RESEARCH AREAS
Identifying and remembering others
We investigate biases in great apes’ social attention, identification, and the extent to which they have long-term memory for others.
Bonobos and chimpanzees preferentially attend to familiar members of the dominant sex.
Bonobos and chimpanzees remember familiar conspecifics for decades.
Lewis et al. (under review) Do great apes know each other’s names? Probing great ape comprehension of social vocal labels.
Representing other’s minds and social relationships
We use eye tracking to explore theory of mind and other complex sociocognitive abilities in great apes.
Eye-tracking as a window into primate social cognition.
Theory of Mind in Nonhuman Primates.
Lewis et al. (in prep) Great apes’ anticipation of surprise in false belief contexts.
Gaining social information
We use behavioral methods to compare social and cultural curiosity in children and chimpanzees.
Lewis et al. (In Press) Chimpanzees and children are curious about social interactions.
Lewis et al. (in prep) Cultural curiosity in children and adults.
Our lab’s research is currently assembled around understanding the evolution and development of three main pillars.
