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Matthias Allritz

@realprimatthias

Studies great ape cognition and behavior at Leipzig Zoo. Themes: metacognition, communication, spatial cognition. ManyPrimates 3 - Inference by exclusion.

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24.08.2023
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Latest posts by Matthias Allritz @realprimatthias

Set-up of experiment 2. The tool giver was placed in enclosure 3 (middle), whereas the tool recipient was placed in enclosure 4 (right). The illustration depicts the configuration in which the social and nonsocial apparatuses for both individuals were baited with high-value rewards.

Set-up of experiment 2. The tool giver was placed in enclosure 3 (middle), whereas the tool recipient was placed in enclosure 4 (right). The illustration depicts the configuration in which the social and nonsocial apparatuses for both individuals were baited with high-value rewards.

Far too long in the making.. but finally out in #AnimalBehaviour @asab.org:
Orang-utans and chimpanzees #cooperate strategically based on the partner’s incentives.
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
w/ @elisafelsche.bsky.social , Josep Call & @federicorossano.bsky.social

06.03.2026 09:06 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

πŸ“Ί Watch this space: PhD position in children's collaborative problem-solving with @nicolacutting.bsky.social and myself to be advertised very soon! The application deadline will be in late March, so get in contact if you want to know more.

02.03.2026 17:44 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ“’ Calling all primatologists πŸ“’

EFP2026 in Montpellier is now open for abstracts & registration!

πŸ—“ Deadline for abstract : 13 March 2026 (before if mobility grant application)

Submit: www.alphavisa.com/efp/2026/abs...

Register: www.alphavisa.com/efp/2026/reg...

All abstracts will be accepted!

09.12.2025 16:08 πŸ‘ 32 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 3
Screenshot from a manuscript submission portal. Text reads: "If your study is a clinical trial, have you submitted your protocol to an open access database?". Response options are "Yes" and "No".

Screenshot from a manuscript submission portal. Text reads: "If your study is a clinical trial, have you submitted your protocol to an open access database?". Response options are "Yes" and "No".

This one had me hesitate for a minute or two the other day (the submission was not a clinical trial).

27.02.2026 12:03 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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PhD fellow in Child Development (294946) | UiT The Arctic University of Norway Job title: PhD fellow in Child Development (294946), Employer: UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Deadline: Friday, March 13, 2026

My colleague Monika Abels (not on bsky) is recruiting a PhD student to work on her cross-cultural project.
Details and contacts in the add.
Please share widely with candidates interested in living in the Norwegian arctic & doing research with small-scale societies.
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

23.02.2026 19:30 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Postdoc Position in Animal Behaviour Does intergroup conflict shape intragroup (parochial) prosociality in primates? If so, what behavioural, neuroendocrine, and (epi)genetic mechanisms drive it.

#Postdoc #Job opportunity in #AnimalBehaviour with Jorg Massen at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social. Check out the position here: www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

20.02.2026 17:24 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 37 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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PhD Studentship: Social Learning of Metacognition and Awareness at Birkbeck, University of London jobs.ac.uk now advertising a PhD Studentship: Social Learning of Metacognition and Awareness Visit jobs.ac.uk to apply and to browse more PhD opportunities.

I've got a fully-funded PhD studentship open at @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social, investigating social learning about metacognition & awareness, w/ behavioural studies & neuroimaging (fMRI) - thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk

More details here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPV831/p...

#cogsci #neuroskyence

16.12.2025 19:08 πŸ‘ 44 πŸ” 54 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 3
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An LLM-backed "socratic tutor" to replace reading responses Blog about fatherhood, langauge, developmental psychology, and cognitive science.

New blogpost about a teaching experiment I'm doing this quarter: a "socratic tutor" bot to help students gain understanding of specific reading assignments.

babieslearninglanguage.blogspot.com/2026/02/an-l...

16.02.2026 19:23 πŸ‘ 27 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Powered by MHR

We are recruiting a Lecturer in Psychology: mss.port.ac.uk/ce0732li_web... and a Teaching Fellow: mss.port.ac.uk/ce0732li_web.... Come and join the Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology πŸΆπŸ΅πŸ΄πŸ˜πŸ•·οΈπŸ§’ www.port.ac.uk/research/res...

16.02.2026 09:37 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 21 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

🌞

14.02.2026 14:12 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I don’t know who needs to hear this but philosophy of animal minds is an actual field, and if you have an β€œidea” about animal minds that you want to publish you need to engage with the literature. Same with animal ethics. Signed: a frustrated reviewer.

12.02.2026 08:45 πŸ‘ 47 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 1
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Lecturer in Psychology at York St John University Searching for an academic job? Explore this Lecturer in Psychology opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.

We're looking for a lecturer in Developmental Psychology to join us at YSJ on a 12 month contract. Get in touch if you have any questions: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQL260/l...

10.02.2026 18:45 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This study was an amazing collaborative experience. I'm really really grateful to all the wonderful people who contributed and made this happen.

It's the closest I have ever come to finding something like a "universal" in human cognition.

09.02.2026 12:32 πŸ‘ 39 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 0

#MSCA success rates now below 10%, yet the work that goes into writing this application is immense. Beyond the obvious increase in funding we need to find ways to lighten the time investment as well. Thousands of researchers spend weeks if not months working on this.

10.02.2026 07:19 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2
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Does playful teasing help great apes learn about social relationships? Abstract. Understanding social relationships is critical to succeeding in primate societies. In species with complex social networks (including humans), co

Great apes may use playful teasing to learn about their social relationships. In a new paper, Erica Cartmill & I propose a bond-testing hypothesis for ape teasing. Out today in Phil Trans Biology: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

06.02.2026 18:37 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Overcoming the dyadic default in research on child development Abstract. Researchers conducting experimental work on sociocognitive development in childhood typically study one-on-one interactions. This approach aligns

Our new paper on overcoming the β€˜dyadic default’ is out now in Child Development Perspectives!
@patkanngiesser.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/cdpers/advan...

29.01.2026 10:02 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Chimpanzee groups achieve sustainable resource use in a common-pool resource dilemma Communications Psychology - Groups of two or four chimpanzees encountered a collective resource sustainability problem. Quartets avoided resource collapse for longer than dyads, with group social...

Excited to share this work done with @alex-primate.bsky.social and Daniel Haun @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social (the first publication from my PhD!), where we found that chimpanzees sustained a collective resource for longer in groups of four compared to dyads rdcu.be/e0qPR

23.01.2026 14:13 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
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New paper outπŸ‘‚πŸ“’πŸ’! We highlight the remarkable expertise of local field assistants at BCFS (Uganda) in interpreting chimpanzee pant-hoot callsβ€”identifying who is calling, their age, sex, and contextβ€”revealing scientific knowledge built through years of experience. doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

21.01.2026 08:53 πŸ‘ 27 πŸ” 15 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Peer Review is broken because a generation of Editors were trained that peer review is sacrosanct. Thus we have Editors who are clerks, sending and re-sending manuscripts to reviewers until they are happy. That's not the job. Be an Editor, not a clerk. Use your skill and judgement. Make decisions.

14.01.2026 19:59 πŸ‘ 148 πŸ” 48 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 9

Fully funded PhD project available at Nottingham Trent University. Linked to a BBSRC funded grant, this project will investigate how primates perceive and respond to infants, combining cutting-edge cognitive testing with behavioural data. See 🧡

05.01.2026 12:20 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

Comparative Thanatology Highlights β€” 2025 Edition.
See the thread below for this year’s standout publications.

#comparativethanatology

09.12.2025 11:29 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at leastβ€”AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagementβ€”you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite

19.12.2025 19:01 πŸ‘ 1917 πŸ” 549 πŸ’¬ 32 πŸ“Œ 47

New #openaccess paper out now looking at social presence effects during cognitive testing with #chimpanzees, with @aurelfrick.bsky.social and Amanda Seed! This is an important finding for zoo-based projects where visitors can watch and learn about our research. Read more here πŸ‘‡

04.12.2025 09:19 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Chimpanzees’ working memory is not affected by the presence and activity of zoo visitors - Animal Cognition Animal Cognition - Cognitive research in non-human primates is increasingly conducted in zoos, where zoo visitors are likely to be present and observe the testing sessions. Previous zoo research...

Our paper (with @emmasmcewen.bsky.social and Amanda Seed) on the effects of visitor presence on chimpanzees’ working memory is out.

This research was supported by a @leverhulme.ac.uk Early Career Fellowship and could not have been done without the help of @edinburghzoo.bsky.social staff!

03.12.2025 13:27 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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Number of β€˜unsafe’ publications by psychologist Hans Eysenck could be β€˜high and far reaching’ Hans Eysenck A β€œhigh and far reaching” number of papers and books by Hans Eysenck could be β€œunsafe,” according to an updated statement from King’s College London, where the psychologist was a profe…

Diederik Stapel was a massive watershed moment in psychology.

However, he was -- and let's be slightly glib here -- some guy from The Netherlands who wrote social psychology papers.

The full accounting of the Eysenck case is approx, at minimum, TWO STAPELS.

retractionwatch.com/2025/12/03/n...

03.12.2025 17:34 πŸ‘ 109 πŸ” 69 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 22
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I am pleased to announce that from Jan 1 2026 I take over as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biological Theory. My first act, with the support of the editorial team, is to bring the journal to BlueSky from X.

Please follow us @biologicaltheory.bsky.social. We will be posting about all our articles.

03.12.2025 11:01 πŸ‘ 216 πŸ” 45 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 2
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Social evaluation of skill and competence in primates Social life is a continuous interplay of observing and interacting with conspecifics, predicting their behavior, and responding to their actions. This…

πŸ”” New paper out on Social evaluation of skill and competence in primates

@mariehirel.bsky.social, @williamohearn.bsky.social and @julxf.bsky.social made this happen

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

24.08.2025 18:40 πŸ‘ 20 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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🚨Job Alert plz RT!

Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition!

We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals

Open-rank

apply.interfolio.com/178146

02.12.2025 02:54 πŸ‘ 56 πŸ” 75 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Beyond the dyad: Development of task co-representation of multiple co-actors across cultures at University of Portsmouth on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Beyond the dyad: Development of task co-representation of multiple co-actors across cultures at University of Portsmouth, listed on FindAPhD.com

Come and do a PhD on the development of social cognition across diverse cultures! The successful candidate would be fully funded and have the opportunity to travel to Kenya for data collection. Please contact me if interested. eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

01.12.2025 09:33 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Bridging the Species Divide: Animal minds and the human-animal relationship (Ref: RDF26/HW/PSY/RENNER) at Northumbria University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Bridging the Species Divide: Animal minds and the human-animal relationship (Ref: RDF26/HW/PSY/RENNER) at Northumbria University, listed on FindAPhD.com

Are you interested in doing a PhD about what humans infer about animal minds?

Check out this opportunity @northumbriapsy.bsky.social with me, @mdconstable.bsky.social and Lee Shepherd!

Deadline 23 Jan 2026

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

17.11.2025 12:07 πŸ‘ 24 πŸ” 29 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1