Areas of expertise
- Animal Behaviour 310901
- Cognition 520401
- Behavioural Ecology 310301
Research interests
My research explores the interactions between cognition, sociality and ecology, mostly in birds. I am especially interested the emergent properties of these interaction- social networks, animal culture and cultural evolution. Recent work has explored the spread of innovation across social and geographic networks, and how cultures change over time in response to social and environmental drivers. Current themes and projects include:
Culture and Cultural Evolution in Birds:
- Urban cultural ecology in sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita)
- The spread of the bin-opening innovation in sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacauta galerita)
- Experimental tests of the drivers of cultural evolution in great tits (Parus major)
Vocal Dialects and Cultural Processes:
- Social and vocal complexity in monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus)
- Social processes driving vocal convergence and drift in cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus)
Social Cognition:
- Social cognition in social networks of cockatoos (Cacauta galerita)
Comparative studies of the evolution of cognition and culture:
- Co-evolution of brain size, sociality and life-history in parrots
Biography
I lead the Cognitive and Cultural Ecology (CCE) Group, and head the SERI (ERC StG) project CULTURES ADAPT. Our lab studies cognition and social behaviour, and we are especially interested their interactions and emergent properties, including social cognition, behavioural flexibility and animal culture.
I currently hold joint positions as SNSF Professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich, and as a Senior Lecturer at the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University.
Previously, I held a Max Planck Research Group Leader Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour (Germany), a Junior Research Fellow at St John's College, University of Oxford (UK), and a visiting research fellow at the Australian Museum. Before that, I studied for my PhD jointly at the Australian National University and the University of Oxford, and did my BSc(Hons) at the Australian National University.
Researcher's projects
Current grants
2022-2027: $2,333,000 European Research Council Starter Grant (SERI funded), held at the University of Zurich - "CULTURES ADAPT - Animal culture under change: a landscape level analysis of socio-cognitive responses to human impact"
2022-2027: $157,000 Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund - "An innovation arms race between humans and parrots?"
2019-2025: 7mil EUR German DFG Cluster of Excellence - co PI (1 of 25) - "Centre of Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour"
2020-2025: Israeli Science Foundation “From conformity to diversity” - External Collaborator
2019-2022: $650,000 U.K. Natural Environment Research Council "Ecology of Behavioural Contagion in Natural Systems - Project Partner (1 of 4)
Recent grants
2018-2019: $53,000 National Geographic Exploration Grant - " Extending the limits for animal culture: do wild parrots show cultural traits?
2019: $10,000 Cultural Evolution Society - "Public education module - Animal Cultures: Core discoveries and new horizons” - Co-PI (1 of 4)
2016-2017: $15,000 Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour - "Behavioural flexibility in novel environments"
2014-2017: $700,000 U.K. Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council “Social dynamics and social learning in parids” - Co-Investigator
Current student projects
Sofia Bolcato (PhD, 2023 -): Mapping cultural variation through across sites and with novel food experiments: an integration of the ethnographic method
Lisa Fontana (PhD, 2022 -): Experimental and comparative analysis of the cultural intelligence hypothesis in sulphur-crested cockatoos
Simeon Smeele (PhD, 2019 -): Examining the evolution of social and vocal complexity in monk parakeets
Stephen Tyndel (PhD, 2019 -): Social processes affecting vocal convergence and dialect formation in parrots
Past student projects
Julia Penndorf (PhD, 2018-2022): Social cognition in an urban-dwelling parrot
Michael Chimento (PhD, 2018-2022): Social processes and structures affecting cultural evolution
Sally Vistalli (MsC, 2021): The influence of social learning on finding and selecting nest lining materials in wild tits (parid spp.)
Killiian Gregory (MsC, 2019): Effect of personality on the response of great tits (Parus major) to social perturbation
Jana Hoersch (MsC, 2018-2019): Approaching the hand that feeds and fleeing the hand that threatens: recognition on humans by animals
Publications
- Penndorf, J, Ewart, K, Klump, B et al. 2023, 'Social network analysis reveals context-dependent kin relationships in wild sulphur-crested cockatoos Cacatua galerita', Journal of Animal Ecology, vol. 92, no. 1, pp. 171-182.
- Chimento, M, Barrett, B, Kandler, A et al. 2022, 'Cultural diffusion dynamics depend on behavioural production rules', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 289, no. 1980.
- Wang, D, Forstmeier, W, Farine, D et al. 2022, 'Machine learning reveals cryptic dialects that explain mate choice in a songbird', Nature Communications, vol. 13, pp. 1-12.
- Smeele, S, Conde, D, Baudisch, A et al. 2022, 'Coevolution of relative brain size and life expectancy in parrots', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 289, no. 1971, pp. 1-8.
- Abdu, S, Chimento, M, Alarcon-Nieto, G et al. 2022, 'The performance of field sampling for parasite detection in a wild passerine', Ecology and Evolution, vol. 12, no. 8, pp. e9242.
- Wild, S, Chimento, M, McMahon, K et al. 2021, 'Complex foraging behaviours in wild birds emerge from social learning and recombination of components', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B, vol. 377, no. 1843, pp. 1-13.
- Culina, A, Adriaensen, F, Bailey, L et al. 2021, 'Connecting the data landscape of long-term ecological studies: The SPI-Birds data hub', Journal of Animal Ecology, vol. 90, no. 9, pp. 2147-2160.
- Brakes, P, Carroll, E, Dall, S et al. 2021, 'A deepening understanding of animal culture suggests lessons for conservation', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 288, no. 1949, pp. 1-10.
- Gruber, T, Chimento, M, Aplin, L et al. 2021, 'Efficiency fosters cumulative culture across species', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B, vol. 377, no. 1843, pp. 1-11.
- Cantor, M, Chimento, M, Smeele, S et al. 2021, 'Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 288, no. 1946, pp. 1-9.
- Klump, B, Martin, J, Wild, S et al. 2021, 'Innovation and geographic spread of a complex foraging culture in an urban parrot', Science, vol. 373, no. 6553, pp. 456-460.
- Chimento, M, Alarcon-Nieto, G & Aplin, L 2021, 'Population turnover facilitates cultural selection for efficiency in birds', Current Biology, vol. 31, no. 11, pp. 2477-2483.
- Aplin, L, Major, R, Davis, A et al. 2021, 'A citizen science approach reveals long-term social network structure in an urban parrot, Cacatua galerita', Journal of Animal Ecology, vol. 90, no. 1, pp. 222-232.
- Penndorf, J & Aplin, L 2020, 'Environmental and life history factors, but not age, influence social learning about food: a meta-analysis', Animal Behaviour, vol. 167, pp. 161-176.
- Cantor, M, Aplin, L & Farine, D 2020, 'A primer on the relationship between group size and group performance', Animal Behaviour, vol. 166, pp. 139-146.
- Farine, D & Aplin, L 2019, 'Spurious inference when comparing networks', PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 116, no. 34, pp. 16674-16675.
- Aplin, L 2019, 'Culture and cultural evolution in birds: a review of the evidence', Animal Behaviour, vol. 147, pp. 179-187.
- Brakes, P, Dall, S, Aplin, L et al. 2019, 'Animal cultures matter for conservation', Science, vol. 363, no. 6431, pp. 1032-1034.
- Firth, J, Cole, E, Ioannou, C et al. 2018, 'Personality shapes pair bonding in a wild bird social system', Nature Ecology & Evolution, vol. 2, no. 11, pp. 1696-1699.
- Pruitt, J, Berdahl, A, Riehl, C et al. 2018, 'Social tipping points in animal societies', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 285, no. 1887, pp. 1-9.
- Smaldino, P, Aplin, L & Farine, D 2018, 'Sigmoidal Acquisition Curves Are Good Indicators of Conformist Transmission', Scientific Reports, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1-10.
- Somveille, M, Firth, J, Aplin, L et al. 2018, 'Movement and conformity interact to establish local behavioural traditions in animal populations', PLOS Computational Biology, vol. 14, no. 12, pp. 1-19.
- Johnson, K, Aplin, L, Cole, E et al. 2017, 'Male great tits assort by personality during the breeding season', Animal Behaviour, vol. 128, pp. 21-32.
- Aplin, L, Sheldon, B & McElreath, R 2017, 'Conformity does not perpetuate suboptimal traditions in a wild population of songbirds', PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 114, no. 30, pp. 7830-7837.
- Jones, T, Aplin, L, Devost, I et al. 2017, 'Individual and ecological determinants of social information transmission in the wild', Animal Behaviour, vol. 129, pp. 93-101.
- Shultz, T, Montrey, M & Aplin, L 2017, 'Modelling the spread of innovation in wild birds', Journal of the Royal Society Interface, vol. 14, no. 131, pp. 1-14.
- Firth, J, Voelkl, B, Crates, R et al. 2017, 'Wild birds respond to flockmate loss by increasing their social network associations to others', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 284, no. 1854, pp. 1-10.
- Aplin, L & Morand-Ferron, J 2017, 'Stable producer-scrounger dynamics in wild birds: Sociability and learning speed covary with scrounging behaviour', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 284, no. 1852, pp. 1-9.
- Aplin, L 2016, 'Understanding the multiple factors governing social learning and the diffusion of innovations', Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, vol. 12, pp. 59-65.
- Crates, R, Firth, J, Farine, D et al. 2016, 'Individual variation in winter supplementary food consumption and its consequences for reproduction in wild birds', Journal of Avian Biology, vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 678-689.
- Farine, D, Aplin, L, Sheldon, B et al 2015, 'Interspecific social networks promote information transmission in wild songbirds', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 282, no. 1803, pp. 20142804-20142804.
- Aplin, L, Farine, D, Morand-Ferron, J et al. 2015, 'Experimentally induced innovations lead to persistent culture via conformity in wild birds', Nature, vol. 518, no. 7540, pp. 538-541.
- Aplin, L, Farine, D, Mann, R et al 2014, 'Individual-level personality influences social foraging and collective behaviour in wild birds', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 281, no. 1789, pp. 20141016-20141016.
- Farine, D, Aplin, L, Garroway, C et al. 2014, 'Collective decision making and social interaction rules in mixed-species flocks of songbirds', Animal Behaviour, vol. 95, pp. 173-182.
- Aplin, L, Sheldon, B & Morand-Ferron, J 2013, 'Milk bottles revisited: Social learning and individual variation in the blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus', Animal Behaviour, vol. 85, no. 6, pp. 1225-1232.
- Aplin, L, Farine, D, Morand-Ferron, J et al 2013, 'Individual personalities predict social behaviour in wild networks of great tits (Parus major)', Ecology Letters, vol. 16, no. 11, pp. 1365-1372.
- Aplin, L & Cockburn, A 2012, 'Ecological selection and sexual dimorphism in the sooty oystercatcher, Haematopus fuliginosus', Austral Ecology, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 248-257.
- Aplin, L, Farine, D, Morand-Ferron, J et al 2012, 'Social networks predict patch discovery in a wild population of songbirds', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 279, no. 1745, pp. 4199-4205.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Animal culture under change: a landscape-level analysis of socio-cognitive responses to human impact (Primary Investigator)
- Cultural arms-race in parrots and humans (Primary Investigator)
