PhD Studentship fully funded by NERC GW4+ DTP
Investment decisions in grey squirrels: the role of future discounting and executive control
Supervisors
Lisa Leaver, University of Exeter, Psychology
Tim Fawcett, University of Exeter, Psychology
Andy Higginson, University of Exeter, Psychology
Sean Rands, University of Bristol, Biological Sciences
We are looking for a PhD candidate with experience of working with animals in the lab or field, and an interest in animal cognition, foraging theory and decision-making. The project will be carried out on the University of Exeter’s Streatham Campus, Exeter, Devon.
Project details
Investment behaviour necessarily entails planning for the future. It can take many forms across species, and requires some degree of executive control: investors need to inhibit immediate use of an asset to store it away for a future which is, inevitably, uncertain. Investment decisions provide a window into an animal’s expectations about the future and can be expected to vary with life-history parameters.
Grey squirrels are an ideal model species for studying investment because they are natural and prolific investors, storing nuts during times of plenty to provide a reliable source of food when it is scarce. Squirrels not only decide whether to cache or eat a food item, but caching itself involves a series of predation and pilferage risk trade-offs, which co-vary with food value. As such, investment decisions directly reflect future discounting and ought to be tightly linked to executive control.
Aims and Methods
This PhD project will investigate the role of future discounting and executive control in investment decisions made by wild grey squirrels, as part of a long-term field study of squirrels living on the University of Exeter campus. There are two key aims:
develop reliable assays of executive control in squirrels and record their investment decisions and outcomes in terms of successful food recovery, as a real-life measure of the costs and benefits of delaying gratification;
generate and test predictions of caching behaviour from integrative models that consider both optimal foraging (from the behavioural ecology tradition) and the cognitive mechanisms of discounting and executive control (from experimental/cognitive psychology).
By devising field experiments to verify abstract laboratory tests of executive control, the student will generate reliable measures of executive control in free-living squirrels and measure the outcomes of their natural investment decisions. The student will construct mathematical models of adaptive investment behaviour based on executive control and future discounting, to generate predictions that he/she will test by collecting experimental data on wild squirrels in the field. There are multiple directions the work could take and we are particularly interested to hear from students who want to play an active role in designing the project.
How to apply
Full details can be found at:
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/funding/award/?id=4264
For eligible successful applicants, the studentships comprises:
- A stipend for 3.5 years (currently £15,609 p.a. for 2021/22) in line with UK Research and Innovation rates
- Payment of university tuition fees;
- A research budget of £11,000 for an international conference, lab, field and research expenses;
- A training budget of £3,250 for specialist training courses and expenses
Eligibility
NERC GW4+ DTP studentships are open to UK and Irish nationals who, if successful in their applications, will receive a full studentship including payment of university tuition fees at the home fees rate.
A limited number of full studentships are also available to international students which are defined as EU (excluding Irish nationals), EEA, Swiss and all other non-UK nationals. For further details please see the NERC GW4+ website.
Those
not meeting the nationality and residency requirements to be treated as
a ‘home’ student may apply for a limited number
of full studentships for international students. Although international
students are usually charged a higher tuition fee rate than ‘home’
students, those international students offered a NERC GW4+ Doctoral
Training Partnership full studentship starting in
2022 will only be charged the ‘home’ tuition fee rate (which will be
covered by the studentship).
International applicants need to be aware that you will have to cover
the cost of your student visa, healthcare surcharge and other costs of
moving to the UK to do a PhD. More information on this is available from
the universities you are applying to (contact
details are provided in the project description that you are interested
in.
The conditions for eligibility of home fees status are complex and you will need to seek advice if you have moved to or from the UK (or Republic of Ireland) within the past 3 years or have applied for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
The closing date for applications is 1600 hours GMT Friday 10 January 2022. Interviews will be held between 28 February and 4 March 2022. For more information about the NERC GW4+ DPT please visit https://nercgw4plus.ac.uk
If you have any general enquiries about the application process please email pgrenquiries@exeter.ac.uk.
Project-specific queries should be directed to the lead supervisor Lisa Leaver
l.a.leaver@exeter.ac.uk .