We generally think of learning as a means to track change in the environment. Which conditions of variance and change favor tracking and which conditions favor constant choice, like the flower constancy we see in bumblebees? How does change in the environment affect how animals weigh different types of information? I am using bumblebees as a model to look at these fundamental questions. In a first set of experiments, I am using classic tracking models as a starting point to study how bees acquire information. In a second set of experiments, I am looking at how bees integrate social information with individually-acquired information. The newest direction of this work is building an RFID tracking system for group foraging bees.
Most theorists agree that for learning to evolve, there must be some kind of balance between environmental change across generations and the persistence of learned relationships within single lifetimes. Once learning has evolved, patterns of environmental change also likely influence which associations are easily learned, and how quickly this learning occurs. For much of my dissertation, I tested hypotheses about how patterns of environmental change affect the evolution of learning in experimental systems using fruit flies. This work is currently continuing, funded by an NSF grant. At the moment we are mid-way though a very large experimental evolution study of 9 treatments and 120 lines of flies.
There is a general consensus that remembering everything forever is not ideal: there are physiological costs as well as costs with potential interference with the recall of memories. I am looking at memory length as an evolutionarily adaptive behavior, specifically asking: When is it optimal to forget? I have addressed aspects of this question with modeling and simulation, with experiments using blue jays in operant boxes, seed cache recovery in pinyon jays and through integrating theory from a wide variety of disciplinary approaches to forgetting.
A side effect of being quick with programming & data analysis, and being generally reliable, is that I make a good collaborator. I have been working on my former advisor’s projects on animal impulsivity and cooperation, and now on aposematism and signalling in animal decision making. I am currently serving as the PI for the final year of this grant, since Dave will be working at NSF. We are working to submit a nice stack of papers from these projects. You can check out the Stephens lab web site for more details on this stuff (or check my publications).
It is hard to leave such a fantastic bird as a pinyon jay. Thanks to a couple of really nifty data sets, I am getting to work on a final few papers on these super cool birds. I am hoping to make more time for this work during the upcoming year.
