Unlike human subjects, non-human animals are not readily available for comment. How then can we understand how other animals perceive the world around them when making decisions? This has motivated me to explore methods for inferring how animals perceive risk in a variety of contexts.
Animals rely not only on external information when making decisions, but also on internal information about their current state. Can stress levels, as a proxy for internal state, inform our understanding of animal risk perception and decision-making? By considering differences in population distributions of stress levels, I seek to connect patterns of stress with models of decision-making.
How information is gathered, stored, and shared between individuals can directly impact the dynamics of populations and communities. I am therefore interested in exploring different models of information in a consumer-resource context to better understand the role information plays in influencing these dynamics.
Viewing predator-prey interactions from a game-theoretic lens afford an opportunity to explore a number of questions surrounding predator-prey interactions. Of interest to me are the decision mechanisms and dynamics of prey selection, predator pursuit/capture, and at a higher level, food-web formation.