Dear all,

Please note a room change for Dr. de Waal’s talk on Friday. The NEW ROOM is LEACOCK 132.

Hope to see you all this Friday!

Karim Nader

Dear all, On Friday, March 18 will be our next Hebb lecture by Dr. Frans de Waal, Charles Howard Candler professor in the Psychology Department of Emory Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emory_University and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, in Atlanta, Georgia.. Dr. Waal is well-known for his work focused on the behavior and social intelligence of primates. He has been elected to thee US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. In 2007, he was selected by Time as one of The Worlds’ 100 Most Influential People Today. Please put this event (see title and abstract of the talk below) on your calendar and kindly distribute it broadly. Frans de Waal, Emory University March 18, 3:30 Leacock Building, Room 132

Followed by wine and cheese reception on the 8th floor of Stewart Biology. We hope you can join us. Karim

Title: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Abstract: Despite the mechanistic view of animals that prevailed during last century, an undercurrent of scientists nourished a more cognitive approach. Initially, their research was ridiculed and suppressed, while a firm taboo was placed on anthropomorphism. They were told to favor simple explanations of behavior. From a Darwinian perspective, however, the simplest assumption about related species (such as humans and apes) is that behavioral similarity reflects psychological and mental similarity. Cognitive continuity ought to be the default assumption. Neuroscience increasingly supports homology, and human uniqueness claims have fallen one by one. Other primates are now being depicted as political, cultural, even moral beings. The wall between human and animal cognition has begun to resemble a Swiss cheese. This cognitive revolution is not limited to the primates, however. It is rippling across the entire animal kingdom, from tool-using crows to cooperating fish. Many unexpected new capacities have come to light, such as that animals monitor their own knowledge (metacognition) or reflect on past and future (time travel). Cognitive capacities are often the product of convergent evolution, and cannot be compared on a linear scale from “lower” to “higher” forms. Instead of universal learning mechanisms that apply to all animals equally, we see highly variable cognitions connected to the ecological demands of each species. I will provide a general overview of the methods and findings of this new science, known as evolutionary cognition, with an accent on primates and elephants, but also including octopuses, corvids, cetaceans, and fish. The central message is one of cognition on demand.