| Post: | Reader in Behavioural Ecology |
| Location: | Pevensey 1 2B09 |
| Email: | karenm@sussex.ac.uk |
| Telephone numbers | |
| Internal: | 8610 |
| UK: | (01273) 678610 |
| International: | +44 1273 678610 |
Biography
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BSc (1st Class Hons), Edinburgh 1984; PhD, Cambridge 1988.
Appointed lecturer in 1993, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2001 & Reader in 2004. Academic Editor PLoS ONE; previous Consulting Editor for Animal Behaviour and Council Member for the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Awarded PNAS Cozzarelli Prize 2009.
Research Fellow, Newnham College Cambridge, 1990-1993.
Research Associate, University of Minnesota, 1989.
Sussex University: Psychology Home Page
Research
My main research has involved using acoustic analysis and playback experiments to address questions about vocal communication and cognitive abilities in mammals. With my collaborators, postdocs and DPhil students in the Centre for Mammal Vocal Communication Research, I am currently involved in the following projects:
1) Age and experience as determinants of acquired knowledge in African elephants: we have demonstrated that the possession of enhanced discriminatory abilities by the oldest individual in a group of advanced social mammals can influence the social knowledge of the group as a whole and are now taking this forward in a comprehensive investigation of the role of age and experience in acquired knowledge and decision-making (funded by the Leverhulme Trust).
2) Social intelligence in domestic horses, we are developing novel paradigms to examine cross-modal recognition and attribution of attention in this species and were recently awarded the Cozzarelli Prize for best PNAS paper in Behavioral and Social Sciences in 2008 for our work on cross-modal individual recognition.
3) Inter-specific communication: we are expanding research on domestic/companion animals (including domestic cats and dogs as well as horses) as these species can provide useful models both for getting at mammal cognitive abilities and, by virtue of their interactions with humans, exploring interspecific communication. Recent topics include how domestic cats use purring to manipulate their human owners.
4) Acoustic coding in mammal vocalisations: we are particularly interested in elucidating the importance in animal communication of acoustic parameters known to be importance in human speech; study species include red deer, elephants, domestic dogs and cats.
5) The evolution of vocal repertoires: we have conducted comparative analyses to investigate the effects of evolutionary increases in group size on the evolution of vocal repertoires in non-human primates.
Teaching
Course Organiser for third year option in Animal Vocal Communication and Psychology Projects.
Currently teaching on Animal Vocal Communication, Psychobiology and Animal Behaviour.
Selected publications
2009
Attributing attention: the use of human-given cues by domestic horses (Equus caballus). (with Leanne Proops) in Animal Cognition, Awaiting Publication
Cross-modal individual recognition in domestic horses. (with Leanne Proops and David Reby) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Volume 106 pp. 947-951
The cry embedded within the purr (with Anna Taylor, Christian Wilson, Benjamin Charlton, Wilson, C. and Charlton, B.D.) in Current Biology, Awaiting Publication
2008
An experimental investigation of referential looking in free-ranging barbary macaques (Macaca Sylvanus). (with Samuel Roberts and Ted Ruffman) in Journal of Comparative Psychology
Effect of combined source (F0) and filter (formant) variation on red deer hind responses to male roars (with Benjamin Charlton and David Reby) in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Volume 123 pp. 2936-2943
Human listeners attend to size information in domestic dog growls. (with Anna Taylor and David Reby) in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Volume 123 pp. 2903-2909
Red deer hinds use formant frequencies in the male roar as acoustic cues to body size and maturity. (with Benjamin Charlton and David Reby) in Ethology Volume 114 pp. 1023-1031
2007
Female perception of size-related formant shifts in red deer (Cervus elaphus) (with Benjamin Charlton and David Reby) in Animal Behaviour Volume 74 pp. 707-714
Female red deer prefer the roars of larger males. (with Benjamin Charlton and David Reby) in Biology Letters Volume 3 pp. 382-385
Q&A in Current Biology Volume 17 pp. R864-866
2006
African elephants show high levels of interest in the skulls and ivory of their own species. (with Baker, L. and Moss, C.) in Biology Letters Volume 2 pp. 26-28
The function of female copulation calls in the genus Macaca: insights from the Barbary macaque. (with Semple, S) in The Barbary macaque: biology, management and conservation (J.K. Hodges and J. Cortes, eds). Nottingham: Nottingham University Press pp. 81-93. ISBN 1-904761-31-3
2005
Co-evolution of vocal communication and sociality in primates. (with Semple, S.) in Biology Letters Volume 1 pp. 381-385
Red deer stags use formants as assessment cues during intra-sexual agonistic interactions. (with David Reby, Christopher Darwin, Cargnelutti, B, Fitch, W. T. and Clutton-Brock, T.H.) in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (Series B) Volume 272 pp. 941-947
Vocal Communication Networks in Large Terrestrial Mammals. in Animal Communication Networks (ed. P.K. McGregor). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press pp. 372-389. ISBN 0-521-82361-7
2003
Anatomical constraints generate honesty: acoustic cues to age and weight in the roars of red deer stags. in Animal Behaviour Volume 65 pp. 519-530
Long-distance communication of acoustic cues to social identity in African elephants. (with David Reby, Baker, L. and Moss, C.) in Animal Behaviour Volume 65 pp. 317-329
Vocal communication and reproduction in deer. (with David Reby) in Advances in the Study of Behavior Volume 33 pp. 231-264.
2002
Information content of female copulation calls in yellow baboons. (with Semple, S., Alberts, S. and Altmann, J.) in American Journal of Primatology Volume 56 pp. 43-56
2001
Matriarchs act as repositories of social knowledge in African elephants. (with Moss, C., Durant, S.M. and Baker, L.) in Science Volume 292 pp. 491-494
Roaring and social communication in African lions: the limitations imposed by listeners. (with Grinnell, J.) in Animal Behaviour Volume 62 pp. 93-98
2000
Perception of female reproductive state from vocal cues in a mammal species. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (Series B): Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (Series B) Volume 267 pp. 707-712 ISBN 0962-8452
Unusually extensive networks of vocal recognition in African Elephants. (with C Moss and S Sayialel) Animal Behaviour: Animal Behaviour Volume 59 pp. 1103-1109 ISBN 0003-3472