The Evolution of Irrationality: Insights from Non-Human Primates

The Nath Lecture: Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Ming Hsieh Hall

Laurie Santos is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. She received her doctorate from Harvard University in 2003. She has been published in research journals all over the nation and continues her work exploring into the depths of psychology.

Santos’ research explores the evolutionary origins of the human mind by comparing the cognitive abilities of human and non-human primates. It provides an interface between evolutionary biology, developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Her experiments focus on non-human primates (in captivity and in the field) incorporating methodologies from cognitive development, animal learning psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. Santos? research examines the following broad questions: what domains of knowledge are unique to the human mind? Given that human infants and non-human primates both lack language, what similarities and differences do we see in the expression of non-linguistic domains of knowledge?

Santos? current work explores what primates understand about physical objects and their motions, how primates spontaneously reason about different kinds of things (foods, artifacts, and animals), and whether or not non-human primates possess precursors to a theory of mind.

The Nath Lecture is usually required for first year-students and it is very, very strongly recommended that all students who took HONRS 199 in the fall attend. All Honors students are encouraged to come see Dr. Santos, who was recently named one of Popular Science’s Brilliant Ten young scientists.