Profile avatar
dremalt.bsky.social
Lecturer in Psychology @ Newcastle University. Studying the evolution of hierarchies and hierarchical thinking, mostly in primates. Open science, BTS, ManyPrimates/ManyManys. Living organism. Psoriatic arthritic. Age dyschronic. Writer. Buddhist.
191 posts 1,157 followers 175 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
Posts 24 Comments 26

Normalise writing a nice quick note to scholars literally every time you read and like their work. Our world is small and getting smaller. We need encouragement.

submitted 16 days ago • 9 comments

When you're stuck in a nightmare that you can't get your contact lenses out

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Observe the wild Brown Dog, thermoregulating so good in the little hole he dug for himself in the cool dirt in the shade

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

Just another day walking by a herd of cows on my way home through central Newcastle

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

What are common characteristics of #power & #dominance in humans?!? 🧔🤺 ➡️ it's different in non-humans 🐒 🐦! Drew Altschul finds convergence among psyc measures - there is a general assertative factor which is stable! @dremalt.bsky.social #ehbea2025 #status

submitted 54 days ago • 0 comments

If anyone has questions about @manyprimates.bsky.social or want to know how to get involved, I will be at #EHBEA2025 for the rest of the week 🐒🦍🦧

submitted 56 days ago • 0 comments

Soula's feedback has been quite valuable today. She's very invested in the current project on dog personality. Brown, meanwhile, clearly phoning it in as a collaborator. He'll be getting last author.

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

While this is not exactly what's going on in the article, I am reminded that we've had modern measurement theory for quite a while now, and that dismayingly few widely-used and socially important measures survive first contact with it.

submitted 67 days ago • 2 comments

Sunny day friends

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

Really interesting post. The West End Games Star Wars RP system had a lot of flaws, but was (and is!) so much fun. WEG's system was always a better fit than d20. I still have all these sourcebooks at my parents' house. But there's a lot of historical impact I didn't know about, or had forgotten.

submitted 73 days ago • 1 comment

“A Voice Inside Your Head” – An AI superintelligence spontaneously manifests and it might actually be... benevolent? And help people self-actualise? A young couple must find new paths to keep from losing their identities or losing their minds. Station 11 x Neuromancer #scotwriterpitch2025

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

“A Voice Inside Your Head” - A superintelligent, superpowerful AI manifests in our world, seemingly out of nowhere, and radically changes the planet. Two ordinary people have to figure out how to navigate their new world without letting it psychologically destroy them. #scotwriterpitch2025

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

So proud of this little one. I found this succulent by the side of the road, next to a bin, desperately root bound and thirsty. Brought it home, took care of it, and it has thrived since. And now it even blossomed!

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

Needed a nostalgic read so I reread Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East (Broken Lands, Black Mountains, Changeling Earth/Ardneh's World) for the first time in many years. What pacing! What ideas, innovation, and fun! Crazy interesting demons! Draffut! An absolute classic of science fantasy.

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments

Academics when they get invited to review something

submitted 75 days ago • 2 comments

Namaste from Nepal, friends

submitted 85 days ago • 1 comment

The crisis in British higher education is acute + painful right now. If you are in it you already know this, but for those who are not I want to share what is going on. As strikes start at Newcastle Uni + others will doubtless follow, now is a time for solidarity + resistance

submitted 97 days ago • 9 comments

🦍🖥️New paper on great apes in virtual environments: Chimpanzee Turning Behavior During Spatial Navigation in Virtual Environments (animalbehaviorandcognition.org/article.php?id=1390). Led by Sarah Koopman, we went back to basics and asked a simple question about object permanence and optical flow.

submitted 102 days ago • 1 comment

Unforseen support for the "use it or lose it" hypothesis of cognitive function

submitted 118 days ago • 1 comment

1/7 Humpback whale communication has human language features They have studied the songs of humpback whales inspired by the way children segment communication. When studied from this perspective, it purely follows Zipf's law. (paper) https://buff.ly/3Q5OZNf

submitted 122 days ago • 1 comment

Those three maxims, though I didn't get them from Newport, have made it bearable to try working while living with a chronic illness. Though obsessing over quality is still an obsession. And obsessions like that bring considerable anxiety.

submitted 122 days ago • 0 comments

Since I've been trying to ignore the internet, I only just learned that one of my first academic mentors, Jerry Schneider, died in December. Here's a little write-up: bcs.mit.edu/news/profess... Jerry taught me animal behavior. I can't emphasize enough how impactful it was to have him as a teacher.

submitted 125 days ago • 0 comments

This is from a couple of months ago but worth resurfacing: Octopus, the modular publishing platform @octopus-ac.bsky.social, now integrates goverment funding priorities as Research Problems, the first module in a research project. www.jisc.ac.uk/news/all/oct...

submitted 140 days ago • 1 comment

Hot take: Row Row Row Your Boat is an underappreciated masterpiece of Zen philosophy.

submitted 148 days ago • 0 comments