Scientist and metal drummer |
Spit and Twitches: The Animal Cognition Podcast
Wednesday, 1 December 2021
Episode 27 - (Season 2, Episode 8) - Marisa Hoeschele
Thursday, 28 October 2021
Episode 26 (Season 2, Episode 7) - Jennifer Foote
Tuesday, 7 September 2021
Episode 25 (Season 2, Episode 6) - Fiona Cross
OK, look, I won't lie, I do love talking to all of the people who have come on the podcast. But, there is one person I've been hoping to talk to since way back in Season 1. It's FIONA CROSS!
Fiona got her BSc (Hons) in Psychology in 2001 before she began working with spiders and then she got her MSc (with Distinction) in Zoology in 2003 and her PhD in Zoology in 2009, with all three degrees being at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Dr. Cross first went to Kenya to work with spiders in 2006, and has been a Visiting Scientist at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (in Kenya) since 2010. Her research interests include selective attention, working memory, expectancy violation, and problem solving by spiders. Fiona never used to think that spiders could be particularly interesting, but she has since learned that spiders can do many remarkable things that could keep a person awake at night.
Dr. Cross has 46 publications, and her work has featured in many news sources including The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, BBC, The Guardian, The New Zealand Herald, and Radio New Zealand. Fiona is sorta famous really, to quote her 'I got a fright when I first discovered there is a Wikipedia page about me, and I had to sit down when I discovered that a video about me had been viewed 12,000 times in one day'. (BTW, that fame is well deserved, she rocks). As an aside, there used to e a wikipedia page about me, but it was deleted because I suck....
She loves to communicate science, and has so far organized three of her own international speaking tours (one in the UK and two in North America). COVID permitting, she hopes to run a spider event for children at the Christchurch public library in October (the month of the year that arachnologists affectionately refer to as ‘Arachtober’). She's also keen on writing for all ages.
You can learn more about her and her work at her website (www.doctorspider.net).
Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Episode 24 (Season 2, Episode 5) - Mike Beran
Michael J. Beran is Professor of Psychology and Co-Director of the Language Research Center at Georgia State University. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Oglethorpe University in 1995, his M.A. in 1997, and his Ph.D. in 2002, both from Georgia State University. His research is conducted with human and nonhuman primates, including chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, capuchin monkeys, and rhesus monkeys. He also has done research with bears, elephants, and robins. His research interests include perception, numerical cognition, metacognition, planning and prospective memory, self-control, decision making, and language acquisition.
Dr. Beran is a Fellow of Division 3 and Division 6 of the American Psychological Association and a Fellow of the Psychonomics Society. He was the inaugural Duane M. Rumbaugh Fellow at Georgia State University. He received the Brenda A. Milner award from the APA in 2005. He has served as the President of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, the Southeast Psychological Association, and the Society for Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology (Division 6 of APA). He is the current Editor of Animal Behavior and Cognition and has served on numerous editorial boards including Cognition, Animal Cognition, Frontiers in Comparative Psychology, the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, the Journal of Comparative Psychology, Learning and Behavior, and the International Journal of Comparative Psychology. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and contributed chapters to over 50 edited books and encyclopedia. He also is the co-editor of Foundations of Metacognition (2012, Oxford University Press), the author of Self-control in Animals and People (2018, Elsevier), and the co-editor of the forthcoming Primate Cognitive Studies (2022, Cambridge University Press).
Mike gets 2 pics because I love this slide |
His research has been featured on numerous television and radio programs and in magazines, including Animal Planet, BBC, New Scientist, the Wall Street Journal, and Scientific American Mind. His research is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Templeton Foundation, and the European Science Foundation.
In addition to the fun things he gets to do in his lab and with his students and colleagues, he enjoys beekeeping, hiking, paintball with friends (and enemies!), travel, and the occasional good bourbon. And, of course, ‘Bama football. Roll Tide.
Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Episode 23 (Season 2, Episode 4) - Aimee Sue Dunlap
Aimee got her undergraduate degree in biology, history and English in 2000 from the University of Memphis and then her MS in biology from Northern Arizona University in 2002 and her PhD in ecology, evolution and behavior from the university of Minnesota in 2009. It should be noted that I'm making a concession to American spelling here and should be commended...
Oh we also talked hockey. Including Liga hockey in Finland.
Work in her lab focusses on the evolution of cognition and the adaptive value of cognition and memory, especially in bees. We talked about her experimental evolution work, as well as her field and lab stuff.
Monday, 12 July 2021
Episode 22 (Season 2, Episode 3) - Caroline Strang
Today on the podcast I'm joined by Caroline Strang.
Caroline is known for her work with bees, horses, dogs, and scarves.
She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Toronto where she worked closely with someone you have have heard of, Sara Shettleworth.
She then went on to work at the University of Western Ontario with someone else who has come up a lot on the podcast, David Sherry.
Once she finished up her PhD she moved down to UT Austin and became a postdoc with Felicity Muth in their biology department.
We talked about her work with David on bumblebee vs. honeybee cognition as well as her stuff on reversal learning in bumblebees. We also talked a bit about her work during her postdoc and of course other stuff.
Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Episode 21 (Season 2, Episode 2) - Jeff Martin
Only guest with a baseball scholarship |
Jeff Martin joins me on the podcast this week. He's actually the first non psychologist on the show. He's a biologist or something...
Jeff attended Northwestern Oklahoma State University (NWOSU) from 2011-2015 on a baseball scholarship. He earned both a BSc in Health and Sports Science and a second BSc in Biology specializing in Natural History. Though they didn’t have a traditional honours program, he did research under the supervision of Dr. Aaron Place investigating simple conditioning in reptiles – mainly snakes. He then moved back home to Canada to attend Western University, obtaining his MSc studying with Dr. David Sherry at the Advanced Facility for Avian Research. His Master’s research focused on how birds respond behaviourally to changes in overwinter temperature
Jeff continued at Western and obtained his PhD under the supervision of Drs. David Sherry and Yolanda Morbey. His research focused on caching decisions made by Canada Jays and what factors may influence site- and item-selection. Jeff has just started a post-doc with Dr. Mélanie Guigueno at McGill University in Montréal (Go Habs Go!), where he will be investigating male choosiness in Brown-headed Cowbirds, and the importance of ecologically relevant tasks in animal cognition and behaviour.
Thanks to Red Arms for letting me mash up their music.