BERG

berg@lists.stir.ac.uk

3 participants
1031 discussions

by Hannah Buchanan-Smith

Dear BERGers I am pleased to say that Hayley Ash will be organising the Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG) seminars this coming semester. These seminars are held on Wednesdays at 5.30pm in 3A94. Meetings will start on Wednesday 14th September, so please add these Wednesday dates to your diaries, noting there will be no meeting on Wed 26th October as it is mid semester break, and we shall wind up early-mid December The first meeting is on Wednesday 14th September at 5.30pm in 3A94 (Psychology common room). We shall use this meeting for introductions, including I hope for our new students, and updates from the summer...please come prepared to share news of any grants awarded, papers published, exciting conferences attended etc. Hayley will circulate a Doodle poll to sign up. Presenting at BERG is an excellent way to practice talks, hone your presentation skills, get feedback on grant application ideas, lead a discussion of a controversial/interesting research paper etc. You can also suggest external speakers who we might invite (local speakers only please). 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 You can also use this link to unsubscribe. We'll send round the Doodle poll later, but please add the dates to your dairy. We'd appreciate those who gave conference talks recently to take the early slots! Many thanks, Hannah and Hayley Hannah M. Buchanan-Smith Professor, Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG) Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling, FK9 4LA Scotland Tel: 01786 467674 Fax: 01786 467641 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 http://marmosetcare.com/ http://www.247animalwelfare.eu/index.html Just launched: http://refiningdogcare.com/

9 years, 7 months

RSPCA/UFAW rodent and rabbit welfare group meeting

by Laura Hall

Dear all, For the first time, the RSPCA/UFAW rodent and rabbit welfare group meeting will be held in Scotland this year, which some of you might be interested in attending. Please see the attached flyer from Penny Hawkins for more details. Kind regards Laura

9 years, 8 months

FW: Reminder: Extra Monday Seminar- Natalie Pilakouta

by Phyllis Lee

-----Original Message----- From: Luc Bussiere Sent: 23 May 2016 08:30 Subject: Reminder: Extra Monday Seminar- Natalie Pilakouta Hi everyone, Just a quick reminder that we have an extra seminar today at noon in room 3A142 by Natalie Pilakouta from Edinburgh University (see below for details). Please come along if you can! Thanks, Luc > ** > > Next Monday, May 23 (noon in room 3A142), I am pleased to host Natalie Pilakouta (http://www.nataliepilakouta.com/) from the University of Edinburgh, who will deliver one last seminar for our spring series, titled "Maternal effects alter the magnitude of inbreeding depression in the offspring” (short abstract below). Natalie is a really engaging speaker, and her research features both fascinating questions (e.g., on the evolution of parental care & inbreeding) and charismatic creatures (who doesn’t love burying beetles?). > > I will take her for lunch after the seminar, and anyone is welcome to join us (let me know by Monday morning). She is also keen to meet with other Stirling academics during her visit — let me know if you want me to arrange a meeting. > > Thanks! > > Luc > > Maternal effects alter the magnitude of inbreeding depression in the offspring > > A maternal effect is a causal influence of the maternal phenotype on the offspring phenotype over and above any direct effects of genes that the offspring inherit from their mother. There is abundant evidence that maternal effects can have a major impact on offspring fitness. Yet, no previous study has investigated the potential role of maternal effects in influencing the severity of inbreeding depression in the offspring. Inbreeding depression is a reduction in the fitness of inbred offspring relative to outbred offspring. We tested whether maternal effects due to body size alter the magnitude of inbreeding depression in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. We found that inbreeding depression was more severe for offspring of large females than offspring of small females. This might be due to differences in how small and large females invested in inbred broods because of their different prospects for future breeding opportunities. This work provides the first evidence for a causal effect of the maternal phenotype on the severity of inbreeding depression in the offspring. We propose that in natural populations that are subject to inbreeding, maternal effects may drive variation in the magnitude of inbreeding depression and consequently contribute to variation in the strength and direction of selection for inbreeding avoidance. -- Luc Bussière Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA United Kingdom Voice: +44 (0)1786 467758 Fax: +44 (0)1786 467843 Mobile: +44 (0)79 1384 9238 This is a Calm Inbox: email is checked once in the AM and once in the PM. Learn why at www.calmbox.me

9 years, 10 months

18.05.16: Dr. Betsy Herrelko - Evidence-based animal management

by Eoin O'Sullivan

Dear BERGers, Tomorrow we will have our last meeting before the summer break with Dr. Betsy Herrelko returning to BERG to talk about: "Evidence-based animal management: Incorporating husbandry research into life at the zoo (aka: what Betsy's been up to in her post Stirling life) ". We will be going for dinner with Betsy after the meeting so if anyone is interested in joining us, please let me know before tomorrow. As usual, we will be having some drinks and nibbles in the psychology common room from 5:20pm. I look forward to seeing you all then! All the best, Eoin

9 years, 10 months

Fw: A message from Stevan Harnad about his new journal

by Eoin O'Sullivan

Dear all, Prof Peter Hancock kindly forward me this e-mail about a new BBS-style journal on the topic of animal sentience. I'm sure it will be of interest to a few on this list. All the best, Eoin From: em.bbs.0.4ac443.098bd961(a)editorialmanager.com [mailto:em.bbs.0.4ac443.098bd961@editorialmanager.com] On Behalf Of Behavioral and Brain Sciences Sent: 26 April 2016 07:37 To: Peter Hancock <p.j.b.hancock(a)stir.ac.uk> Subject: A message from Stevan Harnad about his new journal Dear BBS readers, Some of you may remember me. I founded BBS in 1978<http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/%7Eharnad/Temp/Kata/bbs.editorial.html> and was the editor till 2002<http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Temp/bbs.valedict.html>. After those two busy decades I had not planned to edit a journal again! But when the Institute for Science and Policy of the Humane Society asked me whether I would agree to be the editor of a new open access journal on animal sentience, a topic I consider to be extremely important, both in cognitive science and in ethics, I immediately accepted, and also proposed to implement BBS-style Open Peer Commentary for the new journal. Animal Sentience<http://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/> (ASent) has now been launched and the current editors have kindly agreed to let me do one last BBS mailing to BBS Associates to ask: If you have interest or expertise in animal thinking, feeling or well-being, please contact me at harnad(a)uqam.ca<mailto:harnad@uqam.ca> so I can add you to my list of potential ASent Commentators (the embryonic counterpart of the BBS Associate list that I started almost 40 years ago!). Needless to say, if you have a potential target article on animal sentience on which you wish to invite Open Peer Commentary in ASent, you are invited to prepare one. ASent can also consider previously published papers that are particularly appropriate for Commentary if they are revised and updated for re-publication in ASent. If you look at the journal website<http://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/> you will see that Open Peer Commentary in ASent is much like in BBS, except that ASent Commentaries and Responses appear serially, as they are received, reviewed and accepted, rather than all in one batch. The author also has the choice of responding one-on-one or in a batch, and the Commentary can continue for as long as there is still something to say. My own inaugural editorial<http://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol1/iss1/1/> describes the mission and remit of ASent (and Open Peer Commentary is invited on the editorial as well!) With best wishes, Stevan Harnad Editor, Animal Sentience<http://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/editorialboard.html> Professor of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal<http://crcsc.uqam.ca> Professor of Web Science, University of Southampton<http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/people/harnad>

9 years, 11 months

No BERG meetings until May

by Eoin O'Sullivan

Dear BERGers, With teaching finished, we have come to the end of our normal schedule of BERG meetings for the Spring semester. However, while there are no meetings over the next few weeks we will have a couple of extra talks in May (I will circulate more information nearer the dates). All the best, Eoin

9 years, 11 months

Wed special BERG seminar

by Phyllis Lee

Chaos and cohesion: social disruption and leadership loss in African elephant families. Vicki Fishlock 5:30 in the Psychology seminar room (as usual) Phyllis C. Lee Professor of Psychology Behaviour and Evolution Research Group School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA UK Direct line +44 (0)1786 467656 Mobile +44 (0)7802 427132

9 years, 12 months

Replication Crisis Discussion: Follow-up

by Eoin O'Sullivan

Hi all, Just writing to follow-up on yesterday's discussion of the replication crises. I know that a few of you expressed interest in this topic but were unable to attend, so I thought it might be worth mentioning a few interesting points/resources. First of all, thanks to all who attended- it was really great to hear your thoughts on this! We all agreed that the Spellman paper (circulated on Tuesday) was a highly readable and reasonably comprehensive summary of the issues and potential solutions (so, well worth a read). Liz Renner brought our attention to some reproducibility issues within the field of oxytocin research. Interestingly, these problems were identified when a research group decided to critical?ly examine their own published work and open their file drawer. Some links here: http://www.vox.com/2016/4/4/11348288/oxytocin-love-hormone http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jne.12384/abstract?campaign=wola… Becky Sharman discussed her own efforts to replicate a curious perceptual effect and she has successfully published these findings in the Royal Society's new OA journal (link here: http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/12/150418.abstract).<http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/12/150418.abstract> Becky has kindly provided a lay summary of this work for those interested (see postscript). So, thanks again to all for such an interesting discussion! Next week we have Dr. Vicky Fishlock talking to us about her work at Amboseli National Park. It is going to be great! All the best, Eoin ? PS: Lay- summary of Mather & Sharman (2015) The implied motion after effect occurs when adapting to still images of motion e.g. someone running causes the same kind of after-effect as looking at actual moving stimuli. We showed that this effect is only present when participants are asked to make a directional judgement (i.e. are the dots moving left or right), but isn't present when they are asked to make a non-directional judgement (i.e. is the top or bottom half of the stimulus moving). The stimuli were exactly the same, only the instructions and the subsequent results were different.

10 years

Fwd: UFAW newsletter Spring 2016

by Hannah Buchanan-Smith

Please find attached the UFAW newsletter (UFAW kindly fund our BERG seminars) and note the "save the date" for next year's UFAW conference (27-29 June, 2017). From: "Stephen Wickens" <wickens(a)ufaw.org.uk<mailto:wickens@ufaw.org.uk>> To: "Hannah Buchanan-Smith" <h.m.buchanan-smith(a)stir.ac.uk<mailto:h.m.buchanan-smith@stir.ac.uk>> Subject: UFAW newsletter Spring 2016 Dear Hannah, Please find attached the latest UFAW newsletter. We'd be grateful if you could share it with interested collegues and students. Please be aware that the UFAW 2016 meeting at York is now fully booked (our maximum number is 180). For those who still hope to attend we are running a waiting list but there are a number on this list now so the chances of all getting a place are remote. Our 2017 meeting venue can hold upto 400 so we don't foresee this issue next year and hope that you might consider attending. It's already attracting a lot of interest. Kind regards, Steve -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Stephen Wickens Universities Federation for Animal Welfare The Old School, Brewhouse Hill, Wheathampstead, Herts AL4 8AN, UK Email: wickens(a)ufaw.org.uk<mailto:wickens@ufaw.org.uk> Direct Tel: +44(0)1276 500880; Office: +44(0)1582 831818 (tel), 831414 (fax) MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "c:" claiming to be www.ufaw.org.uk<C:\Users\Steve\AppData\Local\Temp\~ed_sb_3\www.ufaw.org.uk> Save the date: "Measuring animal welfare and applying scientific advances - Why is it still so difficult?" UFAW International Symposium 27-29th June 2017, Royal Holloway, University of London, Surrey, UK. Facebook: Universities Federation for Animal Welfare - UFAW<http://www.facebook.com/ufaw.org.uk> ; Twitter: @UFAW_1926<https://twitter.com/ufaw_1926> The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) is an UK charity that works to develop and promote improvements in the welfare of all animals through scientific and educational activity worldwide. Registered Charity No 207996 (Registered in England) and Company Limited by Guarantee No 579991

10 years

6th April- Replication Crisis Discussion

by Eoin O'Sullivan

Dear BERGers, We don't have a speaker scheduled this week so we have a nice opportunity to discuss a topic Louise Heron touched upon in her discussion of the "watching eyes effect" last week. As many of you know, there is currently a lot of discussion in the field of psychology (and other scientific fields) about the reliability of supposedly well established psychological phenomena. Much of the debate has focussed on the field of social psychology, but the practices thought to contribute to this "replication crisis" seem to be equally common in many areas of animal research/evolutionary psychology/etc (e.g. underpowered studies, file drawer problem, overreliance on null hypothesis testing, etc.). With this in mind, it might be interesting to discuss some of these factors from the perspective of our own fields. If you would like some more information on this topic here is a short news article which provides plenty of links to other resources: http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/03/psychologys-replication-… I have also attached a recent article (Spellman, 2015), and see below for a few questions we might talk around: 1. Could your field face a "replication crisis"? 2. What are the hurdles preventing reliable research and what can we do to overcome them? 3. Is there an important finding in your field that you have found difficult to replicate? Have you published it? If not- why? 4. If you were to organise a "Reproducibility Project" what studies/effects should be considered (https://osf.io/ezcuj/wiki/home/)? As usual, we will be meeting from 5:20pm in the psychology common room. I look forward to seeing you there! All the best, Eoin

10 years

Jump to page:

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

BERG