Our emphasis is "bottom-up", in that we are especially concerned with the way in which lower-level processes lead to higher level outcomes. Our approach focuses on the behaviour of individual organisms and involves an interplay between theory and experiment.

Most of our experimental work is on insects, although recent work has examined fish, birds and mammals - including humans.

Techniques employed include the quantitative analysis of behaviour, neurophysiology, metabolic and digestive physiology, mathematical modelling, computer simulations and laboratory selection experiments.