Daniel Horschler's Conference Summary

     Daniel Horschler
     Ph.D. Student
     Cognitive Science GIDP

     Conference Summary
     26th International Conference on Comparative Cognition
     Melbourne Beach, FL

I am writing to express my gratitude for receiving the Herbert E. Carter Travel Award to attend the 26th International Conference on Comparative Cognition from April 10-14 in Melbourne Beach, Florida. This award helped me to cover the costs of travel, lodging, and conference registration so that I could attend the conference and present a talk entitled “Do non-human primates really represent others’ ignorance?” about my forthcoming paper on primate theory of mind which will appear in the journal Cognition. At the conference, my talk was selected as a finalist for the Ron Weisman Outstanding Student Presentation award.

In addition to presenting my work at the conference, I was able to attend presentations on a wide range of topics including canine cognition, social learning in fish, attention in birds, and memory in non-human primates. I met a number of professors and graduate students whose research I have read but whom I have never had a chance to meet and speak with in person. Additionally, I met with a group of canine cognition researchers to plan a new large-scale collaborative project called “ManyDogs” aimed at assessing the replicability of key findings in the field, similar to the ManyLabs and ManyBabies projects which are being run in other fields.

This award and subsequent travel was highly valuable for my professional development because I was able to communicate my new work to other members of my field, learn about new developments in animal cognition research, and meet researchers whose work I highly admire. I am very grateful to have received funding from the GIDP to allow me to attend this conference.