Abstract

Come to the Winstanley Lecture Hall on the 30th of January at 6 pm to hear from Dora Biro, Professor of Animal Behaviour at Department of Zoology, University of Oxford! Professor Biro will bes speaking about her research concerning the mechanisms and consequences of social living and social organisation in animals.

The talk will start at 18:15 with free refreshments available from 18:00. To reach Winstanley Lecture Hall, enter the door opposite to the Great Gate, go up the stairs to your right, and take the second left turn. You can find our banner near the entrance.

“Living in groups presents both challenges and opportunities. Group members have to resolve potential conflicts and make joint decisions on how to coordinate their activities if the group is to remain cohesive, but they can also draw on each other’s knowledge to solve problems better, passing these solutions down from generation to generation to build animal “cultures”. My research investigates the cognitive underpinnings of these phenomena – group decision-making, collective intelligence, social learning and culture – across birds and primates, and tries to pinpoint general organisational principles that have interesting parallels in human society.”