Apologies for cross posting but this seminar might be of interest to you –  4pm in the common room.

From: Gema Martin-Ordas <gema.martin-ordas@stir.ac.uk>
Sent: 28 August 2019 16:12
To: Psychology Staff <PsychologyStaff@stir.ac.uk>; Psychology PhD Students <Psychology-PhD-Students@stir.ac.uk>
Subject: First Research Seminar - Thurs 29th August

Dear all, 

Just a little reminder about Alex Taylor's talk tomorrow at 4pm in 3A94. He will be talking about "What can birds teach us about the evolution of intelligence." 

Abstract

Over the past decade birds have shown the ability to produce problem-solving performances that rival those of our closest relatives, the great apes. This opens up the exciting possibility that birds have convergent evolved minds that think in similar ways to primates, despite the starting point for this evolutionary trajectory being a brain with a radically different structure from the mammalian brain. I will discuss three recent findings from my lab that provide evidence that birds have minds that i) are intrinsically motivated to produce certain complex behaviours, ii) are capable of mental simulation and iii) support domain-general thought. This research has a number of interesting implications for both the evolution of intelligence and the creation of artificial intelligence.

Best,
Gema