Active
Fall 2026 – Present
Cognitive Flexibility Across Species & Cultures
ADAPT Lab, Dr. Sarah Pope-Caldwell · Georgia State University
As a PhD student in the Adaptive Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Thinking (ADAPT) Lab, I study how cognitive flexibility varies across species, developmental stages, and cultural contexts.
- Comparative cognition research with rhesus macaques and capuchin monkeys at GSU’s Language Research Center.
- Cross-cultural fieldwork with Bandongo and BaYaka communities in the Likouala region, Republic of the Congo.
- Human behavioral research with participants in Georgia, contributing to a broad comparative framework.
Cognitive Flexibility
Capuchin Monkeys
Cross-Cultural
Republic of the Congo
Comparative Framework
Completed
May 2024 – May 2026
Memory Strategies in Rhesus Macaques
Laboratory of Comparative Primate Cognition, Dr. Robert R. Hampton · Emory National Primate Research Center
Research project that examined how rhesus macaques adapt working memory strategies to task demands, investigating the conditions under which animals can and will flexibly shift between different memory encoding strategies.
- Designed and implemented touchscreen-based cognitive paradigms for nonhuman primates.
- Personally trained rhesus macaques on tasks and managed daily data collection sessions.
- Programmed behavioral testing software and analyzed performance data using Python and R.
- Presented at the Georgia Southern Psychological Society Conference, April 2026.
Poster PDF
Conference Poster · PDF
Do Task Cues Influence Memory Strategy Use in Rhesus Macaques?
Georgia Southern Psychological Society Conference · April 2026
Open poster (PDF, 0.7 MB) →
Working Memory
Rhesus Macaques
Touchscreen Paradigms
Python
R