Noted Researcher On Chimpanzee Behavior
To Lecture As Part Of Boyd-Lubker
Visiting Scholar Program
March 06, 2003
Bowling Green, Ky. - "Inside the Mind of the Chimpanzee" will be the topic of next week's Boyd-Lubker Lecture at Western Kentucky University.
Dr. Sarah T. (Sally) Boysen, a professor of psychology and a member of the
Center for Cognitive Science at The Ohio State University, will speak at 7 p.m. March 13 at Van Meter Auditorium. The free presentation is part of the Boyd-Lubker Visiting Scholar Program.
Dr. Boysen's research is on primate cognition. Her research participants -- Keeli, Ivy, Kermit, Darrell, Sarah, Abby, Digger, Bobby, Sheba, Emma and Harper -- are chimpanzees ranging in age from 3 to 44 years old.
Dr. Boysen has studied the abilities of her chimpanzee "students" to learn concepts, count and perform arithmetic, use abstract symbols, understand the relationship between scale models and their corresponding life-size referents, as well as studying the possible meanings of natural chimpanzee vocalizations.
Some of her more recent research has focused on the impact of home rearing on chimpanzee cognition, such as a chimp's understanding of the mental state of another chimp, studies of the chimpanzee's response to violations of gravity, and a series of tool-using tasks for exploring the animals' understanding of causality.
Dr. Boysen also is an affiliate scientist of the Living Links Center for Human and Primate Evolution and Behavior at Emory University, a member of the American Psychological Society, American Society of Primatologists, Animal Behavior Society,
Comparative Cognition Society, International Primatological Society, Midwestern Psychological Association, the Psychonomic Society and Sigma Xi.
She serves as a consulting editor for the Journal of Comparative Psychology and for Animal Learning and Behavior. She has authored or co-authored more than 80 research articles and book chapters.
In 1996, Dr. Boysen received the Department of Psychology Distinguished Teaching Award and the University Alumni Award for Distinguished teaching from Ohio State. The Columbus (Ohio) YWCA recognized her with the Woman of Achievement Award; she served for a year as an American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientist Lecturer; and Discover Magazine included her among the 50 most important women in science in November 2002.
As an undergraduate student, she studied biology for two years at Lake Erie College for Women where she received the President's Citation for Scholarly Distinction. She finished her undergraduate education at Ohio State with a bachelor of science degree in primate ethology. She received her master's degree in developmental and comparative psychology from the University of Oklahoma, and then did additional graduate work in physical anthropology at Ohio State, and developmental and comparative psychology at Georgia State University. She completed her doctorate in comparative and physiological psychology at Ohio State.
For more information, contact Louella Fong at (270) 745-6355 . More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
