(480) 727-9425 Stephen.Pratt@asu.edu

Sasaki, T., Danczak, L., Thompson, B., 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 labor promotes the spread of information in colony emigrations by the ant Temnothorax rugatulus. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287: 20192950. (PDF)

Sasaki, T., Stott, B., Pratt, S.C. (2019) Rational time investment during collective decision making in Temnothorax ants. Biology Letters 15(10): 20190542. (PDF)

Mizumoto, N., Miyata, S., Pratt, S.C. (2019) Inferring collective behavior from a fossilized fish shoal. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 286: 20190892.

Doering, G.N., Pratt, S.C. (2019) Symmetry breaking and pivotal individuals during the reunification of ant colonies. Journal of Experimental Biology, in press. (PDF)

Marting, P.R., Kallman, N., Wcislo, W., Pratt, S.C. (2018) Ant-plant sociometry in the Azteca-Cecropia mutualism. Scientific Reports 8: 17968. (PDF)

Wilson, S., Buffin, A., Pratt, S.C., Berman, S. (2018) Multi-robot replication of ant collective towing behaviors. Royal Society Open Science 5: 180409. (PDF)

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: e0205400. (PDF)

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

Sasaki, T. and Pratt, S.C. (2018) The psychology of superorganisms: Collective decision-making by insect societies. Annual Review of Entomology 63: 259-275. (PDF)

Marting, P.R., Wcislo, W.T., and Pratt, S.C. (2018) Colony personality and plant health in the Azteca-Cecropia mutualism. Behavioral Ecology 29: 264-271. (PDF)

Doering, G. and Pratt, S.C. (2016) Queen relocation and nest site preference influence colony reunification by the ant Temnothorax rugatulus. Insectes Sociaux 63, 585-591. (PDF)

Buffin, A. and Pratt, S.C. (2016) Cooperative transport by the ant Novomessor cockerelli. Insectes Sociaux 63, 429-438. (PDF)

Sasaki, T., Penick, C.A., Shaffer, Z., Haight, H.L., Pratt, S.C., and Liebig, J. (2016) A simple behavioral model predicts the emergence of complex animal hierarchies. The American Naturalist 187, 765-775. (PDF)

Sasaki, T., Janssen, M., Shaffer, Z., and Pratt, S.C. (2016) Exploration of unpredictable environments by networked groups. Current Zoology 62, 207-214. (PDF)

Shaffer, Z., Sasaki, T., Haney, B., Janssen, M., Pratt, S.C., and Fewell, J.H. (2016) The foundress’s dilemma: group selection for cooperation among queens of the harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus. Scientific Reports 6, 29828. (PDF)

Oldroyd, B.P. and Pratt, S.C. (2015) Comb architecture of the eusocial bees arises from simple rules used during cell building. Advances in Insect Physiology 49, 101-121. (PDF)

Sasaki, T., Colling, B., Sonnenschein, A., Boggess, M.M., and Pratt, S.C. (2015) Flexibility of collective decision making during house hunting in Temnothorax ants. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 69, 707-714. (PDF)

Wilson, S., Pavlic, T.P., Kumar, G.P., Buffin, A., Pratt, S.C., and Berman, S. (2014) Design of ant-inspired stochastic control policies for collective transport by robotic swarms. Swarm Intelligence 8, 303-327 (PDF)

Sasaki, T., Hölldobler, B., Millar, J.G., and Pratt, S.C. (2014) A context-dependent alarm signal in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus. Journal of Experimental Biology 217, 3229-3236. (PDF)

Overson, R., Gadau, J., Clark, R.M., Pratt, S.C., and Fewell, J.H. (2014) Behavioral transitions with the evolution of cooperative nest founding by harvester ant queens. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68, 21-30. (PDF)

Bowens, S.R., Glatt, D.P., and Pratt, S.C. (2013) Visual navigation during colony emigration by the ant Temnothorax curvispinosus. PLoS ONE 8: e64367. (PDF)

Sasaki, T. and Pratt, S.C. (2013). Ants learn to rely on more informative attributes during decision making. Biology Letters9, 20130667. (PDF)

Shaffer, Z., Sasaki, T., and Pratt, S.C. (2013). Linear recruitment leads to allocation and flexibility in collective foraging by ants. Animal Behaviour86, 967-975. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.08.014. (PDF)

Sasaki, T., Granovskiy, B., Mann, R.P., Sumpter, D.J.T., and Pratt, S.C. (2013). Ant colonies outperform individuals when a sensory discrimination task is difficult but not when it is easy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences110(34), 13769-13773. (PDF)

Sasaki, T. and Pratt, SC. (2012). Groups have a larger cognitive capacity than individuals. Current Biology 22(19), R827-R829. (PDF)

Berman, S., Lindsey, Q., Sakar, M.S., Kumar, V., and Pratt, S.C. (2011) Experimental study and modeling of group retrieval in ants as an approach to collective transport in swarm robotic systems. Proceedings of the IEEE, 99.9: 1470-1481.(PDF)

Sasaki, T. and Pratt, S.C. (2011) Emergence of group rationality from irrational individuals. Behavioral Ecology,22, 276-281. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (2010) Nest site choice in social insects. In: M. D. Breed and J. Moore (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior, Vol. 2: 534-540. Amsterdam: Elsevier. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (2010) Collective intelligence. In: M. D. Breed and J. Moore (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior, Vol. 1: 303-309. Amsterdam: Elsevier. (PDF)

Nasonia Genome Working Group (2010) Functional and evolutionary insights from the genomes of three parasitoid Nasonia species. Science, 327: 343-348.

Edwards, S.C. and Pratt, S.C. (2009) Rationality in collective decision-making by ants. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B, 276: 3655-3661. (PDF)

Sumpter, D.J.T. and Pratt, S.C. (2009) Quorum responses and consensus decision-making. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, 364: 743-753. (PDF)

Healey, C.I.M. and Pratt, S.C. (2008) The effect of prior experience on nest site evaluation by the ant Temnothorax curvispinosus. Animal Behaviour, 76: 893-899. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (2008) Efficiency and regulation of recruitment during colony emigration by the ant Temnothorax curvispinosus. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 62: 1369-1376. (PDF)

Berman, S., Halasz, A., Kumar, V., and Pratt, S.C. (2007) Algorithms for the analysis and synthesis of a bio-inspired swarm robotic system. In: E. Sahin, W. M. Spears and A. F. T. Winfield (Eds.), Swarm robotics (Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4433: 56-70). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. (PDF)

Loomes, K.M., Stevens, S.A., O’Brien, M.L., Gonzalez, D.M., Ryan, M.J., Segalov, M., Dormans, N.J., Mimoto, M.S., Gibson, J.D., Sewell, W., Schaffer, A.A., Nah, H.D., Rappaport, E.F., Pratt, S.C., Dunwoodie, S.L., and Kusumi, K. (2007) Dll3 and Notch1 genetic interactions model axial segmental and craniofacial malformations of human birth defects. Developmental Dynamics 236: 2943-2951.

William, D.A., Saitta, B., Gibson, J.D., Traas, J., Markov, V., Gonzalez, D.M., Sewell, W., Anderson, D.M., Pratt, S.C., Rappaport, E.F., and Kusumi, K. (2007) Identification of oscillatory genes in somitogenesis from functional genomic analysis of a human mesenchymal stem cell model. Developmental Biology 305: 172-186.

Gabriel, A., Dapprich, J., Kunkel, M., Gresham, D., Pratt, S.C., and Dunham, M. (2006) Global mapping of transposon location. PLoS Genetics 2: 2026-2038. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. and Sumpter, D.J.T. (2006) A tuneable algorithm for collective decision-making. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103: 15906-15910. (PDF)

Ruderfer, D., Pratt, S.C., Saidel, H., and Kruglyak, L. (2006) Population genomic analysis of outcrossing and recombination in yeast. Nature Genetics 38: 1077-1081.

Balch, T., Dellaert, F., Feldman, A., Guillory, A., Isbell, C., Khan, Z., Pratt, S.C., Stein, A., and Wilde, H. (2006) How multi-robot systems research will accelerate our understanding of social animal behavior. Proceedings of the IEEE 94: 1445-1463.

Gresham, D., Ruderfer, D.M., Pratt, S.C., Schacherer, J., Dunham, M., Botstein, D., and Kruglyak, L. (2006) Genome-wide mapping of polymorphisms at nucleotide resolution with a single DNA microarray. Science 311: 1932-1936. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (2005) Behavioral mechanisms of collective nest-site choice by the ant Temnothorax curvispinosus. Insectes Sociaux 52: 383-392. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C., Sumpter, D.J.T., Mallon, E.B., and Franks, N.R. (2005) An agent-based model of collective nest choice by the ant Temnothorax curvispinosus. Animal Behaviour 70: 1023-1036. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (2005) Quorum sensing by encounter rates in the ant Temnothorax curvispinosus. Behavioral Ecology 16: 488-496. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (2004) Collective control of the timing and type of comb construction by honey bees ( Apis mellifera). Apidologie 35: 193-205. (PDF)

Sumpter, D.J.T. and Pratt, S.C. (2003) A modelling framework for understanding social insect foraging. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 53: 131-144. (PDF)

McLeman, M.A., Pratt, S.C., and Franks, N.R. (2002) Navigation using visual landmarks by the ant Leptothorax albipennis. Insectes Sociaux 49: 203-208. (PDF)

Franks, N.R., Pratt, S.C. , Britton, N.F., Mallon, E.B., and Sumpter, D.J.T. (2002) Information flow, opinion-polling and collective intelligence in house-hunting social insects. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences 357: 1567-1584. (PDF)

Britton, N.F., Franks, N.R., Pratt, S.C., and Seeley, T.D. (2002) Deciding on a new home: how do honey bees agree? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 269: 1383-1388. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. , Mallon, E.B., Sumpter, D.J.T., and Franks, N.R. (2002) Quorum sensing, recruitment, and collective decision-making during colony emigration by the ant Leptothorax albipennis. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 52: 117-127. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. , Brooks, S.E., and Franks, N.R. (2001) The use of edges in visual navigation by the ant Leptothorax albipennis . Ethology 107: 1125-1136. (PDF)

Mallon, E.B., Pratt, S.C. , and Franks, N.R. (2001) Individual and collective decision-making during nest site selection by the ant Leptothorax albipennis . Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 50: 352-359. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. and Pierce, N.E. (2001) The cavity-dwelling ant Leptothorax curvispinosus uses nest geometry to discriminate among potential homes. Animal Behaviour 62: 281-287. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. , M.J. Daly, and L. Kruglyak (2000) Exact multipoint quantitative-trait linkage analysis in pedigrees by variance components. American Journal of Human Genetics 66: 1153-1157. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (2000) Gravity-independent orientation of honeycomb cells. Naturwissenschaften 87: 33-35. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (1999) Optimal timing of comb construction by honey bee colonies: a dynamic programming model and experimental tests. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 46: 30-42. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (1998) Condition-dependent timing of comb construction by honey bee colonies: How do workers know when to start building? Animal Behaviour 56: 603-610. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (1998) Decentralized control of drone comb construction in honey bee colonies. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 42: 193-205. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. , S. Kühnholz, T.D. Seeley, and A. Weidenmüller (1996) Worker piping associated with foraging in undisturbed queenright colonies of honey bees. Apidologie 27: 13-20. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. , P. Calabi, and N.F. Carlin (1994) Division of labor in Ponera pennsylvannica   (Formicidae: Ponerinae). Insectes Sociaux   41: 43-61. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (1994) Ecology and behavior of Gnamptogenys horni (Formicidae: Ponerinae). Insectes Sociaux 41: 255-262. (PDF)

Pratt, S.C. (1989) Recruitment and other communication behavior in the ponerine ant Ectatomma ruidum. Ethology 81:  313-331. (PDF)

Collective decision-making:

Knowable Magazine
The Mind of an Anthill
Sep. 14, 2018

Science for the People
AI: Ant Intelligence
Oct. 27, 2017

The Wall Street Journal
Bees and Ants on How to Make Decisions
When it comes to making decisions, bees and ants can act against stereotype
By Robert M. Sapolsky
Sept. 19, 2014

Ant colony personalities:

Smithsonian Insider
Ant colony 'personality' may play role in survival of its host plant
By Daniel Luzer
December 5, 2017

Ants learn to alter priorities:

IFL Science!
Ants Are Capable of Changing Their Priorities
By Lisa Winter
November 11, 2013

Scientific American
How is Past Experience Biasing Our Decision-Making?
Insights from Rock Ants
By Felicity Muth
November 14, 2013

Bio-inspired robotics:

The Atlantic
Here Come the Swarming Drones
Insect inspired aerial vehicles could evolve into useful minions to track, map, and respond to climate change.
By Mary Catherine O'Connor
Oct 31, 2014

Wisdom of crowds:

National Geographic
Madness of Crowds: Single Ants Beat Colonies At Easy Choices
By Ed Yong
July 30, 2013

The Atlantic
The Stupidity of the Crowd
New research shows that groups make worse decisions than individuals do when the choice is really obvious.
By Olga Khazan
July 29, 2013

Los Angeles Times
Ants make tough choices better when working in groups, study says
By Melissa Pandika
July 30, 2013