concepts studied in behavioral science as a map, we would find that it is highly fragmented and directions are hard to come by. Scientists can hardly stand on each others' shoulders if they cannot manage to meet on common ground.

Fragmentation has worsened, not decreased, as the field has grown. Partly, this happens because we have too many reverse Columbuses, who, in search of prestige, set out to find a new continent, but just end up renaming India. But partly, we face a real, solvable search problem when trying to connect our fuzzy constructs and flexible measures.

Most measures are used only once. To be clear, we do not want to prevent or reduce refinements of existing constructs and measures. Revisions, translations, and other refinements can contribute to a more coherent, organized literature and improve measurement. We are most concerned with the measures conceived with limited planning and released into the literature without much commitment or much of a life expectancy. In ontologies, these are sometimes referred to as “orphan nodes.”

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 12d

COSMOS2025 kick started!! And we’ve got the generous support from #ESLR community for the ESLR travel award!! Join ESLR if you are interested in social learning, cultural evolution, collective behaviour, and beyond!!

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Bret Beheim @babeheim.bsky.social · 24d

How to quantify the impact of AI on long-run cultural evolution? Published today, I give it a go!

400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!

Miyagawa Shuntei's 1898 painting, "Playing Go (Japanese Chess)"

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Haneul Jang @haneuljang.bsky.social · 27d

💙New paper!💙

How is knowledge transmitted across generations in a foraging society?

With @danielredhead.bsky.social
we found: In BaYaka foragers, long-term skills pass in smaller, sparser networks, while short-term food info circulates broadly & reciprocally

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Transmission networks of long-term and short-term knowledge in a foraging society

Abstract. Cultural transmission across generations is key to cumulative cultural evolution. While several mechanisms—such as vertical, horizontal, and obli

academic.oup.com

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Dominik Deffner @dominikdeffner.bsky.social · 29d

Unfortunate I'm not based in Berlin anymore, but still looking forward to seeing what you're up to :) Have a great start!

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Marina Papadopoulou @marinapapa.bsky.social · 29d

After a very fun summer (👇), some personal updates: I am moving to @mpib-berlin.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social in Berlin next month with a Humboldt Fellowship @humboldt-foundation.de to join @ralfkurvers.bsky.social for some exciting collective decision-making work😁🐟🚶‍♀️

Any Berlin/DE tips welcome!

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Felix W. Moll @mollfw.bsky.social · Sep 11

New paper on precise tool use learning in carrion crows @currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that—like New Caledonian crows—expert carrion crows pay close attention to the working end of their tool, suggesting tool integration into their peripersonal space. 🧵 & vids! 👇

www.cell.com/current-biol...

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Sheina Lew-Levy @sheinalew.bsky.social · Sep 11

@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!

3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution

2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.

Please share and apply!

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

Fees and Funding - Durham University

www.durham.ac.uk

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦 @sobchuk.bsky.social · Sep 4

Great news from the @erc.europa.eu today: I received an ERC Starting Grant to study the cultural evolution of literature 🔥

www.eva.mpg.de/press/news/a...

Charting the evolution of European literature

Oleg Sobchuk has received an ERC Starting Grant to study 200 years of European literary evolution

www.eva.mpg.de

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) @improvingpsych.org · Aug 30

PsyArXiv is now down to only ~40% of the backlog we started with, thanks to our amazing moderators 🎉 To all mods: thank you so much for your hard work!

Did one of your preprints get approved recently? Help us show our thanks by liking and sharing this post :)

#PsyArXiv #PsychSciSky

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · Aug 25

Ever stared at a table of regression coefficients & wondered what you're doing with your life?

Very excited to share this gentle introduction to another way of making sense of statistical models (w @vincentab.bsky.social)
Preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Website: j-rohrer.github.io/marginal-psy...

Models as Prediction Machines: How to Convert Confusing Coefficients into Clear Quantities

Abstract
Psychological researchers usually make sense of regression models by interpreting coefficient estimates directly. This works well enough for simple linear models, but is more challenging for more complex models with, for example, categorical variables, interactions, non-linearities, and hierarchical structures. Here, we introduce an alternative approach to making sense of statistical models. The central idea is to abstract away from the mechanics of estimation, and to treat models as “counterfactual prediction machines,” which are subsequently queried to estimate quantities and conduct tests that matter substantively. This workflow is model-agnostic; it can be applied in a consistent fashion to draw causal or descriptive inference from a wide range of models. We illustrate how to implement this workflow with the marginaleffects package, which supports over 100 different classes of models in R and Python, and present two worked examples. These examples show how the workflow can be applied across designs (e.g., observational study, randomized experiment) to answer different research questions (e.g., associations, causal effects, effect heterogeneity) while facing various challenges (e.g., controlling for confounders in a flexible manner, modelling ordinal outcomes, and interpreting non-linear models).

Figure illustrating model predictions. On the X-axis the predictor, annual gross income in Euro. On the Y-axis the outcome, predicted life satisfaction. A solid line marks the curve of predictions on which individual data points are marked as model-implied outcomes at incomes of interest. Comparing two such predictions gives us a comparison. We can also fit a tangent to the line of predictions, which illustrates the slope at any given point of the curve.

A figure illustrating various ways to include age as a predictor in a model. On the x-axis age (predictor), on the y-axis the outcome (model-implied importance of friends, including confidence intervals).

Illustrated are
1. age as a categorical predictor, resultings in the predictions bouncing around a lot with wide confidence intervals
2. age as a linear predictor, which forces a straight line through the data points that has a very tight confidence band and
3. age splines, which lies somewhere in between as it smoothly follows the data but has more uncertainty than the straight line.

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

ESLR @eslr.bsky.social · Aug 18

ESLR is currently undergoing a transition, and a new committee (@alexschakowski.bsky.social, @ahnisnaahsi.bsky.social, @katebonner.bsky.social, @lucahahn.bsky.social, @mariapykala.bsky.social) is working on reinstating its presence and shaping its future. Please feel free to get in touch!

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Dr. Joan Dudney @dudney-joan.bsky.social · Aug 14

Really excited to share our new paper on #causalinference & #climatechange attribution out in #EcologyLetters today!

Are you asking "how much" or "if" climate change has impacted your system, then this paper is for you!

🧪🌏🌐🍁🌺🌱🌿
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A Causal Inference Framework for Climate Change Attribution in Ecology

Accurately attributing ecological shifts to climate change remains a significant challenge. Here, we present an accessible causal inference framework designed for climate change attribution in observ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Kevin Lala @kevinlala.bsky.social · Aug 13

I'm pleased to share this new article by @svenkasser.bsky.social, Laura Fortunato @anthrolog.bsky.social, Marc Feldman and myself.

The article extends gene-culture coevolution to recognize evolutionary effects of culture arising through drift and migration.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Emma E.M. Stewart @eemstewart.bsky.social · Aug 12

Eye movements are cheap, right? Not necessarily! 💰 In our review just out in @natrevpsychol.nature.com, Alex Schütz and I discuss the different costs associated with making an eye movement, how these costs affect behaviour, and the challenges of measuring this… rdcu.be/eAm69 #visionscience #vision

A review of the costs of eye movements

Nature Reviews Psychology - Eye movements are the most frequent movements that humans make. In this Review, Schütz and Stewart integrate evidence regarding the costs of eye movements and...

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Prof. Gillian Brown @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social · Aug 8

🚨 New, short article by myself, Clark Barrett and @kevinlala.bsky.social on the legacy of Wilson's 'Sociobiology: The New Synthesis', which was published 50 years ago.

@science.org #ehbea #histbiol #evobio #psyscisky

Revisiting the human sociobiology debate |Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Revisiting the human sociobiology debate

What have we learned 50 years on?

www.science.org

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Reposted by Dominik Deffner

Jordan S. Martin @jsmartin.bsky.social · Aug 7

Hot on the tail of our Tsimane IGE study comes the theory paper that motivated it! What are the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social plasticity in dynamic environments? See our new Functional Ecology paper to find out more

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Frequency dependence favours social plasticity and facilitates socio‐eco‐evolutionary feedback in fluctuating environments

Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Dominik Deffner @dominikdeffner.bsky.social · Aug 7

I did something similar here. Although, in this experiment, there was a fixed set of items in the beginning and I was analysing how far along the chain they would be transmitted
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Copying fidelity of functional and non-functional features in ni-Vanuatu children: A transmission chain study

Observational learning plays a key role in cultural transmission. Previous transmission chain experiments have shown that children are able to maintain information across multiple generations through ...

journals.plos.org

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Dominik Deffner @dominikdeffner.bsky.social · Aug 7

Hm, maybe you could do some sort of "survival model" modeling how likely a given item is to be transmitted to the next generation depending on the position in the chain, the condition and features of the item?! The end results of the chain them emerges from transition probabilities.

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