Photo: Daniel Berkowic
Prof. Arnon Lotem
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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 |
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.
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
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
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
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
Lotem A. 1993. Learning to recognize nestlings is maladaptive for cuckoo Cuculus canorus host. Nature 362:743-745. PDF
