Comparative differential and personality psychology
Researching variations of individual-specific patterns of behaviour in human and nonhuman species offers unique opportunities to study their proximate mechanisms, ontogenetic development, adaptation, and evolution. The enormous diversity across species and the unique possibilities for cross-species comparisons entail three methodological core issues: Theoretical concepts of individual-specific behavioural patterns within and across species, methodologies to identify behavioural domains in which individual-specific patterns occur, and suitable methods of their measurement. I am concerned with meta-theoretical and methodological approaches that are suitable for human and nonhuman species alike, and that also allow research on species differences. [publications]

Personality differences and social relationships in nonhuman primates
I am working on suitable methodological approaches from different research disciplines to study variations of individual-specific patterns in primate behaviour and how they affect social relationships in nonhuman primates. 

Personality differences in nonhuman primates
Identifying universal dimensions of individual-specific patterns of behaviour can give exciting new insights into evolutionary origins of phenomena we construe as personality. Nonhuman primate species are particularly interesting because of their gradient of phylogenetic relationship to humans. 

Anja Widdig, Leipzig University and Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig, Germany
Elisabetta Visalberghi, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), Rome, Italy
Helmut Prior, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Karlijn Gosselt-Gielen and Liesbeth Sterck, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Karin Schermelleh-Engel, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Rishi Kumar, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore, India
Frank Rietkerk, Apenheul Primate Park, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
  

Personality in the Great Apes - methods and approaches
Methodological approaches to study variations of individual-specific patterns in behaviour in nonhuman species are still underrepresented. I showed how methods from human personality psychology can be fruitfully adapted to nonhuman species. Moreover, my special concern was to develop ecologically valid approaches to a species' basic variation of individual-specific patterns. My study species were the great apes: Bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. Supervisors: Prof Jens Asendorpf, Department of Personality Psychology, Psychological Institute, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, and Dr Josep Call, Department of Comparative and Developmental Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig Germany. [publications]

Behavioural inhibition in Great Apes
Reversed reinforcement contingency tasks are a standard paradigm to study inhibitory control - a skill important for problem solving. We studied factors that influence reversal performances in great apes. In cooperation with Dr Josep Call, Department of Comparative and Developmental Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig Germany, and MSc Petra Vlamings, Biological Developmental Psychology Section, Faculty of Psychology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. [publications]

Thinking in implications
I analysed how structural and content variations influence the correct recognition of conditional conclusions in a computer based experiment at the Humboldt University Berlin, Germany (2003). Supervision: Dr Luzi Beyer, Department of Psychological Methodology, Psychological Institute, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany. [publication]

Human factors of software-systems
This project, a cooperation between the Department of Engineering Psychology and artop e.V. at the Humboldt University Berlin, evaluated the cognitive ergonomics of a content management software developed by DaimlerChrysler AG (2002).