Arnon Lotem
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Photo: Daniel Berkowic

Prof. Arnon Lotem

Picture
​The Norman and Rose Lederer Chair of Biology
School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences 
and Sagol School of Neuroscience

Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel
[email protected]

​Research interests:
​Behavioral Ecology, Evolution, ​Evolution of Learning, Cognitive Evolution

Phone: ++972-3-6408381
Office: Bessner 207 (at the Zoological Garden)


​Ph.D., 1992, Tel-Aviv University, with Amotz Zahavi 
Post-doc, 1992-1994, UBC, Vancouver, with Jamie Smith
(Killam and NSERC Fellow). 
Faculty, 1994, Tel-Aviv University (Allon Fellow) - Full Professor, 2011
Visiting Professor at Cornell University, 1999-2001. 
Academic director of the I. Meier Segals Garden for Zoological Research
,
(at Tel-Aviv Univ. 2004-2007).
Head,
School of Zoology, 2019- 2023 
Picture

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My Google Scholar Page
 (updated by Google)
My ORCID:  
orcid.org/0000-0001-5428-2005

Selected publications


(​Click here for full list of publications)

​Lotem, A. and Halpern Y. J.  2025.  Evolution of diverse (and advanced) cognitive abilities through adaptive fine-tuning of learning and chunking mechanisms.  arXiv:2501.11201v1 [q-bio.NC].  (revised for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B).

Zurek, N., Aljadeff, N.A., Khoury, D., Aplin, L.M. and Lotem, A., 2024. Social demonstration of colour preference improves the learning of associated demonstrated actions. Animal Cognition, 27. 31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-024-01865-7 

Marković, Đ., Aljadeff, N.A., Aplin, L.M. and Lotem, A, 2023. Increased initial task difficulty drives social foragers to develop sub-optimal conformity instead of adaptive diversity. Royal Society Open Science, 10(7), p.230715.

Lotem, A., Kolodny, O., & Arbilly, M., 2023. Gene-culture coevolution in the cognitive domain. in Oxford handbook of cultural evolution.
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Lotem, A., Vortman, Y., Safran J.B., 2022. The evidence for divergent sexual selection among closely related barn swallow populations is strong. Evolution  https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14506. 

Halpern, J.Y. & Lotem, A. 2021. The brain as a probabilistic transducer: an evolutionarily plausible network architecture for knowledge representation, computation, and behavior. arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.13388. PDF
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Prat, Y., Bshary, R., Lotem, A. 2022. Modelling how cleaner fish approach an ephemeral reward task demonstrates a role for ecologically tuned chunking in the evolution of advanced cognition. PLoS biology 20 (1), e3001519. PDF

Aljadeff, N. & Lotem, A. 2021. Task-dependent reversal learning dynamics challenge the reversal paradigm of measuring cognitive flexibility. Animal Behaviour 179, 183-197. PDF

Aljadeff, N., Giraldeau, L.A. and Lotem, A., 2020. Competitive advantage of rare behaviours induces adaptive diversity rather than social conformity in skill learning. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B, 287 (1933), p.20201259. PDF

Tchernichovski, O., Parra, L. S., Fimiarz, D., Lotem, A., & Conley D., 2019. Crowd-wisdom enhanced by costly signaling in a virtual rating system. PNAS  PDF

Arbilly, M & Lotem, A. 2017. Constructive anthropomorphism: a functional evolutionary approach to the study of human-like cognitive mechanisms in animals. Proc. R. Soc. Lond .B  284, 20171616;  PDF

Lotem A., Halpern JY, Edelman S & Kolodny O, 2017. The evolution of cognitive mechanisms in response to cultural innovations. PNAS  114 (30) 7915-7922. PDF
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Truskanov, N. & Lotem, A., 2017, Trial-and-error copying of demonstrated actions reveals how fledglings learn to ‘imitate’their mothers. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B  284, No. 1849, p. 20162744. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2744

Lotem, A., Kolodny, O., Halpern, Y. J., Onnis, L., & Edelman, S., 2016. The Bottleneck May Be the Solution, Not the Problem. A commentary on "The Now-or-Never Bottleneck: A Fundamental Constraint on Language". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X1500088
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Truskanov, N. & Lotem, A., 2015. The importance of active search for effective social learning: an experimental test in young passerines. Animal Behaviour. 108, 165-173. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.07.031

Kolodny, O., Edelman, S., & Lotem, A. 2015. Evolution of protolinguistic abilities as a byproduct of learning to forage in structured environments. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B. 282 (1811), 20150353. PDF

Vortman, Y., Safran, R. J., Reiner, B. T., Dor, R., & Lotem, A. 2015. Expression of multiple sexual signals by fathers and sons in the East-mediterranean barn swallow: are advertising strategies heritable?. PloS one ,10(2), e0118054. PDF

Kolodny O, Lotem A & Edelman S 2014. Learning a generative probabilistic grammar of experience: a process-level model of language acquisition , Cognitive Science , 39: 227–267, DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12140, PDF

Kolodny, O., Edelman, S., & Lotem, A. 2014. The evolution of continuous learning of the structure of the environment. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 11(92), 20131091. PDF

Lotem A & Biran-Yoeli I, 2014. Evolution of learning and levels of selection: a lesson from avian parent-offspring communication. Theoretical Population Biology . 91:58-74. PDF

Ilan T, Katsnelson E, Motro U, Feldman MW & Lotem A. 2013. The role of beginner’s luck in learning to prefer risky patches by socially foraging house sparrows. Behavioral Ecology 24: 1398-1406 PDF

Vortman Y, Lotem A, Dor R, Lovette I, & Safran RJ. 2013. Multiple Sexual Signals and Behavioral Reproductive Isolation in a Diverging Population. The American Naturalist 182: 514-523 PDF

Lotem A, and Halpern J Y. 2012. Co-evolution of learning and data acquisition mechanisms: a model for cognitive evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B . 367:2686-2694. PDF

Katsnelson E, Motro U, Feldman MW, and Lotem A. 2012. Evolution of learned strategy choice in a frequency-dependent game. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B. 279:1176-84. PDF

Arbilly M, E, Motro U, Feldman MW, and Lotem A. 2010. Co-evolution of learning complexity and social foraging strategies. J. Theor. Biol. 267: 573-581. PDF

Dor R, and Lotem A, 2009. Heritability of nestling begging intensity in the house sparrow ( Passer domesticus). Evolution, 63-3:738-748. PDF

Shafir S, Reich T, Tsur E, Erev I, and Lotem A. 2008. Perceptual accuracy and conflicting effects of certainty on risk-taking behaviour. Nature 453: 917-920 First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (221K) See also: Making the paper: Arnon Lotem, Nature podcast: interview with Ido Erev, media coverage

Katsnelson E, Motro U, Feldman MW, and Lotem A. 2008. Early experience affects producer-scrounger foraging tendencies in the house sparrow. Animal Behaviour, 75: 1465-1472 PDF

Grodzinski U, & Lotem A, 2007. The adaptive value of parental responsiveness to nestling begging. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B 274 (1624): 2449-56 PDF

Lotem A and Winkler DW, 2005 Defining the Concept of Public Information. Science 308: 354. PDF

Lotem A, and Winkler DW, 2004 Can reinforcement learning explain variation in early infant crying? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27: 468. PDF

Lotem A, Fishman M.A., & Stone, L., 2003 From reciprocity to unconditional altruism through signaling benefits. Proc. Roy. Soc.
​Lond. B
  270, 199-205. PDF

Kedar H., Rodriguez-Girones M., Yedvab S., Winkler DW & Lotem A. 2000. Experimental evidence for offspring learning in parent-offsrping communication. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B. 267: 1723-1727. PDF

Lotem A., Fishman A. M., & Stone L. 1999. Evoluion of cooperation between individuals. Nature 400:226-227. PDF

Lotem A. Wagner R.H. & Balshine-Earn S. 1999. The overlooked signaling component in non-signaling behavior. Behavioral Ecology 10: 209-212. PDF

Lotem A., Nakamura H. & A. Zahavi. 1995. Constraints on egg discrimination and cuckoo-host coevolution. Animal Behaviour 49:1185-1209. PDF
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Lotem A. 1993. Learning to recognize nestlings is maladaptive for cuckoo Cuculus canorus host. Nature 362:743-745. PDF
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