Dr Jim Anderson

“My studies of learning and cognition have examined self-recognition and mirror-image reactions in various primate species (including humans), and tool-use by macaques and capuchin monkeys, Another series of experiments involved training primates to control and memorize the expression of natural behaviours such as scratching, yawning, and facial expressions, with variable degrees of success. I have also studied nonhuman primates and human children’s processing of nonverbal communicative signals; more recently this has recently developed into studies of intentional communication (including deception) and understanding of third-party interactions.

Another area of interest is behavioural adaptation in natural environments, with field work having been done by me or postgraduate students on macaques, baboons, and great apes.

I also have a long-standing interest in environmental enrichment for zoo and laboratory-housed animals. In this broad area I have conducted several studies of the effects of providing inanimate objects, foraging substrates, and small swimming pools to captive groups of primates.”.

My research covers social behaviour, learning and cognition in various species of nonhuman primates. Topics studied in the social domain include the influence of dominance status on access to food during experimental manipulations of competitive feeding tests, and the effects of brief separations and social tension on grooming and scratching.

Learning and behaviour of nonhuman primates, and in some areas of developmental psychology.

Hockings, K. J., Anderson, J. R., & Matsuzawa, T. (2010). Flexible feeding on underground storage organs by rainforest-dwelling chimpanzees at Bossou, West Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 58, 227-233.

Anderson, R. R. (2010). Non-human primates: A comparative developmental perspective on yawning. Pp. 63-76 in The Mystery of Yawning in Physiology and Disease, O. Walusinski (Ed.). Basel: Karger.

Anderson, J. R., Gillies, A., & Lock, L. (2010). Pan thanatology. Current Biology, 20, R349-R351.

Anderson, J. R. (2010). Behavioral pathologies in nonhuman primates. Pp.139-144 in Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience, G. F. Koob, M. Le Moal and R. F. Thompson (eds.). Oxford: Academic Press.

Anderson, J. R., Kuroshima, H., & Fujita, K. (2010). Delay of gratification in capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) and squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 124, 205-210.

Anderson, J. R., Kuroshima, H., Hattori, Y., & Fujita, K. (2010). Flexibility in the use of requesting gestures in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus). American Journal of Primatology, 72, 707-714.

Millen, A., & Anderson, J. R. (2010). Neither infants nor toddlers catch yawns from their mothers. Biology Letters, 7, 440-442.

Anderson, J. R. (2011). A primatological perspective on death. American Journal of Primatology, 73, 410-414.

Anderson, J. R., & Gallup, G. G., Jr. (2011). Which primates recognize themselves in mirrors? PLoS Biology, 9, (3), e1001023. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001024

Anderson, J. R., & Gallup, G. G., Jr. (2011). Do rhesus monkeys recognize themselves in mirrors? American Journal of Primatology, 73, 606-606.

Cunningham, C., Anderson, J. R., & Mootnick, A. (2011). A sex difference in effect of prior experience on object-mediated problem-solving in gibbons. Animal Cognition, 14, 599-605.

Ross, J., Anderson, J. R., & Campbell, R. N. (2011). I remember me: Mnemonic self-reference effects in preschool children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 76, (3), 1-102.

Botting, J. L., Wiper, M. L., & Anderson, J. R. (2011). Brown (Eulemur fulvus) and ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) use human head orientation as a cue to gaze direction in a food choice task. Folia Primatologica, 82, 165-176.