User:KHuckaby1920/Sara Shettleworth

Sara J. Shettleworth (born 1943) is an American-born, Canadian experimental psychologist and zoologist, with a focus on animal cognition. Shettleworth has been credited with expanding the field of animal cognition over her long career. Over the years, she has earned countless awards and commendations. Shettleworth was honored by the Comparative Cognition Society at their 2008 annual meeting for her work in animal cognition and behavior, and presented with the Comparative Cognition Society Research Award. In 2012 the Canadian Society For Brain, Behavior and Cognitive Science honored her with the Donald Hebb award for her many contributions to psychological science. As a professor at the University of Toronto, she taught for 39 years before retiring from teaching to focus on her research. Over her career she has appeared in over 101 publications and her work has been produced in three languages (English, German & Hebrew).

She grew up in Maine and is a graduate of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. She started her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania before transferring to the University of Toronto, where she finished her doctoral studies in comparative psychology. She has lived in Canada since 1967 with her husband, the biologist Nicholas Mrosovsky.

Education
Sara Shettleworth first attended university at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Originally interested in psychology, Shettleworth was drawn to biology with the emerging research into animal behavior. When she was a student, studies of animal cognition mostly consisted of experiments with rats and mazes. Around this time, a series of discoveries in animal cognition revealed that animals, like rats, can be taught if it mimics the way they naturally learn or behave. For example, conditioned taste aversion discovered that rats associate getting sick with the last food that they ate. They can identify this food by taste but not by sight or smell. Likewise, they associate pain with something they can see or hear but not something they can taste. Even if this stimulus is new, they respond to it and learn how to identify it, in the way they identify stimulus they would naturally run into. Shettleworth was drawn to these findings and how animal behavior, evolution and psychology intersect. This interest led to her current field of study: animal cognition.

She graduated from Swarthmore College with her bachelors in 1965, beginning her Masters at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. Later Shettleworth and her husband Nicholas Mrosovsky moved to Canada, where she started at the University of Toronto. She completed her PHD in 1970, and remained at the University of Toronto from 1970-2009 as a professor.

University of Toronto
For 39 years, Sara Shettleworth taught psychology, ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto. She retired from teaching in 2009, earning the title Professor Emerita of psychology, ecology and evolutionary biology. A professor emerita (feminine) or professor emeritus (masculine) is a retired professor who continues to work with a university even if they are no longer actively teaching. With the title, they also receive access to the library, facilities and are able to apply for grants through their institution. They also retain an office on campus and other perks and acknowledgements. As professor emerita at the University of Toronto, Sara J. Shettleworth is able to focus on her research. While she is no longer teaching, she does enjoy talking with current students interested in animal cognition.

Research
In her research, Sara Shettleworth mostly works with birds like crows, pigeons & scrub-jays and a small animals like hamsters, rats & bats. She focuses on animals learning abilities and how they can change. In 1972, Shettleworth worked with chicks, studying how they best learned to avoid a negative stimulus. She electrified water and used a variety of triggers to teach the chicks how to avoid the electricity. She did multiple trials with a combination of flashing lights, clicking sounds, and conditioned emotional response (CER). While results varied based on the combination of triggers, overall the flashing lights were most effective as a learning tool. In 1986, Shettleworth and Valerie Jordan studied rats and their preferences for receiving food. After being denied food, rats were offered seeds with the husks still attached, or they were able to wait the standard husking time and receive bare seeds. Almost exclusively, they preferred to have seeds right away and husk the seeds themselves. Overall, they had to wait the same amount of time to eat the seeds, but they preferred to have access to the seeds as fast as possible. In 1992, She worked with Dave Brodbeck and Orah Burack to study the memory of chickadees when storing food. She worked primarily on memory and food storing ability in various bird species for most of the 1990's. She started working with rats again for a bit in the early 2000's, working with Christina Black, Patricia Wall and Leigh C P Botly in 2004 to study how shapes could help rats learn how to find food.

In 2012, Shettleworth, along with Jennifer E. Sutton were published in the book "Rational Animals", contributing Chapter 8 "Do animals know what they know", which focused on if one could be sure that the results from behavioral tests were accurate and actually something an animal was learning. Not just a fluke or a missed variable. Over her long career, Sara Shettleworth has been instrumental in the expansion of animal cognition as an established field of study, and her research has held up over the years. However there is still a long way to go and continued research is essential.

Publications
Books


 * Fundamentals of Comparative Cognition (Fundamentals in Cognition) by Sara J. Shettleworth.
 * Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior (2nd ed) by Sara J. Shettleworth

Scientific Publications

A more extensive list of her research can be found at ResearchGate.
 * Associative Models of Instrumental Learning: A Response to Dupuis and Dawson by Sara Shettleworth and Noam Miller
 * Animal Behaviour: Planning for breakfast by Sara J. Shettleworth
 * Modularity, comparative cognition and human uniqueness by Sara Shettleworth
 * Clever animals and killjoy explanations in comparative psychology by S.J. Shettleworth
 * Do Animals Have Insight, and What Is Insight Anyway? by S. J. Shettleworth
 * Memory without awareness: Pigeons do not show metamemory in delayed matching-to-sample by J.E Sutton and S. J. Shettleworth
 * Bayesian integration of spatial information by K. Cheng, S. J. Shettleworth, J. Huttenlocher & J Rieser
 * Bayesian integration of spatial information by K. Cheng, S. J. Shettleworth, J. Huttenlocher & J Rieser

1980: Guggenheim Fellow
In 1980, Sara Shettleworth was awarded a fellowship with the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The fellowship is available to scientists in Canada and the United States. The Guggenheim Fellowship is often awarded to scientists who have shown impeccable work and dedication in their fields as well as shown the potential for growth

1996: Distinguished Scientist Lecturer
In 1996, Sara Shettleworth was named a Distinguished Scientist Lecturer with the American Psychological Association. Each year the American Psychological Association selects three scientists to lecture at Association meetings. Aside from the chance to speak at meetings, winners receive $500.

2008: Comparative Cognition Society Research Award
In 2008, Sara Shettleworth was awarded the Comparative Cognition Society Research Award by the Comparative Cognition Society. The award recognizes those who's research has had a large impact in the field of animal behavior and cognition. The winning scientist is honored at the annual Conference on Comparative Cognition, and gives the 'master lecture' for the event. Only three women have won this award from 2002-2019, 17% of the overall awardees. Shettleworth was the first in 2008, followed by Karen Hollis in 2016, then Marcia Spetch in 2018.

2012: Donald O. Hebb Distinguished Contribution Award
Sara J. Shettleworth received the Donald O. Hebb Distinguished Contribution Award in 2012 for her pioneering work in the fields of ecology and psychology. The field of animal cognition was just starting up when she graduated in 1970 and her work has been influential in it's growth. Through her career, Shettleworth has helped to bridge the gap between ecology, evolution and learning and development. Sara Shettleworth is one of six women who have won the Hebb award since 1998. Dr. Jane Stewart won in 2000, Dr. Brenda Milner in 2001, Dr. Doreen Kimura in 2005, Dr. Ellen Bialystock in 2011, Dr. Sara Shettleworth in 2012 and finally Dr. Daphne Maurer in 2015. Women make up only 27% of the Donald O. Hebb Distinguished Contribution Award winners in the last 22 years.