Dr Esther Herrmann
Biography
I completed my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, under the supervision of Michael Tomasello and Josep Call. After that I continued working as a postdoc, a coordinator for research in African chimpanzee sanctuaries and senior scientist. In 2013 I was awarded my own Minerva Research Group on the Human Origins of Self-Regulation within the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. I joined the psychology department at Portsmouth as a senior lecturer in July 2020.
Research interests
The goal of my research is to investigate the roots of human cooperation and self-control through a multi-disciplinary and comparative lens. My experimental research focuses on: 1) contributing to our understanding of the evolution of human cognition by identifying shared and unique socio-cognitive abilities in humans and non-human great-apes and 2) discovering how developmental factors and cultural characteristics influence social cognition and behavior. To pursue this goal, over the last years, I established, coordinated and conducted research across various cross-cultural field sites in Africa and African chimpanzee sanctuaries.
Research outputs
2024
Domain-specific inferences about conspecifics' skills by chimpanzees
Herrmann, E., Keupp, S.
23 Sep 2024, In: Scientific Reports. 14, 1, 12p., 21996
Adaptive exploration in chimpanzees
Engelmann, J. M., Haux, L. M., Herrmann, E., Hertwig, R.
4 Sep 2024, In: Nature Communications
Functional fixedness in chimpanzees
Call, J., Ebel, S. J., Helming, K. A., Herrmann, E., Sánchez-Amaro, A., Völter, C. J.
28 May 2024, In: Scientific Reports. 14, 9p., 12155
How can I find what I want? Can children, chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys form abstract representations to guide their behavior in a sampling task?
Buchsbaum, D., Felsche, E., Herrmann, E., Seed, A. M., Völter, C. J.
1 Apr 2024, In: Cognition. 245, 20p., 105721
2023
Instrumental helping and short‐term reciprocity in chimpanzees and human children
Engelmann, J. M., Grueneisen, S., Herrmann, E., Knofe, H.
30 Nov 2023, In: Ethology
Do chimpanzees reason logically?
Call, J., Engelmann, J. M., Haux, L. M., Herrmann, E., Rakoczy, H., Schleihauf, H., Völter, C.
1 Sep 2023, In: Child Development. 94, 5, p. 1102-1116
Chimpanzees prepare for alternative possible outcomes
Call, J., Engelmann, J. M., Goddu, M. K., Herrmann, E., Rakoczy, H., Völter, C. J.
21 Jun 2023, In: Biology Letters. 19, 6, 5p., 20230179
Chimpanzee and human risk preferences show key similarities
Arslan, R. C., Engelmann, J. M., Haux, L. M., Herrmann, E., Hertwig, R.
1 Mar 2023, In: Psychological Science. 34, 3, p. 358-369
The shifting shelf task: a new, non-verbal measure for attentional set shifting
Call, J., Civelek, Z., Duncan, L., Felsche, E., Herrmann, E., Lugosi, Z., Reindl, E., Seed, A. M., Völter, C. J.
25 Jan 2023, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 290, 1991, 10p., 20221496