<![CDATA[Alexis J Breen, PhD - News]]>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 20:48:48 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[New Preprint]]>Mon, 20 Mar 2023 17:45:43 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/new-preprintHow do animals successfully invade urban environments? My new open-access preprint with Dominik Deffner maps a full pathway from behaviour, to mechanisms, through to selection and adaptation, showing risk-sensitive learning is a viable strategy to help explain how male great-tailed grackles—the dispersing sex—currently lead their species' remarkable North American urban invasion. 
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]]><![CDATA[New Job!]]>Wed, 01 Feb 2023 08:00:00 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/new-jobThrilled to begin a new postdoc in the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. I'll be co-leading the Crow Cognition Group (CrowCoG), examining tool-related and general foraging behaviour in New Caledonian crows. 
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]]><![CDATA[New Research paper!]]>Wed, 29 Sep 2021 12:28:41 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/new-research-paperNew research paper linking nest-material physical properties (string rigidity) to birds' nest-building (pieces used) and breeding performance (chicks fledged): stiff-string (vs. flexible-string) builders need to 'work' less to fledge more chicks. Free download: https://bit.ly/2ZHsxmD
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]]><![CDATA[Another new opinion piece!]]>Wed, 14 Jul 2021 07:00:00 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/another-new-opinion-pieceMy new opinion piece argues that animal culture research should include avian nest construction - read the full paper, here. 
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]]><![CDATA[New Opinion Piece!]]>Tue, 09 Feb 2021 08:00:00 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/new-opinion-pieceOur new open-access opinion piece highlights the value of using a comparative approach to assess potential developmental drivers of skilled behaviour - paper available for download, here. 
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]]><![CDATA[Another new paper!]]>Thu, 30 Apr 2020 07:00:00 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/another-new-paperAnother first-author paper from my PhD is out today in Behavioral Ecology, which illuminates early-life drivers of technological behaviour - check out the graphical abstract below!
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]]><![CDATA[New paper!]]>Thu, 14 Feb 2019 18:00:56 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/new-paper4732053New paper out in Animal Cognition from my PhD examining whether observation of a nest - a social artefact - affects first-time nest construction in zebra finches. Summary below!
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]]><![CDATA[Officially Dr. Breen!]]>Thu, 15 Nov 2018 13:40:30 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/officially-dr-breenEcstatic to have successfully passed my viva with only typo corrections! Thoroughly enjoyed discussing the last three years of hard but rewarding research with my viva committee: Dr. Amanda Seed and Dr. Jackie Chappell. A big thanks to my supervisors Dr. Lauren Guillette and Prof. Sue Healy for their support (and for the yummy bubbles)! PictureEnjoying well-deserved bubbles with my PhD/viva committee (L to R): Lauren Guillette, Amanda Seed, myself, Sue Healy, and Jackie Chappell.
]]><![CDATA[keynote at ESLR 2018 Workshop]]>Sun, 24 Jun 2018 11:49:51 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/keynote-at-eslr-2018
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Thoroughly enjoyed attending and giving a keynote talk Social influences and consequences in animal construction ​at the Early-career Social Learning Researchers Summer Workshop in St Andrews. Great discussions were had on a range of different topics (e.g., key influences and new methodologies). Looking forward to ESLR 2019 Workshop!
]]><![CDATA[invited keynote talk]]>Fri, 02 Mar 2018 13:31:17 GMThttp://www.alexisbreen.com/news/invited-keynote-talkThrilled to have been invited to give a keynote talk at the annual Association for Young Social Learning Researchers (soon to be Association for Early-career Social Learning Researchers - good call!) in June 2018.
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