Couverture de Many Minds

Many Minds

Many Minds

De : Kensy Cooperrider – Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute
Écouter gratuitement

Offres de saison | 0,99 € par mois pendant les 3 premiers mois

5,99 €/mois par la suite. Des conditions s’appliquent. Annulation mensuelle possible.
Our world is brimming with beings—human, animal, and artificial. We explore how they think, sense, feel, and learn. Conversations and more, every two weeks.Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute 2020-2025 Science
Épisodes
  • Island of the tool users

    Island of the tool users
    Oct 9 2026
    Tool use is rare in the animal kingdom—but maybe not as rare as we once thought. Since Jane Goodall famously observed a chimpanzee fishing for termites, many new examples of animals using tools have come to light. Birds using sticks to forage for grubs. Sea otters using rocks to smash open mussels. Digger wasps using stones to close off their burrows. But as these examples mount, so do the scientific questions. What is tool use, really? What different forms does it take? Does it always imply a high degree of intelligence? And perhaps the biggest question of all: Why do some creatures use tools while so many others don't? My guest today is Dr. Alice Auersperg. Alice is a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. She and her lab study innovation, technical cognition, and tool use in animals—especially in a species of parrot known as the Goffin's cockatoo. Here, Alice and I talk about her lab's recent work with a certain remarkable cow. We discuss the wide variation in definitions of tool use across studies, and why some kinds of tool use are perhaps more impressive than others. We walk through some of her lab's most striking findings about tool use in the Goffin's cockatoo: for example, the finding that these birds don't just use tools but also make them—and can make the same tool out of different materials; the finding that they learn to use tools from others; and the finding that they recognize in some way the value of tools. We dig into some Alice's ideas about the big picture—why certain species use tools, and why so many tool users seem to live on islands. Along the way, Alice and I talk about whether tool use in birds is fundamentally different from tool use in primates; we talk about play and boldness; the allure of the sea mango; intrinsic motivation to combine objects; why tool use differs in captivity, at least in Great Apes; and why Goffin's cockatoos like to dunk their noodles in blueberry soy yogurt. Before we get to it, a brief announcement. We've been steadily expanding the ways you can engage with us. We recently revived our newsletter, in the form of a Substack. And our episodes are now up on YouTube (albeit in audio-only format, for the time being). And of course you can still find us on Spotify, LinkedIn, and on Bluesky. You are warmly encouraged to subscribe to us or follow us on any and all of these channels. And maybe this goes without saying but we do like hearing from you—so please do leave us a comment! Alright friends, without further ado, on to my interview with Dr. Alice Auersperg. Enjoy! Notes 3:30 – The recent study by Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró and Dr. Auersperg on Veronika the cow's flexible tool use; a video about the findings. Dr. Auersperg's book on innovation in animals (in German). 9:30 – We discussed gifted word-learning dogs in a recent episode. 11:00 – A paper on tool use in digger wasps. A paper on "anting" in birds. A paper on macaques' use of human hair as dental floss. 18:00 – The chapter by Fragaszy and Mangalam in which the concept of "tooling" was introduced. For a discussion of this framework by Dr. Auersperg and colleagues, see here. 23:00 – A recent discussion by Jen Colbourne and Dr. Auersperg, which touches on the (somewhat outdated) idea that avian and primate tool use are quite different. 25:00 – For more on tool use in New Caledonian crows, see our (much) earlier episode with Alex Taylor. 30:00 – An example of Dr. Auersperg's early work with kea. 34:00 – The study by Dr. Auersperg and team describing the innovation of tool use by the cockatoo named Figaro. 38:00 – A follow-up study on social learning of tool use. A follow-up study showing that Goffin's cockatoos can make the same tool from different materials (video abstract). 47:00 – A study showing that Goffin's cockatoos will (learn to) safekeep their tools. 50:00 – The study from Dr. Auersperg's lab documenting the use of "tool sets" in wild Goffin's cockatoos (video abstract). 58:00 – For more on the origins and drivers of tool use across species, see this recent discussion by Jen Colbourne and Dr. Auersperg. 1:02:00 – A paper by Jean-Baptiste Leca and a colleague about object play and its relation to tool use. 1:04:00 – A paper discussing how tool use differs in captivity in primates. 1:05:00 – The study of noodle flavoring behavior in Goffin's cockatoos by Jeroen Stephan Zewald and Dr. Auersperg (video abstract). 1:09:00 – For an initial discussion of island ecology and its effects on tool use, by Dr. Auersperg and a colleague, see here. Dr. Auersperg's fuller treatment of the island effect remains to be published. 1:19:00 – A study of tool use in sea otters. 1:22:00 – The book Delicious by Rob Dunn (former guest) and Monica Sanchez. Recommendations A Bird's IQ, by Louis Lefebvre Animal Tool Behavior, by Robert W. Shumaker, Kristine R. Walkup, & Benjamin Beck 'Tooling,' by ...
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 27 min
  • Cognitive offloading and its consequences

    Cognitive offloading and its consequences
    Sep 25 2026
    For thousands of years—maybe for as long as we've been human—we've offloaded our thinking. We've counted on our fingers. We've carved tallies into bone. We've invented a long series of tools to help us reason, remember, and manage information—tools like abacuses, calendars, writing systems, calculators, smartphones, and many, many more. So cognitive offloading is hardly new—but the questions around it seem newly urgent. As cognitive technologies accumulate, as opportunities for offloading tempt us at every turn, as headlines warn of "digital dementia" and "cognitive surrender," it seems like a good time to take stock. Yes, cognitive offloading can save us time and effort. But what are its other consequences? My guest today is Dr. Sam Gilbert. Sam is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. Sam and his colleagues have been trailblazers in the study of cognitive offloading—when we do it, why we do it, what it does for us and to us. Here, Sam and I talk about what cognitive offloading is, how deep it goes in our species' history, and how it pervades our everyday lives. We talk about the different forms that offloading takes. We discuss why some people offload more than others, and why we offload in certain situations. We walk through three bodies of research on the consequences of cognitive offloading—research on the so-called Google effect, on the photo-taking impairment effect, and on the impact of using GPS to navigate. Of course, we also address the elephant in the room: How should we think about the possible dangers—and benefits—of cognitive offloading in the new era of AI? Before we get to it, some news: We have re-launched the Many Minds newsletter, as a Substack! We'll be sharing each of our episodes there, as well as other morsels from time to time. We've been wanting to do this, in part, to give you a better way to engage with us—and with each other. Were there questions we should have asked? Are there connections you made that we didn't? Counterarguments we overlooked? Et cetera. All that stuff can now go in the comments for each episode. So, if you're a fan of the show, please do consider subscribing and following along with us there. Alright friends, on to my conversation with Dr. Sam Gilbert. Enjoy! Notes 4:00 – For a sampling of recent discussions of AI and its possible harms, see here, here, and here. 7:30 – For a scholarly discussion of "shifting baseline syndrome," see here. 12:30 – For an earlier, influential overview of the phenomenon of cognitive offloading, see this article by Dr. Gilbert and a colleague. 15:00 – For more on the phenomenon of tilting one's head to view a tilted image (aka "external normalization"), see here. For an example of recent work on finger counting in children, see here. 18:00 – For some of Dr. Gilbert's work on cognitive effort in cognitive offloading, see here. For another recent discussion of the construct, see here. 23:00 – For a recent review of "intention offloading" by Dr. Gilbert and colleagues, see here. 29:00 – For work by Dr. Gilbert and colleagues on the role of metacognition in offloading, see here and here. 33:00 – For recent work by Dr. Gilbert and colleagues on offloading in older and younger adults, see here. See also a recent review of cognitive offloading in children by Dr. Gilbert and a colleague. 39:00 – The original study of the "Google effect" by Sparrow and colleagues. For more on "transactive memory," see here. 45:00 – For the original demonstration of the "photo-taking impairment effect," see here. For recent work by Dr. Gilbert and colleagues exploring this effect, see here. 53:00 – A recent meta-analysis of whether GPS impairs navigation ability. 59:00 – The 'Your Brain on ChatGPT' preprint. 1:02:00 – For a meta-analysis of the effects of calculators on math education, see here. Recommendations 'The Intelligence Use of Space,' by David Kirsh Cognition in the Wild, by Edwin Hutchins Tile art credit: Image by NASA via Wikipedia Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Bluesky (@manymindspod.bsky.social).
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 15 min
  • Coming of age in Ngogo

    Coming of age in Ngogo
    Sep 11 2026
    It's a familiar story in many ways. A child is born, and for years afterward is adored and indulged and anchored to home and family. But then the child grows up and starts crossing that long threshold into adulthood. The transition proves—to say the least—a bit turbulent. Now when I say this story is familiar, I don't just mean familiar to us as human beings. After all, a similar story has long played out among our closest cousins, the chimpanzees. My guest today is Dr. Rachna Reddy. Rachna co-directs the longstanding Ngogo Chimpanzee Project in Uganda and is an incoming Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. For more than a decade now, she has been closely observing the chimpanzees at Ngogo—and especially the adolescents. Here Rachna and I talk about why adolescence—in all its intensity—is such a scientifically fascinating life-stage. We sketch the Ngogo research site, home to the largest group of chimpanzees ever studied. We unpack the different stages of chimpanzee life history. We zoom in on chimpanzee adolescence using a variety of different lenses—we talk about greetings, dominance hierarchies, grooming, social rejection, mentorship, deference, patrolling, female dispersal, and more. We discuss the so-called civil war that has taken root at Ngogo. And, finally, we talk about Rachna's in-progress novel (if that's the right word), which tells the story of one chimpanzee's coming of age in immersive detail. I think you'll enjoy this one, folks. Chimpanzees offer us a kind of parallel universe, a funhouse mirror version of human life—one that is deeply relatable in some ways, and totally alien to us in others. And the parallels and non-parallels are arguably all the more striking in adolescence. But before we get to it, one humble ask: As the new season of Many Minds ramps up, this would be a great time to support the show. You could do this by rating us, writing a review on Apple Podcasts or a comment on Spotify, or by doing the old-fashioned thing of just recommending us to a friend or colleague. Your support is—as always—much appreciated. Alright friends, without further ado. Here's my conversation with Dr. Rachna Reddy. Enjoy! Notes 4:00 – Damien and several other chimpanzees discussed in this episode feature in the Netflix documentary series Chimp Empire. 8:00 – See here for a study by Dr. Reddy and a colleague on caregiving behavior in recently orphaned chimpanzee siblings. 13:00 – See here for a comprehensive recent article by Dr. Reddy and colleagues about puberty and adolescence in chimpanzees. 16:00 – The Ngogo fission—and subsequent "civil war"—is treated in detail in Chimp Empire and was the subject of a recent, widely discussed research paper (which includes Dr. Reddy as an author). 26:00 – "Tanner stages" are a widely used scale for measuring different phases of puberty in humans. 29:00 – For more discussion of life history stages and how these differ across species, see our earlier episodes here and here. For a recent report that Ngogo females experience menopause, see here. 36:00 – For some of Dr. Reddy's work on dominance hierarchies in adolescent male chimps, see here. 39:00 – For a detailed discussion of the chimpanzee "pant grunt" and its development, see here. 47:00 – For a study of female dispersal in a different chimpanzee population, see here. 54:00 – A video of a Tai chimpanzee playing "airplane" with her baby. 1:04:00 – A classic study of boundary patrolling at Ngogo. 1:11:00 – A study by Dr. Reddy and a colleague on sociosexual behavior in chimpanzees. 1:15:00 – A study by Dr. Reddy and a colleague on relationships between chimpanzee mothers and sons. 1:17:00 – A recent study conducted by Dr. Laura Simone Lewis (former guest!), Dr. Reddy, and others on social curiosity in chimpanzees and human children. 1:26:00 – For classic work by Jane Goodall featuring chimpanzee characters, see her 1971 book, In the Shadow of Man. Recommendations Work by Kazuya Toda in bonobos (e.g., here) Work by Caitlin A. O'Connell in orangutans (e.g., here) Work by Ella Brown in gorillas (e.g., here) Tile art credit: Image of Jarman at age 11, courtesy of Rachna Reddy Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the **new** Many Minds newsletter! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show...
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 35 min
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
Aucun commentaire pour le moment