The study of complex social interactions in non-human primates is a key tool in understanding the evolution of human social cognition. My research into the audience effect, or changes in behaviour depending upon the presence of bystanders, uses wild olive baboons as a model to deduce the course of human evolution, given their close genetic relationship with humans, convergent features of social life and ecological conditions similar to early hominids. Specific areas of interest include the occurrence and development of audience effects in infant baboons and the effect of audience on the frequency and acoustic variation of vocalisations.

This project is part of the Gashaka Primate Project in Gashaka-Gumti National Park, Nigeria. It is funded by The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and jointly supervised by Prof. Klaus Zuberbuhler at the University of St Andrews, and Prof. Volker Sommer, at University College, London.