Profile

Dr Luke Rendell
MASTS Reader in Biology
"The true biologist deals with life, with teeming boisterous life, and learns something from it, learns that the first rule of life is living"
John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez
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I am a Reader in Biology supported by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland (MASTS). I am affiliated with the Scottish Ocean Institute, Sea Mammal Research Unit, the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and the Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences.
I have broad research interests, largely centred around the evolution of learning, behaviour and communication, with a special focus on marine mammals.
In this study we investigated whether archerfish display any behavioural changes in response to the presence of an audience while using their specialized foraging tactic of spitting precisely aimed jets of water at prey targets. We found that in the presence of another fish, archerfish took longer to shoot, made more orientations (aiming events) per shot, and tended to be closer to the target at the time of shooting. Our results show that archerfish are sensitive to, and adjust their shooting behaviour in response to, the presence of an audience and highlight the importance of social context in this fish species.
The ability to build progressively on the achievements of earlier generations is central to human uniqueness, but experimental investigations of this cumulative cultural evolution lack real-world complexity. We studied the dynamics of cumulative culture using a large-scale data set from online collaborative programming competitions run over 14 years. Results showed that cumulative cultural evolution reduces technological diversity over time, as populations focus on refining high-performance solutions. While individual entries borrow from few sources, iterative copying allows populations to integrate ideas from many sources, demonstrating a new form of collective intelligence. Our results imply that maximising technological progress requires accepting high levels of failure.
Book
Our book, The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins is even available at Amazon! Hear it discussed on BBC Radio 4's "Start the Week". Listen to a podcast of a discussion between myself and author Phillip Hoare at the LSE Philosophy Forum here
Research
Sperm whale society and ecology
I have been studying the ecology, communication and societies of sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales, showing how long lasting social groups use distinctive vocal dialects that appear to be culturally transmitted. Part of this work is my involvement in running the Balearics Sperm Whale Project and as a collaborator of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project.
Culture in whales and dolphins
In whales and dolphins we find examples of both complex communication and apparently widespread social learning, a simple form of culture. I am using statistical models to assess the evidence for social learning in wild cetaceans.
Evolutionary modelling
I also use evolutionary simulation models to understand how these processes like social learning might have evolved, and how they might be related to the evolution of other kinds of behaviour, such as cooperation and niche-construction.
Human social learning
I use experimental approaches to understand how we negotiate the trade-offs involved in deciding whether to use social information to make simple decisions, as a window into how we have evolved to make best use of our cultural inheritance.
East Coast Marine Mammal Acoustic Study (ECOMMAS)
We are deploying passive listening buoys along the Scottish coastline in collaboration with Marine Scotland Science to monitor the impact of coastal windfarm development and also to give insight into acoustic behaviour of marine mammals.
Science without borders!
Hey world! #ScienceIsGlobal pic.twitter.com/JNm3OhuxW3
— Luke Rendell (@_lrendell) September 12, 2016
Alumni
Dr Charlotte Dunn finished her PhD "Insights into Blainville's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) communication" in January 2015
Dr Thomas Morgan completed his PhD, co-supervised with Kevin Laland and titled "Experimental studies of human social learning and its evolution" in December 2013
Dr Laurel Fogarty completed her PhD, co-supervised with Kevin Laland and titled "From social learning to culture: Mathematical and computational models of cultural evolution" in June 2012
Dr Ricardo Antunes completed his PhD, co-supervised with Phil Hammond and Jonathan Gordon, and titled "Variation in sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) coda vocalizations and social structure in the North Atlantic Ocean" in March 2009
Research Overview:
"The true biologist deals with life, with teeming boisterous life, and learns something from it, learns that the first rule of life is living"
John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez
Follow me on Twitter: @_lrendell
I am a Reader in Biology affiliated with the Scottish Ocean Institute, Sea Mammal Research Unit, the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and the Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences.
I have broad research interests, largely centred around the evolution of learning, behaviour and communication, with a special focus on marine mammals.
Latest paper(s)
Individuals exhibit consistent differences in behaviour and related cognitive performance. ‘Cognitive styles’-based hypotheses suggest the trade-off between speed and accuracy is an important factor where an individual's behavioural traits and linked decision speeds may account for its cognitive performance. The expected relationship between accuracy and decision speed, however, is not always clear and some studies have suggested that faster individuals do not suffer the expected cost to accuracy. We trained archerfish, Toxotes chatareus, to shoot at artificial targets for food, and then conducted a visual discrimination study to test the cognitive styles hypothesis. As expected, archerfish showed repeatable differences in latency to shoot and consistently fast individuals were quicker to achieve initial learning criteria than slower individuals. Repeated tests revealed an inverse relationship between discrimination accuracy and speed, with slower individuals having greater accuracy in initial trials on each day, supporting the cognitive styles hypothesis. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that speed–accuracy trade-offs can underlie some observed interindividual differences in cognition.
The habitat use of marine megafauna emerges from the complex interplay between access to patchy and variable food resources and several intrinsic biological factors, such as the interaction with conspecifics and offspring care, resulting in dynamic distribution patterns. In this study, we used monitoring data collected over two study periods (2003–2008 and 2012–2018) to assess the habitat use, trend in local occurrence, and change in distribution of sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus, around the Balearic Islands (Spain), one of the few recognised breeding and feeding grounds for the ‘Endangered’ population in the Mediterranean Sea. Results suggest that overall the occurrence of sperm whales in the area has been increasing over time. Animals were found to associate with distinct bathymetric features, but the mechanisms generating these relationships, and the underlying oceanographic processes within this habitat, remained uncertain. Sperm whale distribution also underwent a significant shift between the two study periods, with an increased occurrence in the Mallorca channel and north of Menorca, which further points towards a dynamic use of the broader bathymetric range preferred around the archipelago. Finally, our analyses highlighted that single animals and groups used areas with different characteristics, with groups preferring deeper, warmer waters characterised by lower sea level anomaly, which resulted in some fine-scale spatial segregation. The results of this study shed light on the mechanisms underpinning the biogeography and complex social system of the species, and support the design of targeted conservation measures in this important breeding and feeding ground.
Book
Our book, The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins is even available at Amazon! Hear it discussed on BBC Radio 4's "Start the Week". Listen to a podcast of a discussion between myself and author Phillip Hoare at the LSE Philosophy Forum here
Research
Sperm whale society and ecology
I have been studying the ecology, communication and societies of sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales, showing how long lasting social groups use distinctive vocal dialects that appear to be culturally transmitted. Part of this work is my involvement in running the Balearics Sperm Whale Project and as a collaborator of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project.
Culture in whales and dolphins
In whales and dolphins we find examples of both complex communication and apparently widespread social learning, a simple form of culture. I am using statistical models to assess the evidence for social learning in wild cetaceans.
Learning in archerfish
Archerfish have the highly specialised hunting tactic of shooting down prey with water jets. The dexterity and accuracy with which they do this has made them a model system in visual cognition. We are studying their shooting behaviour and learning to understand how this adaptation has interacted with their cognition.
Human social learning
I use experimental approaches to understand how we negotiate the trade-offs involved in deciding whether to use social information to make simple decisions, as a window into how we have evolved to make best use of our cultural inheritance.
Evolutionary modelling
I also use evolutionary simulation models to understand how these processes like social learning might have evolved, and how they might be related to the evolution of other kinds of behaviour, such as cooperation and niche-construction.
East Coast Marine Mammal Acoustic Study (ECOMMAS)
We are deploying passive listening buoys along the Scottish coastline in collaboration with Marine Scotland Science to monitor the impact of coastal windfarm development and also to give insight into acoustic behaviour of marine mammals.
Outreach
We value outreach work highly. Here are some links to some recent activities that myself and other lab members have been involved with:
https://research.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2020/03/19/humpback-whales-remixed/
https://www.dundeesciencecentre.org.uk/sea-symphonies; https://synergy.st-andrews.ac.uk/seasymphonies/
https://events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/fringe-of-gold-biomusic/
An approach to academic life: 12 guidelines for survival
Alumni
Dr Luca Lamoni completed his PhD "The role of individual behaviour in the collective cultural evolution of humpback whale songs” in 2018
Dr Ellen Garland held her Newton International Fellowship in our group from 2015 to 2017.
Dr Kaitlin Palmer completed her PhD "Large-Scale and Long-Term Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Coastal Bottlenose Dolphins" in 2017
Dr Elena Miu completed her PhD “Understanding human culture : theoretical and experimental studies of cumulative culture” in 2017
Dr Charlotte Dunn finished her PhD "Insights into Blainville's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) communication" in January 2015
Dr Thomas Morgan completed his PhD, co-supervised with Kevin Laland and titled "Experimental studies of human social learning and its evolution" in December 2013
Dr Laurel Fogarty completed her PhD, co-supervised with Kevin Laland and titled "From social learning to culture: Mathematical and computational models of cultural evolution" in June 2012
Dr Ricardo Antunes completed his PhD, co-supervised with Phil Hammond and Jonathan Gordon, and titled "Variation in sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) coda vocalizations and social structure in the North Atlantic Ocean" in March 2009
50 (of 100 /dk/atira/pure/researchoutput/status/published available) for ler4 (source: University of St Andrews PURE)
Please click title of any item for full details
Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 2020 vol. 160
Animal Behaviour 2020 vol. 160 pp. 1-14
Science Advances 2020 vol. 6
Marine Ecology Progress Series 2020 vol. 654 pp. 209-218
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2020 vol. 147 pp. 1078-1091
Science 2019 vol. 363 pp. 1032-1034
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, Biological Sciences 2019 vol. 374
Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 2019 vol. 29 pp. 254-270
Marine Ecology Progress Series 2019 vol. 609 pp. 257-270
Royal Society Open Science 2019 vol. 6
2019 pp. 261-280
Nature Communications 2019 vol. 10
Nature Communications 2018 vol. 9
Animal Behaviour 2018 vol. 145 pp. 131-140
Animal Behaviour 2018 vol. 141 pp. 95-103
Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2018 vol. 22 pp. 651-665
Biology Letters 2018 vol. 14
Ecological Indicators 2018 vol. 85 pp. 128-136
Music & Science 2018 vol. 1
Zoology 2018 vol. 128 pp. 1-15
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2017 vol. 142 pp. 863-877
Marine Mammal Science 2017 vol. 33 pp. 356-364
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2017 vol. 141 pp. 900-907
Trends in Ecology and Evolution 2017 vol. 32 pp. 625-626
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2017 vol. 114 pp. 7822-7829
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2017 vol. 142 pp. 460-472
2016 pp. 274-280
PeerJ 2016 vol. 4 pp. 1-38
Royal Society Open Science 2016 vol. 3
Royal Society Open Science 2016 vol. 3
2016 pp. 37-74
Ecological Indicators 2016 vol. 70 pp. 67-76
Nature Communications 2015 vol. 6
Aquatic Mammals 2015 vol. 41 pp. 252-255
2015
Endangered Species Research 2014 vol. 23 pp. 241-252
Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 2014 vol. 24 pp. 31-40
Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 2014 vol. 24 pp. 23-30
Behavioral Ecology 2014 vol. 25 pp. 257-258
Bioacoustics 2013 vol. 22 pp. 153-163
Science 2013 vol. 340 pp. 485-488
Review of General Psychology 2012 vol. 16 pp. 121-133
Behavior Genetics 2012 vol. 42 pp. 332-343
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2012 vol. 92 pp. 1799-1808
Learning and Motivation 2012 vol. 43 pp. 241-246
Contact Details:
Dr Luke RendellHarold Mitchell Building
University of St Andrews
St Andrews
KY16 9TH
Fife
UK
tel: 01334 463499
fax:
room: 308
email: ler4@st-andrews.ac.uk
Related:
research@st-andrewsSea Mammal Research Unit
Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution
Public Engagement Committee
School of Biology
Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences
IBANS Animal Cognition
Biology Teaching: PG Student Staff Consultative Committee
Centre for Biological Diversity
Scottish Oceans Institute
Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland
Biology Postgraduate Teaching Committee
BDG
The Sir John Templeton Foundation
Biology Ethics Committee
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The Secretary
Scottish Oceans Institute
Institiud Chuantan na h-Alba
Gatty Marine Laboratory
East Sands St Andrews
KY16 8LB
Scotland
UK
tel: +44 (0) 1334 463472
fax: +44 (0) 1334 463443
email: soi@st-andrews.ac.uk
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