Caco Berry
PhD Student
My PhD research focuses on the role of emotional feedback in the transmission of knowledge and the acquisition of culture in wild Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).
On the one hand, I conduct a longitudinal study to investigate how infant chimpanzees acquire knowledge during their first years of life through the emotional reactions of their mothers. I collect behavioural, vocal and video data from wild mother–infant chimpanzee pairs in the Budongo and Bugoma Central Forest Reserves in Uganda.
On the other hand, I conduct non-invasive affective experiments based on the honey-trap experiment to increase the number of opportunities for knowledge transfer between mothers and their infants. The aim of this experimental study is to assess the influence of positive and negative emotional experiences on mothers’ behaviour towards their infants, infants’ approach to and exploration of novel stimuli, and how these processes impact the infants’ knowledge acquisition.
