The Social Cognition and Primate Behavior Lab examines how primates make important social decisions, what underlying factors impact these choices, and why these decisions are adaptive. We tackle these questions from an evolutionary and comparative perspective while utilizing a mechanistic approach, through the integration of behavioral observations and experimental paradigms on wild monkeys at our field station, Capuchins de Taboga, in Costa Rica, and on captive capuchins at the Language Research Center at Georgia State University, and the assessment and manipulation of hormones, at our Social Endocrinology Lab at Emory.
Current Research Projects
1. How do primates make informed social decisions? What factors influence these choices?
2. How does between-group conflict influence within-group social dynamics, affiliative behavior, and cooperative decision-making?
3. What strategies do monkeys use to solve novel problems? What factors influence these strategies?
4. How do hormones impact social behavior, conflict, cooperation, and social decision-making?
2. How does between-group conflict influence within-group social dynamics, affiliative behavior, and cooperative decision-making?
3. What strategies do monkeys use to solve novel problems? What factors influence these strategies?
4. How do hormones impact social behavior, conflict, cooperation, and social decision-making?
Lab Updates
|
Our research on social learning in capuchins monkeys was recently funded by the NSF Broaden and Build program aimed at expanding scientific capabilities at MSI institutions and broadening participation in STEM.
Graduate student Sarah Kovalaskas received an NSF Doctoral Improve Grant for her dissertation research on the effect of intergroup competition on affiliation, oxytocin, and group cohesion in these wild white-faced capuchin monkeys |
Lab Members
Lab Manager
|
Isabelle Wagoner graduated from North Carolina State University in 2020 with a Bachelor's of Science in Zoology while minoring in anthropology. She is interested in allocare systems and altruism through adoption in capuchins. If you need to reach her please contact her at Iwagone@emory.edu. |
Graduate Students
|
Sarah Kovalaskas is a PhD student in Biological Anthropology at Emory advised by Dr. Marcela Benítez. Sarah is broadly interested in the evolution of primate social behavior, especially as it relates to the origins of human cognition and culture. Over the past several years, she has been involved in research with humans, Bolivian gray-eared titi monkeys (Callicebus donacophilus) in Bolivia, bonobos (Pan paniscus) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Leveraging her past experience in behavioral endocrinology and fieldwork in bonobo behavioral ecology, her dissertation research investigates the evolutionary processes and underlying mechanisms shaping cooperative within-group behaviors in wild capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica. In particular, she investigates the effect of frequent intergroup competition on affiliation, oxytocin, and group cohesion in these monkeys."
|
Undergraduate Students
Eleanor Gray is a Junior majoring in Anthropology and Human Biology on the pre-medical track. She is interested in the social dynamics and decision making that can be observed with between-group conflict. She will be working in the Social Endocrinology Lab.
|
Atlas Thompson is a third year undergraduate student with a double major in Anthropology and Human Biology and English.
Their main research interests are primate social cognition, especially how individuals learn from one another and cooperate with each other. When they graduate, they plan to pursue a PhD in primatology. |
Chris Kozuch is a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and minoring in Neurothics. They are particularly interested in understanding same-sex sexual behavior in primates, investigating the evolutionary pressures that are selective for this behavior in non-human primates, and how this can be applied to human populations to decrease social stigma surrounding the queer community.
|
Elizabeth Whiteside is a sophomore at Emory majoring in Anthropology and Human Biology on the pre medical track. She is interested in exploring the connections between hormones and social behavior in capuchins and integrating her passions for reproductive health and behavioral research. She will be investigating the hormone cycles of female capuchins in conjunction with estrus behaviors to validate and compile data on ovarian hormones in capuchins.
|
Elena Perez