Dear BERGers,
A quick reminder that Elodie Freymann (University of Oxford) is giving a seminar today entitled "Applying Collocation and APRIORI Analyses to Chimpanzee Diets: methods for investigating non-random food combinations in primate self-medication". Please find the abstract below. This will be an online seminar. This is the last BERG seminar this semester! We will start a new series in the Fall.
Abstract: Historically, the study of animal self-medication has focused on identifying novel medicinal resources through recognizing unusual or characteristic behaviors like leaf-swallowing or bitter pith chewing. While it is easy to consider these therapeutic self-medicative behaviors isolated occurrences, it is premature to rule out the notion that primate self-medication is a more holistic phenomenon. Rather, like humans, chimpanzees may be using multiple self-medicative resources throughout the duration of a given illness, or within a short period of time, a concept we call the Self-Medicative Food Combination Hypothesis. Identifying non-random resource combinations can, therefore, illuminate potentially synergistic relationships between medicinal resource candidates. In this talk, I will present analytical tools with which such a hypothesis can be tested, in a novel context, to investigate frequently occurring food combinations within the Budongo chimpanzee diet. Specifically, I will evaluate the use of Collocation and APRIORI analyses as effective exploratory tools for identifying binary combinations, and APRIORI as an effective for multi-item rule associations, using a case study from my own data. If non-random food associations can be identified in long-term data sets, a new paradigm for evaluating feeding ecology may be needed. One which evaluates primate diets as holistically calculated rather than as opportunistically encountered.
MSTeams link:
https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…
-------------------------------
Dr Pawel Fedurek (he/his)
Lecturer in Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG)
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1786 467844<tel:+441786467844>
Twitter: @fedurekp<https://twitter.com/fedurekp> @BERG_Stirling<https://twitter.com/BERG_Stirling>
Staff page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/1080868> | BERG page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties/natural-sciences/our-research/resear…>
I aim to reply within 3 working days (my working days are between Monday and Friday).
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
Dear BERGers,
This Wednesday, Elodie Freymann (University of Oxford) will be giving a seminar entitled "Applying Collocation and APRIORI Analyses to Chimpanzee Diets: methods for investigating non-random food combinations in primate self-medication". Please find the abstract below. This will be an online seminar. This is the last BERG seminar this semester! We will start a new series in the Fall.
Abstract: Historically, the study of animal self-medication has focused on identifying novel medicinal resources through recognizing unusual or characteristic behaviors like leaf-swallowing or bitter pith chewing. While it is easy to consider these therapeutic self-medicative behaviors isolated occurrences, it is premature to rule out the notion that primate self-medication is a more holistic phenomenon. Rather, like humans, chimpanzees may be using multiple self-medicative resources throughout the duration of a given illness, or within a short period of time, a concept we call the Self-Medicative Food Combination Hypothesis. Identifying non-random resource combinations can, therefore, illuminate potentially synergistic relationships between medicinal resource candidates. In this talk, I will present analytical tools with which such a hypothesis can be tested, in a novel context, to investigate frequently occurring food combinations within the Budongo chimpanzee diet. Specifically, I will evaluate the use of Collocation and APRIORI analyses as effective exploratory tools for identifying binary combinations, and APRIORI as an effective for multi-item rule associations, using a case study from my own data. If non-random food associations can be identified in long-term data sets, a new paradigm for evaluating feeding ecology may be needed. One which evaluates primate diets as holistically calculated rather than as opportunistically encountered.
MSTeams link:
https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…
-------------------------------
Dr Pawel Fedurek (he/his)
Lecturer in Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG)
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1786 467844<tel:+441786467844>
Twitter: @fedurekp<https://twitter.com/fedurekp> @BERG_Stirling<https://twitter.com/BERG_Stirling>
Staff page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/1080868> | BERG page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties/natural-sciences/our-research/resear…>
I aim to reply within 3 working days (my working days are between Monday and Friday).
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
Dear All,
Just a quick message that there is no BERG seminar this week.
Best wishes,
Pawel
-------------------------------
Dr Pawel Fedurek (he/his)
Lecturer in Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG)
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1786 467844<tel:+441786467844>
Twitter: @fedurekp<https://twitter.com/fedurekp> @BERG_Stirling<https://twitter.com/BERG_Stirling>
Staff page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/1080868> | BERG page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties/natural-sciences/our-research/resear…>
I aim to reply within 3 working days (my working days are between Monday and Friday).
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
Dear BERGers,
This Wednesday James Brooks (Kyoto University) will be giving a seminar entitled "The mechanisms and evolution of group-based cooperation". Please find the abstract below. Please note that due to the time difference (James will be talking from Japan), the seminar will take place at 10am. Hope you can attend!
Abstract: While humans’ psychological disposition towards both large scale cooperation and intergroup competition has long been recognized, the majority of comparative psychology research has focused on the dyadic level. I here review a set of our recent studies focusing on the evolution of inherently group-level social behaviour with bonobos, chimpanzees, and domestic horses. Bonobos and chimpanzees are humans’ two closest relatives, and, despite diverging only recently, show considerable differences in group-based behaviour in wild contexts. Horses are relatively distantly related to us phylogenetically, but share with us an evolutionary history of domestication and show group-level herding behaviour with multi-level social structure. Methods focused on measurement of changes to social attention as well as naturalistic social behaviour following administration of exogenous oxytocin or saline placebo, along with observation of behavioural responses to outgroup stimuli. On the whole, evidence suggests that oxytocin supports species-typical sociality, including in group-level contexts, and that, as in humans, perceived outgroup threat promotes ingroup cohesion in our closest relatives. These results provide empirical support for some existing hypotheses about the relation between intergroup competition and group cooperation, highlight areas of study warranting continued future investigation, and suggest that the evolutionary origins of human group-mindedness may, in part, be understood through a history of intergroup competition supported by the oxytocin system.
MSTeams link:
https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…
[cid:9ef5eae6-ef6e-46b4-8c7b-4ce56f4c6233]<https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…>
Join conversation<https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…>
teams.microsoft.com
Remaining meetings:
Date
Time
Speaker
Format
08/05/2024
10:00
James Brooks (Kyoto)
Online
15/05/2024
tbc
22/05/2024
16:00
Elodie Freymann (Oxford)
online
Best wishes,
Pawel
-------------------------------
Dr Pawel Fedurek (he/his)
Lecturer in Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG)
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1786 467844<tel:+441786467844>
Twitter: @fedurekp<https://twitter.com/fedurekp> @BERG_Stirling<https://twitter.com/BERG_Stirling>
Staff page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/1080868> | BERG page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties/natural-sciences/our-research/resear…>
I aim to reply within 3 working days (my working days are between Monday and Friday).
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
Dear All,
This Wednesday Dr Victoria Lee (Scotland's Rural College) will be giving a seminar entitled "Do jackdaws learn socially about dangerous people? Please find the abstract below. Hope to see you there!
Abstract: In anthropogenic habitats, humans can present both an opportunity and a threat to wildlife. In these situations, it may be beneficial for animals to use social information to learn about dangerous people and avoid direct encounters that could be costly. We tested whether jackdaws use social information to learn about the level of danger posed by unfamiliar people. Using a within-subjects design, jackdaws were presented with an unfamiliar person near their nest, paired with conspecific alarm calls or a neutral control. Jackdaws that heard alarm calls showed a heightened fear response in subsequent encounters with the person, suggesting that jackdaws use social learning to assess the level of risk posed by people.
MSTeams link:
https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…
Remaining meetings:
Date
01/05/2024
Time
16:00
Speaker
Victoria Lee (SRUC)
Format
F2F/hybrid
08/05/2024
10:00
James Brooks (Kyoto)
Online
15/05/2024
tbc
22/05/2024
16:00
Elodie Freymann (Oxford)
online
Best wishes,
Pawel
-------------------------------
Dr Pawel Fedurek (he/his)
Lecturer in Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG)
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1786 467844<tel:+441786467844>
Twitter: @fedurekp<https://twitter.com/fedurekp> @BERG_Stirling<https://twitter.com/BERG_Stirling>
Staff page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/1080868> | BERG page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties/natural-sciences/our-research/resear…>
I aim to reply within 3 working days (my working days are between Monday and Friday).
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
