Amanda Goguen

Graduate Student

Advisor

Research Area

Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology

Biography

Amanda graduated from CU Denver with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. She was a research assistant in the Comparative Cognition Lab at UCSD, where she assisted in research projects focused on canine and macaque cognitive abilities. She also researched strategic cooperation and pointing comprehension in sanctuary-living chimpanzees in Kenya and Uganda. Her love for animals extends into her personal life, where most of her time is spent entertaining her two dogs.

Research

Amanda investigates the evolutionary origins of human social behaviors through comparative research with our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos. Through cross-species comparisons, her work examines the cognitive and social mechanisms that underlie cooperative and competitive behaviors in experimental contexts. She is broadly interested in the social benefits of relationships on an individual and group level.

Keywords: comparative cognition, comparative psychology, animal psychology, developmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, primate behavior