Biography
I am currently a Research Associate at the Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, and a Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Environment, Science & Economy, University of Exeter, with extensive knowledge & skills in: research with 45 publications; h-index = 22; i10-index = 32; citations: 1465 and international Comparative Cognition Society Award, university-level teaching in Biology, Psychology & Zoology (with a PG Cert in Learning & Teaching qualification), academic supervision & mentoring, funding acquisition, national and international collaborations, project management & administration, with specific expertise in animal cognition & behaviour, welfare & conservation and child development.
My research programme, incorporating fundamental and applied approaches and impacts, includes lead roles in three overarching, interconnected areas: 1) Comparative, Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology, Behavioural Ecology, 2) Big-Team Open Science (ManyBirds Project Co-Founder with 120+ collaborators; ManyManys collaborator), 3) Applications of fundamental research in cognition and behaviour for conservation and welfare impact (Bali myna Project; Red-billed chough Project).
For more information, see: www.drrachaelmiller.com
Research
Comparative Psychology | Behavioural Ecology | Conservation
I use evolutionary, developmental and comparative approaches to test causes and consequences of individual and species variation in cognition and behaviour, primarily in birds and children. I have led and supervised collaborative experimental and observational research on cognitive traits including executive function, social learning, self-control, decision-making, neophobia and innovation. I demonstrated individual cognitive traits can be stable (repeatable) or flexible, depending on age and context, for example, raven and crow neophobia varies over development, though ravens are strongly shaped by social groups (BehEcolSocio, PLOS ONE), jays flexibly adapt self-control choices depending on competitor presence (PLOS ONE) and adult Bali myna are more neophobic than juveniles (RSOS). Crows, jays and Bali myna learn socially or use social information, for example, with Bali myna being more likely to copy a model bird's choices in a higher-risk context (Ethology, Peer J). We showed that crows reason about hidden causal agents (PNAS) and flexibly plan for future tool-use (Proc B) in a comparable way to 3-5 year old children (RSOS). Leading a team of 130+ collaborators, we demonstrated that the key ecological drivers of neophobia in birds are migration and dietary specialism (PLOSBio). These insights broadly contribute to advancing cognitive evolution theory while offering practical conservation and welfare-relevant tools.
I advocate Open Science practices, including publishing all data-sets associated with my papers, pre-registering (from Nov 2018) and pre-printing my work.
My website: www.drrachaelmiller.com
Publications
H-index: 22, i10-index: 32, citations: 1465 (Google Scholar; Oct 2025)
45. ManyBirds Project, Miller R et al. (2025). A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia. PLOS Biology 23(10): e3003394. https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003394
44. Miller R, Ding N, Clayton NS (2025). Cognitive correlates of future-oriented cognition in young Chinese children. Cognitive Development 76: 101620
43. *Garcia-Pelegrin E, *Miller R, *Plotnik J, *Schnell A (* = equal author contributions)
(2025). A Special Issue in Honor of the Contributions of Prof Nicola S. Clayton FRS. Learning and Behavior. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-025-00666-3
42. Miller R, Boeckle M, Ridgway S, Uhl F, Richardson J, Bugnyar T, Schwab C (2025). Social attention across development in common ravens and carrion/ hooded crows. Animal Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.11.016
41. Alessandroni N, Altschul D, Bazhydai M, Brosnan SF, Byers-Heinlein K, Call J, Chittka L, Elsherif M, Espinosa J, Freeman M, Gioneska B, Gunturkun O, Huber L, Krasheninnikova A, Mazza V, Miller R, Moreau D, Nawroth C, Pronizuis E, Ruiz-Fernandez S, Schwing R, Slipogor V, Visser I, Vonk J, Yeager J, Zettersten M & Pretot L (2024) Challenges and promises of big team comparative cognition. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02081-6. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5nykg
40. Duffy L, Barrett M, Gaffney L, Lavery M, Miller R, Trevarthen A, Schiestl M, Schnell A, Shriver A, Fischer B (2024). Book Chapter: Some Tentative Welfare Range Estimates. Book: Weighing Animal Welfare. Oxford University Press
39. Alessandroni N, Altschul D, Bazhydai M, Byers-Heinlein K, Elsherif M, Gjoneska N, Huber H, Mazza V, Miller R, Nawroth C, Pronizius E, Qadri MAJ, Slipogor V, Soderstrom M, Stevens JR, Visser I, Williams M, Zettersten M & Prétôt, L. (2024). Comparative Cognition Needs Big Team Science: How Large-Scale Collaborations Will Unlock the Future of the Field. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 19, 67-72.
38. *Miller R, *Davies J, Schiestl M, Garcia-Pelegrin E, Gray R, Taylor A, Clayton NS (2023). Social influences on delayed gratification in New Caledonian crows and Eurasian jays. PLOS ONE 18(12), p.e0289197
37. Miller R, Schiestl M, Clayton NS. (2023) Book Chapter: Welfare in Corvids. 9th Ed of Universities Federation for Animal Welfare Handbook on Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals. Wiley
36. Dunn JC, Miller R, Akcay C, Balasubramaniam K, Wascher C (2023). Conceptualization, context, and comparison are key to understanding the evolution of fear. Invited Commentary: Behavioral and Brain Sciences46, E61 doi:10.1017/S0140525X22001789
35. Garcia-Pelegrin E, Miller R, Wilkins C, Clayton NS (2023). Manual action expectation and biomechanical ability in three species of New World monkey. Current Biology https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.03.023
34. Ding N, *Miller R, *Clayton NS (* = joint senior authorship) (2023). Inhibition and cognitive flexibility are related to prediction of one's own future preferences in young British and Chinese children. Cognition 236: 105433 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105433
33. Gaffney LP, Lavery JM, Schiestl M, Trevarthen A, Schucraft J, Miller R, Schnell AK, Fischer B (2023). A theoretical approach to improving interspecies welfare comparisons. Frontiers in Animal Science 3: 162
32. *Miller R & Garcia-Pelegrin E, Danby E (* = senior and joint first author) (2022). Neophobia and innovation in critically endangered Bali myna. Royal Society Open Science 9: 211781
31. Garcia-Pelegrin E, Clark F, Miller R (2022). Increasing animal cognition research in zoos. Zoo Biology DOI: 10.1002/zoo.21674
30. Miller R, Lambert M, Frohnweiser A, Brecht K, Bugnyar T, Crampton I, Garcia-Pelegrin E, Gould K, Greggor A, Izawa E, Kelly D, Li Z, Luo Y, Luong L, Massen J, Nieder A, Reber S, Schiestl M, Sepehri P, Stevens J, Taylor AH, Wang L, Wolff LM, Zhang Y, Clayton NS (2022). Socio-ecological correlates of neophobia in corvids. Current Biology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.045
29. Lambert M, Reber S, Garcia-Pelegrin E, Farrar B, Miller R (2022). ManyBirds: A multi-site collaborative approach to avian cognition and behaviour research. Animal Behavior & Cognition 9(1), 133-152
28. Ding N, Frohnwieser A, *Miller R, *Clayton NS (* = joint senior authorship) (2021). Waiting for a better reward: comparison of delay of gratification in young children across two cultures. PLoS ONE 16(9): e0256966
27. Boeckle M, Schiestl M, Frohnwieser A, Gruber R, Miller R, Suddendorf T, Gray RD, Taylor AH, Clayton NS. (2021) New Caledonian crows' planning behaviour: a reply to de Mahy, Don et al. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 202111271
26. Boeckle M, Schiestl M, Frohnwieser A, Gruber R, Miller R, Suddendorf T, Gray RD, Taylor AH, Clayton NS. (2020) New Caledonian crows flexibly plan for specific future tool use. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287: 20201490
25. Miller R & Gruber R, Frohnwieser A, Schiestl M, Jelbert SA, Gray RD, Boeckle M, Taylor AH, Clayton NS. (2020) Decision-making flexibility in New Caledonian crows, young children and adult humans in a multi-dimensional tool-use task. PLoS ONE 15: e0219874
24. Miller R, Frohnwieser A, Ding N, Troisi C, Schiestl M, Gruber R, Taylor AH, Gray RD, Jelbert SA, Boeckle M, Clayton NS. (2020) A novel test of flexible planning in relating to executive function and language in young children. Royal Society Open Science 7: 71-85
23. Kövér L & Lengyel S, Takenaka M, Kirchmeir A, Uhl F, Miller R, Schwab C. (2019) Why do zoos attract crows? A comparative study from Europe and Asia. Ecology & Evolution 9: 14465-14475
22. Miller R, Frohnwieser A, Schiestl M, McCoy DE, Gray RD, Taylor AH, Clayton NS. (2019) Delayed gratification in New Caledonian crows and young children: influence of reward type and visibility. Animal Cognition: 1-15 doi: 10.1007/s10071-019-01317-7
21. Miller R, Boeckle M, Frohnwieser A, Jelbert SA, Wascher, CAF, Clayton NS. (2019) Self-control in crows, parrots and non-human primates. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 10: e1504
20. Gruber R, Schiestl M, Boeckle M, Frohnwieser A, Miller R, Gray RD, Clayton NS, Taylor AH. (2019) New Caledonian crows use mental representations to solve metatool problems. Current Biology 29:686-692
19. Jelbert SA, Miller R, Schiestl M, Boeckle M, Cheke LG, Gray RD, Taylor AH, Clayton NS. (2019) New Caledonian crows infer the weight of objects from their movements in a breeze. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: 20182332
18. Uhl F, Ringler M, Miller R, Deventer S, Bugnyar T, Schwab C (2018) Counting crows: population structure and group size variation in an urban population of crows. Behavioural Ecology ary 157
17. Miller R, Jelbert SA, Loissel E, Taylor AH, Clayton NS (2017) Young children do not require perceptual-motor feedback to solve Aesop’s Fable tasks. Peer J 5:e3483
16. Davidson G, Miller R, Loissel E, Cheke LG, Clayton NS (2017) The development of support intuitions and object causality in juvenile Eurasian jays. Scientific Reports 7:40062
15. Miller R, Jelbert SA, Taylor AH, Cheke LG, Gray RD, Loissel E, Clayton NS (2016) Performance in object-choice Aesop’s Fable tasks are influenced by object biases in New Caledonian crows but not in human children. PLoS ONE 11:e0168056
14. Miller R, Logan CJ, Lister K, Clayton NS (2016). Eurasian jays do not copy the choices of conspecifics, but they do show evidence of stimulus enhancement. Peer J 4:e2746
13. Deventer SA, Uhl F, Bugnyar T, Miller R, Fitch WT, Schiestl M, Ringler M, Schwab C (2016) Behavioural type affects space use in a wild population of crows. Ethology 122:881-891
12. Miller R, Schwab C, Bugnyar T (2016) Explorative innovators and flexible use of social information in common ravens and carrion crows. Journal of Comparative Psychology doi:10.1037/com0000039
11. Miller R, Laskowski KL, Schiestl M, Bugnyar T, Schwab C (2016) Socially driven consistent behavioural differences during development in common ravens and carrion crows. PLoS ONE 11:e0148822
10. Miller R, Bugnyar T, Pölzl K, Schwab C (2015) Differences in exploration behaviour in common ravens and carrion crows during development and across social context. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 69:1209-20
9. Taylor AH, Cheke LG, Waismeyer A, Meltzoff A, Miller R, Gopnik A, Clayton NS, Gray RD (2015) No conclusive evidence that corvids can create novel causal interventions. Proc B 282:20150796
8. Knaebe B, Taylor AH, Miller R, Gray RD (2015) New Caledonian crows attend to barb presence during Pandanus tool manufacture and use. Behaviour doi:10.1163/1568539X-00003316
7. Miller R, Schiestl M, Whiten A, Schwab C, Bugnyar T (2014) Tolerance and social facilitation in the foraging behaviour of free-ranging crows. Ethology 120:1248-1255
6. Taylor AH, Cheke LG, Waismeyer A, Meltzoff A, Miller R, Gopnik A, Clayton NS, Gray RD (2014) Of babies and birds: complex tool behaviours are not sufficient for the evolution of the ability to create a causal intervention. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281:20140837
5. Taylor AH, Miller R, Gray RD (2013) Clear evidence of habituation counters counterbalancing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110:e337
4. Taylor AH, Miller R, Gray RD (2013) The devil is unlikely to be association or distraction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110:e274
3. Miller R, King CE (2013) Husbandry training, using positive reinforcement techniques, for Marabou stork at Edinburgh Zoo. International Zoo Yearbook 47:171-180
2. Taylor AH, Miller R, Gray RD (2012) New Caledonian crows reason about hidden causal agents. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109:16389-16391
1. Dufour V, Wascher C, Braun A, Miller R, Bugnyar T (2011) Time is money: Corvids can decide if a future transaction is worth waiting for. Biology Letters 23:201-204
