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Nicola "Nicky" S. Clayton

Lecturer
Department of Experimental Psychology
Clare College, University of Cambridge, UK


Mental Time Travel by Food Caching Scrub-Jays   video
Guest Lecture for Spring 2002 Graduate Seminar:  
Learning & Evolution


ABSTRACT:
 Although the human capacity for natural language has attracted particular attention, perhaps an even more fundamental distinction is the claim that the animals are stuck in time. According to the mental time-travel hypothesis (Suddendorf & Corballis 1997) animals are incapable of taking action in the present on the basis of either the recollection of specific past episodes (episodic memory) or the anticipation of future states of affairs (future planningn). I will present evidence that some food caching animals such as the Western scrub-jay, Aphelocoma californica, chanllenge this claim. These animals hide food for future comsumption and rely on memory to recover their hidden food caches at a later date. I will describe a series of experiments that show that jays form integrated memories for the location, content and time of caching. This memory capability fulfills Tulving's behavioural criteria for episodic memory, and is thus termed "episodic-like". I will also describe some experiments designed to test whether these birds also show elements of future planning behaviour.
 

RELATED READING
 Clayton, N.S. and A. Dickinson. 1998. Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature 395: 272-278.  (Full Text PDF)

Emery, N.J. and N.S. Clayton. 2001. It takes a thief to know a thief: Effects of social context on prospective caching strategies in scrub jays. Nature 414: 443-446.  (Full Text PDF)

Clayton, N.S, D.P. Griffiths, N.J. Emery, and A. Dickinson. 2001. Elements of episodic-like memory in animals. Philosophical Transactions Royal Society London B 356(1413): 1483-1491.

Griffiths, D.P., A. Dickinson, and N.S. Clayton. 1999. Episodic memory: What can animals remember about their past? Trends in Cognitive Science 3(2): 74-80.  (Full Text PDF)



ONLINE RESOURCES:
 Dr. Clayton's departmental page
PubMed search for NS Clayton publications

OTHER SPRING 2002 SPEAKERS :   Stim Wilcox   .  Russ Fernald   .  Celia Heyes  

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