Michael Emmerson

• BSc (Hons) Psychology
• Early-life adversity and individual differences in cognition in the European Starling.

This study aimed to see if experimentally increasing/decreasing the degree of early life adversity in a model animal species, i.e. the European Starling, caused changes in later life optimism/pessimism. I administered a judgement bias task to see how low and high early life adversity adult Starlings react to an emotionally ambiguous situation as an animal measure of optimism/pessimism. In addition, I used specialist software to see if the two groups react differently to unusual items placed in their cages, being placed in a new environment, and to investigate potential differences in daily behaviour patterns.

Funding source: Newcastle University