Research
All complex plans, linguistic & motor, require hierarchical planning. This line of research looks into nonhuman primate motor planning to help explain the evolution of sequence planning we find in language and human action planning.
We have tested bonobos at the Ape Initiative, juvenile vervet monkeys & cotton-top tamarins. We are always looking for a larger sample and more species! Please contact me if you are interested in collaborating.
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This line of research is also relevant in my human work detailed below. I hope to better understand what drives efficient planning across and within domains.
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Pre-crastination Paper; Psychonomics 2020; ABS 2020; ABS Poster 2019
Motor Sequence Planning in Primates
In the language and motor planning literature, we often see similar behaviors described using different terms. Our goal with this research is to better understand the commonalities and differences of planning between these two domains within and across individuals (Hysteresis/ Plan Reuse, Easy-First/Action Continuation)
We hope to find what is unique and shared in either domain and look closely at the cognitive demands leading to these planning biases.
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This project is based out of the Weiss lab (Amy Lebkeucher & Dan Weiss) as well as in collaboration with Maryellen MacDonald, Arella Gussow and Misty Kbasa at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
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Planning Biases in Language & Action
I am interested in the evolution of language and its production. This line of research examines the prerequisites of speech, such as oro-facial motor control and breath control, and their presence or absence in our closest extant relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos.
For my first masters thesis, I worked with apes at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, the Milwaukee County Zoo, and the Ape Initiative.
Here, I trained chimpanzees and bonobos to produce lower lip and tongue protrusions, as well as inhale and exhale into a clear PVC device.
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Motor Prerequisites of Speech
