Comparative studies of spatial cognition and decision making

我研究使动物能够与其环境有效互动的基本认知过程。我的研究项目的重点之一是空间认知，即找到并导航到重要地点的能力，这对于所有移动的生物体都很重要。比较研究揭示了一套丰富的通用和专门机制，使包括人类在内的各种动物能够记住并导航到家和食物地点等地方。我和我的学生增加了从蚂蚁到人类等各种物种的空间认知各个方面的知识。我们提出了人类和鸟类空间研究的两条新路线。一组拟议的实验将研究利用表面高度在封闭环境中重新定向（重新获得方向感）。这些研究对于评估重新定向理论非常重要，因为根据一些理论而不是其他理论，身高应该是一个显着的重新定向线索。另一组研究将调查如何整合来自多个地标的信息来确定搜索位置。我们将使用线索冲突测试来确定基于加权平均的线索集成是否比其他模型更适合搜索行为。我们还将研究不同类型的可靠性（例如，位置的稳定性或实际提供食物的频率）如何改变地标的权重。***做出有效的选择对于人类和非人类也至关重要。我们正在研究奖励背景和记忆偏差如何影响涉及风险（不确定奖励）的选择。我们发现，决策环境中可用的选择范围会影响人们的冒险选择行为，并且我们已经表明，对极端结果的记忆偏差似乎是这些影响的基础。我们最近发现鸽子和人类的风险选择模式惊人相似，这两个物种在选择高价值奖励时比选择低价值奖励时表现出更多的风险追求。在拟议的研究中，我们评估山雀（新陈代谢较高的较小鸟类）是否会表现出与鸽子相似的风险选择模式，并且我们将测试决策环境是否会像影响人类一样影响鸽子的风险选择。我们还将使用象征性奖励程序来研究涉及鸽子和人类收益和损失的风险选择。 ***我们的研究将增进对许多动物生存至关重要的基本认知能力的了解。识别物种之间的共性和差异对于理解进化和生态压力如何塑造或限制认知过程的出现非常重要，并且它为使用动物模型研究行为和认知过程的神经基础的神经科学家提供了关键的基础。

I investigate basic cognitive processes that allow animals to interact effectively with their environment. One focus of my research program is spatial cognition, the ability to find and navigate to important places, which is important for all moving organisms. Comparative research has revealed a rich set of general and specialized mechanisms that allow various animals, including humans, to remember and navigate to places such as home and food sites. My students and I have increased knowledge about various aspects of spatial cognition, in a variety of species ranging from ants to humans. We have proposed two new lines of spatial research in humans and birds. One set of proposed experiments will investigate the use of surface height to reorient (regain a sense of direction) in enclosed environments. These studies will be important for evaluating theories of reorientation because height should be a salient reorientation cue according to some theories but not others. Another set of studies will investigate how information from multiple landmarks is integrated to determine where to search. We will use cue conflict tests to determine whether cue integration based on weighted averaging provides a better fit to search behaviour than other models. We will also investigate how different types of reliability (e.g., how stable the location is, or how often food is actually available) alter the weighting given to landmarks.***Making effective choices is also fundamentally important for humans and non-humans alike. We are investigating how reward context and memory biases affect choices involving risk (uncertain rewards). We have found that the range of choices available in a decision context affects people's risky choice behaviour and we have shown that memory biases for extreme outcomes appear to underlie these effects. We have recently found strikingly similar patterns of risky choices for pigeons and humans, with both species showing more risk seeking when choosing between high value rewards than when choosing between lower value rewards. In proposed studies we assess whether chickadees (smaller birds with higher metabolism) will show similar patterns of risky choice to pigeons, and we will test whether decision context affects risky choice in pigeons in the same way it does for humans. We will also use a token reward procedure to study risky choices involving both gains and losses in pigeons and humans. ***Our research will advance knowledge of fundamental cognitive abilities that are crucial to the survival of many animals. The identification of commonalities and differences among species is important for understanding how evolutionary and ecological pressures shape or constrain the emergence of cognitive processes, and it provides critical groundwork for neuroscientists who use animal models to investigate the neural bases of behavioural and cognitive processes.