Research Interests
My research interests focus on animal cognition and behaviour. I am fascinated by how animals learn, individually and socially, and how the acquired information can help them to cope with the challenges of everyday life. In particular, I am interested in cognitive flexibility and executive function. Recently my research focus has broadened towards cognitive ecology including questions such as how sociality influences learning ability, how parental care affects offspring behavioural and cognitive phenotype, how the sexes learn in different context and how a species ecology shapes its cognitive ability. I am most excited about the comparative approach to find out how species differ in their cognition and how cognitive abilities have evolved in different taxa. In this context I am very interested in individual differences and how these might reflect necessary variation to cope with different challenges that might arise within an individuals lifetime but also across generations. I am also interested in how we can use both behaviour and cognitive ability to develop and improve animal welfare and conservation measures.