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Wataru Toyokawa

@watarutoyokawa.bsky.social
585 followers 229 following 86 posts

Behavioural scientist running the Computational Group Dynamics (COGNAC) lab in RIKEN CBS. Also affiliating the Uni Konstanz & MPI Animal Behaviour. Love Collective Dynamics, whiskies, wine, and vintage shops.

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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 15h
the new batch of miso just made up side down! Started experimenting in our Scotland time 10 years ago, our #homemademiso is still getting better every year
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Reposted by Wataru Toyokawa
Caroline Pioger @carolinepioger.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Huge thanks to my amazing co-first author @fabiencerrotti.bsky.social and supervisor @stepalminteri.bsky.social, and our collaborators @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social and @mael-lebreton.bsky.social 🙏
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🚨 ACE Seminar Alert 🚨 We’re excited to host Dr Ying Li in our upcoming ACE Seminar! 🗓 Tuesday, 20 October, 2026 🕖 7:00 PM JST 💻 Online via Zoom 🔗 To receive the Zoom link, please sign up by sending a blank email to ace-seminar+subscribe@googlegroups.com
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Stefano Palminteri @stepalminteri.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
1/ Very proud of this preprint — and especially because it marks a first step for our lab in a new direction: using what we know about learning not only to diagnose misconceptions, but also to correct them. zenodo.org/records/2303...
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Thanks for those brilliant questions, Ricardo. It was super fun to chat with you!
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The Dissenter @thedissenteryt.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
New episode (1289), with Dr. Wataru Toyokawa (@watarutoyokawa.bsky.social). We talk about social learning, collective decision-making, and the wisdom/madness of crowds. #CognitiveScience #Science YouTube: youtu.be/e6IhPGl0BBw Podcast: bit.ly/3RDehXr
youtu.be
#1289 Wataru Toyokawa: Social Learning, Collective Decision-Making, and the Wisdom/Madness of Crowds
YouTube video by The Dissenter
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
A great preprint is out! It was also super fun collaborating with science museums!! Huge thanks to Humboldt Forum and Miraikan too!!
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Ralf Kurvers @ralfkurvers.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
New preprint led by @lucasmolleman.bsky.social investigates social information use across the human lifespan. Testing >40,000 participants aged 6-80 in museums in Berlin and Japan. psyarxiv.com/hec96
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
The next ACE seminar will be happening tomorrow📣 We are excited to have Pat Savage talking about the evolution of music and language! @patrickesavage.bsky.social (Note: the actual time slot is 2-3pm, 30-min shorter this time)
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Kartik Chandra @kartikchandra.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I wrote a tiny LaTeX package that creates a wordcount environment. You can use it to auto-print word counts, when paring down text to meet limits. For example: \begin{wordcount}{\abstractcount} This is my abstract. \end{wordcount} \textbf{Word count:} \abstractcount % prints 4 Source code below…
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Hey EU folks if you are enjoying #eurovision you can replace your scoresheet with this scientific platform! You can contribute to our understanding of how culture evolves!
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Pantelis P. Analytis @pantelispa.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
My team, Minsu Park and I just launched 12points.science. It’s a citizen science platform and app where you can rate, rank, and comment on Eurovision entries with your friends. There is a deeper research goal behind the glitter 🎤🧪 #Eurovision #OpenData
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Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Contribute to research on cross-cultural variation in taste, voting, decision-making! it's #Eurovision #ESC final night and my queer half-Austrian dual-scientist household is excited to replace homemade scorecards with this #CitizenScience 🧪 rating app 12points.science ✨🪩❤️‍🔥👯❤️‍🔥🪩✨ @eurovision.tv
screenshot of the app's website. text reads: The curtain is about to go up. Cast your 12 points. Give science a hand. 
12 Points is a Eurovision Song Contest companion. Rate every entry, compare with your friends and the community, and opt-in to a citizen science project on musical taste and collective choice run by researchers at the University of Southern Denmark. Free to use, geeky and a little bit glittery.
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Sawa Matsueda Savage @sawamsavage.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
My ultimate dream project is to bring the criminally underrated works of Shinji Wada to English readers. An outlier in shojo, his works are full of gritty action, intrigue, kick-ass female leads, and side characters with so much depth some had several short manga worth of backstory🧵
Color illustration from Sukeban Deka, with Saki on a motorcycle with Part I antagonist Remi Mizuchi pointing menacinglyA page from Phantom Thief Amarillys, where Amaryllis makes an acrobatic escape from some guard dogs.Cover from the Shinji Wada short story collection The Hourglass Smells of Blood.A page from Sukeban Deka during Saki's showdown with part I antagonist Remi Mizuchi. Saki attacks with her yoyo, and both pause to catch their breath.
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Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
🚨 Cultural evolution paper alert
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Will Oestreich @will-oestreich.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Finished the latest in @aptshadow.bsky.social 's "Children of..." series over the weekend. Spectacular exploration of interdependence in ecology, "bottom-up" and "top-down" intelligent design, cultural evolution, and the complex inner life of a stomatopod. Give it a read!
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Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 04/05/2026
some Bayesian cognitive modeling students are having trouble seeing the industry-relevance of the methods (my worked out examples are research based, since it's what I do). Tips for good industry examples? @ajordannafa.com @natehaines.bsky.social @rmcelreath.bsky.social @avehtari.bsky.social
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Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · 26/04/2026
Nice coincidence that a big study of cooperation decline in microfinance in Sierra Leone has appeared in Nature just after our meta-analysis. Hints that partner choice, reciprocity and punishment were involved, but sadly no explicit focus on non-proximate explanations www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Punctuated decline of human cooperation - Nature
Cooperation in group lending declines over time due to shifting behavioural motivations, briefly rebounds after loan restarts, then declines faster again, revealing systematic deviations from rational...
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Nature @nature.com · 26/04/2026
Real-world data reveal that cooperation continually falls and rebounds. Motivation to cooperate must therefore be actively renewed rather than assumed to sustain itself go.nature.com/4tvFx7I
go.nature.com
Human cooperation undergoes constant breakdown and repair
Real-world data reveal that cooperation continually falls and rebounds. Motivation to cooperate must therefore be actively renewed rather than assumed to sustain itself.
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Camille Troisi @camilletroisi.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
📢Fully-funded #PhD opportunity with us: 🐦 Quantifying (social) learning and social behaviour in an urbanised world 🐦 Position at @ceec-research.bsky.social 📆29th May deadline More info: tinyurl.com/yz28s96x Apply: tinyurl.com/2wpkb64y #cognition #socialbehaviour #fieldwork #birds 🙏Please Share
Great tit perched on a branch, with beak slightly open. 
Photo credit: Alizée Vernouillet
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Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
The CES New Investigator award is given to a researcher who has shown outstanding contribution and potential in the field within 5 years of gaining their PhD, with the award package including a CES plenary. We're looking forward to hearing Mason's talk at the next (2028) CES conference!
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Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
The Cultural Evolution Society is delighted to announce that Mason Youngblood (he/they) @masonyoungblood.bsky.social, Institute for Advanced Computational Science, Stony Brook University, is the recipient of the 2026 CES New Investigator Award. Congratulations Mason on this well-deserved award!!
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Back in Japan, a country allowing kids to feed tons of water to a samurai general
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Bruce Rawlings @brucerawlings.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Things I thought I’d never say - here’s a new manuscript of cockroach and rat collective intelligence. We argue group-level intelligence can emerge from very different mechanisms—from simple local rules to socially mediated cooperation and learning: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Clever vermin? Collective intelligence in rats and roaches
Abstract. Collective intelligence (CI) is the capacity of groups to outperform individuals in tasks such as decision-making, coordination and problem-solvi
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Next year in Zurich 😊 🏔️🇨🇭 #ehbea2027 will be held 29 March to 2 April. Website and Bluesky account are already set up (love the logo ❤️) @ehbea2027.bsky.social www.ehbea2027.com
Andrea Migliano presenting information about next year’s EHBEA conference in ZurichAndrea introducing the organising committee, including herself, Adrian Jaeggi, Jorg Gross and Charles Efferson
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Phil Trans Roy Soc B theme issue ‘The evolution of collective intelligence’ is out! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Volume 381 Issue 1948 | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | The Royal Society
Influential themed journal issues across the life sciences.
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EHBEA @ehbea.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Last day of conference! We had a wonderful day with amazing talks from @nicolewalasek.bsky.social and @nakedprimate.bsky.social ! We also had our Annual General Meeting, with a big round of applause for the Organising Committee and last words from @rebeccasear.bsky.social as president. #ehbea2026
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Worried about the pricy hotels in Zurich? No problem, “couch surfing” is there! #ehbea2027 Can I camp somewhere beside the Zurichsee?? ⛺️
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Awesome plenary from @nakedprimate.bsky.social at #ehbea2026, about gestures and storytelling, which started with a dawn drive in Chad and ended with a Douglas Adams quote perfectly encapsulating the process of science
Slide with a photo of a driver heading towards a bright dawn sun Closing slide with a quote from Douglas Adams 

"...I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be....
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Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 16/04/2026
new link: fusaroli.github.io/AdvancedCogn...
fusaroli.github.io
10  Bayesian Models of Cognition – Advanced Cognitive Modeling Notes
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Dr Sarah Myers @drsarahmyers.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
New masters programme in Evolutionary Anthropology - University of Leipzig & Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, teaching in English www.uni-leipzig.de/en/studying/... #EHBEA
uni-leipzig.de
Evolutionary Anthropology MSc
The programme aims to provide in-depth knowledge of the latest research into human evolution and development. The focus is on the genetic, paleoanthropological and cognitive aspects of human behaviour and the mind. Particular emphasis is placed on engaging with the complexities of research processes, and on developing skills in designing, implementing and evaluating studies. Students will gain professional expertise in handling and rigorously analysing and effectively presenting data, preparing them for doctoral research.
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Luke Rendell @lrendell.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
No, they really haven't. Calling spectral peaks vowels is as inane as saying that because my washing up gloves are also yellow, they have the same nutritional content as a banana. Zero evidence of vowel-like function. It's pure clickbait, and a new low in irresponsible claims from this group 🙄🐳🦑🧪
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Great talk by @jingyux.bsky.social bringing the collective behaviour vibe to #ehbea2026 ! Stay tuned to her beky account for the upcoming preprints on her talk on social learning + social networks
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Prof. Gillian Brown @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Great talk by @babeheim.bsky.social at @ehbea2026.bsky.social on the cultural evolution of strategies in the game Go, including the convergence of AI on established strategies. #ehbea2026
Speaker standing in front of a screen with PowerPoint slide.
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Henri Vandendriessche @henrivdd.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
📢 New preprint📜 out 🚨: "Biased processing of multiple outcomes in human reinforcement learning: evidence from computational modeling and eye-tracking" How do we integrate multiple outcomes that stem for a single decision? 🔗 osf.io/preprints/ps... Too lazy to read? I made a summary of the thread👇
osf.io
OSF
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Stefano Palminteri @stepalminteri.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
New preprint (by Vandendriessche et al.) In everyday life, choices often lead to multiple simultaneous outcomes — some positive, some negative. Yet most reinforcement learning research has focused on situations where each choice produces only a single outcome 1/5 osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Arrived in Leiden
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Charley Wu @thecharleywu.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
🚨Last week to apply for a 3 year postdoc with me and @dominikdeffner.bsky.social, embedded in theadaptivemind-excellencecluster.de Focus is on developing innovative experiments and computational models to understand social & cultural learning. Deadline is March 30th 👉 hmc-lab.com/SocialLearni...
hmc-lab.com
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution posted on March 2, 2026 We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual...
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Dr Sarah Myers @drsarahmyers.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
#EHBEA #CES
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Vincent Laudet dives (literally) into the Okinawan ocean to study the mystery of anemonefish megacolonies.
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Henri @henrivdd.bsky.social shows how consensus making shapes and is shaped by reinforcement learning of group members
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Gerald Pao pointed out causations can come without corrections and that’s why we need to dive into the data geometry #HIVE2026
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Katja Sangati gives a nice overview of collective behaviour phenomena any why modelling is key
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
The first OIST-RIKEN HIVE meeting just kicked off!
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Dr. Alexandra Witt @alexthewitty.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Happy to announce I started a postdoc with @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social at RIKEN-CBS! 🎉 I'm absolutely thrilled to be here (and not just because it's easy to find great waterfalls) For this position, I'm broadening my research to include more interactive and naturalistic social learning settings 🧠
Me at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science, my new place of work! Me at Haha no Shirataki, a gorgeous waterfall near Mt. Fuji. It's pictured half-frozen, making it outstandingly cool
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
It’s today!
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
アジア文化進化セミナーの案内です!次回は1月27日火曜日、Chris Kavanagh 氏が儀式の進化について話してくれます!
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Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
New postdoc position with the LEVANTE project! We're looking for someone with language development / reading knowledge to help work on our international adaptations of language assessments. Please forward to interested candidates
Job ad 1job ad 2job ad 3
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
The next ACE Seminar info👇We will have Chris Kavanagh!
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Kenji Itao @kenjiitao.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
🚨 ACE Seminar We’re excited to host Dr. Christopher Kavanagh in our upcoming ACE Seminar! 🗓 Tuesday, Jan 27, 2026 🕖 7:00 PM JST (UTC+9) 💻 Online via Zoom 🔗 To receive the Zoom link, please send a blank email to ace-seminar+subscribe@googlegroups.com
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