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Theories of minds: the theoretical bases of comparative cognition

18 - 19 January 2012 09:00 - 17:00

Satellite meeting organised by Professor Nicky Clayton FRS, Dr Alex Thornton and Dr Uri Grodzinski

Event details

Empirical research into animal cognition is growing rapidly, but lacks a sound theoretical framework. How can we empirically distinguish different cognitive mechanisms, and assess their complexity? How does cognition evolve? This workshop will provide a unique forum for discussion between eminent evolutionary, cognitive and computational theorists and empirical researchers, paving the way for a robust, theoretically-grounded science of comparative cognition.

This event followed a broader Discussion meeting Animal minds: from computation to evolution 16 – 17 January 2012.

Biographies of the organisers and speakers are available below and audio recordings are freely available.

Organisers

  • Professor Nicola Clayton FRS, University of Cambridge, UK

    Nicola Clayton is an experimental psychologist whose studies of members of the crow family have shattered assumptions about the cognitive abilities of non-human animals. Through a series of imaginatively designed experiments, she has shown that rooks, jackdaws and jays can plan for the future and reflect on the past, as well as understand that members of their social groups have minds of their own.

    In pursuing her interest in the development and evolution of non-verbal cognition, Nicola also works with young children and non-human apes. Her findings have led her to suggest that intelligence in birds and human and non-human primates evolved independently.

    A dancer herself, Nicola explores dance as a form of non-verbal communication. She was the first Scientist in Residence at the dance company Rambert, a title she has continuously held since 2011. She also collaborates with artist and writer Clive Wilkins on The Captured Thought. Nicky and Clive regularly dance together, have given a TEDx talk entitled ‘Conversations Without Words’, and presented a Royal Society lecture at the Hay Festival.

  • Dr Alex Thornton

    Alex Thornton was born and grew up in Mexico City and later moved to the UK and studied biology at the University of Oxford. Following his PhD at the Department of Zoology in Cambridge he took up a Drapers' Company Research Fellowship at Pembroke College, Cambridge. His research uses a variety of observational and experimental techniques to investigate the role of social information in development and the establishment of traditions in natural animal populations. This work has led him to spend much of his career with meerkats in the Kalahari Desert, with an occasional outing to study banded mongooses in Uganda. More recently, he has begun a programme of research closer to home, investigating culture and cognition in corvids in the Cambridgeshire countryside. 

  • Dr Uri Grodzinski