Dear BERGers,
Happy New Year to all and welcome to the new Spring Semester of BERG meetings! Our first meeting this semester will be on Wednesday 18th January (next week!), in the common room (3A94) - 5.30pm SHARP.
We are recruiting speakers for the programme (approx. 12 speakers) via a Doodle poll. Please sign up and/or feel free to suggest local speakers that we may wish to invite. The Doodle poll is here: https://doodle.com/poll/pa33ypah8bmchuau
We do not yet have anyone scheduled to speak at the first meeting, so if anyone is interested in starting us off this semester, please sign up asap.
As we have noted, speaking about your work at BERG is a great way to practise talks and develop valuable skills, and to get valuable yet friendly feedback from high-quality researchers and colleagues.
If you have new students who might wish to be on the BERG mailing list, please send them this e-mail. To sign up to the BERG mailing list new folk must complete the form available here:
http://lists.stir.ac.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/berg
We look forward to a great semester!
Best wishes,
Paxton
______________________________
Paxton Culpepper, BSc, MSc
PhD Candidate | Psychology
Department of Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group
Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, UK
Office: 3B134 Cottrell Building
Phone: +44 (0) 1786 466852
Fax: +44 (0) 1786 467641
Email: p.d.culpepper(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:p.d.culpepper@stir.ac.uk>
Dear BERGers,
For our final BERG of the semester we have Lesley Craig giving a talk entitled:
Impact of Interpretation on Attitudes to Great Ape Conservation and Welfare.
Research has examined the impact of zoo interpretation (enclosure design and signage) on visitor perception and attitudes, however, there has been less consideration of the potential impact of the form of information provided, in terms of type of context and contextual framing. Previous research suggests that as social animals, human beings are more interested in social relationships than physical information (Dunbar, 2011). There has been no research investigating whether providing information regarding non-human primate social behaviour in interpretation impacts visitor attitudes to conservation.
This talk will be dedicated to the life of Blossom (pictured) who sadly passed away recently and is greatly missed.
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There will be drinks and nibbles, and we will be going for drinks/food afterwards at No 2 Baker Street in town – all welcome! Looking forward to seeing you all.
Best wishes,
Donna
Dear BERGers,
This week we will have Janica Niven discussing her UFAW project entitled:
"What is most enriching about learning; novelty and challenge, or achievement and control?"
She will be talking about which phase of learning (training or mastery) provides more welfare benefits to Squirrel monkeys.
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Snacks and drinks as usual, see you all there!
Best wishes,
Donna
Dear BERGers,
I’ve been asked to circulate the details of an excellent new (& fully funded!) summer opportunity for researchers interested in mind, cognition, and intelligence. Please see below for information and contact details.
Best,
Donna
-----Original Message-----
From: Erica Cartmill [mailto:cartmill@anthro.ucla.edu]
Sent: 04 December 2017 07:06
To: Luke Rendell
Subject: A new interdisciplinary summer institute!
Dear Luke,
I hope you’ve had a terrific 2017. It's been far too long since we've had a
chance to chat! I wanted to share some exciting news. In 2018, I will be
launching a new summer program, the Diverse Intelligences Summer
Institute (DISI for short), with my colleague Jacob Foster, a computational
sociologist at UCLA. The basic idea is to bring together promising graduate
students and postdocs interested in the study of mind, cognition, and
intelligence for two weeks of transdisciplinary exploration. Participants and
faculty will fall roughly into three sub-themes: Recognizing Intelligences (i.e.,
non-human biological intelligences); Shaping Human Intelligences (how
development, culture, technology, etc. shape human capacities); and
Programming Intelligences (artificial intelligence and its social/philosophical
implications). We’ve already assembled an outstanding international faculty,
and anticipate stimulating discussion and debate across a range of cutting-
edge topics. In addition to attending lectures and engaging in discussions,
participants will have the opportunity to develop collaborative
interdisciplinary research projects with guidance from DISI faculty and staff.
We’ll be holding the Summer Institute at the University of St Andrews from
July 29 to August 12.
I’ve attached a flyer advertising the Institute, and included a link to our
website below. I would be grateful if you could forward this to talented
graduate students, postdocs, and other early career researchers who might
be interested. We are looking for creative, open-minded participants who
want to take intellectual risks and break down disciplinary barriers in the spirit
of dialogue and discovery. We’ll begin reviewing applications on February 1,
2018. We anticipate selecting and fully funding 40-45 participants.
If potential applicants have any questions, they can reach out to our
wonderful Program Administrator, Dr. Stephanie Meredith, at
disicontact(a)gmail.com<mailto:disicontact@gmail.com>.
Thanks so much for helping us build an exciting new intellectual community!
www.diverseintelligencessummer.com<http://www.diverseintelligencessummer.com>
<http://www.diverseintelligencessummer.com/>
All the best,
Erica
----------------------------------------------
Erica Cartmill
Assistant Professor
341 Haines Hall
Department of Anthropology
Department of Psychology
UCLA
Dear BERGers,
There will be no BERG this week due to the PSGB meeting in London. We will resume as normal next Wednesday.
Have a great week!
Best wishes,
Donna
Dear BERGers,
This week we are very excited to have Dr Cynthia Moss in conversation with BERG members - this will be a question and answer session.
Cynthia is founder and director of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants and is involved in research & monitoring of elephants, training elephant researchers and promoting public awareness, to name a few. She has also written numerous influential books & articles, and created award-winning documentaries. Please find links below for further information on her work.
Amboseli Trust for Elephants
https://www.elephanttrust.org/
Interview with Cynthia & Vicki Fishlock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSOPqacr2iQ
Recent articles:
African Elephant Play, Competence and Social Complexity
http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/20549/1/05.Lee_Moss_Final.pdf
Elephants can determine ethnicity, gender, and age from acoustic cues in human voices
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/14/5433.full.pdf
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Drinks and nibbles from 5.30pm as usual. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!
Best,
Donna
Dear BERGers,
This week we will have Prof. Phyllis Lee presenting a talk entitled:
“Are primates special????”
The special “uniqueness” of primates as a taxonomic group will be compared with that of other mammals, some birds and a few fish. What can an ape do that a guppy can’t?
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Looking forward to seeing you all there, drinks and nibbles as usual!
Best wishes,
Donna
Dear BERGers,
Unfortunately there will be no BERG meeting this week.
However, I would like to highlight Thursday's research seminar hosted by Prof Emma Flynn (email below) which is very relevant to BERG's area of interest. Below is a link to Emma's bio if anyone would like some more information on her work.
https://www.dur.ac.uk/research/directory/staff/?id=5391
It would be great to see you all there!
Best wishes,
Donna
________________________________
From: Louise Lavery
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 9:45 AM
To: Psychology Staff; Psychology PhD Students
Subject: Research Seminar - Thursday 9th November 4pm - 3A94 - Prof Emma Flynn
Dear all,
Just a reminder that Prof Christine Caldwell and Dr Elizabeth Renner are hosting the next Research Seminar of the Autumn semester this Thursday at 4pm in 3A94. Prof Emma Flynn will be leading the seminar titled Eureka! Innovation: Who, what, when and why (should we care.)
All are welcome!
Kind regards,
Louise Lavery
Administration Assistant
Psychology,
Faculty of Natural Sciences
(01786) 467640
Dear BERGers,
This week we will have a talk from Laura Scullion-Hall entitled ‘Refining Dog Care: working with industry to improve the welfare of laboratory-housed dogs’. Below is a summary of what will be presented:
Dogs are used worldwide in the development of new medicines, yet few evidence-based Refinements have been developed to improve their welfare. This talk will discuss research conducted in partnership with the UK pharmaceutical industry, and how improvements to training, welfare and data quality are being made.
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Please also find the BERG schedule attached for this semester. We have one slot remaining, if you would like to present/host a discussion please do let me know.
Drinks and nibbles provided as usual!
Best,
Donna