ERC: Maria Loconsole

Maria Loconsole is a researcher in comparative psychology and animal cognition. She earned her PhD in Psychological Sciences at the University of Padova and has worked internationally on the cognitive development and behaviour of animals. Maria’s work investigates how animals perceive, represent and interact with their environment from the earliest stages of life, combining methods from ethology, comparative psychology and quantitative analysis of animal behaviour. Her research focuses primarily on domestic chickens, but also embraces other animal models such as corvids, dogs, and tortoises. A central theme of her work is understanding how cognitive processes develop and how early experience and innate predispositions interact to shape behaviour. In her work, Maria is strongly committed to animal welfare and ethics, as she aims to highlight the cognitive richness of species frequently involved with humans. In 2025, she was awarded an ERC Synergy Grant as cPI of the project FLAP (Fostering Learning and Adaptation through Predictability), which explores how minds adapt to change in the surrounding environment from the earliest stages of life.