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Wilson Filipe da Silva Vieira

Doctoral Student

Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 
Deutscher Platz 6 
D-04103 Leipzig 
Germany

phone: +49 (0) 341 3550 423
email: wilson_vieira@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

Research Interests
Curriculum Vitae
Publications
Presentations
Research Awards & Funding

Research Interests

I am a cross-cultural psychologist with a background in biology and anthropology focusing on understanding variation in cognitive flexibility variation in humans. More specifically, my research focuses on understanding how environmental contexts, sources of information, and harshness influence the way humans decide to forego known, working strategies for unknown, alternative ones. Ultimately my goal is to understand how the exogenous factors shape the development of our flexible problem-solving skills and how this links to human adaptability and cultural evolution.

Currently, I work with BaYaka hunter-gatherers and Bandongo fisher-farmers in the Republic of the Congo and with German children, aiming to understand how different aspects of these cultures shape human cognitive flexibility. In 2023, due to my long-term experience in fieldwork and exploration, I was appointed as Fellow member of The Explorers Club.

Personal website: www.wilson-vieira.com

Curriculum Vitate

Career and Education
2020 - presentResearch Associate/ PhD Student
Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology
Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
2016 - 2018

M. Sc. in Anthropology 
Faculty of Social and Humane Sciences
New University of Lisbon- Lisbon, Portugal

08/2015 - 09/2015

Alumnus
Tropical Biology Association
Makerere University Biological Field Station, Kibale National Park, Uganda

09/2014 - 12/2014

Intern Researcher
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Uatumã Biological Reserve, Amazon, Brazil

2011 - 2014 

B.Sc. in Biology
Faculty of Sciences,
University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Practical Experience
01/2019 - 10/2019

Manager/ Research Assistant
Bonobo Alive Project
Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
Mai-Ndombe province, Democratic Republic of Congo

01/2018 - 03/2018

Research Fellow
Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA)
Lisbon, Portugal
“Paisagens em risco: uma abordagem interdisciplinar para analisar a sustentabilidade da coexistência entre humanos e chimpanzés” Project

07/2017 - 12/2017

Research Fellow
Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA)
Cantanhez National Park, Tombali, Guinea-Bissau
“Paisagens em risco: uma abordagem interdisciplinar para analisar a sustentabilidade da coexistência entre humanos e chimpanzés” Project

02/2017 - 06/2017

Research Fellow
Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA)
Cantanhez National Park, Tombali, Guinea-Bissau
“Paisagens em risco: uma abordagem interdisciplinar para analisar a sustentabilidade da coexistência entre humanos e chimpanzés” Project

04/2015 - 10/ 2015

Research Assistant 
Primate Cognition Research Group
Lagos Zoo, Algarve, Portugal

06/2014

Volunteer Researcher
Grupo Lopo Project
Trás-os-Montes, Portugal

Languages
  • Portuguese (Native)
  • English (Fluent)
  • French (Intermediate)
  • Spanish (Basic)
  • Guinea-Bissau creole (Fluent)

Publications

Bohn, M., Vieira, W. F. d. S., Giner Torréns, M., Kärtner, J., Itakura, S., Cavalcante, L., Haun, D. B. M., Köster, M., & Kanngiesser, P. (2022). Mealtime conversations between parents and their 2-year-old children in five cultural contexts. PsyArXiv.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Naude, V. N., Becker, F. S., Mayberry, J. L., Viera, W. F., & du Toit, J. T. (2019). Logging roads as surrogates for elephant trails: Facilitating social signaling by small forest ungulates despite increasing risks. Conservation Science and Practice, 1(7): e43.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Viera, W. F., Kerry, C., & Hockings, K. J. (2019). A comparison of methods to determine chimpanzee home-range size in a forest–farm mosaic at Madina in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau. Primates, 60(4), 355-365.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Vieira, W. F. d. S. (2018). Chimpanzee use of space in a forest-agricultural mosaic at Madina in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau. Master Thesis, New University of Lisbon, Lisbon.
BibTeX   Endnote   

Presentations

Poster Presentation: Vieira, W. F., Hockings K. J. Home range and distribution of an unhabituated free-ranging Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) community in a forest-agricultural mosaic at Madina in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau. Poster presented in XXVII Congress of the International Primatological Society, Kenya, August 2018. 

Poster Presentation: Brandão A, Rodrigues D, Costa R, Peixoto L, Vieira W, Vicente L. Primate Personality: Preliminary results of a comparative study. Podium presentation in V Iberian Primatological Congress, Portugal, November 2015. 

Poster Presentation: Pacheco I, Castelo Branco J, Ramos R, Vieira W. Vigilance behaviour of Oryz gazella and Aepycerus melampus petersi on the presence of visitors in the Lisbon zoo. Poster presented in XI Portuguese Etology Society Congress, Portugal, October 2014. 

Research Awards & Funding

2018: Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA) Fellowship Grant

2017: Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA) Fellowship Grant