Nicky Clayton

Last updated

Professor
Nicky Clayton
FRS FSB
Nicky Clayton on the theory of mind 01.png
Born (1962-11-22) 22 November 1962 (age 62)
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Alma mater University of Oxford
University of St Andrews
Scientific career
Fields Comparative cognition
Institutions University of Cambridge
Rambert Dance Company
Thesis  (1987)
Nicky Clayton's voice
from the BBC programme The Life Scientific , 22 November 2011. [1]
Website

Nicola Susan Clayton (born 22 November 1962 [2] ) is a British psychologist. She is Professor of Comparative Cognition at the University of Cambridge, Scientist in Residence at Rambert Dance Company, [3] co-founder of 'The Captured Thought', [4] [5] a fellow of 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. A position she held until 2023. Since 2024, Clayton is deputy chair of the steering committee for the future researcher initiative at UniHive.

Contents

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 animal cognition as well as cognitive development in human children, with significant impact in the neurobiology of memory and overall cognitive development.[5] Her expertise in the study of comparative cognition integrates a knowledge of both biology and psychology in providing new methods of thinking about the evolution and development of intelligence in non-verbal animals and pre-verbal children. Clayton studies cognition not only in humans but also in members of the crow family (including jackdaws, rooks and 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 3 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. [16] As a dancer, specializing in tango and salsa, she draws evidence from both the arts and science in her collaborations. In 2009, Clayton experienced her first collaboration by becoming involved in a dance piece called The Comedy of Change, which was inspired by Charles Darwin's ideas of natural and sexual selection. She met the choreographer and 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 development of children, such as the importance of play, which helped to inspire the choreography. This piece was another collaboration between Clayton and Baldwin; the title inspired by a line from the nursery rhyme One for Sorrow , which was based on a superstition associating the number of 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". University of Cambridge.
  5. ↑ Clayton, Nicola. "The Captured Thought".
  6. ↑ Clare College Cambridge website accessed 26 May 2014
  7. 1 2 "Professor Nicola S. Clayton FRS FSB FAPS C Psychol". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  8. ↑ "Nicky Clayton and Clive Wilkins have received Professorships from Nanjing University Institute of Technology, China". University of Cambridge. 3 January 2019.
  9. 1 2 Wilkins, Mr Clive (10 December 2014). "Professor Clive Wilkins". University of Cambridge.
  10. 1 2 Campello, Daniele (12 November 2019). "Nicky and Clive have been appointed Honorary and Visiting Professors in multiple Universities in China". University of Cambridge.
  11. ↑ Campello, Daniele (12 May 2020). "The Cambridge Centre for the Integration of Science, Technology and Culture (CCISTC)". University of Cambridge.
  12. 1 2 "Professor Nicky Clayton, FRS". Cambridge Neuroscience. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  13. 1 2 "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. 1 2 Reisz, Matthew (15 March 2012). "Third-culture club". Times Higher Education. Times Higher Education. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Gross, Michael (22 November 2011). "Dances with magpies". Current Biology. 21 (22): R905 –R907. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.008 .
  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. 9 September 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"". University of Cambridge.
  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 15 June 2021 118 (24) e2026106118. Edited by Michael E. Goldberg, Columbia University, New York, NY, and approved 26 April 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.
  34. ↑ https://featuredcontent.psychonomic.org/lb-special-issue-interview-with-nicky-clayton/
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