Radical Cognition: What Decisions Can Plants Make?
Plants can’t move, so decisions about where to grow leaves or roots are crucial. Research shows they communicate, adjust growth based on neighbours, and even change responses with experience. Yet debates over terms like cognition and sentience—
Dr. Tanya Shoot will share a new research framework developed during their postdoctoral work in the Cahill Lab at the University of Alberta. This approach compares responses across plant species, focuses on realistic environmental challenges, and looks for signature decision-making patterns without assuming plant consciousness. Tanya will highlight current experiments exploring how plants sense and process information, and how this work can deepen our understanding of decision-making across all organisms. Attendees are invited to share their own curious plant observations.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Tanya Shoot is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Concordia University of Edmonton. Their research explores how animals and plants make decisions, focusing on the roles of personality, environment, and information processing. During their postdoctoral work at the University of Alberta, they have studied behaviour across multiple species—from zebrafish, guppies, and fruit flies to plant decision-making.
A lifelong plant enthusiast, Tanya has tended everything from houseplants to native rain-garden species. Their academic and personal passions for plant behaviour now intersect in their ongoing research at Concordia University of Edmonton.
