Current Research Projects

“The illusion of science in comparative cognition”
Ben Farrar’s (PhD student at the Comparative Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge) and Ljerka Ostojić’s opinion piece on the depth of theoretical, methodological and statistical issues in comparative cognition. Pre-print: https://psyarxiv.com/hduyx

Is there scope for a ‘Theoretical Animal Cognition’?
This project aims to i) discuss the role of computational modelling for animal cognition research now and in the future, and ii) work out ways in which computational modelling can be more widely integrated with empirical research.

Comparative cognition’s divergence from cognitive psychology
This project involves both a historical perspective and a review and discussion of the current status of comparative cognition/animal cognition/comparative psychology. Topics of interest are research questions formulated at the within- vs. between-subject level, the use of group-level statistics across different research questions, noise in experimental design and data, causal inference.

Measurement in comparative cognition
This project involves working on questions of issues in psychometrics including different epistemological approaches and inconsistencies in the different measurement theories, the lack of separation of test development and test use in comparative cognition, measurement theory as pertaining to current use of measurement in comparative cognition, divergence between psychometrics’ view and empiricists’ use of classical test theory, and potential for alternative ways to treat measurement.

The nature of data in animal behaviour research

The influence of operationalism on research in behavioural science