Vanessa Wilson
@vd0ubleu.bsky.social
Researcher in comparative social cognition and individual differences. Lecturer in Psychology, University of Hull. Primarily but not exclusively primates.
New study out lead by @sarahbrocard.bsky.social: we found that chimpanzees and humans share similar sensitivity to prosocial behaviour, suggesting that species differences in prosociality are not grounded in ability to recognise actions, but in how they act on them. @cogcompneuch.bsky.social
🚨 New paper out!
Using a touchscreen task, we explored how humans and chimpanzees perceive social interactions by comparing their responses to prosocial, neutral, and antisocial interactions.
Check out more on 👉 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
Using a touchscreen task, we explored how humans and chimpanzees perceive social interactions by comparing their responses to prosocial, neutral, and antisocial interactions.
Check out more on 👉 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
The perception of prosocial agents by chimpanzees and humans | Royal Society Open Science
The human propensity for prosocial behaviour has no equal, not even in our closest
living relatives, the chimpanzees. However, it remains unclear whether this difference
is grounded in the sheer perce...
doi.org
November 12, 2025 at 8:53 AM
New study out lead by @sarahbrocard.bsky.social: we found that chimpanzees and humans share similar sensitivity to prosocial behaviour, suggesting that species differences in prosociality are not grounded in ability to recognise actions, but in how they act on them. @cogcompneuch.bsky.social
It's been great to be a part of such a large scale collaborative project. A big thanks to Basel Zoo for letting us work with their birds! @cogcompneuch.bsky.social
🐦 Exciting news! Our new paper is out in PLOS Biology:
“A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia.”
Led by the #ManyBirds Project - 129 researchers, 82 institutions, 24 countries 🌍
🔗 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
@themanybirds.bsky.social
“A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia.”
Led by the #ManyBirds Project - 129 researchers, 82 institutions, 24 countries 🌍
🔗 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
@themanybirds.bsky.social
A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia
Neophobia (the aversive response to novelty) varies considerably across species and individuals, and can impact adaptability and survival. This study assesses neophobia in 1400 subjects from 136 bird ...
journals.plos.org
October 15, 2025 at 8:41 AM
It's been great to be a part of such a large scale collaborative project. A big thanks to Basel Zoo for letting us work with their birds! @cogcompneuch.bsky.social
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
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-...
@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
August 25, 2025 at 10:47 AM
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-...
@isle-uzh.bsky.social
www.isle.uzh.ch/en/events/x-...
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
July 2, 2025 at 6:37 PM
New paper out on hominid fast mapping, led by Dahliane Labertoniere, with Carla Pascual-Guardia, Katrin Skoruppa & @zuberbuehler.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/3kkzkjnk
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
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
May 6, 2025 at 8:16 PM
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...
Pregnant ladies, we need you! Please take ten minutes to fill out our short survey on maternal wellbeing.
Re-sharing this: it would be great to get some more participants before data collection closes!
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...
March 5, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Pregnant ladies, we need you! Please take ten minutes to fill out our short survey on maternal wellbeing.
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
🚨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...
February 24, 2025 at 2:49 PM
🚨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...
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
🚨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
February 19, 2025 at 9:04 AM
🚨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
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
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...
February 19, 2025 at 5:28 PM
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...
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
February 18, 2025 at 10:18 AM
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
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
📢 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...
More information:
culturalcogsci.org/AnnualMeetin...
February 13, 2025 at 6:28 PM
📢 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...
More information:
culturalcogsci.org/AnnualMeetin...
Re-sharing this: it would be great to get some more participants before data collection closes!
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...
February 13, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Re-sharing this: it would be great to get some more participants before data collection closes!
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
🌟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...
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
January 7, 2025 at 6:30 PM
🌟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...
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...
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...
December 20, 2024 at 8:20 PM
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...
Insightful and depressing statistics from Tatsuya Amano on the negative impact of being a non-native English speaker on publication output.
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!
Also, our congratulations to Tatsuya for winning the @britishecolsoc.bsky.social Equality and Diversity Champion award this week!
December 13, 2024 at 10:25 AM
Insightful and depressing statistics from Tatsuya Amano on the negative impact of being a non-native English speaker on publication output.
Our work on ape event cognition and the evolution of language is featured in The Conversation theconversation.com/how-primate-...
December 7, 2024 at 9:17 AM
Our work on ape event cognition and the evolution of language is featured in The Conversation theconversation.com/how-primate-...
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
📰🐒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...
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
November 27, 2024 at 9:02 AM
📰🐒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...
evolvinglanguage.ch/great-apes-t...
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
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/...
November 27, 2024 at 6:25 PM
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/...
Reposted by Vanessa Wilson
#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
November 27, 2024 at 8:31 PM
#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/...
Hot off the press! Is there a pre-linguistic basis for event role attribution? In our new paper out in PLoS Biology, we take a comparative eye tracking approach to explore temporal gaze distribution to agents and patients in dyadic interactions tinyurl.com/mryk7kmb
November 26, 2024 at 8:35 PM
Hot off the press! Is there a pre-linguistic basis for event role attribution? In our new paper out in PLoS Biology, we take a comparative eye tracking approach to explore temporal gaze distribution to agents and patients in dyadic interactions tinyurl.com/mryk7kmb
It feels great to have been part of such a large collaborative effort. Very much looking forward to seeing what comes next.
We are delighted to announce that ManyBirds Study 1 “Evolutionary drivers of neophobia across the avian clade” is now available in pre-print: doi.org/10.31219/osf... and been submitted for peer-review publication. 1/
November 26, 2024 at 2:25 PM
It feels great to have been part of such a large collaborative effort. Very much looking forward to seeing what comes next.