Emma Suvi McEwen
@emmasmcewen.bsky.social
870 followers 830 following 20 posts
Post-doc @uniofstandrews.bsky.social studying primate cognition | Virtual environments, metacognition, cognitive control, cooperation | @cardiffuni grad | She/her 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇫🇮🌈
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Reposted by Emma Suvi McEwen
rebeccakoomen.bsky.social
🎊Fully funded PhD position on cooperative sustainability🌳

Are you curious about
🧒 developmental,
🌍 cross-cultural
🦧 species comparative
research on cooperative sustainability?

All info here or dm me with questions!
career2.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/job...
Please share! 🙏
Career Opportunities: PhD position Cooperative Sustainability (14208)
career2.successfactors.eu
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
Huge thanks to keeper and research team @edinburghzoo.bsky.social for their support on this project! (4/4)
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
We discuss our results in the context of chimpanzee communication during social tasks and the parameters that do and do not constitute coordination from the subjects' perspective (3/4)
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
Chimpanzees reliably produced communication behaviours in the event of a breakdown in coordination and differed qualitatively in their operation of our see-saw apparatus depending on whether they learned it in a social or non-social setting. (2/4)
Reposted by Emma Suvi McEwen
chriskrupenye.bsky.social
🚨RT!

The Social & Cognitive Origins group at @jhuartssciences.bsky.social (social-cognitive-origins.com), directed by Dr. Christopher Krupenye, is recruiting a full-time research assistant or lab manager to begin Summer 2025. The position has a one-year minimum, w/ the possibility of extension. 1/
The Social & Cognitive Origins Group at Johns Hopkins University studies how humans and other animals think. The Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University in full spring bloom.
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
Very happy to announce that our latest paper from our virtual environment work with chimpanzees, looking at efficient turning behaviour, is out now, fully #openaccess! More details in this thread from @realprimatthias.bsky.social about this study led by Sarah Koopman 👇
realprimatthias.bsky.social
🦍🖥️New paper on great apes in virtual environments: Chimpanzee Turning Behavior During Spatial Navigation in Virtual Environments (animalbehaviorandcognition.org/article.php?id=1390). Led by Sarah Koopman, we went back to basics and asked a simple question about object permanence and optical flow.
Reposted by Emma Suvi McEwen
zewaldj.bsky.social
Do you like to dip your fries in ketchup before eating it? Our cockatoos do too! In a new study in Current Biology, we showed our cockatoos innovated a new way to flavour their food: they dunk noodles in blueberry soy yoghurt. Read about it and watch our video abstract: www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Emma Suvi McEwen
abcmicrogrants.bsky.social
We’re excited to open the first round of microgrants for the year! More info on requirements at
🔽
linktr.ee/animalbehavi...
The 1st Round of Microgrants 2025 is NOW OPEN! Applications close on February 24th. More info on requirements at https://linktr.ee/animalbehaviourcollective
Reposted by Emma Suvi McEwen
sophiemilward.bsky.social
You can now apply for our 3 year postdoc looking at the role of culture and group size in social coordination and collaboration in the UK, Uganda and Republic of Korea!

Any questions please don’t hesitate to drop me a dm or email ([email protected])

mss.port.ac.uk/ce0732li_web...
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mss.port.ac.uk
Reposted by Emma Suvi McEwen
divintelligence.bsky.social
DISI folks, we've made a starter pack of alums and past faculty so it's easier to find everyone here. Enjoy!

And do tell us if you'd like to be added!

go.bsky.app/AyYDTHa
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🤝 This work was of course a group effort, and I’d like to thank all of my co-authors for their help along the way: @realprimatthias.bsky.social, Josep Call, Sarah Koopman, Emilie Rapport Munro, Cristóbal Bottero Cantuarias, Charlie Menzel, Francine Dolins, Karline Janmaat, and Ken Schweller
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🐒 Since starting this work, our training protocol has been used with more great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas) across several zoos, as well as the Capuchin monkeys in Edinburgh Zoo (watch this space to see how they’ve been getting on with @amiscov.bsky.social and Amanda Seed)
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🐶 We hope that others can use our training protocol to implement virtual environment research with more individuals and across more species, and we encourage using and adapting our flexible yet structured method
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🏞️ We've already seen that virtual environments can be used to study spatial cognition in great apes (www.science.org/doi/full/10....), and we think that much more can be done with this technology
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🎮 There's still a lot we don't know about how these virtual worlds are represented by non-human primates, but training the basic gameplay mechanisms is the first step towards investigating this and other cognitive phenomena!
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🦧 We developed this method while working with some experienced chimpanzees, orang-utans with no prior experience with touchscreens, and chimpanzees in a group setting, each presenting their own training challenges!
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🍎 Co-led by @realprimatthias.bsky.social, we present our touchscreen training method using the freely available APExplorer software for #chimpanzees and #orangutans to learn to navigate virtual environments and ‘collect’ virtual fruit, in Zoo Leipzig/MPI-EVA WKPRC and @edinburghzoo.bsky.social/BRU
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🌳 I’m excited to announce that we have published our paper outlining our protocol for training primates to forage in virtual environments! Out now #openaccess

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A screenshot from the virtual environment foraging game. The scene shows green grass with a grey stone wall in the background, two trees, a rock, and six pieces of virtual fruit (apples, grapes, and bananas)
Reposted by Emma Suvi McEwen
wlallen.bsky.social
🐵📢 I am recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to work for 6-months on our NSF-BBSRC project investigating the form and function of primate natal coats. Why are some🐒 babies🍊?!

www.swansea.ac.uk/jobs-at-swan...

Please pass on to potential applicants and get in touch if considering applying.
Dusky langurs - an example of primate natal colouration
Reposted by Emma Suvi McEwen
manyprimates.bsky.social
🚨 Exciting news! The ManyPrimates3 project is now open for data collection! In MP3, we will assess the ability of primates to make inferences by exclusion. Join us to explore primate cognition and promote large scale collaboration!
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🐧 Extra special thanks to @rzss keepers who collaborated with me on this project! (5/5)
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
🧠 Humans and chimpanzees may share common cognitive mechanisms or predispositions that support social/joint interactions. (4/5)
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
☕In humans, this sort of action accommodation is an important part of how we interact smoothly; like passing someone a cup of coffee to their free hand! (3/5)
emmasmcewen.bsky.social
Across a series of experiments in Leipzig Zoo and
@rzss Edinburgh Zoo, in our #OpenAccess article out now in
@CognitionJourn, #chimpanzees passed a tool to an experimenter in a way that accommodated the experimenter’s action constraints (2/5)