Postdoctoral Affiliate
Sophie is a Postdoctoral Affiliate and is working with The Social Body Lab within the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion. She completed her DPhil in the Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, supervised by Prof Susana Carvalho, and in The Social Body Lab, supervised by Prof Emma Cohen. Her research focuses on social learning in wild chimpanzees, and how variation in social learning experiences produces long-term individual variation in behaviour. Her DPhil thesis established long-term stable and reliable individual differences in stone tool use efficiency in the Bossou chimpanzee community in Guinea, West Africa, and found that these differences appear to arise whilst developing the skill. Her research also provides the first example of “who” social learning strategies being employed by wild chimpanzees learning a pre-existing cultural behaviour.
Previous Education
DPhil in Anthropology, University of Oxford (2024)
MSc in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford (2019)
BA (Hons) in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, University of Cambridge (2018)
