About

Nicola Clayton is Professor of Comparative Cognition at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Clare college, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Fellow of the Royal Society. She holds Visiting Professorships at Nanging University Institute of Technology, Beijing University of Language and Culture, Zhejiang University of Technology, West Lake University, and Honorary Professorships at Hangzhou Diangi University, Beijing Minzu University, Zhejiang Normal University in China. She was Scientist-in-Residence and Associate Artist at Rambert (formerly Ballet Rambert) from 2009 until Mark Baldwin’s retirement as Artistic Director in 2018.

She is extremely interested in science-arts collaborations, integrating science with dance and the performing arts including magic. She has long-standing collaborations with Choreographer-in-Residence Mark Baldwin OBE and Artist-in-Residence Clive Wilkins MMC.

Nicky is particularly interested in the processes of thinking with and without words, and comparisons between the cognitive abilities of corvids, cephalopods, and cross-cultural comparisons in children and adult humans.

Research

Nicola’s research focuses on:

• Evolution and development of cognition and communication  in non-humans and humans
• Cultural differences in cognition in humans and the role of language in Mental Time Travel (perspectives on other times) and Theory of Mind (perspective on other minds)
• The role of Mental Time Travel and narrative in prospective decision making, particularly with respect to climate change
• Embodied cognition and constraints on cognition as evidenced by magic effects
• Integration of science and the arts to study various aspects of cognition including camouflage, deception and Mental Time Travel