Elizabeth Chrastil: University of California, Santa BarbaraOrienting oneself in novel environments, as well as finding and remembering the locations of resources, is critical for human and animal existence. Despite the importance of this skill, getting around is easy for some people, while others struggle. Working at the interface between immersive virtual reality and neuroimaging techniques, […]

Michael Rescorla: University of California, Los AngelesJust as the heart serves to pump blood and the stomach serves to digest food, one of the mind’s principal functions is to represent the world. For instance, I have various beliefs about Barack Obama: that he was once president of the United States, that he is married to […]

Sarah Benson-Amram: University of WyomingAs urban centers all over the world have grown, biologists have struggled to explain why some species can invade and thrive despite human-induced environmental change whereas others suffer often to the point of extinction. One potential explanation is that the evolution of advanced cognitive abilities has enabled some species to exhibit […]

Eduardo Guerra Amorim: University of California, Los AngelesDespite centuries of research, much about the barbarian migrations that took place between the fourth and sixth centuries in Europe remains hotly debated. To better understand this key era that marks the dawn of modern European societies, we obtained ancient genomic DNA from 63 samples from two cemeteries […]

Daniel Benyshek: University of Nevada Las VegasMaternal placentophagy, the mother’s consumption of the ‘afterbirth’ following parturition, is a ubiquitous behavior among terrestrial mammals – including non-human primates. Despite myriad hypothesized fitness-enhancing consequences of the behavior, including predator avoidance, improved lactation, enhanced care-taking behaviors, maternal analgesic effects, and the replenishment of maternal nutrients, among others, human […]

Susan Schaffnit: University of California, Santa BarbaraA global campaign to end ‘child marriage’ (i.e. marriage before 18 years) has emerged over the last decade as part of growing international commitments to address gender inequities and improve female wellbeing. Proponents of this movement assert that young brides have negligible autonomy in the marriage process and that marrying under 18 years has resolutely […]

Jeremy Koster: University of Cincinnati, OhioHumans are distinguished from other hominoids by several life history traits, including prolonged childhoods, relatively brief inter-birth intervals, and extend post-reproductive lifespans. To explain the evolution of these traits, anthropologists have hypothesized that the cognitive demands of hunting necessitate extensive learning, which promotes late maturation and inter-generational food sharing. In […]

Thomas J. H. Morgan: Arizona State UniversityThe evolution of human behavior and cognition is often studied with a combination of theory and experiment—theory is used to explore evolutionary dynamics, and generate predictions that are tested empirically. However, agent psychology is typically highly simplified and so it can remain unclear whether human behavior would produce the […]

Amy Parish: University of Southern California"Oooooh, I want to be like youuuu, ...walk like you, talk like you, tooooo." So goes the lament of Louie, the Orangutan King in “The Jungle Book”. He wishes he could be like a human. In contrast, Mogli, the human boy in the movie, thinks of himself as just one […]

Dan Blumstein: University of California, Los AngelesWhat makes certain sounds scary? I will describe insights gained from over three decades of studying alarm calls and fear screams in marmots (which are large, mostly-alpine, ground squirrels) throughout the northern hemisphere. Fear screams are remarkably similar across taxa and they seem to be particularly evocative to many […]