Max-Planck-InstitutDepartment of Comparative Cultural Psychology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
Anja Reimann
phone: +49 (0)341 3550 - 400
e-mail: info_ccp@eva.mpg.de
Sarah Pope
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
Germany
phone: +49 (0) 341 3550 400
email: sarah_pope@[>>> Please remove the brackets! <<<]eva.mpg.de
Research Interests
I’m a cross-cultural and comparative psychologist studying variation in cognitive flexibility within the primate lineage and across human cultures. Specifically, my research explores the contexts in which familiar strategies block better ones from being adopted. My work combines demographic, observational, and empirical approaches to understand how both flexible and inflexible behavior contributes to cultural evolution.
I am currently cultivating two research projects exploring variation in cognitive flexibility in nonhuman and human primates. The first project focuses on species differences in optimal strategy-use in nonhuman apes and is based out of the Leipzig Zoo. My second project is a cross-cultural assessment of the developmental trajectory and impact of subsistence style on cognitive flexibility. My primary field site is in the Likouala region of the Republic of the Congo, working with both BaYaka foragers and Bondongo farmers.
Personal webpage: https://sarahmichellepope.com
Publications
2020
Lew-Levy, S., Milks, A., Lavi, N., Pope, S. M., & Friesem, D. E. (2020). Where innovations flourish: An ethnographic and archaeological overview of hunter–gatherer learning contexts. Evolutionary Human Sciences,2: e31.  Open Access DOI BibTeX Endnote | |
| Pope, S. M., Fagot, J., Meguerditchian, A., Watzek, J., Lew-Levy, S., Autrey, M. M., & Hopkins, W. D. (2020). Optional-switch cognitive flexibility in primates: Chimpanzees’ (Pan troglodytes) intermediate susceptibility to cognitive set. Journal of Comparative Psychology,134(1), 98-109. DOI BibTeX Endnote |
2019
| Pope, S. M., Fagot, J., Meguerditchian, A., Washburn, D. A., & Hopkins, W. D. (2019). Enhanced cognitive flexibility in the seminomadic Himba. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology,50(1), 47-62. DOI BibTeX Endnote | |
| Watzek, J., Pope, S. M., & Brosnan, S. F. (2019). Capuchin and rhesus monkeys but not humans show cognitive flexibility in an optional-switch task. Scientific Reports,9: 13195. Open Access DOI BibTeX Endnote |
2018
| Pope, S. (2018). Differences in cognitive flexibility within the primate lineage and across human cultures: When learned strategies block better alternatives. PhD Thesis, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. BibTeX Endnote | |
| Pope, S., Taglialatela, J. P., Skiba, S. A., & Hopkins, W. D. (2018). Changes in frontoparietotemporal connectivity following Do-As-I-Do imitation training in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,30(3), 421-431. DOI BibTeX Endnote |
2017
| Hopkins, D. D., Meguerditchian, A., Coulon, O., Misiura, M., Pope, S., Mareno, M. C., & Schapiro, S. J. (2017). Motor skill for tool-use is associated with asymmetries in Broca’s area and the motor hand area of the precentral gyrus in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Behavioural Brain Research,318, 71-81. DOI BibTeX Endnote | |
| Hopkins, W. D., Coulon, O., Meguerditchian, A., Autrey, M., Davidek, K., Mahovetz, L., Pope, S., Mareno, M. C., & Schapiro, S. J. (2017). Genetic factors and orofacial motor learning selectively influence variability in central Sulcus morphology in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Journal of Neuroscience,37(22), 5475-5483. DOI BibTeX Endnote |
2015
| Hopkins, W. D., Misiura, M., Pope, S. M., & Latash, E. M. (2015). Behavioral and brain asymmetries in primates: A preliminary evaluation of two evolutionary hypotheses. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,1359(1), 65-83. DOI BibTeX Endnote | |
| Pope, S. M., Meguerditchian, A., Hopkins, W. D., & Fagot, J. (2015). Baboons (Papio papio), but not humans, break cognitive set in a visuomotor task. Animal Cognition,18(6), 1339-1346. DOI BibTeX Endnote | |
| Pope, S. M., Russell, J. L., & Hopkins, W. D. (2015). The association between imitation recognition and socio-communicative competencies in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Frontiers in psychology,6: 188. Open Access DOI BibTeX Endnote | |
| Taglialatela, J. P., Russell, J. L., Pope, S. M., Morton, T., Bogart, S., Reamer, L. A., Schapiro, S. J., & Hopkins, W. D. (2015). Multimodal communication in chimpanzees. American Journal of Primatology,77(11), 1143-1148. DOI BibTeX Endnote |
