Background

I received my PhD in Psychology from the University of St. Andrews, where I explored the cultural learning mechanisms underlying tool use and problem-solving in chimpanzees, children, and ravens. Upon completion, I undertook a National Science Foundation funded post-doctoral position at Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., in collaboration with The George Washington University Ape Mind Initiative. There, I continued to explore my interest in cultural transmission and tool use, working with orangutans, gorillas, and children. As a lecturer at Newcastle University, I am further pursuing these themes, while also delving more deeply into the developmental and comparative study of social dynamics.

Research

My research explores cultural transmission processes and the interplay between these processes and innovation, social dynamics, and tool use. Using an interdisciplinary approach, I explore related questions from a comparative and developmental perspective in humans, nonhuman primates, and corvids. I’m also interested in human-animal interaction and conservation education, including how public engagement with research in zoos can aid conservation efforts.

Previous PhD students

Dr. Liam Keeble

Dr. Victoria West

Dr. Jennifer Machin

Teaching

I teach across the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the School of Psychology and the Biosciences Institute. I am the module leader for PSY2001: Developmental Psychology and PSY3044: Cultural and Technical Intelligence: Developmental and Comparative Perspectives. I also lecture on PSY1017: Foundations in Developmental Psychology and MMB8043: Comparative Cognition - Information Processing in Humans and Other Animals. I supervise undergraduate projects in the School of Psychology and MRes and PhD projects in the Biosciences Institute.

I also offer year-long professional placements for the School of Psychology in collaboration with local zoos and conservation centres. These placements can focus on applied animal behaviour, public engagement with science, and/or conservation education.

Publications

• Articles

  • Keeble L, Wallenberg JC, Price EE. The evolution of coordination: a phylogenetic meta-analysis and systematic review. Royal Society Open Science 2022, 9(4), 1-18.
  • Watson SK, Vale GL, Hopper LM, Dean LG, Kendal RL, Price EE, Wood LA, Davis SJ, Schapiro SJ, Lambeth SP, Whiten A. Chimpanzees demonstrate individual differences in social information use. Animal Cognition 2018, 21(5), 639-650.
  • Price EE, Wood LAN, Whiten A. Adaptive cultural transmission biases in children and nonhuman primates. Infant Behavior and Development 2016, Epub ahead of print.
  • Renner E, Price EE, Subiaul F. Sequential recall of meaningful and arbitrary sequences by orangutans and human children: Does content matter?. Animal Cognition 2015.
  • Vale G, Flynn E, Pender L, Price EE, Whiten A, Lambeth P, Schapiro S, Kendal R. Robust retention and transfer of tool construction in chimpanzees. Journal of Comparative Psychology 2015, 130(1), 24-35.
  • Subiaul F, Krajkowski E, Price EE, Etz J. Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task. Frontiers in Psychology 2015, 6, 1410.
  • Stoinski TS, Drayton LA, Price EE. Evidence of social learning in black-and-white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata). Biology Letters 2011, 7(3), 376-379.
  • Price EE, Lambeth SP, Schapiro SJ, Whiten A. A potent effect of observational learning on chimpanzee tool construction. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2009, 276(1671), 3377-3383.
  • Price EE, Stoinski TS. Group size: Determinants in the wild and implications for the captive housing of wild mammals in zoos. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 2007, 103(3-4), 255-264.
  • Price EE, Caldwell CA. Artificially generated cultural variation between two groups of captive monkeys, Colobus guereza kikuyuensis. Behavioural Processes 2007, 74(1), 13-20.

• Book Chapter

  • Price EE, Whiten A. Social learning in primates. In: Wasserman, E.A., Zentall, T.R, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp.862-880.

• Review

  • Price EE, Caldwell CA, Whiten A. Comparative cultural cognition. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 2010, 1(1), 23-31.