Elisa Felsche
Postdoc
Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
phone: +49 (0) 341 3550 428
e-mail:
elisa_felsche@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
Thesis title: Exploring the Evolution and Ontogeny of Imitation and Abstraction: A Hierarchical Bayesian Modelling Approach
Research Interests
I am interested in the question of how humans, and especially human children learn so efficiently.
To better understand the structure and interaction of the underlying cognitive processes my research focuses on comparing them across primate species, age, cultural groups as well as computational models.
My PhD examined children’s, capuchin monkeys’ and chimpanzees’ abilities for social learning and
the formation of abstract concepts. The latter is a topic I will also focus on in my postdoctoral research with the aim to gain further insights into the causes of population differences in abstract relational reasoning.
Curriculum Vitae
Career
| Since 07/2021 | Postdoctoral Researcher Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology Max Planck Insitute of Evolutionary Anthropology |
| 02/2020 – 07/2020 | Postdoctoral Researcher Cognitive Evolution Group, Department of Psychology University of Michigan |
| 09/2019 – 01/2020 | Research Assistant School of Psychology and Neuroscience University of St Andrews |
Education
| 09/2016 – 12/2020 | PhD in Psychology School of Psychology and Neuroscience University of St Andrews Thesis: “Exploring the Evolution and Ontogeny of Imitation and Abstraction: A Hierarchical Bayesian Modelling Approach” Advisors: Amanda Seed, Daphna Buchsbaum |
| 08/2017 – 07/2018 | Visiting Graduate Student Computational Cognitive Development Lab, Department of Psychology University of Toronto |
| 10/2014 – 09/2016 | M. Sc. Psychology:Cognitive-Affective Neuroscience Dresden University of Technology Thesis : “Social Planning in Chimpanzees” Advisors: Thomas Goschke, Josep Call |
| 10/2011 – 10/2014 | B.Sc. Psychology Dresden University of Technology Thesis: “Cognitive Flexibility in two Object Choice Tasks in Great Apes” Advisors: Shu-Chen Li, Josep Call |
Practical Experience
| 2021 | Cross-cultural research with BaYaka foragers and Bandongo farmers in the Likouala region of the Republic of Congo |
| 2019 | Research on chimpanzee cognition at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Uganda |
| 2018 | Research on chimpanzee cognition at Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Kenya |
| 2018 - 2019 | Research on chimpanzee, capuchin monkey and lemur cognition at Zoo Magdeburg |
| 2016 - 2019 | Research on child development and capuchin monkey cognition, Living Links to Human Evolution Research Centre and Edinburgh Zoo |
| 2014 - 2016 | Research on child development and ape cognition Department of Development and Comparative Psychology Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig |
