Overview
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.
Mission Statement
The Social Cognition and Primate Behavior Lab at Emory is committed to creating a vibrant, inclusive, and supportive environment where students can develop their academic voices and grow as independent scientists. In this lab, students are encouraged to explore their unique interests in primate behavior and cognition while building essential skills in research design, data analysis, wet-lab and field research techniques, grant and manuscript writing, and science communication skills. We believe that maintaining a positive and enjoyable lab culture helps students stay motivated, overcome setbacks, and build strong professional relationships that enrich and sustain long-term passion and creativity in research.
Current Projects
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Cognition, Cooperation, & Conflict
Artwork by SoCaP undergrad Sasha Collins
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Hormones, Cognition, & Behavior
Artwork by SoCap grad Fede Sánchez Vargas
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Novel Methodologies
Artwork by SoCaP undergrad Elena Perez
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2025-2026 Lab Updates
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SoCaP grad student Evan Cunningham was awarded a Leaky Foundation Grant for his dissertation research on social learning in wild capuchins. Congrats Evan!
SoCaP grad students Fede Sánchez Vargas & Nicole Furgala were awarded Lewis and Clark Explorer Grants to conduct their research. Congrats! Dr. Benítez and colleagues at the University of Michigan were awarded an NIH Brains & Behavior Research Grant to begin their research on leveraging AI to study the brains, behavior, and cognition of wild capuchins! SoCaP grad student Fede Sánchez Vargas was awarded Best StudentPoster at the South Eastern Evolution & Human Behavior Conference. Congrats Fede! SoCaP grad student Nicole Furgala was awarded an NSERC Dissertation Fellowship for her research on theory of mind in wild and captive capuchins. Congrats Nicole! SoCaP grad student Evan Cunningham was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for his research on social learning in wild capuchins. Congrats Evan! |
Life in the SoCap Lab
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Lab Members
First Postdoc
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Gita Gnanadesikan is an evolutionary biologist and comparative psychologist fascinated by the diversity of animal behavior and cognition. Why do individuals and species behave so differently from one another? And how do genetics, environment, and experience combine to produce the variation that we observe? Her dissertation focused on assistance dogs, designing and implementing experiments that measure dog cognition and behavior in meaningful ways and then exploring the extent to which genetics and hormones explain the differences we observe between individuals. During the course of this work, she became particularly intrigued by the neurohormone oxytocin and the difficulties involved in measuring it. Oxytocin is often thought of as “the love hormone”, and we know that it’s involved in infant care, pair-bonding, and human-animal relationships. But it’s surprisingly difficult to measure. She has assessed multiple existing techniques and developed new methods, hoping to improve our measurements of this important molecule. She is looking forward to applying this work to a new study system as a postdoc at Emory. She is working with Marcela Benítez to study the role of oxytocin in cooperation between capuchin monkeys. As an Emory FIRST postdoctoral fellow, she is also looking forward to teaching at the Atlanta University Center Consortium.
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Lab Manager
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Arianna (Ari) Mistry graduated from the University of Michigan with a double major in Environmental Studies and Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience (BCN). Her interests lie at the intersection of behavior and environmentalism, and her previous work at the UM Cognitive Evolution Group led her to studying primates. She is passionate about animal behavior, the underlying neuroendocrinology of social behaviors, and primate health. She is currently working as the joint lab manager for the APE Lab at Emory and is excited to be learning from a variety of projects. |
Graduate Students
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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."
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Evan Cunningham is a PhD student in the Biological Anthropology program. They are interested in the evolution of social behaviors and social cognition as well as the hormonal mechanisms underlying these processes. Evan is also interested in teaching and science communication, and outside of work they enjoy reading fantasy novels, traveling, and seeing live music. |
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Nicole Furgala is a PhD student in Biological Anthropology interested in the evolutionary origins of social cognition using interdisciplinary methods in evolutionary anthropology and comparative cognition. By studying cognition in the wild, she hopes to investigate shared and distinct socio-cognitive traits between human and nonhuman primates, as it related to unravelling how humans became such a cooperative species. Her doctoral research will investigate perspective taking and mental state attribution capabilities in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella and Cebus imitator) using behavioral experiments in both captive and field settings. Before coming to Emory, Nicole completed her MSc in Evolutionary and Comparative Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, and her undergraduate degree in Zoology and Psychology from the University of Guelph. |
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Federico Sánchez Vargas is broadly interested in the evolution of social cognition, the potentially reciprocal relationship between different domains of cognition and positioning in the social hierarchy, and the ecological factors and proximate neuroendocrine mechanisms that may help explain social and cognitive complexity in capuchins. Why have capuchins convergently evolved to be the “apes of the New World”, and what might this be able to tell us about the specific conditions leading to the evolution of similar cognitive profiles in phylogenetically distant species? In what ways do capuchins conceptualize their physical environment and the other social actors in it in ways uniquely shaped by their ecology and evolutionary history? He hopes to incorporate cognitive experiments in the wild to investigate natural inter-individual variation in the ability to solve novel problems. Beyond research, he is also greatly interested in promoting conservation and fostering an appreciation for some of our closest evolutionary relatives. |
Undergraduate Students
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Juliana Bodhert is currently a senior undergraduate in the Emory APE Lab. Her research interests include neuroscience, animal models, and psychopharmacology, and she's still exploring. She has worked in a clinical dermatology-pathology lab, but is new to primatology research. In this lab, she hopes to build up foundational skills for lab work and get a better understanding of where my passions lie for the future doctoral study. |
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Jackie Zhou is an an undergraduate student majoring in Anthropology and Human Biology with a minor in Global Health, Culture, and Society. She learned about the lab from reading the review on same-sex behavior in non-human primates and felt inspired by innovations in historically stigmatized anthropological research as a strong tool on enhancing the voice of marginalized groups. She is currently participating in the systematic review on SSB in NHP, and is conducing an Honors thesis on same-sex sexual behavior in wild white-faced capuchins.
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Former Lab Members
Since the onset of the Social Cognition & Primate Behavior Lab at Emory, we have had a number of amazing students and researchers who have gone on to do incredible things from attending med and grad school, to joining the Peace Corp.
Recent SoCap alumni: Chris Kozuch, Sasha Collins, Sedona Epstein, Emi Fernandez, Eleanor Gray, Phoenix Jarrett, Atlas Moss, James Pena, Elena Perez, Isabelle Wagoner, Elizabeth Whiteside, Elise Isakov