- BERG - University of Stirling Mailing Lists

FW: BERG seminar today, 16:00
by Christine Caldwell 18 May '22

18 May '22

Dear BERGers, Quick reminder that today, Dr Eva Reindl (Durham University ) is giving a seminar for us about her research entitled "The structure of executive functions in preschool children and chimpanzees". Please see the abstract, and the link to the meeting, below. Abstract Humans are cognitively unique – but what are the abilities that underpin this uniqueness? One prominent explanation focuses on socio-cognitive abilities such as imitation, teaching, theory of mind, and prosociality. Another, complementary, suggestion is that modern humans differ in more domain-general cognitive mechanisms, namely Executive Functions. In this talk I will present a recent publication from our lab (Völter et al., 2022<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.natur…>) in which we studied and compared the structure of Executive Functions (specifically: working memory, inhibitory control, attention shifting) in 55 chimpanzees and 185 preschool children using a test battery of nine non-verbal, novel tasks. Research on human adults has demonstrated the elusive nature of executive functioning, with different labs identifying a different number and structure of latent factors underlying performance. Research on human children has tentatively pointed to a single common factor underlying performance in executive functions tasks. Our work adds to this perspective, finding some support for a 1-factor model explaining performance across tasks in both children and chimpanzees. I will discuss potential explanations for these results and briefly point to some ongoing further analyses of these data. About Eva: Eva is a postdoctoral research associate working with Prof Rachel Kendal, Prof Robert Barton (Durham University) and Dr Amanda Seed (University of St Andrews) on a project founded by the John Templeton Society investigating Sequence cognition in primates. She is broadly interested in learning which cognitive and social factors differentiate humans from other great apes. She is interested in sequence cognition, executive functions, social learning, cumulative culture, and tool use, among other topics. Eva completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Birmingham in 2017, working with Dr Claudio Tennie, Prof Sarah Beck, and Prof Ian Apperly on a project investigating the developmental origins of cumulative culture. After that, she held a teaching position at the School of Anthropology at the University of Oxford. In 2018, Eva moved to St Andrews to work as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr Amanda Seed on a project investigating the structure of executive functions in chimpanzees and human children. In 2021, Eva was a lecturer at Birmingham City University, before starting her current job at Durham University in 2022. Link to the meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…> ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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BERG meeting this week: Eva Reindl discusses executive functions
by Christine Caldwell 17 May '22

17 May '22

Dear BERGers, This is a quick reminder that this Wednesday (18 May), Dr Eva Reindl (Durham University) will be giving a seminar about her research entitled "The structure of executive functions in preschool children and chimpanzees". Please see the abstract, and the link to the meeting, below. Abstract Humans are cognitively unique - but what are the abilities that underpin this uniqueness? One prominent explanation focuses on socio-cognitive abilities such as imitation, teaching, theory of mind, and prosociality. Another, complementary, suggestion is that modern humans differ in more domain-general cognitive mechanisms, namely Executive Functions. In this talk I will present a recent publication from our lab (Völter et al., 2022) in which we studied and compared the structure of Executive Functions (specifically: working memory, inhibitory control, attention shifting) in 55 chimpanzees and 185 preschool children using a test battery of nine non-verbal, novel tasks. Research on human adults has demonstrated the elusive nature of executive functioning, with different labs identifying a different number and structure of latent factors underlying performance. Research on human children has tentatively pointed to a single common factor underlying performance in executive functions tasks. Our work adds to this perspective, finding some support for a 1-factor model explaining performance across tasks in both children and chimpanzees. I will discuss potential explanations for these results and briefly point to some ongoing further analyses of these data. About Eva: Eva is a postdoctoral research associate working with Prof Rachel Kendal, Prof Robert Barton (Durham University) and Dr Amanda Seed (University of St Andrews) on a project founded by the John Templeton Society investigating Sequence cognition in primates. She is broadly interested in learning which cognitive and social factors differentiate humans from other great apes. She is interested in sequence cognition, executive functions, social learning, cumulative culture, and tool use, among other topics. Eva completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Birmingham in 2017, working with Dr Claudio Tennie, Prof Sarah Beck, and Prof Ian Apperly on a project investigating the developmental origins of cumulative culture. After that, she held a teaching position at the School of Anthropology at the University of Oxford. In 2018, Eva moved to St Andrews to work as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr Amanda Seed on a project investigating the structure of executive functions in chimpanzees and human children. In 2021, Eva was a lecturer at Birmingham City University, before starting her current job at Durham University in 2022. Link to the meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee… ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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Fw: In case anybody cares...
by Pawel Fedurek 11 May '22

11 May '22

Dear All, Some of you might be interested - please see below a message/paper from Alex that he sent after his seminar today. 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). ________________________________ From: WEISS ALEXANDER <alex.weiss(a)ed.ac.uk> Sent: 11 May 2022 17:24 To: Pawel Fedurek <pawel.fedurek(a)stir.ac.uk> Subject: In case anybody cares... CAUTION: This email originated from outside University of Stirling. Do not follow links or open attachments if you doubt the authenticity of the sender or the content. ________________________________ Dear Pawel, Here's the article I mentioned. I've attached the html file in case anybody has problems with a paywall (I am not). https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-tru…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theat…> Best, Alex The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. Is e buidheann carthannais a th’ ann an Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann, clàraichte an Alba, àireamh clàraidh SC005336. ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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BERG seminar today, 16:00
by Pawel Fedurek 10 May '22

10 May '22

Dear BERGers, A reminder that today, Dr Alexander Weiss (University of Edinburgh) is giving a seminar about his new paper entitled "Dominance in Human Personality Space and in Hominoid Phylogeny". Please see the abstract below. I am also attaching the accepted paper that Alex has kindly shared with us. Link to the meeting and a list of the forthcoming seminars are below this email. Hope to see you later! Abstract: Unlike nonhuman primates, individual differences between humans in dominance do not appear as broad personality factors. This may be attributable to differences between the questionnaires used to study human and nonhuman primate personality. Alternatively, this may reflect a difference in the organization of personality in humans and nonhuman primates. To determine which of these two possibilities was most likely 1147 participants were asked to rate their personality and/or that of somebody else on the Hominoid Personality Questionnaire (HPQ), which has been used to study nonhuman primate personality. A large subset of these participants (~80%) also completed self- and/or rater reports of one of three questionnaires used to measure human personality. Exploratory factor analyses of HPQ rater report data yielded five factors. These factors correlated mostly in expected ways with scales from questionnaires used to study human personality. Exploratory factor analyses of HPQ self-report data yielded no clear number of factors and no consistent evidence with respect to the presence of a dominance factor. Subsequent analyses compared HPQ scales that represented dominance factors in chimpanzees, bonobos, mountain gorillas, and orangutans, to scales derived from the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, including Fearless Dominance, which combined Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion facets, Emotional Stability (the inverse of Neuroticism), and Extraversion’s Assertiveness facet. Fearless Dominance was most like the great ape dominance factors. The absence of human dominance factors, therefore, appears to reflect present or past social conditions of our species. Link to the meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…> Forthcoming seminars: Date Time Speaker Affiliation Seminar title 11/05/2022 16:00 Alexander Weiss University of Edinburgh Dominance in Human Personality Space and in Hominoid Phylogeny 18/05/2022 16:00 Eva Reindl Durham University TBC, investigating executive functions in children and chimps 25/05/2022 16:00 Shelley Culpepper University of Stirling Interspecific Olfactory Perception of Human Emotions: From the Horses Perspective ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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BERG seminar, Wednesday 16:00
by Pawel Fedurek 07 May '22

07 May '22

Dear BERGers, This is a quick reminder that this Wednesday (11 May), Dr Alexander Weiss (University of Edinburgh) will be giving a seminar about his new paper entitled "Dominance in Human Personality Space and in Hominoid Phylogeny". Please see the abstract below. I am also attaching the accepted paper that Alex has kindly shared with us. Link to the meeting and a list of the forthcoming seminars are below this email. Hope to see you on Wednesday! Abstract: Unlike nonhuman primates, individual differences between humans in dominance do not appear as broad personality factors. This may be attributable to differences between the questionnaires used to study human and nonhuman primate personality. Alternatively, this may reflect a difference in the organization of personality in humans and nonhuman primates. To determine which of these two possibilities was most likely 1147 participants were asked to rate their personality and/or that of somebody else on the Hominoid Personality Questionnaire (HPQ), which has been used to study nonhuman primate personality. A large subset of these participants (~80%) also completed self- and/or rater reports of one of three questionnaires used to measure human personality. Exploratory factor analyses of HPQ rater report data yielded five factors. These factors correlated mostly in expected ways with scales from questionnaires used to study human personality. Exploratory factor analyses of HPQ self-report data yielded no clear number of factors and no consistent evidence with respect to the presence of a dominance factor. Subsequent analyses compared HPQ scales that represented dominance factors in chimpanzees, bonobos, mountain gorillas, and orangutans, to scales derived from the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, including Fearless Dominance, which combined Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion facets, Emotional Stability (the inverse of Neuroticism), and Extraversion’s Assertiveness facet. Fearless Dominance was most like the great ape dominance factors. The absence of human dominance factors, therefore, appears to reflect present or past social conditions of our species. Link to the meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…> Forthcoming seminars: Date Time Speaker Affiliation Seminar title 11/05/2022 16:00 Alexander Weiss University of Edinburgh Dominance in Human Personality Space and in Hominoid Phylogeny 18/05/2022 16:00 Eva Reindl Durham University TBC, investigating executive functions in children and chimps 25/05/2022 16:00 Shelley Culpepper University of Stirling Interspecific Olfactory Perception of Human Emotions: From the Horses Perspective ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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BERG seminar today, 16:00
by Pawel Fedurek 02 May '22

02 May '22

Dear BERGers, A reminder that today, Dr Laura Lewis (Harvard University) is giving a seminar about her comparative research on chimpanzee and bonobo cognition. Please find the abstract, and the link to the meeting, below. Hope to see you later! Abstract: "Humans have remarkable adaptations for processing and participating in intricately complex social groups. Foundational among them are our abilities to identify and differentiate between unique individuals, our long-term memory for social affiliates, and our ability to comprehend social language. Despite the centrality of these skills to human social life, we know relatively little about their evolutionary origins in our primate lineage. Humans’ closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, live in large social groups of up to 150 individuals but often range in smaller foraging parties that change in social composition throughout the day (i.e., fission-fusion dynamics). Consequently, they too would greatly benefit from these social cognitive skills. Importantly, the similarities and differences in the socioecology of chimpanzees and bonobos allow us to test competing hypotheses about the selective pressures that heightened humans’ sensitivity to group membership and drove the evolution of our complex sociality and language capacities. By studying these species’ socio-cognitive abilities and patterns, this dissertation aims to clarify the extent to which the cognitive foundations of humans’ social relationships are shared with our closest relatives and were likely already present in our last common ancestor. Utilizing non-invasive eye-tracking technology to explore social attention, long-term social memory, and socially referential language comprehension in chimpanzees and bonobos, this dissertation sheds light on the phylogenetic precursors of human social cognition and the selective pressures that led to the evolution of our uniquely sophisticated social environments.” Link to the meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…> Forthcoming seminars: Date Time Speaker Affiliation Seminar title 04/05/2022 16:00 Laura Lewis Harvard University TBC, bonobo and chimpanzee cognition 11/05/2022 16:00 Alexander Weiss University of Edinburgh TBC 18/05/2022 16:00 Eva Reindl Durham University TBC 25/05/2022 16:00 Shelley Culpepper University of Stirling Interspecific Olfactory Perception of Human Emotions: From the Horses Perspective ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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BERG seminar, Wednesday 16:00
by Pawel Fedurek 29 Apr '22

29 Apr '22

Dear BERGers, Quick reminder that this Wednesday (4 May), Dr Laura Lewis (Harvard University) will be giving a seminar about her comparative research on chimpanzee and bonobo cognition. Please see the abstract, and the link to the meeting, below. Hope to see you on Wednesday! Abstract: "Humans have remarkable adaptations for processing and participating in intricately complex social groups. Foundational among them are our abilities to identify and differentiate between unique individuals, our long-term memory for social affiliates, and our ability to comprehend social language. Despite the centrality of these skills to human social life, we know relatively little about their evolutionary origins in our primate lineage. Humans’ closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, live in large social groups of up to 150 individuals but often range in smaller foraging parties that change in social composition throughout the day (i.e., fission-fusion dynamics). Consequently, they too would greatly benefit from these social cognitive skills. Importantly, the similarities and differences in the socioecology of chimpanzees and bonobos allow us to test competing hypotheses about the selective pressures that heightened humans’ sensitivity to group membership and drove the evolution of our complex sociality and language capacities. By studying these species’ socio-cognitive abilities and patterns, this dissertation aims to clarify the extent to which the cognitive foundations of humans’ social relationships are shared with our closest relatives and were likely already present in our last common ancestor. Utilizing non-invasive eye-tracking technology to explore social attention, long-term social memory, and socially referential language comprehension in chimpanzees and bonobos, this dissertation sheds light on the phylogenetic precursors of human social cognition and the selective pressures that led to the evolution of our uniquely sophisticated social environments.” Link to the meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…> Forthcoming seminars: Date Time Speaker Affiliation Seminar title 04/05/2022 16:00 Laura Lewis Harvard University TBC, bonobo and chimpanzee cognition 11/05/2022 16:00 Alexander Weiss University of Edinburgh TBC 18/05/2022 16:00 Eva Reindl Durham University TBC 25/05/2022 16:00 Shelley Culpepper University of Stirling Interspecific Olfactory Perception of Human Emotions: From the Horses Perspective ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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Seeking Dog Behaviour Experts
by Hannah Buchanan-Smith 27 Apr '22

27 Apr '22

[cid:5a60abec-5a32-4cae-aef9-b237dced133e] Dear BERGers I am emailing to ask if you would participate in our survey / share our survey with your relevant networks. We are exploring the topic of psychological trauma in dogs and the potential effect that psychological trauma may have on dog behaviour and welfare. This research will allow us to document the potential impacts that psychological trauma may have on dogs, which may additionally impact their owners and the community. This survey is open to dog behaviour/psychology experts. Participants must currently work in the field of dog behaviour or dog psychology and have a qualification of at least a Bachelor’s degree in the field of animal behaviour or animal psychology. The survey is available in three languages, English, Italian or Japanese, and is expected to take around 25 minutes to complete. This is a collaboration between researchers at The University of Queensland (AUS), the University of Stirling (UK), the University of Lincoln (UK), and RSPCA Australia (AUS). This study has ethical approval from the University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (#2022_HE000131). We would also very much appreciate if you could share our survey with your professional network so that we can capture a wide range of views from experts in this field. Your time and support are appreciated. The survey is available at this link: https://tinyurl.com/ProjectElevateSurvey and by using the QR code in the survey poster. Best wishes and thanks, Hannah, on behalf of the research team University of Queensland: Prof Alan Tilbrook, Dr Tamsin Barnes, Dr Ella Kuskoff, Dr Kris Descovich University of Stirling: Prof Hannah Buchanan-Smith University of Lincoln: Prof Daniel Mills RSPCA Australia: Dr Sarah Zito If useful, our social media survey posts can be shared from here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrisDescovich/status/1517788586061426688 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kris.descovich/posts/10163730448958125 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6923558416305057792/ Hannah M. Buchanan-Smith Professor, Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG) Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling, FK9 4LA Scotland E-mail: h.m.buchanan-smith(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:h.m.buchanan-smith@stir.ac.uk> Home page: <https://rms.stir.ac.uk/converis-stirling/person/11925> https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/257464 http://marmosetcare.com/ Animal Welfare 24/7 across the lifespan<https://animalconcepts.mykajabi.com/247approachtopromotingoptimalwelfarefor…> https://nc3rs.org.uk/housing-and-husbandry-dogs ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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Kept Animals Bill - interesting tender opportunity
by Hannah Buchanan-Smith 26 Apr '22

26 Apr '22

Defra has issued a research tender to develop the associated 'zoo-level' primate standards to the Kept Animals Bill that is going through parliament: The development of species specific guidance for primate standards for specialist keepers<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.contr…>. Closing date is 31 May. The contract is for one year and offers £60,000 to £75,000. Please follow links if interested to learn mor - or fire on to others who might be interested. ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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BERG seminar today, 17:00
by Pawel Fedurek 26 Apr '22

26 Apr '22

Dear BERGers, Just a reminder that today, Andre Pereira (Exeter University) is giving a seminar about his PhD project entitled "The evolution of kinship composition in mammals". Please see the abstract, and the link to the meeting, below. Please note that due to the faculty research day, today's seminar will take place at 17:00 rather than 16:00. Hope to see you later! Abstract All else being equal, cooperating with kin results in overall larger inclusive fitness benefits than with non-kin. Animals can live with kin, non-kin or both, and this kinship composition can thus influence the benefits and costs of group-living and the evolution of within-group cooperation. Yet, the kinship composition of mammalian groups remains uncharacterised. We characterised the taxonomic representation and evolutionary trajectory of kinship composition in mammals using pedigree data from the literature. We found that the ancestors shared by the 18 species in our sample likely lived with kin for most of their evolutionary history. However, we found that only roughly half of the 18 species lived in groups where all same-sex individuals were related, whereas the other half lived in groups where same-sex individuals featured kin and non-kin. Because it is not obvious why individuals might live with non-kin, these results spurred two questions: 1) When might group-members benefit from living with non-kin? 2) How might groups that feature non-kin arise from groups that only feature related individuals? To answer the first question, we used an analytical model to calculate the theoretical optimal kin to non-kin ratio for a group according to the benefits that non-kin provide. Overall, we found that living with some non-kin is beneficial when non-kin provide benefits that are larger than the benefits from inclusive fitness of the potential kin they displace. For the second question, we used agent-based models to simulate a scenario in which group-members might need to increase group size and we explored under what conditions recruiting immigrant non-kin is beneficial. Overall, our results indicated that recruiting unrelated immigrants is beneficial when distance to optimal group size is large and most potential immigrants are unrelated to group-members. Our findings indicate that living with a mixture of kin and non-kin is not rare in mammals and that non-kin can be valuable group-members, further highlighting the importance of considering both indirect and direct fitness benefits as co-drivers of the evolution of sociality. Link to the meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…> Forthcoming seminars: Date Time Speaker Affiliation Seminar title 27/04/2022 16:00 André Pereira University of Exeter The evolution of kinship composition in mammals 04/05/2022 16:00 Laura Lewis Harvard University TBC, bonobo cognition 11/05/2022 16:00 Alexander Weiss University of Edinburgh TBC 18/05/2022 16:00 Eva Reindl Durham University TBC 25/05/2022 16:00 Shelley Culpepper University of Stirling Interspecific Olfactory Perception of Human Emotions: From the Horses Perspective ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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