February 2012 - BERG - University of Stirling Mailing Lists

SCAB programme and maps
by Hannah Buchanan-Smith 28 Feb '12

28 Feb '12

Please find attached a copy of the SCAB programme and some maps on where to find us. The conference will take place in the V corridor of the Cottrell building. There is free parking behind Cottrell on weekends. More info on how to get to the university can be found here: http://www.stir.ac.uk/undergraduate-study/visit-the-campus/getting-here If you plan to come, please e-mail Rosalind Murray (r.l.murray(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:r.l.murray@stir.ac.uk>) before midday on Friday March 2, 2012. There is a £15 registration fee which includes coffee breaks and lunch. Please do forward to others. We look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday 10th March. -Rosalind Rosalind Murray http://www.sbes.stir.ac.uk/people/postgrads/murray/index.html -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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Tomorrow's BERG
by Hannah Buchanan-Smith 28 Feb '12

28 Feb '12

Dear all Reminder that tomorrow we have Dr. Mark Tramner (University of Manchester) speaking Jackdaw feeding behaviour. Wednesday 29th Feb at 5.30 pm in the Psychology Common Room (3A94, Cottrell Building) as usual. Also pleased to say the schedule is now full, thanks to Kristen Knowles! Please find final schedule attached. Hope to see you tomorrow. Hannah If you wish to subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the BERG mailing list please follow instructions here: http://lists.stir.ac.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/berg Just launched: http://marmosetcare.com/ Hannah M. Buchanan-Smith Professor, Behaviour and Evolution Research Group Psychology, School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling, FK9 4LA Scotland Tel: 01786 467674 Fax: 01786 467641 E-mail: h.m.buchanan-smith(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:h.m.buchanan-smith@stir.ac.uk> http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/staff-profiles/academic-staff/hannah… -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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Super cake Monday 27th - buy cakes, help SCAB!
by Hannah Buchanan-Smith 23 Feb '12

23 Feb '12

For folk on site in Stirling - please read message below from Alan Law about how to support SCAB by buying cakes! Hi all, As you know Ros is organising the SCAB conference at Stirling on March 10th, but we are both trying to raise a small amount of money so we can provide everyone with refreshments at the end of the conference day. To do this we are going bake some cakes and bring them in on Monday 27th at coffee time ( 11am) and sell them for minuscule prices to all you lucky people (I'll be making fresh cup cakes!). We would welcome anyone else who like to contribute a cake to let me know via email and to bring it along on Monday, anything sweet and cake like is most welcome. Place: 4U1 across from the BES office at 11am Thanks, Alan p.s. hopefully everyone hasn't given up cake for lent! -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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SCAB - important
by Hannah Buchanan-Smith 23 Feb '12

23 Feb '12

Rosalind Murray is doing an excellent job on organising SCAB - 10th March - here in Stirling. To register, and commit yourself to the £15 registration fee, please e-mail Rosalind directly to let her know you are coming - asap - r.l.murray(a)stir.ac.uk Today is the last day to register a talk or poster. Let's put on a good show - we really need more posters! The programme should be out soon and I shall circulate it. Hannah -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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Meeting on Wednesday
by Hannah Buchanan-Smith 20 Feb '12

20 Feb '12

Dear BERGers On Wednesday 22nd Feb, at 5.30pm in the common room (3A94), we shall have out first BERG meeting for the year. We shall brief introductions to welcome new folk, and welcome back folk returning from field work, and then I thought it would be a nice idea to reflect upon some of our academic achievements in 2011. Put modesty aside for a moment and let us know of an academic high. For example, if Craig was there he might tell us about his edited book Applied Evolutionary Psychology (http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199586073.do) or Jack Griffey and Louise Lock and others might tell us they were doctored! We want to hear about any highs - papers accepted, grants awarded, conference papers given. Let us spend a few moments celebrating our achievements as a group. I’ll them give a slide show of a different sort of high (altitude) in the Himalayas. Hope to see you there. The following week (Wed 29th Feb), Dr Mark Tranmer from the University of Manchester will give a talk about Jackdaw feeding behaviour – please see abstract below. Best, Hannah Investigating Jackdaw feeding behaviour with statistical models. Mark Tranmer, Mitchell Centre for Social Network analysis and CCSR, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Selvino de Kort, School of Science and The Environment, Manchester Metropolitan University. Manchester, UK. The Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) is a member of the “crow family” (Corvidae), found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa. de Kort et al (2006) collected data on the feeding behaviour of 12 Jackdaws over a 14 day period, with a particular focus on food sharing. Once collected, de kort et al (2006) aggregated the data into two time points (week 1 and week 2), and were interested in the following main research questions about the feeding behaviour of the birds. 1) Is there any evidence of reciprocity in food sharing? 2) What is the general relationship between senders and receivers in terms of food sharing, and this relationship change over time? 3) Is food sharing more similar for jackdaws with similar characteristics (homophily effects)? They applied a largely descriptive analysis to the aggregated data. A statistical modelling approach can also be used with these aggregate data, regarding the 12 Jackdaws as a small network at each of the two time points, and using, separately for each of the two time points, the Generalised Bilinear Mixed Effects (GMBE) model (Hoff, 2005): based on the statistical framework of the Social Relations Model, but not restricted to the assumption of a normally distributed response. More recently, it transpires that de Kort et al have disaggregated behavioural data available for every food item in sequence over time, indicating whether a bird eats a food item itself, shares it with another bird, whether the item is stolen by another bird, or begged for by another bird. Given the substantive research questions about bird behaviour, such as reciprocity in food sharing, and these disaggregated data, we investigate the potential of the relational events model for understanding Jackdaw feeding behaviour, and discuss some interesting features of the Jackdaw data in the context of relational event modelling. de Kort, S., Emery, N., Clayton, N., Aug. 2006. Food sharing in Jackdaws, Corvus monedula: what, why and with whom? Animal Behaviour 72 (2), 297–304. Hoff, P. D., Mar. 2005. Bilinear Mixed-Effects Models for Dyadic Data. Journal of the American Statistical Association 100 (469), 286–295. Just launched: http://marmosetcare.com/ Hannah M. Buchanan-Smith Professor, Behaviour and Evolution Research Group Psychology, School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling, FK9 4LA Scotland Tel: 01786 467674 Fax: 01786 467641 E-mail: h.m.buchanan-smith(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:h.m.buchanan-smith@stir.ac.uk> http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/staff-profiles/academic-staff/hannah… -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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BERG schedule
by Hannah Buchanan-Smith 14 Feb '12

14 Feb '12

Dear all Please find attached the BERG schedule for spring (includes notes for responsible persons/speakers). I am going to kick off our meetings next Wednesday 22nd Feb at 5.30pm in room 3A94 (as usual). Following brief introductions to meet new BERGers, I'll give a slide show of my Himalayan Adventures whilst you drink and nibble away! We have an external speaker the following week (29th Feb) - Mark Tramner from the University of Manchester talking about Jackdaw feeding behaviour I am still looking for someone to speak on 14 March - please offer! Please also note for your diaries: Seminars in Biology Stirling: http://www.sbes.stir.ac.uk/research/seminar.html Psychology, St. Andrews: http://psy.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/seminars.shtml noting Simon Baron-Cohen on 20th April. Scottish Conference on Animal Behaviour is here in Stirling on Saturday 10th March. PSGB is 17th and 18th April 2012, Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, Kent http://www.psgb.org/Meetings/Spring2012.html See you next week I hope! Hannah Just launched: http://marmosetcare.com/ Hannah M. Buchanan-Smith Professor, Behaviour and Evolution Research Group Psychology, School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling, FK9 4LA Scotland Tel: 01786 467674 Fax: 01786 467641 E-mail: h.m.buchanan-smith(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:h.m.buchanan-smith@stir.ac.uk> http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/staff-profiles/academic-staff/hannah… -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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Fwd: FW: Extra seminar from Malinda Carpenter
by Emily Messer 02 Feb '12

02 Feb '12

Dear all, Please see the forwarded message below for a seminar which may be of interest to you in St Andrews next Wednesday (8th Feb) in the seminar room. Many thanks, Emily ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Stephen Reicher <sdr(a)st-andrews.ac.uk> Date: 1 February 2012 09:15 Subject: FW: Extra seminar from Malinda Carpenter To: psy-staff <psy-staff(a)st-andrews.ac.uk>, Helen Sunderland < hes1(a)st-andrews.ac.uk>, psy-postg <psy-postg(a)st-andrews.ac.uk> Dear all, There is to be an extra seminar next Wednesday at 5pm from Malinda Carpenter of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig (details below). The seminar is to be held in the Seminar Room, *not* the Old Library. Steve * * Social motivations in infants and young children: Affiliation, alignment, and prosocial behaviour Malinda Carpenter Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig, Germany Humans may be unique among animals in our social motivations, for example in the extent to which we identify with and wish to align ourselves with our fellow group members. I show here that these social motivations are already present in infancy and early childhood. I present a series of studies on imitation, affiliation, and identification, which highlight young children’s connections with their social group and document their early preferential treatment of in- vs. out-group members. A theme running through many of these studies is the prevalence of * pro*social motivations in children as well, in particular their tendency to help others. Thus I also take some time to discuss helping in young children, for example showing how eager children are to help others in general, but at the same time how children’s tendency to help can be increased further, and how (appropriately) selective children are in whom they help. I conclude that strong social and prosocial motivations are seen already beginning in infancy. -- Emily. J. E. Messer PhD Student Scottish Primate Research Group Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution School of Psychology University of St Andrews St Marys Quad, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP +44 (0)1334 46 3043

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