Laura Thuly
Laura C.-Thuly
Ph.D Student
Department of Biology​
McGill University​

N6/15
​Stewart Biology Building
​1205 av. Docteur Penfield
Montréal, Qc, Canada
H3A 1B1​​


laura.chouinard-thuly{a}mail.mcgill.ca

What I study, in general

​Social learning is any learning that is facilitated by the observation of, or interaction with another animal or its products. It is used as an alternative or as a supplement to asocial learning (or learning that occurs without any interaction), when it might be difficult to obtain, outdated, unreliable, and for various other reasons! Social learning occurs in species form all taxa, and provides many advantages. It is suggested to be the mechanism underlying culture. I am generally interested in how social learning is used by animals, and I specifically focus my work on fish. 


​​​Current research

​​I currently study intraspecific differences in social learning in the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata in Simon Reader's lab at McGill​ University. My interest is in how early social environment affects the way an individual weighs social versus private information in learning tasks, and if each individual display consistent tendencies in such information use. I am also interested in how social learning differs between populations of wild guppies varying in their native habitats.

The Reader Lab​ 
McGill University​

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Previous research

I completed my Masters degree in Kevin Laland's lab, at the University of St. Andrews, where I studied public information use by ninespine sticklebacks, Pungitius pungitius. I specifically created​ computer-animated stimuli in Blender to identify behavioural cues used by fish to collect public information. 3D animations are a novel and versatile tool in the study of animal behaviour, that allows researchers to accurately isolate and control the demonstrators' actions. 

The Laland Lab​​
University of St. Andrews
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Don't hesitate to contact me if you want to know more about my research, and computer-animated stimuli!​​​