Summer term 2018

Program Summer term 2018

July 10 2018:

Angie Johnston & Mark Sheskin (Yale University)
Please note: Both talks will be held in the lecture hall of the German Primate Center in Kellnerweg 4. They start at 2 p.m. and are jointly organized by the Leibniz ScienceCampus and the Research Training Group 2070: Understanding Social Relationships.

What can dogs teach us about human learning?

Although some species transmit simple behaviors between group members, humans have a unique ability to transfer entire domains of cultural knowledge (e.g., fire-building, fishing, and theoretical physics) across individuals and generations. In this talk, I compare human learning to that of dogs to investigate which aspects of human learning support our uniquely complex culture. More broadly, I discuss why dogs are an ideal species for investigating unique aspects of human learning because they are one of few species that demonstrates human-like sensitivity to social cues, such as pointing and eye gaze.

New Directions In Online Child Data Collection

Over the past decade, the internet has become an important platform for many types of psychology research, especially research with adult participants on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. More recently, developmental researchers have begun to explore how online studies might be conducted with infants and children. In this talk, I describe multiple approaches for collecting developmental data over the internet, including [1] platforms developed (in parallel by multiple researcher teams) that are entirely delivered by computer, and [2] a platform I have developed (TheChildLab.com) that involves a live video chat interaction with a researcher. I report replications of classic results in the developmental literature, and end by discussing current and future research into new topics, including the potential for large-scale cross-cultural and longitudinal research.