BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME;VALUE=TEXT:Animal Cognition, Consciousness, and Ethics PRODID:-//Harvard events data//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event_562956_0 SUMMARY:Animal Cognition, Consciousness, and Ethics DESCRIPTION:

Harvard College Effective Altruism (associated with the Department of Psychology) will host a lecture by Dr. Irene Pepperberg on “Animal Cognition, Consciousness, and Ethics” on Monday, October 26 at 6:30 p.m. in Emerson Hall Room 105. All are welcome.

Dr. Irene Pepperberg is a researcher at Harvard University in the field of animal cognition, specifically of African Grey parrots. Her work began with Alex, a parrot who was shown to have the emotional age of about a 2 year old child and the intelligence of up to a 5-6 year old child. Her research in areas such as the labelling of objects, shapes, colors, and the understanding of categorical concepts, of bigger-or-smaller, same-different, and nonhuman numerical abilities, revolutionized what the world knew about avian cognition.

Arguments for human consciousness usually derive from introspective reports; we lack such reports for nonhumans. Not being able to derive data to posit human-like consciousness, Dr. Pepperberg argues that nonhumans have, at the least, a sense of awareness, which may or may not be distinct from full consciousness. She proposes that this awareness if required for complex tasks and is a form of higher order cognition.

LOCATION:Emerson Hall Room 105 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20151026T223000Z DTEND:20151026T223000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR