Alexandra Rosati

Postdoctoral Researcher at Yale University.

Title: “Evolving Volition: Evidence from Ape Decision-Making”
Abstract: Why do we choose to pursue one course of action rather than another? This talk will address the origins of volitional behavior by examining the psychological basis of decision-making in humans’ two closest relatives, chimpanzee and bonobos. I present evidence that humans and other apes share deep commonalities in their patterns of economic decision-making. Yet chimpanzees and bonobos also can show important differences in their preferences when faced with the same problem. I discuss the implications of these empirical results for understanding intentional action in nonhuman animals.
Bio: Alexandra Rosati is a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University in the Department of Psychology, and will join the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University as an assistant professor in 2015. She received a PhD from the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University. Her research aims at illuminating how cognition evolves by examining variation in psychological capacities across species, with a focus on humans and other primates.

Bio: Alexandra Rosati is a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University in the Department of Psychology, and will join the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University as an assistant professor in 2015. She received a PhD from the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University. Her research aims at illuminating how cognition evolves by examining variation in psychological capacities across species, with a focus on humans and other primates.