IN true Malaysia Boleh spirit, local student Chan Hui Minn did the nation proud after her research on the ‘Study of Spatial Learning and Memory in the Red-footed Tortoise’ was voted Best Undergraduate Project in 2007 by United Kingdom’s Experimental Psychology Society/ British Association for the Advancement of Science.
A student of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of York, Chan discovered in her research that the Red-footed tortoise was able to utilise spatial cues and to demonstrate spatial learning in an eight-arm radial maze.
It was previously believed that the tortoise was ‘sluggish and awkward and had earned an undeserved reputation for stupidity’.
The findings suggested that the tortoise, unlike mammals and birds who posses hippocampus which is critical for map-like representations of space, had been storing spatial information about the eight-arm radial maze that was visited by the reptile to perform accurately.
As the award winner, Chan was also given the opportunity to present her study at the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s (BA) Festival of Science that was held in York last September.
There, she presented her paper to an audience of psychology academics, students of psychology, A-Level students and members of the media. For her research, she was given a monetary award and a book prize, of which the latter was donated by the Psychology Press.
Chan was also honoured with First Class Honours in Psychology from the university last year. She is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Clinical Neuroscience at the University College London, which is part of the University of London.
Founded in 1831, the British Association for the Advancement of Science is a learned society with the objective of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters and facilitating interaction between scientific workers.
A student of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of York, Chan discovered in her research that the Red-footed tortoise was able to utilise spatial cues and to demonstrate spatial learning in an eight-arm radial maze.
It was previously believed that the tortoise was ‘sluggish and awkward and had earned an undeserved reputation for stupidity’.
The findings suggested that the tortoise, unlike mammals and birds who posses hippocampus which is critical for map-like representations of space, had been storing spatial information about the eight-arm radial maze that was visited by the reptile to perform accurately.
As the award winner, Chan was also given the opportunity to present her study at the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s (BA) Festival of Science that was held in York last September.
There, she presented her paper to an audience of psychology academics, students of psychology, A-Level students and members of the media. For her research, she was given a monetary award and a book prize, of which the latter was donated by the Psychology Press.
Chan was also honoured with First Class Honours in Psychology from the university last year. She is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Clinical Neuroscience at the University College London, which is part of the University of London.
Founded in 1831, the British Association for the Advancement of Science is a learned society with the objective of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters and facilitating interaction between scientific workers.