BJKS Podcast

Anna Riedl is a cognitive scientist, currently finishing her MSc in cognitive science in Vienna. She is also founder of Effective Altruism Austria, and co-organiser of the Rationality Vienna Meetup. In this conversation, we talk about cognitive science, rationality, effective altruism, visualisation in science communication, and much more.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
00:04: Studying as a firstgen
07:35: Anna's MSc in cognitive science
20:01: What real-world problem is Anna trying to solve?
26:46: When are you qualified to give a talk on a topic?
35:20: Depth vs. breadth and fun vs. precision in science communication
43:21: Visualisation in science (communication)

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Guest's links

• Website: https://www.riedlanna.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaLeptikon

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
•  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

References
Borner, K. (2015). Atlas of knowledge: anyone can map. MIT Press.
Burton, R. A. (2009). On being certain: Believing you are right even when you're not. Macmillan.
Larkin, J. H., & Simon, H. A. (1987). Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words. Cognitive science.
Marr, D., & Poggio, T. (1977). From understanding computation to understanding neural circuitry. Neurosciences Research Program Bulletin.
Marr, D. (1982). Vision: A computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information.

Links discussed
3blue1brown's YouTube channel with maths visualisations: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw
Anna's interview on Future Fossils: https://shows.acast.com/futurefossils/episodes/166
Anna's map of cognitive science: https://www.riedlanna.com/cognitivesciencemap.html
Anna's prints (on T-shirt, blanket, shower curtain, etc.) of the map of cognitive science: https://www.redbubble.com/de/shop/ap/64207253
Marie and Otto Neurath's Isotype collection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotype_(picture_language)
Medium article about Marie Neurath: https://medium.com/nightingale/the-missing-legacy-of-marie-neurath-f9800733d1fc

This is the second episode of our book club on Lee Child's first novel Killing Floor, the novel that introduced Jack Reacher. As always with the book club, there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. I will also be reading some quotes I highlighted from Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, a book I'm reading in parallel in which Andy Martin watches Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel.

For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichs, fellow PhD student in the same lab that I'm in.

Timestamps
00:04: Beginning discussing chapters 15-21
58:23: Beginning discussing chapters 22-26

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Koen's links

• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=E65Fv74J0ywC
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/koenfused

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
•   Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

Nichola Raihani is a professor of evolution and behaviour at University College London. Her research focuses on the evolution of punishment and paranoia. In this conversation, we talk about the fieldwork she did for her PhD in the Kalahari desert, the evolution of punishment, proximate and ultimate explanations, cleaner fish, and Nichola's book The Social Instinct.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
00:05: Surnames in science
03:33: Behavioural ecology or psychology?
13:37: What's it like to do fieldwork in the Kalahari desert, habituating birds to humans?
20:41: The evolution of punishment
29:51: Proximate and ultimate explanations in evolution
46:05: What can we learn about human cooperation by studying cleaner fish?

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Nichola's links

• Website: http://www.seb-lab.org/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=u6_SEO4AAAAJ
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicholaraihani

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
•  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

References
Andreoni, J. (1990). Impure altruism and donations to public goods: A theory of warm-glow giving. The economic journal.
Clutton-Brock, T. H., & Parker, G. A. (1995). Punishment in animal societies. Nature.
Laland, K., Uller, T., Feldman, M., Sterelny, K., Müller, G. B., Moczek, A., ... & Strassmann, J. E. (2014). Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?. Nature News.
Laland, K. N., Sterelny, K., Odling-Smee, J., Hoppitt, W., & Uller, T. (2011). Cause and effect in biology revisited: is Mayr’s proximate-ultimate dichotomy still useful? Science.
Raihani, N.J. (2021). The Social Instinct. Penguin.
Raihani, N. J., & Bshary, R. (2019). Punishment: one tool, many uses. Evolutionary Human Sciences.
Raihani, N. J., Thornton, A., & Bshary, R. (2012). Punishment and cooperation in nature. Trends in ecology & evolution.
Raihani, N. J., & McAuliffe, K. (2012). Human punishment is motivated by inequity aversion, not a desire for reciprocity. Biology letters.
Raihani, N. J., McAuliffe, K., Brosnan, S. F., & Bshary, R. (2012). Are cleaner fish, Labroides dimidiatus, inequity averse?. Animal Behaviour.
Raihani, N. J., Grutter, A. S., & Bshary, R. (2010). Punishers benefit from third-party punishment in fish. Science.
Tinbergen, N. (1963). On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie.

This is the first episode of our book club on Killing Floor by Lee Child, his first novel, the novel that introduced Jack Reacher. As always with the book club, there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. I will also be reading some quotes I highlighted from Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, a book I'm reading in parallel in which Andy Martin watches Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel.

For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichs, fellow PhD student in the same lab that I'm in.

Timestamps
00:05: Beginning discussing chapters 1-7
52:30: Beginning discussing chapters 8-14

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Koen's links

• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=E65Fv74J0ywC
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/koenfused

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

Désirée Brucks is a postdoc at the University of Giessen and studies social cognition in animals, having worked with dogs, wolves, parrots, and a few more species. She is currently studying farm animals. In this conversation, we talk mainly about her work on inequty aversion in dogs and helping behaviour in parrots. Along the way, I get to ask all sorts of questions about animal cognition.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
0:00:05: How has COVID affected work with animals?
0:02:52: What is Désirée currently studying with farm animals?
0:16:02: Parrots in Heidelberg
0:25:44: Curious cows
0:34:29: Inequity aversion in dogs
0:55:03: Ecologically realistic experimental settings
1:06:47: What's it like to get lots of media attention for a study?
1:11:37: Parrots help others obtain food rewards
1:26:37: Fission-fusion dynamics
1:36:55: What can we learn from studying animals about human cooperation?

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Désirée's links

• Website: https://www.uni-giessen.de/fbz/fb09/institute/ith/tierhaltung/team/brucks
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=_xHumxIAAAAJ

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets

References
Brosnan, S. F., & De Waal, F. B. (2003). Monkeys reject unequal pay. Nature.
Brucks, D., & von Bayern, A. M. (2020). Parrots voluntarily help each other to obtain food rewards. Current Biology.
Brucks, D., Essler, J. L., Marshall-Pescini, S., & Range, F. (2016). Inequity aversion negatively affects tolerance and contact-seeking behaviours towards partner and experimenter. PLoS One.
Brucks, D., Range, F., & Marshall-Pescini, S. (2017). Dogs’ reaction to inequity is affected by inhibitory control. Scientific Reports.
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). Most people are not WEIRD. Nature.
McGetrick, J., Brucks, D., Marshall-Pescini, S., & Range, F. (2020). No evidence for a relationship between breed cooperativeness and inequity aversion in dogs. PloS One.
Nagel, T. (1974). What is it like to be a bat?. The philosophical review.
The video of the African Greys exchanging tokens to help the other: https://twitter.com/newscientist/status/1215658204866191361
The green parrots that live in Heidelberg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose-ringed_parakeet

This is the final episode of our discussion of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics), in which we discuss the epilogue and have a more general discussion about the book.

For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing. 

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

Pete Trimmer is a behavioural scientist who works as a senior teaching fellow at the University of Wawrick. His research, almost exclusively theoretical, focuses on the evolution of learning, decision-making, and physiological processes. In this conversation, we talk about a wide range of topics: how Pete became a world-class croquet player (former World No. 3), how he got into academia, how he overcame maths anxiety to become a mathematical biologist, and his work on ecological rationality.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
0:00:04: Pete Trimmer, former world-class croquet player
0:15:01: Combining outside activities with work
0:22:14: Pete's path from industry to academia
0:30:30: How to reduce time marking exams by almost 50%
0:36:41: How Pete overcame maths anxiety in school
0:52:21: Start discussing ecological rationality
1:00:17: Do we still need to argue against expected utility theory?
1:07:33: Are we just adding lists of if-statements to theories?
1:09:40: Tinbergen's 4 whys
1:14:17: When is an evolutionary theory a useful theory?

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Pete's links

• Website: https://sites.google.com/site/petetrimmer/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=Iq9U2NkAAAAJ

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
•   Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

References
Kipling, R. (1902/2011). Just so stories. Penguin Classics.
Niven, J. E., Anderson, J. C., & Laughlin, S. B. (2007). Fly photoreceptors demonstrate energy-information trade-offs in neural coding. PLoS Biology.
Strang, Gilbert's (free) course on linear algebra: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06sc-linear-algebra-fall-2011/
Tinbergen, N. (1963). On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie.
Tinbergen's 4 whys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinbergen%27s_four_questions
Trimmer, P. C. (2013). Optimal behaviour can violate the principle of regularity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Trimmer, P. C. (2016). Optimistic and realistic perspectives on cognitive biases. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.
Trimmer, Pete's blog post about beating better players at croquet: https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=members/players/tactics/BeatBetter
Trimmer, Pete's cover of the thinking croquet player: https://bit.ly/3pXaFNq

In this episode, we discuss part 5 and then part 6 of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics).

For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing. 

Timestamps
0:00:05: Start part 5
0:49:45: Start part 6 

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
•  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

Giuliana Spadaro is a postdoc in the Amsterdam Cooperation Lab, directed by Daniel Balliet. Her research focuses on cooperation and prosociality. In this conversation, we talk about Giuliana's recent work on the Cooperation Databank (https://cooperationdatabank.org/), a database that contains around 2,600 studies on cooperation, coded by experts to facilitate meta-analyses and other tasks about cooperation research. 

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
0:00:05: Giuliana's career before working on the Cooperation Databank (coda)
0:13:09: What is coda and what can it do?
0:18:58: Different payoff matrices in the Prisoner's Dilemma
0:24:25: The benefits of annotating hundreds of studies
0:28:57: Further uses of coda (e.g., search engine)
0:33:28: How can people add their own studies to coda (including unpublished studies)?
0:39:10: Coda in the long term
0:45:15: What if I want a new feature added to coda?
0:53:47: Learning to run and from a meta-analysis
1:02:49: Working on Coda
1:11:38: What's next for Giuliana?
1:15:03: Coda workshops

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Giuliana's links

• Website: https://amsterdamcooperationlab.com/giuliana_spadaro/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ZuzhtPEAAAAJ
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/g_spadaro90

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets

References
Kuper-Smith, B. J., Doppelhofer, L. M., Oganian, Y., Rosenblau, G., Korn, C. W. Risk perception and optimism during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. PsyArXiv.
McShane, B. B., & Böckenholt, U. (2017). Single-paper meta-analysis: Benefits for study summary, theory testing, and replicability. Journal of Consumer Research.
Scaffidi Abbate, C., Boca, S., Spadaro, G., & Romano, A. (2014). Priming effects on commitment to help and on real helping behavior. Basic and Applied Social Psychology.
Spadaro, G., d’Elia, S. R., & Mosso, C. O. (2018). Menstrual knowledge and taboo TV commercials: effects on self-objectification among Italian and Swedish women. Sex Roles.
Spadaro, G., Tiddi, I., Columbus, S., Jin, S., ten Teije, A., & Balliet, D. (2020). The cooperation databank. PsyArXiv.
Thielmann, I., Spadaro, G., & Balliet, D. (2020). Personality and prosocial behavior: A theoretical framework and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin.

In this episode, we discuss part 3 and then part 4 of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics).

For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing. 

Timestamps
0:00:05: Beginning discussing Part 3
0:56:00: Beginning discussing Part 4

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.page/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
•  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets