Dear all,
Today at 4pm, Francesca de Petrillo (Newcastle University) will be talking about decision making in primates. Please, see below the title and short abstract for her talk.
This meeting will be
online (link below).
How does decision-making evolve? A comparative analysis of primate choices
Abstract: Both human and non-human animals face a myriad of choices every day: what food to eat, where to spend their time, and with whom to mate or to interact
with. Comparative studies of decision-making have revealed important variability across different species’ decision-making strategies. What governs the variation in decision-making strategies seen across the natural world? To answer this question, I will present
a series of comparative studies examining decision-making under risk, probabilistic reasoning, and cognitive control in tufted capuchin monkeys, rhesus macaques and lemurs, respectively. The results of these studies suggest that ecological complexity consistently
predicts differences across species’ decision strategies and cognitive abilities, thereby highlighting how comparative studies can provide critical insights into the evolutionary contexts that favor some kinds of decision-making strategies over others.
Best,
Gema
Link to the online meetings: