Daniel Hanus
Research Coordinator Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center & Global Primate Study Network
Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
Germany
phone: +49 (0) 341 3550 420/620
email: hanus@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
Research Interests
Curriculum Vitae
Publications
Presentations
Research Awards & Funding
Research Interests
- Physical cognition
- Causal understanding and reasoning
- Visual and memory illusions
- Numerical and probabilistic competence
- Meta-Cognition
- Visual perspective taking
- Understanding of intentions
… in human and non-human primates
Curriculum Vitae
Career & Education
2019 - present 2014 - 2016 | Co-Director of the Atlas of Comparative Cognition Project Member of the interdisciplinary research group “Anthropology of Perception” |
| 2011 - 2012 | Research Fellow Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld Topic: “The Cultural Constitution of Causal Cognition: Re-Integrating Anthropology into the Cognitive Sciences” |
| 2009 - present | Research Coordinator Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center, Leipzig |
| 2009 | PhD Psychology Humboldt University, Berlin |
| 2004 - 2009 | PhD Student Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig |
| 2003 | Diplom Psychology University of Potsdam |
Practical Experience
| 2019-present | Establishing and coordinating research collaborations with African chimpanzee sanctuaries: Chimfunshi (Sambia), Tacugama (Sierra Leone), LCRP (Liberia) |
| 2005 - 2017 | Recurrent research stays at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary (CSWCT) in Uganda and at the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Sanctuary in the Republic of Congo |
| 2000 - 2001 | Field internship at the Taï-National Park (Côte d’Ivoire) Department of Primatology Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Topic: Habituation of a new chimpanzee community (east group) |
Teaching
| 2022 | Master Module "Introduction to Comparative Cultural Psychology" (Topic: ToM) at University of Leipzig |
| 2016 | Experimental seminar “Cognitive Aspects of non-human behaviour” at Free University Berlin |
| 2014 | International Max Planck Research School, Lecture on “Physical Cognition” |
| 2013 | Lecture “Was ist der Mensch? Anthropologie im Spannungsfeld von Evolution, Kultur und Geschichte” at University of Tübingen (Dept. Of Philosophy) |
| 2010/11 | Neuroethology guest lecture at University of Magdeburg (Dept. of Cognitive Biology) |
Membership
- Member of the International Primatological Society
Ad hoc reviewer
- Animal Behaviour
- Animal Cognition
- Biology Letters
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Interaction Studies
- Journal of Comparative Psychology
- PLoS ONE
- Science
- UK's AI & Simulation of Behaviour Society (Programe Committee for an Animal Cognition Cymposium)
Languages
- German (native speaker)
- English (fluent)
- French (intermediate)
Publications
Bohn, M., Eckert, J., Hanus, D., Lugauer, B., Holtmann, J., & Haun, D. B. M. (2023). Great ape cognition is structured by stable cognitive abilities and predicted by developmental conditions. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 7, 927-938. |
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Hanus, D., Truppa, V., & Call, J. (2023). Are you as fooled as I am? Visual illusions in human (Homo) and nonhuman (Sapajus, Gorilla, Pan, Pongo) primate species. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 137(2), 80-89. |
Open AccessManyPrimates, Aguenounon, G., Allritz, M., Altschul, D., Ballesta, S., Beaud, A., Bohn, M., Bornbusch, S., Brandão, A., Brooks, J., Bugnyar, T., Burkart, J., Bustamante, L., Call, J., Canteloup, C., Cao, C., Caspar, K., da Silva, D., de Sousa, A., DeTroy, S., Duguid, S., Eppley, T., Fichtel, C., Fischer, J., Gong, C., Grange, J., Grebe, N., Hanus, D., Haun, D., Haux, L., Héjja-Brichard, Y., Helman, A., Hernadi, I., Hernandez-Aguilar, R. A., Herrmann, E., Hopper, L., Howard, L., Huang, L., Huskisson, S., Jacobs, I., Jin, Z., Joly, M., Kano, F., Keupp, S., Kiefer, E., Knakker, B., Kóczán, K., Kraus, L., Kwok, S. C., Lefrançois, M., Lewis, L., Liu, S., Llorente, M., Lonsdorf, E., Loyant, L., Majecka, K., Maurits, L., Meunier, H., Mobili, F., Morino, L., Motes-Rodrigo, A., Nijman, V., Ihomi, C., Persson, T., Pietraszewski, D., Reátiga Parrish, J., Roig, A., Sánchez Amaro, A., Sato, Y., Sauciuc, G.-A., Schrock, A., Schweinfurth, M., Seed, A., Shearer, C., Šlipogor, V., Su, Y., Sutherland, K., Tan, J., Taylor, D., Troisi, C., Völter, C., Warren, E., Watzek, J., & Zablocki-Thomas, P. (2022). The Evolution of primate short-term memory. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 9(4), 428-516. |
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Bohn, M., Eckert, J., Hanus, D., Lugauer, B., Holtmann, J., & Haun, D. B. M. (2022). Probing the structure, stability and predictability of great ape cognition. PsyArXiv. |
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Bruno, D., Pope-Caldwell, S. M., Haberl, K., Hanus, D., Haun, D., Leisterer-Peoples, S., Mauritz, S., Neldner, K., Sibilsky, A., & Stengelin, R. (2022). Ethical guidelines for good practice in cross-cultural research. Leipzig: Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for evolutionary anthropology. |
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ManyPrimates, Altschul, D., Bohn, M., Canteloup, C., Ebel, S., Hanus, D., Hernandez-Aguilar, R. A., Joly, M., Keupp, S., Petkov, C., Llorente, M., O'Madagain, C., Proctor, D., Motes-Rodrigo, A., Sutherland, K., Szabelska, A., Taylor, D., Völter, C., & Wiggenhauser, N. G. (2022). Collaboration and open science initiatives in primate research. In B. L. Schwartz, & M. J. Beran ( |
Bräuer, J., Hanus, D., Pika, S., Gray, R. D., & Uomini, N. (2020). Old and new approaches to animal cognition: There is not “One Cognition”. Journal of Intelligence, 8(3). |
ManyPrimates, Altschul, D. M., Beran, M. J., Bohn, M., Call, J., DeTroy, S., Duguid, S. J., Egelkamp, C. L., Fichtel, C., Fischer, J., Flessert, M., Hanus, D., Haun, D. B. M., Haux, L. M., Hernandez-Aguilar, R. A., Herrmann, E., Hopper, L. M., Joly, M., Kano, F., Keupp, S., Melis, A. P., Motes Rodrigo, A., Ross, S. R., Sánchez Amaro, A., Sato, Y., Schmitt, V., Schweinfurth, M. K., Seed, A. M., Taylor, D., Völter, C. J., Warren, E., & Watzek, J. (2019). Establishing an infrastructure for collaboration in primate cognition research. PLoS One, 14(10): e0223675. |
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Ebel, S. J., Hanus, D., & Call, J. (2019). How prior experience and task presentation modulate innovation in 6-year-old-children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 180, 87-103. |
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Tennie, C., Völter, C. J., Vonau, V., Hanus, D., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2019). Chimpanzees use observed temporal directionality to learn novel causal relations. Primates, 60, 517-524. |
Eckert, J., Rakoczy, H., Call, J., Herrmann, E., & Hanus, D. (2018). Chimpanzees consider humans' psychological states when drawing statistical inferences. Current Biology, 28(12): e3, pp. 1959-1963. |
Bender, A., & Hanus, D. (2017). Die sozio-kulturelle Matrix menschlicher Wahrnehmung. In G. Hartung ( |
Hanus, D. (2016). Causal reasoning versus associative learning: A useful dichotomy or a strawman battle in comparative psychology? Journal of Comparative Psychology, 130(3), 241-248. |
Le Guen, O., Samland, J., Friedrich, T., Hanus, D., & Brown, P. (2015). Making sense of (exceptional) causal relations. A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 1645. |
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Carducci, P., Trapanese, C., Hanus, D., & Truppa, V. (2015). Does the Presentation Format Affect Learning Speed in Visual Discrimination Tasks? A Study on Tufted Capuchin Monkeys ( Sapajus spp.). Folia primatologica, 86(4), 257. |
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Hanus, D., Truppa, V., & Call, J. (2015). Visual illusions in great apes, monkeys and humans. Folia primatologica, 86(4), 290. |
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Truppa, V., Carducci, P., Trapanese, C., & Hanus, D. (2015). Does presentation format influence visual size discrimination in tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)? PLoS One, 10(4): e0126001. |
Hanus, D., & Call, J. (2014). When maths trumps logic: Probabilistic judgements in chimpanzees. Biology Letters, 10(12): 20140892. |
Braeuer, J., & Hanus, D. (2012). Fairness in non-human primates? Social Justice Research, 25(3), 256-276. |
Hanus, D., & Call, J. (2011). Chimpanzee problem-solving: contrasting the use of causal and arbitrary cues. Animal Cognition, 14(6), 871-878. |
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Hanus, D., Mendes, N., Tennie, C., & Call, J. (2011). Comparing the performances of apes (Gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus) and human children (Homo sapiens) in the floating peanut task. PLoS ONE, 6(6): e19555. |
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Seed, A., Hanus, D., & Call, J. (2011). Causal Knowledge In Corvids, Primates and Children: More Than Meets The Eye? In T. McCormack, C. Hoerl, & S. Butterfill ( |
Hanus, D. (2009). Great apes' causal cognition in the physical domain. PhD Thesis, Humboldt-Univ., Berlin. |
Hanus, D., & Call, J. (2008). Chimpanzees infer the location of a reward on the basis of the effect of its weight. Current Biology, 18(9), R370-R372. |
Hanus, D., & Call, J. (2007). Discrete quantity judgments in the great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus): The effect of presenting whole sets versus item-by-item. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 121(3), 241-249. |
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Mendes, N., Hanus, D., & Call, J. (2007). Raising the level: orangutans use water as a tool. Biology Letters, 3(5), 453-455. |
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Warneken, F., Hare, B., Melis, A. P., Hanus, D., & Tomasello, M. (2007). Spontaneous Altruism by Chimpanzees and Young Children. PLoS Biology, 5(7), 1414-1420. |
Hanus, D., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2003). Quantity-based judgments by orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and bonobos (Pan paniscus). Folia primatologica, 74(4), 196-197. |
Presentations
Comparative Psychology And Its Challenges. Public talk at the Symposium „Tier-Mensch-Verhältnis“, Hochschule Darmstadt, 2022.
Phylogenetic and ontogenetic pathways to being tricked. Presented at the Workshop “Brain and Behavioral Evolution in Primates”, Erice, Italy, 2019.
Organization of the Comparative Cognition Workshop, University of Zurich, Switzerland, 2019.
Leipziger Primatenforschung im 21. Jahrhundert. Public Talk at ‘Seniorenkolleg’ of the University of Leipzig, 2019.
Köhlers Erbe - Affenforschung im 21. Jahrhundert. Public Talk at Naturkundemuseum Leipzig, 2018.
Der Meta-Affe – Von Affen, die wissen und Menschen, die wissen, dass sie wissen. Philosophical seminar, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany, 2018.
Anthropomorphism or Anthropodenial – What should be the null-hypothesis in compa¬rative psychology? Presented at the Workshop ‘The Evolution of the Social Brain’, Forum Scientiarum, Universtity of Tuebingen, Germany, 2017.
Modern Approaches to Animal Cognition – Empirical Arguments and the Question of Parsimony. Presented at the 20th Conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology, Potsdam, Germany, 2017
Inferential reasoning in apes. Presented at the SPP Preparation Meeting (DFG) “Tool Choosing and Tool Using”, Cologne, Germany, 2017
Probabilistic judgments in chimpanzees. Presented at the 5th Workshop on Cognition and Evolution, Rovereto, Italy, 2016
Approaches to Animal Cognition: A Question of Truth or Taste? Presented at the Evidence for Animal Minds Meeting, Durham, UK, 2016.
Visual Illusion in Three Primate Species. Presented at the 6th Congress of the European Federation for Primatology, Rome, Italy, 2015.
Social Causality in Apes. Presented at the reunion workshop of the interdisciplinary research group ‘The Cultural Constitution of Causal Cognition’, Bergen, Norway, 2015.
Do Chimpanzees Understand Intentions Behind Behavior? Presented at the 25th International Primatology Society Congress, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2014
Causal Reasoning vs. Associative Learning in Animals - A Useful or a Strawman Dichotomy? Presented at the Animal Cognition Meeting , Gent, Belgium, 2013.
Chances and Challenges of Comparative Psychology. Presented at the Workshop “Exploring the Cultural Constitution of Causal Cognition: Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Approaches”, Bielefeld, 2013.
Das Menschliche Gehirn – Einzigartig? Panel Discussion at the BrainFair, ETH-Zürich, Switzerland, 2013.
Less is (sometimes) more – probabilistic judgment in chimpanzees. Presented at the 24th International Primatology Society Congress, Cancun, Mexico, 2012.
Causal Cognition in non-human primates. Presented at the “Netzwerktreffen” at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF)”, Bielefeld, 2011.
Weight matters – Causal inference in Chimpanzees. Presented at the 23rd International Primatology Society Congress, Kyoto, Japan, 2010.
Visual Illusions in Great Apes. Presented at the 5th European Conference on Behavioural Biology, Ferrara, Italy, 2010.
Animal Cognition. Invited talk at the neuropsychological colloquium, University of Freiburg, Germany, 2010.
Great Apes Causal Cognition. Presented at the psychological colloquium, Humboldt University, Berlin Germany, 2009.
Contrasting the use of causal and arbitrary cues in chimpanzee problem solving. Presented at the 1st Workshop on Cognition and Evolution, Rovereto, Italy, 2009.
The Mueller-Lyersche and the Ebbinghaus illusion in chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Presented at the 22nd International Primatology Society Congress, Edinburgh, UK, 2008.
Chimpanzees infer the location of a reward based on the effect of its weight. Presented at the 2nd Congress of the European Federation for Primatology, Prague, 2007.
Chimpanzees’ understanding of gravity. Presented at the international workshop on “The mind of the chimpanzee”, Chicago, USA, 2007.
Do peanuts float? Apes understanding of causality in a volume displacement task. Presented at the 21st International Primatology Society Congress, Entebbe, Uganda, 2006.
Numerical Abilities in Great Apes. Invited lecture at the University of Tokyo, Japan, 2005.
Quantity Based Discrimination in Great Apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus, Gorilla gorilla). Presented at the 2nd International Workshop for Young Psychologists on Evolution and Development of Cognition, Kyoto, Japan, 2005.
Quantity Based Judgments by Orangutans, Gorillas and Bonobos. Presented at the 20th International Primatology Society Congress, Turin, Italy, 2004.
Research Awards & Funding
2015: Grant from Klaus Tschira Foundation for the development and implementation of an interactive face-recognition device for chimpanzees - a project in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute IDMT & IIS and the Zoo Leipzig.
2009: Winner of the poster competition at the 1st Workshop on Cognition and Evolution, Italy.
2007: Travel-grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for “The mind of the chimpanzee” workshop, USA.
2003: Winner of the poster competition at the National Conference of the German Primatological Society, Leipzig, Germany.
