<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>MELISSA BATESON</TITLE> </HEAD> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#6666CC" alink="#6666CC" vlink="#000033"> <basefont size=4> <CENTER> <h1>Melissa Bateson's Home Page</h1> </center> <hr> <table> <tr> <td> Royal Society University Research Fellow Division of Psychology School of Biology and Psychology Newcastle University </td> <td width="50%" align="right"> <IMG SRC="Melissa1.tiff" width="200"> </td> </tr> </table> <hr> Contact details <table> <tr> <td> Address: </td> <td> Henry Wellcome Building for Neuroecology, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE2 4HH. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Email: </td> <td><a href="mailto:Melissa.Bateson@newcastle.ac.uk">Melissa.Bateson@newcastle.ac.uk</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Phone (office direct line): </td> <td> +44(0)191 2225056 </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Fax (department): </td> <td> +44(0)191 2225622 </td> </tr> </table> <hr> Research interests Life is filled with choices: a hungry starling has to decide which field to forage in, a peahen has to choose between the various magnificent peacocks she encounters on a lek and we have to choose which brands to buy every time we visit the supermarket. I am interested in how both animals and humans make decisions between alternative options. My research lies at the intersection of classical ethology and cognitive psychology. As an ethologist, I am seeking to understand both the functions and mechanisms of decision-making. The study of function involves trying to understand how natural selection has shaped decisions, whereas the study of mechanism involves trying to understand the cognitive, and perhaps ultimately the neural mechanisms underlying the information processing involved in decision-making. Rather than adopting a single theoretical framework I have chosen to draw on models from a range of different disciplines include behavioural ecology, cognitive psychology, economics and marketing. I am particularly intrigued by the potential for fruitful exchanges of ideas between the human and animal behaviour literatures. My research is characterised by carefully controlled experiments designed to distinguish between alternative models to explain observed phenomena. The main animal systems I have worked with are starlings foraging in the lab, wild rufous hummingbirds foraging on artificial flowers and zebra finches choosing their mates. In humans I have studied judgments of female physical attractiveness and the honesty of my colleagues when paying for their coffee. In recent years I have become particularly interested in applying my expertise in animal decision making to the challenging problem of measuring animal welfare. <hr> Current projects Biases in information processing as novel measures of animal welfare Anxious and depressed humans typically view circumstances more pessimistically than happier individuals. We are currently exploring the proposal that such cognitive biases also exist in non-human animals, and could be used as novel measures of animal welfare. So far we have developed a range of tasks for European starlings in which birds are required to classify ambiguous stimuli as having either positive or negative associations. Our hypothesis is that birds with poorer welfare will interpret ambiguous stimuli more pessimistically, with the result that they will be more likely to classify them as associated with a more negative outcome. <a href="CogBias.html">Click here for further details.</a> <hr> Implications of decision mechanisms for the design and interpretation of choice tests Choice tests are widely used in animal welfare research in order to establish the priorities of captive animals. It is an implicit assumption underlying the majority of choice tests that the preferences obtained from the test are independent of the set of options available in the test. However, there are good reasons to believe that this may not always be the case (see Bateson 2004), in which case the value of a resource may be critically dependent on the range of options offered in a choice test. The aim of this project is to explore the impact of such context-dependent choice in animal welfare research. <a href="Choice.html">Click here for further details.</a> <hr> Effects of cage design on the welfare of captive European starlings Starlings are one of the most widely used passerine birds in fundamental biological research, yet surprisingly there has been very little research on factors that affect the welfare of birds held in captivity. We are currently conducting research investigating the impact of various features of cage design including cage size, cage shape and the provision of environmental enrichment on the behaviour and welfare of wild-caught starlings. <a href="Starlings.html">Click here for further details.</a> <hr> Data sharing In line with <a href="http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/support/guidelines/datasharing/context.html "> BBSRC's Data Sharing Policy </a> all raw data collected under BBSRC funding will be made available to bona fide researchers on request, either when the main findings have been published, or three years after the termination of the grant, whichever comes first. Data files will be in the form of well-annotated Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that can be supplied via email. Publications for which data sets are available under the above policy will be marked as such in the list below. Please <a href="mailto:Melissa.Bateson@newcastle.ac.uk">contact me</a> if you are interested in obtaining a copy of a data set. <hr> Publications Asher, L. & Bateson, M. 2007. Use and husbandry of captive European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in scientific research: a review of current practice. Laboratory Animals, in press. Barnett, C. A., Rowe, C & Bateson, M. 2007. Effects of fat reserves on starlings’ consumption of chemically defended prey. Behavioural Ecology in press doi: 10.1093/beheco/arm027 Matheson, S. M., Asher, L. & Bateson, M. Submitted. Larger, enriched cages are associated with ‘optimistic’ response biases in captive European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Applied Animal Behavior Science doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2007.03.007 <a href="Matheson_etal_2007.pdf">Download pdf.</a> Bateson, M. & Matheson S. M. 2007. Removal of environmental enrichment induces ‘pessimism’ in captive European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Animal Welfare 16(S): 33-36. <a href="Bateson_Matheson_2007.pdf">Download pdf.</a> Smith, K. L., Tovee, M. J., Hancock, P. Bateson, M. Cox, M. A. A. and Cornelissen, P. L. 2007. An analysis of body shape attractiveness based on image statistics; evidence for a dissociation between expressions of preference and shape discrimination. Visual Cognition 15: 1-27. Matell, M.S, Bateson, M. and Meck, WH. 2006. Single-trials analyses reveal multiple mechanisms for the methamphetamine-induced horizontal shifts in peak interval timing functions. Psychopharmacology 188: 201-212. <a href="Matell_etal_2006.pdf">pdf.</a> <table> <tr> <td> Bateson, M., Nettle, D. & Roberts, G. 2006. Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting. Biology Letters 2: 412-414. <a href="Bateson_etal_2006.pdf">Download pdf.</a> <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/content.phtml?ref=1151492086">Link to University press release.</a> </td> <td> <IMG SRC="Melissa_eyes.tiff" width="300"> </td> </tr> </table> <table> <tr> <td> Henderson, J., Hurly, T. A., Bateson, M. and Healy, S. D. 2006. Timing in free-living rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus). Current Biology 16: 512-515. <a href="Henderson_etal_2006.pdf"> Download pdf.</a> </td> <td> <IMG SRC="CB_cover.tiff" width="100"> </td> </tr> </table> <table> <tr> <td> Bateson, M & Healy, S. D. 2005. Comparative evaluation and its implications for mate choice. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20: 659-664. <a href="Bateson_Healy_2005.pdf"> Download pdf.</a> </td> <td> <IMG SRC="TREE_cover.tiff" width="150"> </td> </tr> </table> Bateson, M. 2004. Mechanisms of decision-making and the interpretation of choice tests. Animal Welfare 13: S115-120. <a href="Bateson_2004.pdf"> Download pdf.</a> Bateson, M., Healy, S. D. & Hurly, T. A. 2003. Context-dependent foraging decisions in rufous hummingbirds. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 270: 1271-1276. <a href="Bateson_etal_2003.pdf"> Download pdf.</a> <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/content.phtml?ref=1051786770"> Link to University press release.</a> Bateson, M. (2003). Interval timing and optimal foraging. Functional and neural mechanisms of interval timing. W. H. Meck. Boca Raton, FL., CRC Press. <a href="bateson_2003.pdf">pdf.</a> Bateson, M. (2002). “Recent advances in our understanding of risk-sensitive foraging.” Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 61: 509-519. <a href="bateson_2002b.pdf">pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Bateson, P. and M. Bateson (2002). “Post-weaning feeding problems in young domestic cats - a new hypothesis.” The Veterinary Journal 163: 113-114.<o:p></o:p> Bateson, M. (2002). “Context-dependent foraging preferences in risk sensitive starlings.” Animal Behaviour 64: 251-260. <a href="bateson_2002a.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Bateson, M., S. Healy, et al. (2002). “Irrational choices in hummingbird foraging behaviour.” Animal Behaviour 63: 587-596. <a href="bateson_et_al_2002.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Bateson, M. (2001). Interval timing. Frontiers of Life. D. Baltimore, R. Dulbecco, F. Jacob and R. Levi-Montalcini. New York, Academic Press. IV: 241-250.<o:p></o:p> Paule, M. G., W. H. Meck, et al. (1999). “The use of timing behaviors in animals and humans to detect drug and/or toxicant effects.” Neurotoxicology and Teratology. 21: 491-502.<a href="Paule_et_al_1999.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Bean, D., G. J. Mason, et al. (1999). “Contrafreeloading in starlings: testing the information hypothesis.” Behaviour 136: 1267-1282.<o:p></o:p> Bateson, M. and A. Kacelnik (1998). Risk-sensitive foraging: decision making in variable environments. Cognitive Ecology. R. Dukas. Chicago, Chicago University Press: 297-341. <a href="Bateson_Kacelnik_1998.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Kacelnik, A. and M. Bateson (1997). “Risk sensitivity: cross-roads for theories of decision-making.” Trends in Cognitive Science, 1: 304-309. <a href="Kacelnik_Bateson_1997.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Bateson, M. and A. Kacelnik (1997). “Starlings' preferences for predictable and unpredictable delays to food.” Animal Behaviour 53: 1129-1142.<a href="Bateson_Kacelnik_1997.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Kacelnik, A. and M. Bateson (1996). “Risky theories-the effects of variance on foraging decisions.” American Zoologist, 36: 402-434. <a href="Kacelnik_Bateson_1996.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Bateson, M. and A. Kacelnik (1996). “Rate currencies and the foraging starling: the fallacy of  the averages revisited.” Behavioral Ecology 7: 341-352.<o:p></o:p> Bateson, M. and S. C. Whitehead (1996). “The energetic costs of alternative rate currencies in the foraging starling.” Ecology 77: 1303-1307. <a href="Bateson_Whitehead_1996.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Bateson, M. and A. Kacelnik (1995). “Accuracy of memory for amount in the foraging starling (Sturnus vulgaris).” Animal Behaviour 50: 431-443. <a href="Bateson_Kacelnik_1995.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> Bateson, M. and A. Kacelnik (1995). “Preferences for fixed and variable food sources: variability in amount and delay.” Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 63: 313-329.<o:p></o:p> Cook, S. E., J. G. Vernon, et al. (1994). “Mate choice in the polymorphic African Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio dardanus: male-like females may avoid sexual harassment.” Animal Behaviour 47: 389-397.<a href="Cook_et_al_1994.pdf">Download pdf.</a><o:p></o:p> <HR> </BODY> </HTML>