Nicola Clayton

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Nicky Clayton
Born (1962-11-22) 22 November 1962 (age 61)
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
University of St Andrews
Scientific career
FieldsComparative cognition
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
Rambert Dance Company
Thesis (1987)
Website

Nicola Susan Clayton

Clare College, Cambridge, where she is Director of Studies in Psychology,[6] and a Fellow of the Royal Society since 2010.[7] Clayton was made Honorary Director of Studies and advisor to the 'China UK Development Centre'(CUDC) in 2018. She has been awarded professorships by Nanjing University, Institute of Technology, China (2018),[8] Beijing University of Language and Culture, China (2019),[9][10] and Hangzhou Diangi University, China (2019).[9][10] Clayton was made Director of the Cambridge Centre for the Integration of Science, Technology and Culture (CCISTC)[11]
in 2020.

Early life and education

Clayton graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in zoology from the University of Oxford in 1984, before gaining a PhD from the University of St Andrews in 1987.

Career

University of Cambridge

Clayton has made major contributions in the study of

jays). This work has challenged many assumptions that only humans can reminisce about the past and plan for the future, and that only humans can understand other times as well as other minds.[12] Her work has also led to a re-evaluation of the cognitive capacities of animals, specifically birds, and resulted in a theory that intelligence evolved independently in at least two groups, the apes and the crows,[13] and most recently cephalopods. This has also had scientific impact in changing the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill.[14] Nicky presented an edition of Between the Ears [15]
entitled 'Year of the Covids' on BBC Radio 3 on 3rd April 2023.

Nicky Clayton being interviewed for the Dutch TV-show The Mind of the Universe.

Rambert Dance Company

Since 2009, Clayton has worked with the Rambert Dance Company as science collaborator, then scientific adviser, and now scientist-in-residence.

Artistic Director of Rambert Dance Company, Mark Baldwin, and gave input about science that could inform the piece.[16] Other choreographic works inspired by science Clayton has collaborated with Baldwin on include Seven For a Secret, Never To Be Told, What Wild Ecstasy,[13]
The Strange Charm of Mother Nature, The Creation, Perpetual Movement and Bold.

The piece Seven For a Secret, Never To Be Told was based on the psychology of children, an area of Clayton's research. Clayton singled out themes related to the behavioural

magpies one sees to prediction of one's future.[17]

The Captured Thought

Clayton on the theory of mind. What is thinking? How do people and animals think?

Another of Clayton's collaborations is with the artist and author Clive Wilkins, who has been Artist in Resident in the psychology department at the University of Cambridge since 2012, a position created especially for Wilkins. Their collaboration arose out of a mutual interest in mental time travel and resulted in Clayton and Wilkins co-founding "The Captured Thought~ an arts/science collaboration."[12] Their work and lectures explore the subjective experience of thinking, by drawing evidence from both science and the arts to examine perception and the nature of mental time travel, as well as the mechanisms we use to think about the future and reminisce about the past. The goal of this project is to illuminate ideas concerning memories and question the power of analysis.[18] Important aspects of The Captured Thought's work have been highlighted in articles in 'The Guardian' newspaper in 2019 [19][20] and in 'Die Zeit' magazine in 2020.[21] The Captured Thought were invited speakers at The University of Vienna's CogSciHub[22] inauguration 2019 and India's National Brain Research Centre 16th Foundation Day. Clayton and Wilkins continue to present their work in lectures to universities and conferences across the globe~ including UK, Europe, USA, Asia, China and Australasia.Their work together featured in the New Scientist Special Christmas and New Year issue 2022.[23][24]

Published works

Awards

References

  1. ^ "Nicky Clayton". The Life Scientific. 22 November 2011. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  2. ^ CLAYTON, Prof. Nicola Susan, Who's Who 2015, A & C Black, 2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014
  3. ^ "Professor Nicola S. Clayton FRS FSB FAPS C Psychol". Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  4. ^ FRS, Professor Nicola S. Clayton (11 March 2012). "Professor Nicola S. Clayton". www.psychol.cam.ac.uk.
  5. ^ Clayton, Nicola. "The Captured Thought".
  6. ^ Clare College Cambridge website accessed 26 May 2014
  7. ^ a b "Professor Nicola S. Clayton FRS FSB FAPS C Psychol". University of Cambridge. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  8. ^ "Nicky Clayton and Clive Wilkins have received Professorships from Nanjing University Institute of Technology, China". www.psychol.cam.ac.uk. 3 January 2019.
  9. ^ a b Wilkins, Mr Clive (10 December 2014). "Professor Clive Wilkins". www.psychol.cam.ac.uk.
  10. ^ a b Campello, Daniele (12 November 2019). "Nicky and Clive have been appointed Honorary and Visiting Professors in multiple Universities in China". www.psychol.cam.ac.uk.
  11. ^ Campello, Daniele (12 May 2020). "The Cambridge Centre for the Integration of Science, Technology and Culture (CCISTC)". www.psychol.cam.ac.uk.
  12. ^ a b "Professor Nicky Clayton, FRS". Cambridge Neuroscience. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Professor Nicola Clayton". Battle of Ideas 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  14. ^ Schnell, A. K. & Clayton, N. S. (2021). Spineless legislation. New Scientist, 31 July, p. 25
  15. ^ "BBC Radio 3 - Between the Ears, Year of the Corvids".
  16. ^ a b Reisz, Matthew (15 March 2012). "Third-culture club". Times Higher Education. Times Higher Education. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  17. .
  18. ^ "The Captured Thought is off to Florida University". The Captured Thought. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  19. ^ The Guardian. Armistead, C.(2019)The magicians trying to change the world- one card trick at a time. September 9, 2019, G2, 6-7.
  20. ^ Campello, Daniele (10 September 2019). "Clive Wilkins and Nicky Clayton on The Guardian - "The magicians trying to change the world"". www.psychol.cam.ac.uk.
  21. ^ ‘Das eine Tier führt, das andere folgt, es ist eine Art Tango’. Aus der serie: Stephan Kleins Wissenschaftsgespräche. Zeitmagazin nr. 18/2020 -22 April 2020
  22. ^ "Forschungsverbund Vienna Cognitive Science Hub". cogsci.univie.ac.at.
  23. ^ "What doing magic tricks for birds is revealing about animal minds".
  24. ^ "A Christmas Special on the New Scientist features research work on Magic by Prof Wilkins and Clayton and Garcia-Pelegrin". 23 December 2021.
  25. ^ Clayton N.S. & Wilkins C.A.P. (2019) Current Biology 29(10), R349-R350
  26. ^ Clayton N.S. & Wilkins C.A.P. (2019)Science 364, 6445.
  27. ^ Wilkins C.A.P & Clayton N.S. Reflections on the Spoon Test. Neuropsychologia (2019)
  28. ^ Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, Alexandra K. Schnell, Clive Wilkins and Nicola S. Clayton. An unexpected audience. Science.18 Sep 2020:Vol. 369, Issue 6510, pp. 1424-1426 DOI: 10.1126/science.abc6805
  29. ^ Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, Alexandra K. Schnell, Clive Wilkins and Nicola S. Clayton. Exploring the perceptual inabilities of Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) using magic effects. PNAS June 15, 2021 118 (24) e2026106118. Edited by Michael E. Goldberg, Columbia University, New York, NY, and approved April 26, 2021
  30. ^ "Nicola Clayton". Royal Society. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  31. ^ "Nicola S. Clayton, PhD, FRS, FSB, FAPS, C Psychol". 6 May 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  32. ^ "Tinbergen Lecturer".
  33. ^ 2022 https://www.asab.org/asab-medal.

External links