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jamie_samson106 karma

The scientific method. This is best taught by using fun examples from across the scientific disciplines. Sections of the scientific method are applicable to our everyday lives, such as an objective analysis of the evidence. Teaching this will encourage more critical thinking within society

jamie_samson43 karma

That's a skill that you have to learn over time. Depending on the context your questions should be falsifiable so that you do not experience phenomenon such as the confirmation bias. So for example if you want to buy a new phone, do you ask 'Why are Iphones good' or 'What are the pros and cons of a Iphone'. With the first question you set out to confirm your statement rather than trying and reject it.

jamie_samson29 karma

Ooh that is another fantastic question. To give you a bit of background, my field is in animal behaviour, more precisely, animal cognition and learning. What is missing in our field (we are slowly getting there) are batteries of tests (a number of tests) on cognitive capabilities (such as problem solving, responses to novel stimuli) for a whole range of species from apes to ants. Currently, due to our study biases towards groups of species such as primates and corvids (crows, ravens etc), we base our understanding of animal cognition on this. However, new studies such as those on bees (http://www.nature.com/news/bees-learn-football-from-their-buddies-1.21540), are showing us that 'clever' behaviours, that we previously assumed were confined to a handful of species are now more widespread than we first thought.

The endless pot of money you teased me with would fill as much of the unknown as possible so we can determine how widespread seemingly complex cognitive behaviours are in the animal kingdom.

jamie_samson24 karma

Having worked on a number of animals and been outsmarted by a lot of them, I am not in the 'all non-human animals are not clever' camp

jamie_samson12 karma

When you work with wild animals, you are always finding out things are surprise you!

One such example is that the squirrels I was studying (the Cape ground squirrel, endemic to Southern Africa) use cues from the sun to hide and relocate food (http://www.nature.com/articles/srep32570). The squirrels appear to use the sun as a heading guide, moving at a slight angle to it when hiding food. They then reuse this information when they recover food.

Whats more is that they can use the sun in a partially flexible way, recovering food more quickly when there are more potential thieves around!