Dr Pizza Ka Yee Chow

Pizza teaches different modules that include Research Methods and Skills, Becoming a Psychological Researcher, and Animal Psychology. She is also supporting undergraduate and postgraduate students learning through Statistics Support sessions.

Pizza has a broad research interest, but her main research focus is on the evolution of cognition. Research fields/topics that she is highly interested in include: animal behaviour and cognition, urban wildlife cognition, cognitive ecology, comparative cognition, problem solving, and innovation.

She takes interdisciplinary approach (incorporating psychology such as animal behaviour/animal cognition, ecology such as behavioural ecology, and evolution) to answer her research questions.

Depending on the research question, she works with different animal species that include honeybees and bumblebees, pigeons, various endangered species of parrots (e.g, Great Green Macaws, Blue-throated Macaws). However, her main study models have been in grey squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis, and red squirrels, S. vulgaris. 

Chow PKY. (2023). Flying Squirrels, hidden treasures. eLife, 12:e89823. DOI: https://doi. org/10.7554/eLife. 89823

Chow PKY, Lehtonen T. K., Näreaho V., Loukola O. J., (2022). Prior associations affect bumblebees’ generalisation performance in a took-selection task. iScience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105466

Chow PKY, Davis J, Bapat A, von Bayern AMP. 2021. Tracking changes of hidden food: spatial pattern learning in two Ara macaws. Birds 2021, 2(3), 285-301.

Chow PKY, Uchida K, von Bayern A, Koizumi I. 2021. Urban characteristics and cognitive performance in Eurasian red squirrels. Proc. R. Soc. B 288, 20202832.

Chow PKY, Clayton NS, Steele M. 2021. Cognitive performance of wild Eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) in rural and urban, native and non-native environments. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 615899.

Frasnelli E, Robert T, Chow PKY, Scales B, Gibson S, Manning N, Philippides A, Collett TS, Hempel de Ibarra N. 2021. Small and large bumblebees invest differently when learning about flowers. Curr. Biol. 31, 1058-1064.

Krasheninnikova A, Chow PKY, von Bayern AMP. 2020. Comparative cognition: practical shortcomings and potential ways forward. #Shared first authorship Can. J. Exp. Psychol.74, 64-69.

Lea SEG, Chow PKY, Leaver L, McLaren I. 2020. Behavioural flexibility: A review, a model and and some exploratory tests. Special issue contribution to Learn & Beahv. 48, 173-187.

Lea SEG, Chow PKY, Meier C, McLaren IPL, Verbruggen F. 2019. Pigeons’ performance in a tracking stop-signal procedure is consistent with the independent horse-race model. J Exp. Psychol. Anim. Learn. Cogn. 45, 464-473.

Chow PKY. Lea SEG, Hempel de Ibarra, Robert T. 2019. Inhibitory control and memory in the search process for a modified problem in grey squirrels. Anim. Cogn. 22, 645-655.

Cauchoix M, Chow PKY, van Horik JO et al. Repeatability of cognitive performance: A meta-analysis. 2018. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 373, 20170281 #Shared first authorship.

Chow PKY, Lurz PWW, & Lea SEG. 2018. A battle of wit? Problem-solving ability in Eastern grey squirrels and Eurasian red squirrels. Anim. Behav. 137, 11-20.

Chow PKY, Lea SEG, Hempel de Ibarra N, & Robert T. 2017. How to stay perfect: the role of memory, persistence and behavioural selectivity in an experienced problem and a novel problem. Anim. Cogn. 20, 941-952.

Chow PKY, Leaver LA, Ming W, & Lea SEG. 2017. Touchscreen assays of behavioural flexibility and error characteristics in grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Anim. Cogn. 20, 459-471.

Chow PKY, Lea SEG, & Leaver LA. 2016. How practice makes perfect: the role of persistence, flexibility and learning in problem solving efficiency. Anim. Behav. 112, 273-283.

Chow PKY, Leaver LA, Wang M, & Lea SEG. 2015. Serial reversal learning in grey squirrels: learning efficiency as a function of learning and change of tactics. J Exp. Psychol. Anim. Learn. Cogn. 41, 343-353.

Cheng ST, Chow PKY, Song YQ, Yu ECS, & Lam JHM. 2014. Can leisure activities slow dementia progression in nursing home residents? A cluster-randomized controlled trial. Int. Psychogeriatr. 10, 1-7.

Cheng ST, Chow PKY, Song YQ, Yu ECS, Chan AC, Lee TM, Lam JH 2014. Mental and physical activities delay cognitive decline in older persons with dementia. Am. J Geriatr. Psychiatry 22, 63-74.

Cheng ST, Lam LC, & Chow PKY. 2012. Under-recognition of dementia in long-term care homes in Hong Kong. Aging Ment. Health 16, 516-520.

Cheng ST, Chow PKY, Chan ACM, & Yu ECS. 2011. Leisure activities alleviate depressive symptoms in nursing home residents with very mild or mild dementia. Am. J Geriatr. Psychiatry 20, 904-908.

Chow PKY, & Cheng ST. 2010. Shame, Internalized Heterosexism, Lesbian Identity, and Coming Out to Others: A Comparative Study of Lesbians in Mainland and Hong Kong. J Counsel. Psychol. 57, 92-104.

Cheng ST, Lee CKL, & Chow PKY. 2010. Social support and psychological well-being: Nursing home residents in Hong Kong. Int Psychogeriatr, 22, 1185-1190.

Pizza is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society, a Member of Royal Society of Biology and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She obtained her undergraduate degree at City University of Hong Kong. She completed a MSc in Neuropsychology at the University College London. She also completed a MSc in Animal Behaviour at University of Exeter before being awarded her PhD in Psychology at the same university.