Evolution of Intelligence (Ep5)

How can we address variations amongst human intelligence, cognitive strategies and skills? Can we draw conclusions in psychology that are valid for everyone? We had an inspiring conversation about human universals with Asifa Majid, professor of cognitive science at the University of Oxford and a fellow of St. Hugh’s College, and Rasha Abdel Rahman, professor at Humboldt University of Berlin and psychologist specialized in neurocognitive psychology.

For this episode, we invited Katja Liebal, director of the LeipzigLab at the University of Leipzig, and Alex Kacelnik, head of the Behavioural Ecology Research Group at the University of Oxford, to join us in a conversation about strategies to deal with research biases linked to anthropomorphism (the tendency in science to ascribe human charateristcs to non-human entities) as well as comparative psychology and behavioural biology more broadly.

In this new season of Punching Cards, Master students who participated in a science communication course at SCIoI have interviewed experts in the world of intelligence, exploring different topics. In Episode 1 we will be finding out more about the theme of Large Language Models together with experts Sepp Hochreiter and Alan Akbik. Written, recorded and produced by Elena Natascha Bank, Erik Rubinov, Julia Marie Schramm, Gregor Voigts, and Sarah Jessica Kron. 

Welcome to our second season of Punching Cards! For this season, we've asked Master Students to take the lead and interview some of the most influential researchers in the field of intelligence. Stay tuned for the first episode, coming up in min January! 

Plants, cells, and other organisms do very impressive things, but we tend not to call them intelligent. Is that a mistake? In the final episode of this season, we ask: What are the boundaries of intelligence?With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Nicolas Roth, Solveig Steinhardt.Special Guests: Paco Calvo and Michael Levin.

Where does intelligence come from? Where is it going? In this episode, we talk about the biological and cultural aspects that may be behind the evolution of intelligence.With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Olga Shurygina, Solveig Steinhardt.Special Guests: Cecilia Heyes and Ali Boyle.

What’s more intelligent, the ant or the ant colony? How do beehives and flocks of birds display their incredibly complex behaviors? And do those count as intelligent? In this episode we will find out how intelligence may emerge from collections of individuals, from ants to humans.With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Aravind Battaje, Solveig Steinhardt.Special Guests: Guy Theraulaz and Jens Krause.

Now that we kind of know what we mean by intelligence, can we actually build it? What do we need in order to do that? In this episode, we discuss computers, robots, and a surprising paradox in Artificial Intelligence.With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Nicolas Roth, and Olga Shurygina.Special Guests: Lisa Miracchi and Oliver Brock.

In this episode, we are impressed by the craftsmanship of cockatoos, discuss whether apes use language, and learn about the pitfalls of testing animal intelligence.With Nicolas Roth, Benjamin Lang, and Olga Shurygina.Special Guests: Richard Moore and Alice von Auersperg.

When we talk about intelligence, we often mean human intelligence. But what is that? How can we study it? In this episode, we spoke to John-Dylan Haynes and Matthias Ziegler to try and understand and define human intelligence. Does it even exist? Prepare to be puzzled and question everything you've known about your own intelligence in order to figure out how it works. With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Aravind Battaje, and Olga Shurygina.Special Guests: John-Dylan Haynes and Matthias Ziegler.