Collective Cognition in Ants and Pigeons
Tue 11/3 • 1PM - 2:30PM PST
Charles E. Young Research Library, Main Conference Room 11360
Part of the Jacob Marschak Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Mathematics in the Behavioral Sciences
Speaker: Takao Sasaki, associate professor in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
Social animals—from insect colonies to human groups—often make decisions without centralized control, relying on local interactions to produce coordinated collective outcomes. However, we still know little about the circumstances under which groups make better (or worse) decisions than individuals. To address this question, Takao Sasaki's research applies concepts and methods from psychology to both individuals and groups, allowing him to directly compare their cognitive abilities.
Using ants and homing pigeons as model systems, Sasaki will discuss (1) how rock ant colonies avoid making irrational decisions, (2) how fire ants collectively build self-assembled pontoon bridges, and (3) how homing pigeons improve their homing routes through the accumulation of knowledge. He will also briefly introduce a new research direction that his lab has recently started investigating: collective animal learning.
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