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Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

NCCR Evolving Language @nccrlanguage.bsky.social · Aug 25

Only 3 days left to register for the Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning X-PPL 2025! The event will take place on the 1st and 2nd of September in Zurich.

@isle-uzh.bsky.social

www.isle.uzh.ch/en/events/x-...

Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning 1st - 2nd September 2025 | X-PPL 2025

www.isle.uzh.ch

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Jul 2

We discuss possible interpretations of these findings, from attentional difficulties with the task, to the possibility that fast mapping evolved in humans since the split from a common ape ancestor.

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Jul 2

Using eye tracking, we find no evidence of fast mapping - the ability to rapidly associate a sound with an object, and a key component of language acquisition - in gorillas and orangutans, in contrast to humans.

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Jul 2

New paper out on hominid fast mapping, led by Dahliane Labertoniere, with Carla Pascual-Guardia, Katrin Skoruppa & @zuberbuehler.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/3kkzkjnk

Fast mapping in hominids

tinyurl.com

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Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

Caroline Andrews @candrewsvl.bsky.social · May 6

Our new paper on animacy effects in Basque comprehension is out! It's been fun shepherding this paper for the last couple years. Congratulations to all the authors, but especially Aitor Ergurtzegi on publishing the last paper of his PhD! link.springer.com/article/10.3...

The effect of animacy on the agent preference: Self-paced reading evidence from Basque - Memory & Cognition

Language processing shows a tendency to prefer agents over other roles. For instance, when initial unmarked noun phrases (NPs) are ambiguous between agent and patient roles, there is a preference to i...

link.springer.com

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Mar 5

Pregnant ladies, we need you! Please take ten minutes to fill out our short survey on maternal wellbeing.

Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Feb 13

Re-sharing this: it would be great to get some more participants before data collection closes!

Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Dec 20

A student of mine is studying maternal wellbeing in people with and without pets. We're recruiting women who are either pregnant or up to nine months postpartum. Please share! app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/hull/petow...

Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

Shoko Sugasawa @shokosugasawa.bsky.social · Feb 24

🚨Fully-funded PhD studentship on insect behaviour, cognition & muscles with me & @viveknityananda.bsky.social at @newcastleuni.bsky.social 🐝🍀🎓🙌Application deadline April 30, start date in September. Drop me an email if you have questions! www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Image of a PhD position advert entitled "PhD studentship in Brain, Brawn, and Bugs: cognitive and physical factors of insect dexterity" with images of a praying mantis and a bumblebee foraging.

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Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

Marlen Fröhlich @marlenfroehlich.bsky.social · Feb 19

🚨Come work with us in charming Tübingen and become a member of our growing Freigeist group! We offer a 2-year postdoc position on the communicative plasticity in wild and captive bonobos, fully funded by @volkswagenstiftung.bsky.social. Applications open until March 15th. bit.ly/4gVa5Je

Postdoctoral Researcher (f/m/d, E13 TV-L, 100%)

bit.ly

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Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

Alexandra Rosati @alexrosati.bsky.social · Feb 19

We are hiring! We have an open position for a new lab coordinator in #primate #cognition and #behavior in the Cognitive Evolution Group at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Find out more at: sites.lsa.umich.edu/cognitive-ev...

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Feb 18

A French version is also available: forms.gle/REAPyosimSgn...

Enquête sur le Bien-être Équin pour les Acteurs du Secteur Équin

Merci de prendre le temps de répondre à cette enquête ! Votre participation nous aidera à mieux comprendre votre expérience avec les chevaux et votre point de vue sur un outil que nous souhaiterions d...

forms.gle

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Feb 18

We're looking for equine stakeholders (horse owners, breeders, stable managers, vets etc) to fill in this short survey, to help us assess feasibility of a possible horse welfare tool. Please share! shorturl.at/PIG2s

Stakeholder Equine Choice Survey

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey! Your input will help us understand your experience with horses and your perspective on a proposed welfare tool that provides horses with social c...

shorturl.at

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Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

NCCR Evolving Language @nccrlanguage.bsky.social · Feb 13

📢 Join the 7th annual meeting of the Society for the Cognitive Science of Culture ( #SCSC ) on the 28-29th of April at the University of #Zurich! Registration and abstract submission are now open until the 28th of February.

More information:
culturalcogsci.org/AnnualMeetin...

7th annual meeting of the Society for the Cognitive Science of Culture (SCSC). Registration and abstract submission now opened!

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Feb 13

Re-sharing this: it would be great to get some more participants before data collection closes!

Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Dec 20

A student of mine is studying maternal wellbeing in people with and without pets. We're recruiting women who are either pregnant or up to nine months postpartum. Please share! app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/hull/petow...

Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

Andy Radford @andyradford.bsky.social · Jan 7

🌟JOB ALERT🌟
We're hiring lecturers/senior lecturers @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Themes: ‘Evolution of life’, ‘Anthropogenic change’, ‘Reversing the biodiversity crisis’ & ‘Sustainable food production’
That very much includes #AnimalBehaviour

Deadline: 24th Jan 2025

bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

Details | Working at Bristol | University of Bristol

bristol.ac.uk

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Dec 20

I hope you measured his face 😆

Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Dec 20

A student of mine is studying maternal wellbeing in people with and without pets. We're recruiting women who are either pregnant or up to nine months postpartum. Please share! app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/hull/petow...

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Dec 13

Insightful and depressing statistics from Tatsuya Amano on the negative impact of being a non-native English speaker on publication output.

ASAB @asab.org · Dec 13

Final plenary by @tatsuya-amano.bsky.social concerning the language barriers in science. The hurdles for non-native English speakers are significant! #ASABWinter2024

Also, our congratulations to Tatsuya for winning the @britishecolsoc.bsky.social Equality and Diversity Champion award this week!

Tatsuya in front of a slide showing a runners race track titled “Language barriers to the generation of evidence by non-native speakers” Text reads :50% of non-native English speakers often decide not to give an oral presentation; 30% of non-native English speakers often decide not to attend a conference;
Presentation Need 94% more time to prepare and practice; Paper revision Frequency of language related revision is 12.5 times higher; Non-native Ask someone to edit their English for 75% or more of their papers; Values are for those with one publication
Reading Need 91% more time to read a paper; Writing Need 51% more time to write a paper;
Paper rejection Frequency of language related rejection is 2.6 times higher
Amano et al (2023) PLOS Biology

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Dec 7

Our work on ape event cognition and the evolution of language is featured in The Conversation theconversation.com/how-primate-...

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Nov 29

Initial agency detection in scenes depicting inanimate patients is clearly quicker than in social interactions. It makes sense, since an animate person has a much higher chance of being an agent than an inanimate object.

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Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

NCCR Evolving Language @nccrlanguage.bsky.social · Nov 27

📰🐒According to a study by Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social and team, humans and apes alternate attention between the two subjects when observing someone interact with something. Learn more in the article from PLOS Biology, in DE, FR and EN on our website.

evolvinglanguage.ch/great-apes-t...

Great apes visually track subject-object relationships like humans do - NCCR Evolving Language

When observing someone interact with something, humans and apes alternate attention between the two subjects. Great apes track events with their eyes in the same way that humans do, according to a st...

evolvinglanguage.ch

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Nov 27

To add: I wouldn't exactly caution against the use of static stimuli to study event apprehension. I think it's jsut important to note that different approaches require different respones from participants, and this produces different results.

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Nov 27

Thanks Denis! Actions involving food were varied - some involved eating, others involved nut cracking or carrying food - so I don't think there's a consistent difference in goal-directed behaviour amongst those scenes that could differentiate them from non-food scenes.

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Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

Sebastian Sauppe @sebastiansauppe.bsky.social · Nov 27

In our new paper 📝 @plos.bsky.social PLOS Biology, we use #eyetracking to study how great apes understand who-does-what-to-whom — surprisingly similar to human adults! Thus suggests that the event cognition basis for language was present in our common ancestor. ➡️ journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

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Reposted by Vanessa Wilson

Moritz M. Daum @moritzdaum.bsky.social · Nov 27

#PaperAlert: Is there a pre-linguistic basis for event role attribution? @vd0ubleu.bsky.social from the @nccrlanguage.bsky.social and colleagues from the @kweltentdeckende.bsky.social lab just published a study in PLOS Biology on this question: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Humans and great apes visually track event roles in similar ways

Are only humans capable of tracking agent/patient roles during events, a cognitive foundation of syntax? This study shows that great apes, like human adults but unlike infants, differentiate agents fr...

journals.plos.org

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Vanessa Wilson @vd0ubleu.bsky.social · Nov 26

With @sebastiansauppe.bsky.social, @err-ring.bsky.social, @moritzdaum.bsky.social, @candrewsvl.bsky.social, @balthasarbickel.bsky.social, @zuberbuehler.bsky.social, @nccrlanguage.bsky.social, @cogcompneuch.bsky.social

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