- BERG - University of Stirling Mailing Lists

BERG Spring Semester 2018
by Paxton Culpepper 11 Jan '18

11 Jan '18

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>

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This week's BERG: Lesley Craig discussing attitudes towards great ape conservation
by Donna Kean 11 Dec '17

11 Dec '17

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. [cid:image001.png@01D37275.8042ADF0] 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

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This week's BERG: Janica Niven discussing her UFAW squirrel monkey enrichment study
by Donna Kean 05 Dec '17

05 Dec '17

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. [cid:image002.jpg@01D36DE4.6F0CFE90] Snacks and drinks as usual, see you all there! Best wishes, Donna

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FW: A new interdisciplinary summer institute!
by Donna Kean 05 Dec '17

05 Dec '17

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

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No BERG this week
by Donna Kean 28 Nov '17

28 Nov '17

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

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This week's BERG: Q&A with Dr Cynthia Moss
by Donna Kean 20 Nov '17

20 Nov '17

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 [cid:image001.jpg@01D361FA.201CC130] Drinks and nibbles from 5.30pm as usual. Looking forward to seeing everyone there! Best, Donna

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This week's BERG: Prof. Phyllis Lee discussing whether apes are special?
by Donna Kean 13 Nov '17

13 Nov '17

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? [cid:image001.png@01D35C88.3809F280] Looking forward to seeing you all there, drinks and nibbles as usual! Best wishes, Donna

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No BERG meeting this week - Instead: Research Seminar Thursday 9th November 4pm - 3A94 - Prof Emma Flynn
by Donna Kean 07 Nov '17

07 Nov '17

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

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This week's BERG: Laura Scullion-Hall discussing refinement of laboratory-housed dog care
by Donna Kean 30 Oct '17

30 Oct '17

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. [cid:image001.png@01D35193.868AEBD0] 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

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No BERG This Week
by Donna Kean 24 Oct '17

24 Oct '17

Dear BERGers, There will be no BERG this week due to the mid-semester break. For those interested, Alex Weiss very kindly sent us more information regarding the topic of his talk last week. Below are links to one of the papers he discussed and a blog post: https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata2017146 http://blogs.nature.com/scientificdata/2017/10/24/authors-corner-revisiting… Additionally, for anyone who hasn't already, below is a link to the BERG Facebook page where you can also follow all of our updates. https://www.facebook.com/bergstirling/ Looking forward to seeing you all next week! Best wishes, Donna

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