Exploring Animal Minds
Studying how animals perceive, learn, and make decisions can help us understand the evolutionary diversity of intelligence. But how do we measure thinking in animals that cannot tell us what they know?
Our department explores cognition and communication in multiple animal species, including meerkats, vervet monkeys, and cockatoos, to uncover how animals solve problems, learn from experience, and communicate.
At our booth, you will have the opportunity to learn how scientists investigate cognition through a sequence of interactive activities that mirror the methods we use in our research. The red line connecting all parts is “measuring minds without words”: try solving puzzles inspired by primate experiments, see how we test meerkats’ spatial memory, and explore touchscreen games designed for birds.
You will also discover how researchers study animal communication by listening to real field recordings and matching animal calls to visual representations of sound called spectrograms.
By becoming both the scientist and the test subject, you will gain insight into the fascinating world of animal behaviour research and the creative methods scientists use to explore minds very different from our own.
Meerkat (South Africa) approaching and entering the Multi Access Box to obtain food previously placed inside by the researchers (Video: Laura Petzold).
Vervet monkey (South Africa) approaching the tree branch where a string with a food reward is placed, successfully pulling it up and eating the food (Video: Dr. Stéphanie Mercier).
Sulphur-crested cockatoo (Australia) standing in front of the touchscreen used to test its cognitive flexibility after successfully completing the trial (Video: Lara Blumenstiel).
