Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L8
Phone: 905-525-9140; x26037
Email: reddonar@mcmaster.ca

Background
I was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I completed both B.Sc. Honors (2007) and M.Sc. (2009) degrees at the University of Alberta in the Department of Psychology, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Hurd. My honors thesis looked at differences in aggressive behaviour and fight outcome between different color morphs of the convict cichlid (Archocentrus nigrofaciatus). My masters thesis focused on the relationships between sex, cerebral lateralization and personality in the convict cichlid.  Additional work I undertook during my time at the University of Alberta included: investigating asymmetry in habenular nucleus and its relationship to lateralized behaviour in cichlid fish, and the relationship between exploratory behaviour and individual variation in learning rate in the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). I am currently working on my Ph.D. at McMaster University in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, under the supervision of Dr. Sigal Balshine. My doctoral work is focused on understanding the evolution and maintenance of group living and cooperative breeding in the highly social cichlid fish, Neolamprologus pulcher.

Research Interests

• The evolutionary antecedents and ecological consequences of individual variation in behaviour.
• The evolutionary implications and neurological correlates of functional lateralization in non-human animals.
• Cooperation and conflict in animal societies.
• Assessment and decision making in animal contests. 

Publications

• Reddon, A. R. (in press).  Parental effects on animal personality.  Behavioral Ecology.
• Moscicki, M. K., Reddon, A. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2011).  Lateralized behaviour of a non-social cichlid fish (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) in a social and a non-social environment.  Behavioural Processes, 88:27-32.
• Reddon, A. R., Balk, D., & Balshine, S. (2011).  Sex differences in group joining decisions in social fish.  Animal Behaviour, 82:229-234.
• Reddon, A. R., Voisin, M. R., Menon, N., Marsh-Rollo, S. E., Wong, M. Y. L. & Balshine, S. (2011). Rules of engagement for resource contests in a social fish. Animal Behaviour, 82:93-99.
• Baragli, P., Vitale, V., Paoletti, E., Sighieri, C. & Reddon, A. R. (2011). Detour behaviour in horses (Equus caballus). Journal of Ethology, 29:227-234.
• Dinsdale, N. L., Reddon, A. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2011). Sex differences in the relationship between aggressiveness and the strength of handedness in Humans. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 16:385-400.
• Gutiérrez-Ibáñez, C.*, Reddon, A. R.*, Kreuzer, M., Wylie, D. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2011). Variation in asymmetry of the habenular nucleus correlates with behavioural asymmetry in a cichlid fish. Behavioural Brain Research, 221:189-196.
• Guillette, L. M., Reddon, A. R., Hoeschele, M. & Sturdy, C. B. (2011). Sometimes slower is better: Slow-exploring birds are more sensitive to changes in a vocal discrimination task. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 278:767-773.
• Reddon, A. R. & Balshine S. (2010). Lateralization in response to social stimuli a cooperatively breeding cichlid fish. Behavioural Processes, 85:68-71.
• Guillette, L. M., Bailey, A. A., Reddon, A. R., Hurd, P. L. & Sturdy, C. B. (2010). Capture order is repeatable in chickadees. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 23:216-224. 
• Guillette, L. M., Reddon, A. R., Hurd, P. L. & Sturdy, C. B. (2009). Exploration of a novel space is associated with individual differences in learning speed in black-capped chickadees. Behavioural Processes, 82:265-270.
• Reddon, A. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2009). Acting unilaterally: Why do animals with strongly lateralized brains behave differently than those with weakly lateralized brains? Bioscience Hypotheses, 2:383-387. 
• Reddon, A. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2009). Sex differences in cerebral lateralization of a cichlid fish when detouring to view emotionally conditioned stimuli. Behavioural Processes, 82:25-29.
• Reddon, A. R.*, Gutiérrez-Ibáñez, C.*, Wylie, D. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2009). The relationship between growth, brain asymmetry and behavioural lateralization in a cichlid fish. Behavioural Brain Research, 201:223-228.
• Reddon, A. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2009). Differences in aggressive behavior between convict cichlid color morphs: amelanistic convicts lose even with a size advantage. Acta Ethologica, 12:49-53.
• Reddon, A. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2009). Individual differences in cerebral lateralization are associated with shy-bold variation in the convict cichlid. Animal Behaviour, 77:189-193.            
• Reddon, A. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2008). Aggression, sex and individual differences in cerebral lateralization in a cichlid fish. Biology Letters, 4:338-340.

* = Co-first authors

Selected Awards

• NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Doctoral (2009-2012)
• Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship, Masters (2008-2009)

Selected Conference Presentations

• Reddon, A. R.*, Balk, D. & Balshine, S. (2011, July).  Group joining decisions in cooperatively breeding cichlid fish.  Oral presentation at Behaviour 2011 - Joint Meeting of the Animal Behaviour Society and the International Ethological Conference.  Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
• Reddon, A. R.* & Balshine, S. (2010, July). Lateralization in response to social stimuli in the cooperatively breeding cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher. Poster presentation at The 47th Annual Meeting of the Animal Behaviour Society. Williamsburg, Virginia, USA.
• Reddon, A. R.*, Gutiérrez-Ibáñez, C., Wylie, D. R. & Hurd, P. L. (2009, May) The  relationship between growth, brain asymmetry and behavioural lateralization  in a cichlid fish. Oral presentation at the Canadian Society of Zoologists  Annual Meeting. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Reddon, A. R.* & Hurd, P. L. (2008, Aug.) Cerebral Lateralization and Individual  Behaviour in the Convict Cichlid. Oral presentation at the International Society  for Behavioural Ecology 12th Biannual Congress. Cornell University, Ithaca,  New York, USA.
• Reddon, A. R.* & Hurd, P. L. (2008, Feb.). Cerebral lateralization and social  behaviour. Oral presentation at the Canadian Spring Conference on  Behaviour and Brain. Fernie, British Colombia, Canada.
  *Presenting author

Invited Presentations

• Reddon, A. R. (2009, August). Cerebral lateralization and personality from a  comparative perspective. Clinical Rounds, Alberta Hospital Edmonton.  Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.