News
Francys Subiaul and colleagues in Philosophy and Anthropology have received the Research Enhancement Fund grant to develop "Interdisciplinary Approaches to The Evolutionary Origins of the Mind." The award is for $104, 250 over a period of three years.
Shelley Brundage has received a University Facilitating Fund award for her proposal on "Objective Measures of Speaking-Related Anxiety in Persons Who Stutter." The award is for $12,198 for one year.
Adrienne Hancock joined us as an Assistant Professor in September 2008. Dr. Hancock's research areas are voice and cognitive linguistic function.
Geralyn Schulz has become the Associate Dean for Research & Outreach in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Diane Brewer is Interim Chair and there is a search in progress for a new chair.
Francys Subiaul is awarded National Science Foundation Career Grant: "The Evolution of Cultural Learning"
- The proposal funded by the NSF for five years ($556,534) targets a number of research questions investigating how human children and non-human apes (Gorillas and Orangutans) learn from others, in order to gain insights into the uniqueness of human cultural learning. Some of the questions that will be addressed by Dr. Subiaul and his colleagues include: What factors differentiates human and non-human ape imitation? Are species differences in imitation performance best explained by differences in how they copy different types of stimuli (e.g., motor, cognitive, spatial), by memory differences or both? Which of these aspects of the imitation faculty are shared with humans? Answers to these questions will elucidate the nature of imitation and its relationship to human cultural uniqueness The sponsored research will be accompanied by a public education program: The Ape Mind Initiative (AMI), which will (a) establish two post-doctoral positions for the purposes of furthering comparative cognitive research and educating the public about primate cognition, (b) offer students the opportunity to be interns at the National Zoo while participating in research and (c) present a yearly public lecture led by a renowned great ape scientist once a year in addition to daily research presentations at the National Zoo's Think Tank by a research scientist (Post-Doc or PI). The broader impact of the proposed research and education program are three-fold. First, the AMI program will lead to rare educational opportunities for students from High School to Post-Doctoral. Second, because a large portion of the proposed research will be conducted at the National Zoo's Think Tank—a world-renowned center dedicated to studying the diversity of animal minds—this project will have a significant impact on the greater DC area and the Nation as a whole. Finally, the proposed imitation paradigm, which can isolate different variables that contribute to imitation performance, has the potential to shed new light on the psychological and neural mechanisms mediating imitation in great apes and cultural learning in humans.
Shelley Brundage and Linda Jacobs-Condit featured on DC TV news programs
Geralyn Schulz awarded 2006 / 07 Fulbright to study in Australia.
The latest edition of the GW SPHR Newsletter is available for download here.
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