#870 Amalia Bastos: Parrots, Dogs, Comparative Psychology, and Convergent Evolution
RECORDED ON AUGUST 9th 2023.
Dr. Amalia Bastos is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Social & Cognitive Origins Group at Johns Hopkins University. She is interested in how evolutionary pressures have shaped the minds of different species, and which cognitive mechanisms animals employ while interacting with the world around them. Her current work focuses on how chimpanzees perceive third-party social interactions through eye-tracking technology, alongside research on dog cognition.
In this episode, we talk about animal cognition and comparative psychology. We start by talking about kea parrots, and their tool use and tool innovation. We discuss the problem with the “bird brain” expression, and animal culture. We go through aspects of animal cognition like naïve realism; contrafreeloading; statistical inference: the ability to represent both the identity and trajectory of hidden objects, and how it relates to causal understanding; and interspecies communication. We talk about how the study of animal cognition can contribute to the conservation of species. We get into dog cognition, and discuss if dogs experience jealousy. Finally, we talk about comparative psychology, and convergent evolution.
Time Links:
Intro
Kea parrots
The problem with the “bird brain” expression
Tool use in kea parrots
Animal culture
Naïve realism
Contrafreeloading
Statistical inference
The ability to represent both the identity and trajectory of hidden objects, and how it relates to causal understanding
Augmentative interspecies communication
Conservation of species
Dog cognition: do dogs experience jealousy?
Comparative psychology, and convergent evolution
Follow Dr. Bastos’ work!
Follow Dr. Bastos’ work:
Website: https://bit.ly/3OTRbrR
Google Scholar page: https://bit.ly/3or3TTU