It is nearly 50 years since Thomas Nagel (1974) asked ‘What is it like to be a bat?’ and concluded that there were no suitable empirical tools available to find a satisfactory answer. The inner lives of animals have remained inscrutable to observers, in spite of huge advances in our understanding of their cognition. For example, some species remember the what, where and when of an event, but do they experience an episodic memory by consciously re-living an event, as we do? Primates undoubtedly exercise cognitive control, for example in learning to delay gratification to gain a larger reward, or holding information in mind while performing working memory tasks, but does this involve volitional, effortful control? These questions have seemed outside of the scope of the scientific method. However, an exciting development in animal behaviour is the use of machine learning to analyse richer behavioural data than choice alone. This has been employed to identify and track animals, and also extract biologically meaningful measures such as choice behaviour through motion kinematics of paw and head direction. However, so far this approach has not been extended to understanding cognition. In this PhD, you will develop techniques to use artificial intelligence to classify behaviour as monkeys complete different cognitive tasks, with a view to identifying signatures of cognitive states such as arousal, focussed attention, goal-directedness and explicit awareness. You will be based at the University of St Andrews’ Living Links to Human Evolution research centre at RZSS Edinburgh zoo. You will develop skills in designing and conducting cognitive experiments with non-human primates, as well as machine learning techniques for analysing video data.
HOW TO APPLY
Application instructions can be found on the EASTBIO website- http://www.eastscotbiodtp.ac.uk/how-apply-0
1) Download and complete the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion survey.
2) Download and complete the EASTBIO Application Form.
3) Submit an application to St Andrews University through the Online Application Portal
Your online application must include the following documents:
- Completed EASTBIO application form
- 2 References (to be completed on the EASTBIO Reference Form, also found on the EASTBIO website)
- Academic Qualifications
- English Language Qualification (if applicable)
Unfortunately due to workload constraints, we cannot consider incomplete applications. Please make sure your application is complete by the 16th December 2021.
CONTACT
Queries on the project can be directed to the project supervisor.
Queries on the application process can be directed to Helen Sunderland at [Email Address Removed]
Please refer to UKRI website and Annex B of the UKRI Training Grant Terms and Conditions