University of Otago doctoral student Damian Scarf takes a
closer look at a carrier pigeon involved in his research.
Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
University of Otago doctoral student Damian Scarf has
gained a joint Fulbright and New Zealand Government award
valued about $30,000 to study pigeons in New York.
By learning more about how the birds' brains worked, it was
also hoped to learn more about the mechanisms involved in
human memory, Mr Scarf (25) said.
In turn, this could eventually contribute to improved
approaches to rehabilitation for patients who had experienced
brain damage arising from accidents or disease, he added.
Mr Scarf's Fulbright-Ministry of Research, Science and Travel
Award, provided $US15,000, plus travel expenses and
insurance, together amounting to about NZ$30,000.
Last week he attended a celebration at the Beehive, in
Wellington, marking the 60th anniversary of Fulbright links
with New Zealand.
"It's an amazing opportunity to go to the US and work with
someone who's a leader in my field," Mr Scarf said.
"My supervisor, [Otago psychologist Associate Prof Mike
Colombo] and the guy I'm going to work with, Prof Herbert
Terrace, at Columbia University, New York, are the two
leaders in the field, and it's the best thing that could
happen," he said.
Mr Scarf completed a BSc in zoology at Otago in 2006, and is
studying for an Otago doctorate in psychology, focusing on
"serial order" behaviour in carrier pigeons.
The birds signal their recall of five-item sequences by
lightly pecking a computer touch screen.
Carrier pigeons were chosen not because they were smarter
than other pigeons or because of their formidable homing
abilities, but because they were more used to interacting
with humans.
His experiments aimed to show how the pigeons cognitively
represented list information, in the absence of language.
Mr Scarf leaves Dunedin in November to spend seven months
working with Prof Terrace in his New York laboratory, before
returning to complete his doctorate at Otago.
Fulbright awards aim to advance mutual understanding by
promoting academic links between scholars in the United
States and many overseas countries.
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