Nicola Susan Clayton (born 22 November 1962CLAYTON, Prof. Nicola Susan
''Who's Who 2015'', A & C Black, 2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014) is a British

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

. She is Professor of

Comparative Cognition Comparative cognition is the comparative study of the mechanisms and origins of cognition in various species, and is sometimes seen as more general than, or similar to, comparative psychology. From a biological point of view, work is being done on ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, Scientist in Residence at

Rambert Dance Company Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

, co-founder of 'The Captured Thought', a fellow of

Clare College Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

, Cambridge, where she is Director of Studies in Psychology, and a fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

since 2010. Clayton was made Honorary Director of Studies and advisor to the 'China UK Development Centre'(CUDC) in 2018. She has been awarded professorships by Nanjing University, Institute of Technology, China (2018), Beijing University of Language and Culture, China (2019), and Hangzhou Diangi University, China (2019). Clayton was made Director of the Cambridge Centre for the Integration of Science, Technology and Culture (CCISTC) in 2020.

Early life and education

Clayton graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

with Honours in

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 1984, before gaining a PhD from the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

in 1987.

Career

University of Cambridge

Clayton has made major contributions in the study of

animal cognition Animal cognition encompasses the mental capacities of non-human animals, including insect cognition. The study of animal conditioning and learning used in this field was developed from comparative psychology. It has also been strongly influ ...

as well as

cognitive development Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult bra ...

in human children, with significant impact in the

neurobiology Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

and overall cognitive development.Her expertise in the study of comparative cognition integrates a knowledge of both

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

in providing new methods of thinking about the evolution and development of intelligence in non-verbal animals and pre-verbal children. Clayton studies

cognition Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

not only in humans but also in members of the

crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly, a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not linked scientifically to any certain trait but is rathe ...

family (including jackdaws, rooks and

jays Jays are a paraphyletic grouping of passerine birds within the family Corvidae. Although the term "jay" carries no taxonomic weight, most or all of the birds referred to as jays share a few similarities: they are small to medium-sized, usually ...

). This work has challenged many assumptions that only humans can reminisce about the past and plan for the future, and that only humans can understand other times as well as other minds. Her work has also led to a re-evaluation of the cognitive capacities of animals, specifically birds, and resulted in a theory that

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

evolved independently in at least two groups, the apes and the crows, and most recently cephalopods. This has also had scientific impact in changing the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill. Nicky presented an edition of Between the Ears entitled 'Year of the Covids' on BBC Radio 3 on 3 April 2023.

Rambert Dance Company

Since 2009, Clayton has worked with the Rambert Dance Company as science collaborator, then scientific adviser, and now scientist-in-residence. As a dancer, specializing in

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

and

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (food), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: Arts and ent ...

, she draws evidence from both the arts and science in her collaborations. In 2009, Clayton experienced her first collaboration by becoming involved in a dance piece called ''The Comedy of Change'', which was inspired by

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

's ideas of

natural Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...

and

sexual selection Sexual selection is a mechanism of evolution in which members of one sex mate choice, choose mates of the other sex to mating, mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex ...

. She met the

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

and

Artistic Director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

, Mark Baldwin, and gave input about science that could inform the piece. Other choreographic works inspired by science Clayton has collaborated with Baldwin on include ''Seven For a Secret, Never To Be Told, What Wild Ecstasy'', ''The Strange Charm of Mother Nature, The Creation, Perpetual Movement'' and ''Bold.'' The piece ''Seven For a Secret, Never To Be Told'' was based on the psychology of children, an area of Clayton's research. Clayton singled out themes related to the behavioural development of children, such as the importance of play, which helped to inspire the choreography. This piece was another collaboration between Clayton and Baldwin; the title inspired by a line from the nursery rhyme '' One for Sorrow'', which was based on a superstition associating the number of magpies one sees to prediction of one's future.

The Captured Thought

Another of Clayton's collaborations is with the artist and author Clive Wilkins, who has been Artist in Resident in the psychology department at the University of Cambridge since 2012, a position created especially for Wilkins. Their collaboration arose out of a mutual interest in mental

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

and resulted in Clayton and Wilkins co-founding "The Captured Thought~ an arts/science collaboration." Their work and lectures explore the subjective experience of thinking, by drawing evidence from both science and the arts to examine perception and the nature of mental time travel, as well as the mechanisms we use to think about the future and reminisce about the past. The goal of this project is to illuminate ideas concerning memories and question the power of

analysis Analysis (: analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...

. Important aspects of The Captured Thought's work have been highlighted in articles in 'The Guardian' newspaper in 2019 and in 'Die Zeit' magazine in 2020. The Captured Thought were invited speakers at The University of Vienna's CogSciHub inauguration 2019 and India's

National Brain Research Centre National Brain Research Centre is a research institute in Manesar, Gurugram, India. It is an autonomous institute under the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. The institute is dedicated to r ...

16th Foundation Day. Clayton and Wilkins continue to present their work in lectures to universities and conferences across the globe~ including UK, Europe, USA, Asia, China and Australasia.Their work together featured in the

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a popular science magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organ ...

Special Christmas and New Year issue 2022.

Published works

* 1998: ''Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays'' * 2001: ''Effects of experience and social context on prospective caching strategies in scrub jays'' * 2004: ''The mentality of crows. Convergent evolution of intelligence in corvids and apes'' * 2006: ''Food-caching western scrubjays keep track of who was watching when'' * 2007: ''Planning for the future by Western Scrub-Jays'' * 2009: ''Western scrub-jays conceal auditory information when competitors can hear but cannot see'' * 2009: ''Episodic future thinking in 3- to 5- year-old-children: The ability to think of what will be needed from a different point of view'' * 2009: ''Chimpanzees solve the trap problem when the confound of tool-use is removed'' * 2012: ''Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) overcome their current desires to anticipate two distinct future needs and plan for them appropriately'' * 2013: ''Careful cachers and prying pilferers: Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) limit auditory information available to competitors'' * 2013: ''Evidence suggesting that desire-state attribution may govern food sharing in Eurasian jays'' * 2014: ''EPS Mid Career Award Lecture. Ways of Thinking: From Crows to Children and Back Again'' * 2014: ''Of babies and birds: complex tool behaviours are not sufficient for the evolution of the ability to create a novel causal intervention'' * 2014: ''Pilfering Eurasian jays use visual and acoustic information to locate caches'' * 2014: ''The Evolution of Self Control'' * 2015: ''Thinking ahead about where something is needed: New insights about episodic foresight in preschoolers'' * 2019: ''Tricks of the Mind. Experiencing the Impossible'' Current Biology. Book review * 2019: ''Mind Tricks. Magic and mysticism reveal cognitive shortcuts with implications beyond entertainment'' * 2019: '' Reflections on the Spoon Test''. Neuropsychologia * 2020: '' An unexpected audience''. Science * 2021: '' Exploring the perceptual inabilities of Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) using magic effects''.

PNAS ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of S ...

* 2021: Schnell, A.K., Clayton, N.S., Hanlon, R.T. & Jozet-Alves, C.. ''Episodic-like memory is preserved with age in cuttlefish''. Proceedings of the Royal Society, 288, 20211052 * 2021: Schnell, A. K., Loconsole, M., Garcia-Pelegrin, E., Wilkins, C. & Clayton, N. S.. ''Jays are sensitive to cognitive illusions''. Royal Society Open Science, 8, 202358 * 2021: Garcia-Pelegrin, E., Wilkins, C. & Clayton, N. S.. ''The ape that lived to tell the tale. The evolution of the art of storytelling and its relationship to Mental Time Travel and Theory of Mind''. Frontiers in Psychology 12, 755–783 * 2022: Garcia-Pelegrin, E., Schnell, A. K., Wilkins, C. & Clayton, N. S.. ''Could it be Protomagic? Deceptive tactics in non-human animals resemble magician’s misdirection''. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research and Practice, in press * 2022: Garcia-Pelegrin, E., Wilkins, C. & Clayton, N. S.. ''Are magicians specialists at identifying deceptive motion? The role of expertise in being fooled by sleight of hand''. Scientific Reports, in press * 2023: Goldberg J, Wilkins, C. A. P. & Clayton, N. S. (2023). ''Sleight of Wing''. The Linking Ring, in press *2023: Garcia-Pelegrin, E., Miller, R. A., Wilkins, C. A. P. & Clayton, N. S. (2023). ''Monkey Magic''. Current Biology, in press *2024: Garcia-Pelegrin, E., Schnell, A. K., Wilkins, C. & Clayton, N. S. (2024). Beyond the Tricks: The Science and Comparative Cognition of Magic. Annual Review of Psychology 75, 289–293

Awards

* 1997: Best Teachers in America Award * 1999: American Psychological Association's Frank Beach Award * 2003: Klaus Immelmann Award in

Animal Behavior Ethology is a branch of zoology that studies the behaviour of non-human animals. It has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th century, including Charle ...

* 2010:

Jean-Marie Delwart Jean-Marie Delwart is a Belgian businessman. Career He is Chairman of Belgocodex S.A., Chairman of Biotec S.A., Chairman of Hoccinvest S.A., and he is a member of the Belgian business club Cercle de Lorraine. Foundation He founded the ''Jean-M ...

Award in Comparative and Evolutionary

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

, Belgium Academy of Sciences * 2010: Elected

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

* 2012: Experimental Psychology Society Mid-Career Award * 2013: Fellow of the American Ornithological Society * 2019: President of the British Science Association Psychology Section * 2021: ASAB Tinbergen Lecturer award * 2022: Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) Medal2022 https://www.asab.org/asab-medal.

References

External links

Nicola Clayton
profile at

Department of Psychology
The Captured Thought
Blog {{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Nicola Susan 1962 births Living people Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Alumni of the University of St Andrews British neuroscientists British women neuroscientists British psychologists British zoologists British women scientists Female fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Clare College, Cambridge