Summary

I am Professor of Comparative Developmental Psychology, and study the social cognition of human and great ape infants.  I have published 97 peer-reviewed journal articles and 44 book chapters, authored a book, Responsive Care: Behavioral Intervention for Nursery-Reared Chimpanzees and a co-edited (with Heidi Keller) a 2017 book entitled, The Cultural Nature of Attachment: Contextualizing Relationships and Development.

Biography

Prior to arriving at Portsmouth in 1999, I was a  Research Scientist at Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, where I investigated the roles of emotion and socialization in early development, and designed a Responsive Care Nursery for chimpanzees to enhance their species-typical development.  

Currently, I am an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society- Developmental section, and a member of several societies, including International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Society for Cross Cultural Research, International Society for Research on Emotion, Primate Society of Great Britain, and International Primatological Society. I served as President of the Primate Society of Great Britain and President of the European Federation for Primatology. 

I sit on the Advisory Board of Primates, am Associate Editor for Animal Cognition, Section Editor for PLOS ONE, and on the Editorial Boards for American Journal of Primatology, Emotion Review, and Child Development Perspectives.  

Teaching responsibilities

I am Unit Cordinator of the Social and Developmental Psychology module, in which I deliver developmental lectures on infancy, self-awareness, and culture. 

I am also the University of Portsmouth Coordinator for the Learning, Knowledge, & Behaviour (LKB) Thematic Cluster Pathway of the ESRC South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership.  I teach on an interdiscplinary unit for the MSc students, and co-lead (with LKB coordinators from University of Brighton and University of Southampton) the LKB cohort activities.