Katja Liebal

Biography

Since 2009, I am working at Freie Universität Berlin, first as Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Psychology and since 2015 as Full Professor of Comparative Developmental Psychology. I use a cross-species, cross-cultural approach to study the gestural and facial communication of nonhuman and human primates. I am specifically interested in the cognitive skills underlying the use of gestures and facial expressions and how these communicative means are acquired during ontogeny. Furthermore, I am investigating the multimodal expression of emotions in human and great ape infants. Finally, I am interested in prosocial behaviors, specifically the sharing of resources and helping behavior in school children from different cultural contexts and in nonhuman great apes. Across these topics, my interests centers on the skills that might be uniquely human and those which are shared cross the different primate species.

Research Interest

I am specifically interested in the cognitive skills underlying the use of gestures and facial expressions and how these communicative means are acquired during ontogeny. Furthermore, I am investigating the multimodal expression of emotions in human and great ape infants. Finally, I am interested in prosocial behaviors, specifically the sharing of resources and helping behavior in school children from different cultural contexts and in nonhuman great apes. Across these topics, my interests centers on the skills that might be uniquely human and those which are shared cross the different primate species.