Dr. Sara Torres Ortiz
Main Focus
My main focus is animal cognition, from thinking to problem solving and animal communication. I think that a joined approach between cognition and acoustics could elucidate new interesting results. Also, training animals can be a powerful tool to test animal cognition since training techniques can help communicate with your animals the purpose of your experimental goals. This approach will be used during my doctoral studies where the animals will be aware of them being tested for a prospective memory task.
Curriculum Vitae
ongoing - Doctoral candidate in Biology, Max Planck institute of Ornithology – Munich, Germany
ongoing - U.N.E.D (National University of distance education) Spain
BSc in Psychology
August 2016 - University of Southern Denmark – Odense, Denmark
MSc in Biology: Marine science
Diploma in Marine Science
Extra information
I am conducting my doctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology on dolphin and parrot memory and cognition. This would be a unique multispecies project working with an outstandingly well-trained group of pacific bottlenose dolphins at a marine mammal’s zoo in Mexico called Vallarta adventures. While the data on dolphins is almost collected, I am training a group of three species of parrots, for the same task at the Max Planck Research station in Tenerife. Prospective memory is a very young field both for humans and specially for animals, but of vital interest due to its importance. Prospective memory is the ability to remember an action to be performed in the future, and failures in the retrieval process can sometimes have fatal consequences.