ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

BSc (hons) Psychology, Dept of Psychology, University of Stirling
PhD – Complex tracking and capture behaviour in birds, Dept of Psychology, University of York
Postdoctoral Research – Avian visual perception, Dept of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna
   
(current Tel: 01522 895465)

RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research focuses on understanding animal cognition as part of a biological framework. Specifically, my interests currently cover two main areas: avian visual cognition and cognition in reptiles and amphibians.

Cold-blooded cognition
Reptile cognition: My current work with reptiles investigates spatial, visual and social cognition in tortoises, spatial cognition in lizards and visual cognition in chameleons. Amphibian cognition: I am interested in the effects of natural changes in brain activity on memory in amphibians. This work examines memory retention after hibernation and metamorphosis. Please see the cold-blooded cognition lab website for further details
http://cogbio.univie.ac.at/labs/cold-blooded-cognition-lab/

 Avian visual cognition
Visual perception and categorisation: My interests include the effects of experience on visual processing and categorization. Does extensive experience with real life objects effect the way we a) process them and b) categorise them?
Tracking behaviour: Tracking and capture can be seen in all animals involved in predator-prey interactions. Despite the prevalence of this behaviour the mechanisms involved in visually-guided capture in non-humans were poorly understood. My PhD thesis proposed two mechanisms that control this behaviour in birds; these are quite different to the predictive extrapolation mechanism that has been observed in humans. I was awarded the KM Stott Prize for the best PhD thesis in 2008 by the University of York.

PUBLICATIONS

Blair, C. A. J., Wilkinson, A., & Hall, G. (2004). Assessments of changes in the effective salience of stimulus elements as a result of stimulus preexposure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 30, 317-24.

Kirkpatrick, K., Wilkinson, A., & Johnston, S. (2007). Pigeons discriminate continuous vs. discontinuous line segments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 33, 273-286.

Wilkinson, A., Chan, H. M., & Hall, G. (2007). A study of spatial learning and memory in the tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 121, 412-418.

Huber, L., & Wilkinson, A. (2009). The evolutionary approach to perception. In B. Goldstein (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Perception. London: SAGE.

Wilkinson, A., Coward, S., & Hall, G. (2009). Visual and response-based navigation in the tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria) Animal Cognition, 12, 779-787.

Wilkinson, A., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2009). Visually-guided capture of a moving stimulus by the pigeon (Columba livia). Animal Cognition, 12, 127-144.

Wilkinson, A., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2010). Tracking and capture of constant and varying velocity stimuli: A cross-species comparison of pigeons and humans. Animal Cognition, doi: 10.1007/s10071-010-0343-8.

Wilkinson, A., Kuenstner, K., Mueller, J., & Huber, L. (2010). Social learning in a non-social reptile. Biology Letters, 6, 614-616.

Wilkinson, A., Mandl, I., Bugnyar, T., & Huber, L. (2010). Gaze following in the red-footed tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria). Animal Cognition, 13, 765-769.

Wilkinson, A., Specht, H. L., & Huber, L. (2010). Pigeons can discriminate group mates from strangers using the concept of familiarity, Animal Behaviour, 80, 109-115.

Huber, L., & Wilkinson, A. (In Press). Cognitive evolution: A comparative approach. In F. G. Barth, P. Giampieri-Deutsch & H-D. Klein (Eds.) Sensory Perception: Mind and Matter. Springer: New York.

Mueller, J., Wilkinson, A., & Hall, G. (In Press). Spatial Cognition in Reptiles. In F. Columbus (Ed.) Reptiles: Biology Behavior and Conservation. Nova Science Publishers: New York.

Wilkinson, A., & Huber, L. (In Press). Cold-blooded cognition: Reptilian cognitive abilities. In J. Vonk & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology. Oxford University Press: New York.