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ARES Research Seminars: Associate Professor Claudia Wascher

Waiting for better: The ability to delay gratification in non-human animals

Claudia Wascher
Seminars

In this ARES Research Seminar, Associate Professor Claudia Wascher (Behavioural Biology, Faculty of Science and Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University) discusses the ability to delay gratification in non-human animals.

Past event

Event details

Animals, including humans, are frequently faced with decisions that affect what options or rewards become available in the future (‘intertemporal choice’). The ability to withhold an immediate action in pursuit of a more preferred but delayed outcome (delay of gratification) is important for adaptive decision-making. Delay of gratification presents a significant cognitive challenge for both humans and non-human animals.

I will present evidence for the ability to delay gratification in corvids and will set this into a socio-ecological context. Further, I will present a first systematic review of delay of gratification performance in non-human animals.

The results suggest that species of a wide variety of taxa are able to cope with a delay in gratification to a certain degree and I will highlight substantial individual variation in waiting performance.

Booking information

This event is internal only for NTU staff and ARES Postgraduate students.

Virtual Event https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/events/events/2023/2/ares-research-seminars-claudia-wascher

Past event

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