This project has been shortlisted for funding by the BBSRC South West Doctoral Training Partnership. The successful applicant will principally be based at the lively research environment of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation, at the University of Exeter's Cornwall Campus near Falmouth.
Informal inquiries can be addressed to: alex.thornton@exeter.ac.uk
For further information and details of how to apply, visit:
Supervisors:
Dr Alex Thornton, College of Life and Environmental Sciences,
University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus www.wildcognitionresearch.com
Dr Andy Radford, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol
The aim of this project is to use cognitive experiments, acoustic analyses and mathematical models to investigate the role of vocalisations in enabling flexible responses to dynamic social environments.
The evolution of intelligence remains one of the most important, yet poorly understood, issues in biology. Despite suggestions that sociality is a critical driver of cognitive evolution, we know little about the cognitive mechanisms underpinning social behaviour and virtually nothing about how these mechanisms relate to reproductive fitness. This project will use a long-term study population of wild jackdaws, members of the large-brained corvid family that form lifelong pair-bonds, to test vocal mediation of (i) negotiation within social relationships; (ii) performance in cooperative problem-solving experiments and (iii) the spread of skills through cultural learning. Findings will be related to measures of pair-bond strength and reproductive success. The project will therefore represent the first attempt to determine how variation in socio-cognitive abilities impacts on individual fitness and will thus provide valuable insights into the selection pressures driving the evolution of intelligence.