Detailed information about the course

[ Back ]
Title

The costs and benefits of information acquisition and use in social interactions

Dates

6-9 July 2015

Organizer(s)

Dr Leif Engqvist, University of Bern (CH)

Prof. Michael Taborsky, Univerity of Bern (CH)

Speakers

Dr. Sarah Brosnan, Georgia State University (US)

Prof. Thomas Bugnyar, University of Vienna (AT)

Dr. Sasha Dall, University of Exeter (UK)

Dr. Keith Jensen, University of Manchester (UK)

Prof. Jens Krause, Leibniz Inst. Berlin (DE)

Prof. David Stephens, University of Minnesota (US)

Description

Adaptive decision making depends on the quality of available information. The significance of direct or indirect information involved in social decisions is little understood. Evidence for constraints and substantial costs in the acquisition and processing of information is accumulating. Accordingly, behavioural decisions often seem to be made with imperfect knowledge, following “rules of thumb” rather than applying prudent assessment to make optimal choices. Furthermore, individuals may or may not benefit from sharing information; hence they may transmit only partial or false information.

 

The aim of this workshop is to discuss these issues in an evolutionary framework, both from an empirical and theoretical perspective. Questions discussed in this workshop will include, for instance, how different costs of information acquisition and use will change predictions on adaptive decision making; or, whether seemingly irrational or “wrong” decisions may actually make sense when taking costs and constraints on information use into account. These are topics of great interest to students and scientists from different disciplines, such as behavioural ecology, neurobiology, cognitive sciences, and psychology. Interaction between different fields will identify open questions and directions for future interdisciplinary research.

 

The program of the workshop will consist of a combination of plenary talks by invited speakers and work performed in small groups, in which the participants will discuss a particular theme together with one of the invited speakers. The results of these small-group sessions willl be presented to the plenum by student participants, followed by a general discussion.

Location

Arolla

Map

Map

Credits

1.5

Evaluation

Full attendance and active participation

Information

When?
6-9 July 2015

 

Where?
Hotel Kurhaus, Arolla

 

Questions?
Caroline Betto-Colliard
@: [email protected]
Phone: +41 (0)21 692 42 44

Expenses

Workshop attendance (including room and board): Free for PhD students of the DPEE. 400CHF: for participants from CUSO universities (Lausanne, Bern, Neuchâtel, Geneva and Fribourg) 450CHF: for all other participants

PhD students of the DPEE are eligible for reimbursement of incurred travel expenses by train (half-fare card, and 2nd class). Please send the original tickets (no copies, except for the general abonnement) with the reimbursement form to Caroline Betto-Colliard.

Registration

CUSO PhD students: through your MyCUSO account.  External participants (non-CUSO PhD students, post-docs, etc...): use the icon "registration" at top of page and the last gray box "non-CUSO student" ("personne hors myCUSO").

Places

30

Deadline for registration 23.06.2015
short-url short URL

short-url URL onepage