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My thesis on exploratory learning
How do different animals cope with the vast environmental complexity they face from birth or hatching? If animals’ genes have not provided the necessary information, then exploration is essential for gathering information and learning about the surrounding world. Much of cognition research to date has focussed on what the different abilities of different animal species are, rather than how they actually process information. This thesis has taken a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to tackle this problem from different angles: asking how the senses, environment and different behavioural strategies influence exploratory learning – specifically in the naturally exploratory parrot and human child. …