Christopher Sturdy, BA (Hons) University of Windsor, MA, PhD (Queen's University), Canada Research Chair in Animal Cognition, Communication, and Neuroethology, Tier 1 (2020-2027).

Area of Study / Keywords

Comparative Cognition Neuroethology Communication Songbirds

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About

Christopher Sturdy (Voice recording) completed a B.A. in Psychology at the University of Windsor in 1994 where he studied spatial memory in rats with Jerry Cohen. He then completed an M.A. in 1997 and a Ph.D. in 2000 in Psychology at Queen's University where he examined songbird bioacoustics, cognition and neuroscience with Ron Weisman. From 2000 to 2001, Sturdy worked at the Duke University Medical Center with Rich Mooney (Department of Neurobiology) and Duke University with Steve Nowicki (Department of Biology) where he examined the cellular basis of song production. In 2002 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Alberta, promoted to Associate Professor of Psychology in 2008, and promoted to Professor in 2013. Sturdy served as Chair of the Department of Psychology from 2016-2019. Sturdy is currently Professor of Psychology, a member of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, and Canada Research Chair in Animal Cognition, Communication, and Neuroethology, Tier 1 (2020-2027).

Sturdy studies songbird communication and cognition in an integrative fashion, combining several approaches to understand the biological and cognitive bases of underlying songbird acoustic communication (See research description, below, or on the Songbird Neuroethology Laboratory website). Sturdy uses several empirical approaches, from bioacoustic analyses of vocalizations, operant discrimination paradigms and field playback experiments to electrophysiological and neuroanatomical techniques as well as artificial neural network approaches, with the long-term goal of understanding the behavioural, cognitive and neural substrates underlying songbird vocal production and perception, auditory perception and cognition.

Sturdy was co-editor of Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews for 6 years. CCBR is published by the Comparative Cognition Society and is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes reviews and critiques in the area of animal cognition spanning all aspects of research on cognition, perception, learning, memory, and behavior in animals.

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Research

Research in the Songbird Neuroethology Laboratory

Research in the SNL seeks to develop as comprehensive understanding of songbird communication by studying behaviour and the neural systems controlling behaviour. Songbirds, along with humans, are one of only six animal groups (including bats, parrots, hummingbirds, and cetaceous whales and dolphins) that are known to exhibit vocal learning. Furthermore, songbirds possess a highly-evolved network of interconnected brain regions controlling vocal learning, vocal perception and vocal production. As such, songbirds allow researchers a unique opportunity to directly study vocal communication at the interface between brain and behaviour. The SNL studies the cognitive, neurobiological and behavioural substrates underlying songbirds' highly evolved and specialized suite of communication behaviours. Current research focuses on vocal communication in one particular group of songbirds, the chickadees (e.g., Black-capped, Boreal, Carolina, Chestnut-backed, and Mountain chickadees).

Research in the SNL is currently aimed at understanding the cognitive, perceptual, evolutionary, developmental, and neural bases underlying chickadees’ perception of the acoustic (vocal) categories (i.e., note-types, call types) contained in their calls and songs, as a first step towards a comprehensive understanding songbird acoustic communication. The perception of categories is a powerful phenomenon that has been demonstrated in many animal species, including humans and songbirds. By sorting large numbers of environmental stimuli, such as songbird vocalizations, into categories rather than memorizing each new instance, animals can adapt quickly to newly encountered stimuli. For example, black-capped chickadee flocks rapidly increase their vigilance behaviours after hearing another flock’s communication call (the ‘chick-a-dee’ call for which chickadees are named), without having to learn about the particular novel call or the individual that emitted it. Rather, chickadees rapidly sort the call into a category representing “foreign flock” and modify their ongoing behaviour accordingly. In order to begin to understand vocal category perception in chickadees, researchers in the SNL use a variety of experimental techniques including bioacoustic analyses and operant conditioning experiments and anatomy to determine how several species of chickadees perceive the categories in their vocalizations.

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Teaching

Current Courses

PSYCH 299: Research Opportunity Program
PSYCH 396/398 496/498 (SCIENCE / ARTS): Individual Studies
Honours Thesis Research (2 year program)
PSYCH 403/505: Neuroethology

Past Courses

PSYCO 381: Principles of Learning
PSYCO 403: Ancestral Health
PSYCO 403/505: Animal Communication
PSYCO 502: Professional and Ethical Issues

The SNL is always seeking highly motivated undergraduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are interested in comparative cognition and behaviour, animal communication, auditory perception, and neuroethology, to conduct research projects.

At the undergraduate level there are several opportunities. The first involves being a volunteer. This will require you to work about 3 days a week and to work with animals. You will receive animal ethics training and specific hands on training to conduct this work. There are also several research courses you can take, including PSYCO 299, 396, 398, 496, 498, and Honours. PSYCO 299 students either conduct reading projects or assist other more advanced students with ongoing projects, will receive animal ethics training and specific hands on training to conduct this work, and will work about 3 days a week. PSYCO 396/496 and PSYCO 398/498 students conduct research for two terms, will receive animal ethics training and specific hands on training to conduct this work, and will work about 4 days a week. Honours students work in the lab for two years. During the first year, they receive ethics and hands on training and develop their thesis proposal. During the second year, Honours students conduct and present their Honours research. Honours students can expect to work up to 5 or more days per week in the lab, including some weekend days. If you are interested in working in the lab as an undergraduate, please contact Chris Sturdy directly via e-mail and include a paragraph explaining why you are interested in working in the lab, your unofficial transcript, and which aspect of the lab you find most interesting, citing the lab publication that interests you. Please used the subject line "Undergraduate research" in your email and label your transcript "Lastname_Firstinitial_Transcript" (e.g., Sturdy_C_Transcript).

The SNL is not currently accepting new graduate students for the 2024 application year. 

Graduate Student Environment, Songbird Neuroethology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta

I work hard to ensure that my graduate students have all the necessary resources at their disposal to complete their research and enhance their graduate training experience. My laboratory has recently undergone a complete update to my operant conditioning setup, and continues to maintain excellent facilities for investigating all aspects of brain, behaviour, and cognition in songbirds and humans. Moreover, my graduate students routinely attend local, national, and international conferences to disseminate their research findings as well as to network and establish contacts with like-minded scientists from other institutions. Importantly, my students and I publish their research in top journals, with many of my graduate students finishing with several publications from their time in my laboratory and move onto successful careers after finishing their time in my laboratory. See "SNL Alumni" section of "Lab Members Page".

Interested potential postdoctoral fellows can contact Chris Sturdy directly via e-mail with a cover letter explaining why you are interested in working in the lab and a description of your research interests and a copy of your CV. Please used the subject line "Postdoctoral research" in your email and label your documents as follows "Lastname_Firstinitial_Cover"  (e.g., Sturdy_C_Cover).

Underrepresented groups, including women, people with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, people of colour, and LGBTQIA2S+ individuals are encouraged to apply. Please read our EDI and SNL Code of Conduct pages.

PSYCH 403 - Recent Advances in Experimental Psychology: Models and Theories

Discussion of advanced concepts and theories developed by selected fields within experimental psychology. The course will examine the relation between theory and data in these fields. Prerequisites: PSYCH 213 or STAT 151 or 161, and a 300-level PSYCH course. Note: Consult the Department of Psychology webpage for the topics for the year and any additional prerequisites (https://www.ualberta.ca/psychology/undergraduate-studies/courses/special-topics.html). [Faculty of Science]

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PSYCH 505 - Conference Course in Psychology

[Faculty of Science]

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Browse more courses taught by Christopher Sturdy

Campbell, K.A., Hoeschele, M., Mann, D., Congdon, J.V., Scully, E.N., Mischler, S.K., Montenegro, C., Service, W.D., & Sturdy, C.B.

Behavioural Processes. 2023 February;

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Sahu, P.K., Montenegro, C., Lambert, C.T., Oprea, A., Deimeke, M., Rennie, V., Smeltz, S., Benowicz, T.J., Patel, D., Phillmore, L.S., & Sturdy, C.B.

Behavioural Processes. 2022 November;

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Congdon, J.V., Hahn, A.H., Campbell, K.A., Scully, E.N., Mischler, S.K., Montenegro, C., Service, W.D., & Sturdy, C.B.

Animal Behavior and Cognition. 2022 August;

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Wagner, B., Sturdy, C.B., Weisman, R.G., Hoeschele, M.

Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. 2022 June;

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Sahu, P.K., Campbell, K.A., Oprea, A., Phillmore, L.S. & Sturdy, C.B.

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 2022 May;

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4. Lambert, C.T., Sahu, P.K., Sturdy, C.B., & Guillette, L.M.

2022 May;

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Scully, E.N., Montenegro, C., & Sturdy, C.B.

To appear in Behavioral Brain Research.. 2020 June;

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Montenegro, C., Service, W.D., Scully, E.N., Mischler, S.K., Campbell, K.A., & Sturdy, C.B.

The Auk. 2020 May; Montenegro, C., Service, W.D., Scully, E.N., Mischler, S.K., Campbell, K.A., & Sturdy, C.B. (2020). Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) can identify individual females by their fee-bee songs. The Auk, 137, 1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/ukaa028 (Invited blog post: https://americanornithology.org/investigating-female-song-use-in-black-capped-chickadees/

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Campbell, K.A., Hahn, A.H., Congdon, J.V., Scully, E.N., & Sturdy, C.B.

To appear in Animal Behavior and Cognition.. 2020 April;

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Congdon, J.V., Hahn, A.H., Campbell, K.A., Scully, E.N., Yip, D.A., Bayne, E.M., & Sturdy, C.B.

Animal Cognition. 2020 February; 23