Publications

2023

Aikens, C., Altizer, S. & Sasaki, T. (2023). Neither copy not avoid: No evidence for social cue use in monarch butterfly oviposition site selection. Journal of Insect Behavior  1-12 [pdf]

Doering, G.N., Talken L.W., Pratt, S.C. & Sasaki, T. (2023). Is collective nest site selection in ants influenced by the anchoring effect? Behavioural Processes 104861 [link]

Collet, J., Morford, J., Lewin, P., Bonnet-Lebrun, A., Sasaki, T. & Biro, D. (2023). Mechanisms of collective learning: how can animal groups improve collective performance when repeating a task? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 378 (1874) [pdf]

Wang, L., Qiu, Z., Sasaki, T. &  Kang, Y. (2023). Dynamical behavior of a colony migration system: Do colony size and quorum threshold affect collective decision? SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, S43-S64 [pdf]

2022

Sasaki, T., Masuda, N, Mann, RP & Biro, D (2022). Empirical test of the many-wrongs hypothesis reveals weighted averaging of individual routes in pigeon flocks. iScience 25 (10), 105076 [open access]

2021

Valentini, G., Pavlic, T.P., Walker S.I., Pratt, S.C., Biro, D. & Sasaki, T. (2021). Naive individuals promote collective exploration in homing pigeons. eLife 10:e68653. [open access]

Collet, J., Sasaki, T. & Biro, D (2021). Pigeons retain partial memories of homing paths years after learning them individually, collectively, or culturally. Proceedings of Royal Society B 288: 20212110. [pdf]

Kano, F., Sasaki, T. & Biro, D (2021). Collective attention in navigating homing pigeons: group size effect and individual differences. Animal Behaviour 180, 63-80. [pdf]

Davis, A.K., Clancy, K.M. & Sasaki, T.(2021). How to take an ant’s pulse: a procedure for non-destructively monitoring baseline and stimulated heart rate in Formicidae. Entomolgia Experimentalis et Applicata, 169: 807-812. [pdf]

Sasaki, T. & Pratt S.C. (2021). Tandem running recruitment by Temnothorax ants as a model system for social learning. The Cambridge Handbook of Animal Cognition (pp. 472-485). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [pdf]

O’Shea-Wheller, T.A., Hunt, E.R. & Sasaki, T. (2021). Functional heterogeneity in superorganisms: Emerging trends and concepts. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, saaa039. [pdf]

2020

Sasaki, T., Briner, J.E. & Pratt, S.C. (2020). The effect of brood quantity on nest choice in the Temnothorax rugatulus. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, saaa018. [pdf]

Sasaki, T., Danczak, L., Thompson, B., Morshed, T. & Pratt, S.C. (2020). Route learning during tandem running in the rock ant Temnothorax albipennis. Journal of Experimental Biology. 223: jeb221408. [pdf]

Valentini, G., Masuda, N., Shaffer, Z., Hanson, J.R., Sasaki, T., Walker, S.I. Pavlic, T.P. & Pratt, S.C. (2020). Division of labour promotes the bread of information in colony emigrations by the ant Temnothorax rugatulus. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287, 20192950. [pdf

2019

Sasaki, T., Stott, B. & Pratt, S.C. (2019). Rational time investment during collective decision making in Temnothorax ants. Biology Letters 15(10) [open access]

2018

Buffin, A., Sasaki, T. & Pratt, S.C. (2018). Scaling of speed with group size in cooperative transport by the ant Novomessor cockerelli. PLOS ONE 13(10): e0205400. [open access]

Kano, F., Walker, J., Sasaki, T. & Biro, D (2018). Head-mounted sensors reveal visual attention of free-flying homing pigeons. Journal of Experimental Biology.  [pdf]

Sasaki, T.,  Pratt, S.C. & Kacelnik, A. (2018). Parallel vs. comparative evaluation of alternative options by colonies and individuals of the ant Temnothorax rugatulus. Scientific Reports, 8, 12730. [open access]

Sasaki, T., Mann, R.P., Warren, K.N., Herbert, T., Wilson, T. & Biro, D. (2018). Personality and the collective: Bold homing pigeons occupy higher leadership ranks in flocks. Philosophical Transaction B, 373(1746). [pdf]

Sasaki, T. & Pratt, S.C. (2018). Psychology of a superorganism: collective decision-making by insect societies. Annual Review of Entomology, 63:259-275. [pdf]

2017

Charbonneau, D., Sasaki, T. & Dornhaus, A. (2017). Who needs ‘lazy’ workers?: Inactive workers act as a ‘reserve’ labor force replacing active workers, but inactive workers are not replaced when they are removed. PLoS ONE, 12(9):e0184074. [open access]

Kenndy, P., Baron, G., Bitao, Q., Freitak, D., Helanterä, H., Hunt, E.R., Manfredini, F., O’Shea-Wheller, T., Patalano, S., Pull, C., Sasaki, T., Taylor, D., Wyatt, T. & Sumner, S. (2017). Why social insects hold the keys to biology’s big riddles. Trends Ecology and Evolution, 32(11): 861-872. [pdf]

Sasaki, T. & Biro, D. (2017). Cumulative culture can emerge from collective intelligence in animal groups. Nature Communications, 8, 15049 [pdf][Science] [Telegraph] [Science Daily] [BBC World Service

2016 & Earlier

Shaffer, Z., Sasaki, T., Haney, B., Janssen, M., Pratt, SC., & Fewell, JH. (2016). The foundress’s dilemma: group selection for cooperation among queens of the harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex californicusScientific Reports, 6, 29828. [pdf]

Sasaki, T., Janssen, M., Shaffer, Z., & Pratt, SC. (2016). Exploration of unpredictable environments by networked groups. Current Zoology, 62(3), 52-214. [pdf]

Biro, D., Sasaki, T., & Portugal, SJ. (2016) Bringing a time-depth perspective to collective animal behaviour. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 31(7), 550-562 [pdf]

Sasaki, T.*, Penick, CA.*, Shaffer, Z., Haight, KL., Pratt, SC., & Liebig, J. (2016). A simple behavioral model predicts the emergence of complex animal hierarchies. American Naturalist, 187(6), 765-775 [pdf] (* co-first authors)

Sasaki, T., Colling, B., Sonnenschein, A., May, MM., & Pratt, SC. (2015). Flexibility of collective decision making during house hunting in Temnothorax ants. Behavioural Biology and Sociobiology 69, 707-714. [pdf]

Becker, DV., Mortensen, CR., Anderson, U., & Sasaki, T. (2014). Out of sight but not out of mind: Memory scanning is attuned to threatening faces. Evolutionary Psychology, 12(5), 901-912. [pdf]

Sasaki, T., Hölldobler, B., Millar, JG. & Pratt, SC. (2014). A context-dependent alarm signal in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus. Journal of Experimental Biology, 217, 3229-3236. [pdf]

Sasaki, T. & Pratt, SC. (2013). Ants learn to rely on more informative attributes during decision making. Biology Letters, 9 (6). [pdf] [The Daily Neuron] [Scientific American] [Science Daily]

Shaffer, Z., Sasaki, T. & Pratt, SC. (2013). Linear recruitment leads to allocation and flexibility in collective foraging by ants. Animal Behaviour, 86 (5), 967-975. [pdf]

Sasaki, T., Granovskiy, B., Mann, RP., Sumpter, DJT. & Pratt, SC. (2013). Ant colonies outperform individuals when a sensory discrimination task is difficult but not when it is easy. PNAS, 110(34), 13769-13773. [pdf] [The Wall Street Journal] [Nature] [National Geographic] [The Atlantic] [LA Times]

Pinter-Wollman, N., Hobson, E., Smith, J., Edelman, A., Shizuka, D., de Silva, S., Waters, J., Prager, S., Sasaki, T., Wittemyer, G., Fewell, J. & McDonald, D. (2013). The dynamics of animal social networks: analytical, conceptual, and theoretical advances. Behavioral Ecology, 25(2), 242-255 [pdf]

Sasaki, T. & Pratt, SC. (2012). Groups have a larger cognitive capacity than individuals. Current Biology 22(19), R827-R829. [pdf] [Science News] [Inside Science] [Onislam] [Science Daily]

Becker, DV., Mortensen, CR., Ackerman JM., Shapiro J., Anderson, U., Sasaki, T., Maner, J., Neuberg, S. & Kenrick, D. (2011). Signal detection on the battlefield: Priming self-protection vs. revenge-mindedness differentially modulates the detection of enemies and allies. PLoS ONE 6(9). [pdf]

Sasaki, T., Becker, DV. Janssen, M. & Neel, R. (2011). Does greater product information actually inform consumer decisions? The relationship between product information quantity and diversity of consumer decisions. Journal of Economic Psychology 32, 391-398. [pdf]

Sasaki, T. & Pratt, S.C. (2011). Emergence of group rationality from irrational individuals. Behavioral Ecology 22, 276-281. [pdf]

Ackerman, J. M, Becker, D. V., Mortensen, C. R., Sasaki, T., Neuberg, S. L, & Kenrick, D. T. (2009). A pox on the mind: Disjunction of attention and memory in processing physical disfigurement. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45, 478-485. [pdf]