iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

What does it take to understand another mind? Dogs, cats, apes, pointing, trust, AI—and why meaning may not be in the signal alone, but in what happens next. My full conversation with Hakeem Oluseyi for @wgbh.org NOVA Particles of Thought: youtu.be/XS3grn2h6DQ 📷 NOVA / Particles of Thought

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

We live with dogs, talk to them constantly, and still know surprisingly little about how they experience the world. I spoke with @sciam.bsky.social about what dog-cognition research is revealing. What does your dog really understand about you? www.scientificamerican.com/article/what...

scientificamerican.com

What your dog really thinks about you

Science is helping to peel back the layers of how dogs process the world around them

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Three more parts of my conversation with Hakeem Oluseyi on NOVA's Particles of Thought are coming out between now and Sept 24 (next one is tomorrow, Sept 17). Follow the show so you don't miss them: 🎧 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

podcasts.apple.com

Particles of Thought

Science Podcast · Updated Biweekly · Ready to break your brain? Particles of Thought, the hit video podcast from the producers of NOVA is back with new mind-expanding conversations with scientists on ...

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I started out very skeptical of dogs “talking” with buttons. So we decided to test the claims. In this first part of my conversation with NOVA’s Particles of Thought: how do you turn an internet phenomenon into science? And why bother? 🎧 How Dogs Talk podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

podcasts.apple.com

How Dogs Talk

Podcast Episode · Particles of Thought · September 15 · 33m

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Creativity and innovation can only foster in an environment that values exploration and intellectual freedom and that gives you time to pursue your dangerous ideas. We need more than ever original minds motivated to explore the nature of intelligence, how it manifests and how it can be measured. 2/3

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

UCSD Cognitive Science Department is hiring an Assistant Professor incorporating novel computational approaches in the study of biological and/or artificial intelligence. I have had the privilege of working in this department for 10 years and the intellectual environment really is unique. 1/3

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Reposted by Federico Rossano

aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

UC Irvine Cognitive Sciences is hiring! Focus on social cognition, broadly construed. Come be my colleague :) I am not on the search committee but happy to talk about the campus, environment, careers, etc any time. recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF10411

recruit.ap.uci.edu

Assistant Professor - Cognitive Sciences

University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

As Ramachandran put it: "we only need one talking pig" to be forced to consider the possibility that pigs can talk 😃

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Long story short: I like your paper and I took it to heart to seriously engage with the claims. But the suggestion that it is ok for the theory if some individuals can pass the tasks listed in your Table 1 is problematic. A theory needs boundaries. And I am looking forward to the next benchmarks 😉

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Would we say that humans cannot pilot airplanes because 99.9% of humans cannot do it? If some can reliably do something that requires a cognitive skill... then the most parsimonious assumption is that they possess that cognitive ability. Why only some manifest that ability is a different question

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

It is like saying that humans cannot do math because most humans cannot do differential equations. The fact that some can do it, even if a minority, is the critical finding. What matters is ceiling, not the average. We are trying to determine whether they have the cognitive ability to do something.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

How is this result in line with your claims? The first piece of evidence in support of your theory has been falsified. Claiming that your theory would be fine with some special individuals being able to do it (note that these are sanctuary chimps, not enculturated ones) is a problem. Let me explain.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Image below is from Table 1 of your paper: success in the object-choice task requires cognitive dispositions that are particular to Gricean interactors. You listed chimps failing at this task as 1st evidence they are not Gricean. We show they can do it. Does it not change anything for your theory?

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Btw, in case you are wondering, this handsome boy is very real (his name is Morri) and the most sought after member of the lab! 😃 Thank you Samantha for bringing him to @cclabucsd.bsky.social

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Happy International Dog Day! 🐶 A great day to celebrate dogs and learn more about how they think, learn, and communicate. At @cclabucsd.bsky.social , we study dogs of all kinds, from puppies and working dogs to the dogs who share our homes. Want your dog to take part in science? cclab.ucsd.edu

Graphic from the UC San Diego Comparative Cognition Lab featuring a black dog wearing a blue-and-white bandana labeled “MORRI.” Text reads “What we’re studying” and lists: puppies and early development; working dogs and individual differences; overimitation in ManyDogs 2; ManyManys reversal learning; metacognition; and how trust and human accuracy affect dogs’ willingness to follow commands. cclab.ucsd.edu.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The paper is open access and you can find it here: doi.org/10.1016/j.is...

doi.org

Redirecting

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

When the experimenter simply pointed toward the hidden food, chimpanzees were at chance. When he called their name, looked at them and produced food grunts—but did not point—they were also at chance. But when we engaged their attention and then pointed, they chose correctly 73% of the time.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The chimps are not failing to understand the gesture. They were not paying attention to the person producing it. Communication rarely comes as an isolated signal. Gesture, gaze, voice and context work together. If we pull them apart, we may remove the very thing that made the signal communicative.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Chimpanzees usually fail a simple pointing task that human infants and dogs pass. In our new iScience paper, we provide a possible explanation: once their attention is engaged, chimpanzees use human pointing to find hidden food 73% of the time. Attention may be the missing piece.

Figure 2. Three photos showing the experimental conditions. Left: the experimenter points toward the baited container while calling the chimpanzee’s name and making food grunts. Center: he points without vocal attention-getting cues. Right: he provides gaze and food grunts but does not point. Chimpanzees succeeded only when attention-getting cues and pointing were combined.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

We search for natural intelligence constantly amazed at the discovery of what is possible. While many believe that AI is the new frontier, we believe that animal minds and understanding natural intelligence in its natural habitat is the real goldmine waiting to be explored. Please support our quest!

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

- We build large video datasets and we develop computer vision tools to analyze very messy data from the wild. We are also developing new AI tools to aid conservation efforts.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

- We study how dogs communicate with humans, not only pets but also the incredibly talented working dogs that keep us safe, how they express their needs and wants, including their pain and to what degree they over imitate their humans, just like children.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

- We study how primates strategically cooperate taking into account different payoffs, how they develop multimodal signals to communicate, how they navigate relationships within the troop and how this affects their decisions when the troop splits (do you follow your family or your friends?).

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

- We study how people work together in teams and decide how to divide tasks, how children language acquisition might not start with nouns and verbs but a strong drive to figure out how to get others to help and how parents scaffold their learning, because sociality is learned. We study conversation.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

We study cognition in the wild because we believe that to understand how we think, learn, communicate requires stepping outside the lab, studying natural intelligence in its natural habitat: animals dealing with the pressures of their daily lives, where making decisions has life/death consequences.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

We do comparative work across ages (from toddlers to older adults), across cultures (published data collected in 15 different countries over the last few years) and across species (great apes, gibbons, baboons, macaques, dogs, cats, wolves and goats as of now, but the list is expanding).

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

You might have heard about our citizen science study on dogs and cats using buttons and soundboards to communicate with humans. Today, on #TritonGivingDay we are reaching out to ask you to donate to support all research efforts @cclabucsd.bsky.social is engaged in. We REALLY need your help!

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Reposted by Federico Rossano

Gabriel Ramos-Fernandez @grf.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Do you research social interactions and collective behavior? IIMAS-UNAM is hiring an Associate Researcher "C". PhD in psychology, anthropology or sociology + publications required. Women encouraged to apply. Maximum age 39 (♀️) and 37 (♂️). 📅 Deadline: June 1, 2026 📄 tinyurl.com/3dzc5nz4

tinyurl.com

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

We advocate for an expanded notion of ecological validity along three dimensions: subject phenotype, task naturalness, and environmental fidelity. You can read the full open access paper here: wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

E.g., that laboratory animals, model species, and digital simulations enable generalizations from lab to wild, from animal to human, and from virtual to physical environments. These assumptions enabled much of the field's progress but they can constrain generalizability and real-world relevance.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

New paper alert with Stephan Kaufhold, Mia Borzello and David Kirsh! How well does cognition studied in the lab reflect cognition in the real world? Much of what we think we know about cognition rests on methodological assumptions that have become so established that they often go unexamined.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Social living does not increase the propensity to cooperate per se. Semi-solitary apes can assess the likelihood of cooperation from a partner based on incentives. However, social living makes communication between individuals more salient, turning it into a key tool towards successful cooperation.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Both species initiated cooperation when partners had incentive to cooperate in return. Critically, chimpanzee tool givers were more responsive to recipients’ attention-getting signals than orang-utans. So how does social living affect cooperation?

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Critically, the partner would also have a solo reward. Notwithstanding the different gregariousness of the species, the cooperation rate did not differ between them. Both species based decisions primarily on the individual immediate payoffs.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

We set out to study the proximate mechanisms that would affect their willingness to cooperate. We investigated this in a tool-transfer task in which a participant can decide to either use a tool for a reward for themselves or pass the tool hoping the partner would cooperate for a different reward.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Only 12 years from the day we collected the first data point for this fun project… all my fault! Sorry! Very proud of the spaghetti tube apparatus. As an Italian, walking into the zoo with a pack of spaghetti every testing day made for some fun interactions. Thank you Christoph, Elisa and Josep!

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

I had a blast participating in a @novapbs.bsky.social deep dive with Christina Hunger, hosted by Julia Cort and Chris Schmidt. If you are interested or skeptical about dogs trained with soundboards to communicate with humans, I hope you will check it out. And check out the NOVA documentary as well

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Today at 9pm ET/PT is the US premiere of the @pbs.org NOVA documentary "Can Dogs Talk?". It covers the project @cclabucsd.bsky.social has been running with thousands of button trained dogs. It is a true honor to be on NOVA and we hope you will find it engaging: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vi...

pbs.org

Can Dogs Talk?

Do speech buttons really allow dogs to talk to us? Scientists investigate.

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

A brief extract from a fun livestream with awesome colleagues hosted by Dr. Anne Valuska, organized by @templetonworld.bsky.social and Purina. Let's give non-human animals a real chance to show us how intelligent and capable they are. We can only benefit from engaging with nature with an open mind

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

If you want to know more about the ongoing research, you can check out this online lecture: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjF...

youtube.com

"Can our pets tell us what they are thinking?" with Federico Rossano

YouTube video by Interspecies Internet

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

For more info about the documentary you can check out: ideacom.tv/en/productio... A special thank you to @rverdecchia.bsky.social, Olly Bootle, Joseph Russell, Emma Ross, Kirstie McLure and all people involved in this production for making this possible.

ideacom.tv

Can Dogs Talk? | Idéacom International

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

On September 28th at 18:30 the French language premiere of the documentary "Can dogs talk?" will air on @iciradiocanada.bsky.social Découverte series @cclabucsd.bsky.social work on soundboard trained dogs is a central piece of this documentary. English versions will air on NOVA and CBC in early 2026

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

I had the most wonderful time presenting our current progress on this project to the amazing @interspecies-io.bsky.social community! If you could not attend but are interested in finding out more about our work, check out the lecture here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjF...

youtube.com

"Can our pets tell us what they are thinking?" with Federico Rossano

YouTube video by Interspecies Internet

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Federico Rossano @federicorossano.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Thank you so much for the invitation! Very much looking forward to giving this talk and connecting with your community!

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The World @theworld.org · 25/04/2025

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, owners have been training their dogs to “tell” them what they want by mashing buttons with their paws to express words in various human languages. A UCSD study began to explore the practice further and now includes participants in dozens of countries worldwide.

theworld.org

A new global study allows dogs to ‘talk’ to their owners by pressing buttons that say human words - The World from PRX

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