Skype: kcycheng
desert antsI collaborate with Rüdiger Wehner of the Department of Zoology, University of Zurich on research on desert ants. The species are Cataglyphis fortis in Tunisia, and Melophorus bagoti in Central Australia.
Wehner has established and run a field research station in Tunisia for over 30 years. The subject of research has been various species of the desert ant, genus Cataglyphis. Much about the navigational behaviour of these ants is known as a result of the very fruitful work of Wehner and his collaborators. But of course much more remains to be researched.
More recently, we have also begun to investigate an Australian desert ant located in Central Australia. Known as the red honey ant (pictured here), Melophorus bagoti shares many characteristics with Cataglyphis. It is long-legged, active in the heat of the day, and moves fast. But their ecology differs from that of Cataglyphis's. The deserts of Central Australia are richer in plant life, making the visual world of M. bagoti cluttered with landmarks in the form of grass tussocks, bushes, and trees. We are interested in comparing the navigational behaviours of Melophorus with those of Cataglyphis. We have a recent review on Melophorus. pdf
Ajay Narendra completed his Ph.D. studying navigation in Melophorus bagoti, and is now a postdoc on an Australian Research Council fellowship at the Australian National University.
My experiments on honeybees have investigated how the foragers find a rewarding place. Past work focussed on the theme of the mechanisms by which honeybees find a place. Current research focuses on the topic of how the worker retrieves the correct memory of a place and whether and how multiple memories are integrated. Catherine Prabhu recently completed a thesis on how honeybees deal with conflicting evidence. Two papers: memory for colours, memory for odours.
Clark's nutcrackersThe Clark's nutcracker has a prolific spatial memory. The bird lives in the Rocky Mountains of North America, and stores a lot of food, mostly pine seeds. It relies on its stored caches for sustenance over winter. It can remember thousands of caches for months. Alan Kamil and Russell Balda have done many studies on this bird. We now know that they use landmarks to remember and retrieve their caches. We want to figure out how they use landmarks. Here is a recent lab study on localization of hidden food using landmarks that Debbie Kelly of the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, did while she was a postdoc with Alan Kamil. pdf
geometry and navigation This is a topic that I started to study in my graduate school years. It has quite taken off. I haven't done any more empirical work on it, but have contributed theoretically. The unkind might say that I have milked other people's work. The kinder might say that theoretically contributions can be important.
Geometry is the layout of surfaces in the environment. What any animal learns about geometric cues is a matter of some debate.
The link has more information, including pdfs of papers.
crab spiders and
beesI collaborated with Astrid Heiling and Mariella Herberstein of the Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, on the study of signal interactions between crab spiders, flowers, and bees, which are potential prey for spiders. Crab spiders may lure bees deceptively with their body coloration, to the detriment of the bees.
In spatial generalisation, a worker is trained to find food in a container at one location. After sufficient training, she is presented a container at various locations, including the training location. The question at stake is: how should the animal 'bet' on whether the container at each location has food or not. See the link for some answers.
In experiments on self control, the forager is presented with two choices of rewards. One is immediately available but is small. The other reward is larger, but the forager has to wait some time for it. Waiting for a larger reward is technically called self control, lack of which is often a nemesis in human behaviour. Bees show a good deal of self control.
learning and face perception in humansI have an ongoing collaboration with Marcia Spetch of the Department of Psychology, University of Alberta. Students and colleagues have been collaborators, including Colin Clifford of the School of Psychology, University of Sydney. We investigated a number of topics in spatial and temporal cognition in pigeons and humans. A story on spatial cognition is linked below.
We found both peak shift and range effects in human face identification.
Marcia Spetch and I have published a substantial story on spatial cognition in university students, investigating spatial generalisation and peak shift. Students were presented marked locations on a computer screen, and had to bet whether it was the rewarding 'hot' spot.
Two colleagues at our University, Chris Evans and Peter Wenderoth, and I studied the perception of bilateral symmetry in complex stimuli in humans. Bilateral symmetry means mirror symmetry. It is often an attractive property in mate selection. We studied in human subjects the perception of symmetry in complex, naturalistic objects.
Chris Evans and I have been exploring this topic 'on the back burner' for a number of years. The idea is to present virtual flowers, generated on computer to real bees. Each flower contains the same reward, but the bees get to choose which flower to land on and get their sugar water from. The virtual aspect makes it possible to manipulate key parameters in evolution, such as costs in producing flowers. It also speeds up the 'evolutionary' process, making generations go by in days. We think that this makes a great project for an interested graduate student.
Sebastian Schwarz: studying learning in desert ants
Andros Hoan: studying human learning and memory
Patrick Schultheiss: studying foraging ecology in desert ants
Antoine Wystrach: studying view-based navigation in ants
I teach BBE100 Introduction to Brain, Behaviour, and Evolution. A brief description:
BBE100 is a suitable introductory science course for all students. It offers an integrative approach to the amazing world of animal behaviour. Basic mechanisms are covered, together with function and evolution. Lecture topics include micro- and macro-evolution, evolutionary origins of behaviour, basic neuroscience, learning, brain and behaviour, and topics in animal behaviour. Lectures culminate with some reflections on the lives of humans in our modern world and the role of culture in human evolution.