James R. Anderson
James Russell Anderson is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Psychology at Kyoto University (Japan). He studied psychology at the University of Stirling, United Kingdom (PhD, 1981). He was principal investigator in a field study of chimpanzees in Liberia, West Africa (1982) and lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences, Queen's College Glasgow (1983) developing computer-based laboratory exercises in psychology. In the period 1983 to 1990 he held different posts as (associated) lecturer and assistant professor at the Laboratory of Psychophysiology, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, while conducting behavioural research on social and cognitive processes in lemurs, and capuchin and macaque monkeys.
From 1990 until 1995, Professor Anderson worked on social behaviour, learning, cognition, and environmental enrichment in nonhuman primates at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Laboratory of Psychophysiology. From 1995-2014, he was senior lecturer and reader, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling and from 1998–2014, he was invited professor and invited research fellow at Kyoto University, where he became a full professor in 2014.
James R. Anderson has been consulting editor of the Journal of Comparative Psychology (1991-1994), an editor of the American Journal of Primatology (2006-2013), and member of the Editorial Board of Current Psychology Letters: Behaviour, Brain & Cognition (1998-2001). For the journal Primates, he was member of the Advisory Board (2002), Editorial Board (2002-2015) and is currently Vice Editor-in-Chief (2016- ). He is also on the Editorial Board of Animal Cognition (2015- ).
Professor Anderson has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and 35 book reviews. He has been on numerous radio and television programs as expert on primate cognition and intelligence. In the past decade, he has published numerous papers in the domain of comparative evolutionary thanatology, exploring what other species understand about death, and how they respond to dying and death within their societies.
During his December 2023 stay in Strasbourg, he will be hosted by Dr. Hélène Meunier (2014 Fellow) from the Simian Laboratory Europe (SILABE) of the University of Strasbourg, and will give a public lecture - Behind, in front of and around the mirror: Self-recognition in primates (see below).
During a previous visit in November 2016, Professor Anderson gave a public lecture entitled Interactions between humans: social evaluation by capuchin monkeys (see below).
Public lecture - Behind, in front of and around the mirror: Self-recognition in primates
December 7, 2023 | From 15:30 until 17:00 | Salle de conférence, ISIS, Strasbourg
By James R. Anderson, Kyoto University, Japan
The daily use of a mirror to check our appearance is evidence of our ability to recognise ourselves. For example, we all have one or more mental representations of our own physical appearance as seen from the perspective of others. Mirrors have long been used to study this capacity for self-recognition in other species – the extent of its presence, its development, the factors that influence it.
For many years, I have investigated the possibility that at least some non-human species have a sufficiently sophisticated self-awareness to understand that the individual seen in the mirror is, more often than not, “me”. On several occasions, these studies have shown that most ‘little monkeys’ - such as macaques, baboons, vervets or even capuchins - show reactions of astonishment and curiosity when first confronted with their own reflection, but also and more importantly, social responses, such as facial expressions and vocalisations (lip-smacking, grimaces, scowls and frowns). If the mirror is within reach, the monkey may look behind to better spot or even to catch that strange individual who is there, but not there. One surprising observation was that, despite the absence of signs of self-recognition, monkeys can learn to follow the movements of their hands in the mirror in order to spot and grab a treat that would not be visible without this reflection.
However, self-recognition is even more interesting when it comes to the species that are closest to humans in terms of evolution: the great apes. When in front of a mirror, after a few 'social' behaviours directed at their reflections, chimpanzees are often observed examining and checking regions of their own body that are normally invisible, which they do carefully with the aid of the mirror. For example, they look into their mouths and clean their teeth.
These kinds of behaviour show us that great apes possess a capacity for self-recognition, and this phenomenon is confirmed when they pass the famous "spot test". In this talk, I will show some examples of animal behaviour in the presence of a mirror, and discuss the implications of differences in self-awareness in psychological and evolutionary terms of psychology and evolution.
This lecture will be in English.
Photo credits : Pixabay, Andre Mouton (photo on top); James R. Anderson (second photo)
Public Lecture - Interactions between humans: Social evaluation by capuchin monkeys
November 21, 2016 | From 14:00 until 16:00 | Amphithéâtre Lagache, Faculté de Psychologie, Strasbourg
By James R. Anderson, Professor at the Department of Psychology, Kyoto University.
Recent studies have demonstrated possible precursors of the human traits of empathy and morality in nonhuman primates. For example, capuchin monkeys are less willing to engage with a human actor who systematically refuses to help another. Furthermore, these monkeys can detect fairness or unfairness in the context of a exchange of goods between third parties. They discriminate between an actor who exchanges in a fair manner with another and an actor who does not respect fairness in the exchange; the monkeys are significantly less likely to accept food from the unfair actor.
These findings support the hypothesis of a process of emotional bookkeeping in which witnessing repeated anti-social acts induces a negative evaluation of the anti-social actor. Recently, we have sought to better identify one of the emotions or affective states involved in such social evaluations. Two actors exchanged objects; one always acted fairly, the other sometimes acted unfairly. After the exchange, one actor started to transfer pieces of food to within reach of the observing monkey. In this situation of delay of gratification, the monkey can start to eat the food at any time, but doing so results in the actor stopping the transfers. So, to maximize the amount of food it can eat, the monkey should wait and allow more food to accumulate.
The results showed that monkeys were less willing to delay gratification when the actor who exchanged unfairly with a third party was the one who transferred the food. Impulsively snatching the food peaked when the monkey did not know the amount of food potentially available at the start of the transfer, in other words in a situation of uncertainty. These results recall reduced delay of gratification in young children in a similar situation. We conclude that witnessing unfairness toward a third party engenders a sense of distrust in capuchin monkeys, and that further research should address the mechanisms underlying social evaluation processes in other species.
Crédit photo: Wikivilage.co.za
