Current Projects
Research Area 1:
Evolutionary, Comparative & Developmental Psychology; Behavioural Ecology
Exploring evolutionary & developmental drivers of cognition & behaviour within & between-species in a) corvids, primates & children, including on executive function, behavioural flexibility, individual differences, social learning, with research questions like how social context and culture influences self-control in children and other animals to e.g. to inform applications in learning & teaching environments;
b) wild blue & great tits, including urbanisation & anthropogenic effects on behaviour to investigate consequences of human-driven environmental changes.
Collaborators include: Prof Nicky Clayton (Cambridge University); Prof Thomas Bugnyar (Vienna University); Prof Alex Taylor (ICREA); Dr Elias Garcia-Pelegrin (National University of Singapore); Prof Lucy Cheke (Cambridge University); Dr Julia Mackenzie (Anglia Ruskin University); Dr ÇaÄŸlar Akçay (Anglia Ruskin University).
Impact: PhD co-supervision completion - Dr Ning Ding (2018-2022), 35 publications, keynote conference presentations, positive media engagement, £80,000 funds awarded.
Research Area 2:
Big-Team Open Science
Through Big-Team Open Science networks, working to increase accessibility, transparency, inclusivity and representation in science, to change the narrative from competition to collaboration, and to address broad evolutionary questions.
I co-founded and co-lead the “ManyBirds Project” (www.themanybirds.com; @themanybirds.bsky.social) - a large-scale collaborative approach to avian cognition and behaviour research. With 129 collaborators over 24 countries, we tested the ecological drivers of neophobia (responses to novelty) across the avian clade in 136 species, 25 orders and 1400+ subjects (ManyBirds, Miller et al, 2025, PLOS BIOLOGY).
I am also a collaborator on the ManyManys Consortium (https://manymanys.github.io), inc focus on the evolution of cognitive flexibility across taxa from humans to fish.
Collaborators include: ManyBirds Leadership Team (pictured below) - Dr Megan Lambert (Veterinary Medicine University Vienna); Dr Vedrana Šlipogor (University of South Bohemia); Dr Claudia Mettke-Hofmann (Liverpool John Moores University); Dr Kai Caspar (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf); Dr Jimena Lois-Milevicich (University of Buenos Aires), ManyBirds - 129 collaborators from 77 institutions over 24 countries worldwide; ManyManys - 40+ international collaborators including at Harvard, Princeton & British Columbia Universities.
Impact: 6 publications, international conference presentations, £15,000 funds awarded as PI, and Co-Applicant on awarded $2.5 million Canadian Partnership Grant.
Research Area 3:
Applications of Fundamental Research for Conservation and Welfare Impact
Conservation: Testing conservation relevant cognition & behaviour, linking with fitness-related measures, applying outcomes to improve conservation success, including enhancing reintroduction efforts and guidelines (e.g. pre-release training, individual suitability) and measuring real-world impacts (e.g. survival, reproduction) during reintroduction of: little studied, Critically Endangered Bali myna (UK, Indonesia) and red-billed chough (UK). Research questions inc understanding the role of individual cognitive variation in reintroduction biology.
Welfare: With industry partner, utilising cognition & behaviour research to improve farm animal welfare by informing policy on decision-making process and funding prioritisations for welfare improvements (Rethink Priorities, USA).
Collaborators include: Prof Alex Thornton (Exeter University); Prof Stuart Marsden (Manchester Metropolitan University); Liz Corry (Wildwood Trust); Dr Malcolm Nicoll (Institute for Zoology, Zoological Society of London); Dr Malcolm Burgess (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds); Wildwood Trust (Kent); Paradise Park (Cornwall); Friends of the National Park Foundation (Bali); Rothschild Foundation (UK);
Dr Bob Fischer (Rethink Priorities).
Impact: 3 publications, 2 books, positive media engagement, £120,000 funds awarded, member of UN Convention on Migratory Species Animal Social Complexity and Culture working group, co-supervision of NERC funded PhD student Sophie Ridgway (starting Oct 2025).
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University of Cambridge (2015-date):
Ongoing: Emma Claisse (PhD), with Prof Nicky Clayton. Supporting all lab research and members of Prof Clayton's Comparative Cognition Lab (https://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/ccl) and assisting prospective PhD and MPhil students in writing proposal applications (2015-date).
Complete: Dr Ning Ding (PhD - see updates in News Page), Jordon Sandberg (MSc), Izzy Crampton and Ellen Skipper (BSc); Dr Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, Elsa Loissel, Dr Camille Troisi, Dr Anna Frohnwieser, Dr Emily Danby (Research Assistants).
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University of Exeter (2024-date):
Ongoing: Sophie Nash (MRes) and Sophie Ridgway (PhD, funded through 3.5 year NERC PhD studentship) , with Prof Alex Thornton
Complete: Elizabeth Alexander (BSc, 2025), with Prof Alex Thornton
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Anglia Ruskin University (2021-2024):
Complete: Louise Tovey (BSc; see updates in News Page), Eline Waalders (BSc), Arnaud Bruat (MSc from Utrecht University; see updates in News Page), Dr Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, Sophie Ridgway, Dr Emily Danby, Dr James Davies (Research Assistants)
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University of Vienna (2014):
Complete: Alice Kirchmeir (MSc), Marius Adrion, Helene Eder, Jill Gaasch, Corinna Schussele (BSc), with Prof Thomas Bugnyar and Dr Christine Schwab
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Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and University of St Andrews (2011):
Complete: James Bowen, Nicola Wakefield, Sarah Davies (BSc), with Prof Amanda Seed
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Research Team at University of Exeter (2024-date).
From left to right: Rachael Miller (Harrison), Alex Thornton, Sophie Nash, Sophie Ridgway (photo taken June 2025)
My Background
