- BERG - University of Stirling Mailing Lists

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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Please vote for Matt's incredible conservation work with chimpanzees in Uganda!
by Donna Kean 17 Oct '17

17 Oct '17

Dear BERGers, Please see the link below to vote for Dr. Matt McLennan’s and his teams fantastic conservation program in Bulindi, Uganda to receive funding. This is the organization supported by Ally and the team at Blair Drummond Safari Park who work with the local people to help restore chimpanzee and other wildlife habitats and promote ecotourism. It is truly a great model as a solution for human/wildlife conflict - its working! http://bit.ly/VoteForChimpConservation Spread the word! Deadline tomorrow at noon. Thanks, Donna

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This week's BERG: Dr. Alexander Weiss describing personality in the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park
by Donna Kean 16 Oct '17

16 Oct '17

Dear BERGers, This week we have Dr. Alexander Weiss from the University of Edinburgh delivering a talk entitled: “An open data set describing personality in the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park” [cid:image001.png@01D34694.EB96D070] Abstract: Researchers increasingly view animal personality traits as products of natural selection. Alex will present data that describe the personalities of 128 eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) currently living in or who lived their lives in the Kasekela and Mitumba communities of Gombe National Park, Tanzania. He obtained ratings on 24 items from an established, reliable, well-validated questionnaire used to study personality in captive chimpanzee populations. Ratings were made by former and present Tanzanian field assistants who followed individual chimpanzees for years and collected detailed behavioral observations. Interrater reliabilities across items ranged from acceptable to good, but the personality dimensions they formed were not as interpretable as those from captive samples. However, the personality dimensions corresponded to ratings of 24 Kasekela chimpanzees on a different questionnaire in 1973 that assessed some similar traits. These correlations established the repeatability and construct validity of the present ratings, indicating that the present data can facilitate historical and prospective studies that will lead to better understanding of the evolution of personality in chimpanzees and other primates. We look forward to seeing you all there from 5.30pm, with drinks and nibbles as usual! Best, Donna

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