Professor Nicky Clayton
University position
Professor
Professor Nicky Clayton is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.
Departments
Department of Experimental Psychology
Institutes
Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute
Home page
http://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/ccl/ (personal home page)
Research Theme
Interests
Nicky studies the development and evolution of cognition, and the questions are informed by an understanding of biology and psychology. Nicky’s work is mainly with members of the crow family (including jackdaws, rooks and jays), as well as comparisons between the crows and apes, and more recently young children. Her work has challenged many of the common-held assumptions that only humans can plan for the future and reminisce about the past, and that only humans can understand other minds as well as other times. This work has led to a radical re-evaluation of animal cognition, and raises important issues about the evolution of cognition.
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Research Focus
Keywordsevolution and development of cognition episodic memory future planning theory of mind corvids |
Clinical conditionsLinks to amnesia |
Equipment
Behavioural analysis
Video and camera equipment
Collaborators
CambridgeRufous Johnstone Andrea Manica Jim Russell | United KingdomRambert Dance Company Web: http://www.rambert.org.uk/ Nathan Emery Web: http://www.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk/staff/n... Murray Shanahan Web: http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~mpsha/ InternationalCristina Atance Web: http://www.socialsciences.uottawa.ca/psy/eng... Josep Call Web: http://email.eva.mpg.de/~call/ Barney Schlinger Web: http://www.physci.ucla.edu/researc... |
Key publications
Raby CR, Alexis DM, Dickinson A, Clayton NS (2007), “Planning for the future by Western Scrub-Jays” Nature 445:919-921 Details
Dally JM, Emery NJ, Clayton NS (2006), “Food-caching western scrub-jays keep track of who was watching when” Science 312(5780):1662-1665 Details
Emery NJ, Clayton NS (2004), “The mentality of crows. Convergent evolution of intelligence in corvids and apes” Science 306:1903-1907 Details