Jennifer Vonk, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Office: 211 Pryale Hall
Phone: (248) 370-2318
Fax: (248) 370-4612
Personal Web Page: jennifervonk.com
Education
PhD- York University (2002); Toronto, Ontario
MA- Wilfred Laurier University (1998); Waterloo, Ontario
BA- McMaster University (1994); Hamilton, Ontario
Research Interests
I am a comparative/cognitive psychologist with primary research interests in two overlapping areas: (1) animal cognition, and (2) cognitive development. The underlying goal of my work is to examine cognitive continuities and discontinuities between humans and both closely and distantly related species. Thus, my work focuses on examining both phylogenetic and ontogenetic origins of cognitive processes thought to be unique to humans. Current work centers on social cognition, such as theory of mind, prosociality, and reasoning about emotions, as well as physical cognition, such as causal reasoning, analogical reasoning, numerosity, and natural concept formation. More recent work is focused on examining the effects of religiosity, attachment, and perspective-taking on human decision-making processes.
Publications
Vonk, J., Jett, S. E., Mosteller, K.W. & Galvan, M. (in press). Natural category discrimination in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at three levels of abstraction. Learning and Behavior.
Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Mayhew, P. & Mercer, S. (2013). Mirror mirror on the wall: Which form of Narcissist knows self and others best of all? Personality and Individual Differences, 54, 396-401.
Zamisch, V. & Vonk, J. (2012). Spatial memory in captive American black bears (Ursus Americanus). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 126, 372-387.
Vonk, J., Jett, S.E., & Mosteller, K.W. (2012). Concept formation in American black bears (Ursus americanus). Animal Behaviour, 84, 953-964.
Vonk, J. & Beran, M.J. (2012). Bears “count” too: Quantity estimation and comparison in black bears (Ursus Americanus). Animal Behaviour, 84, 231-238.
Subiaul, F., Vonk, J. & Rutherford, M.D. (2011). The ghosts in the computer: The role of agency and animacy attributions in “Ghost Controls”. PLoS ONE 6,
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026429.
Cater, T.E., Zeigler-Hill, V. & Vonk, J. (2011). Narcissism and recollections of early life experiences. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 935-939.
Vonk, J. & Povinelli, D.J. (2011). Individual differences in long-term cognitive testing in a group of captive chimpanzees. Special issue for International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 24, 137-167.
West, S., Jett, S.E., Beckman, T. & Vonk, J. (2010). The Phylogenetic roots of cognitive dissonance. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 124, 425-432.
Vonk, J. & Subiaul, F. (2009). Do chimpanzees know what others can and cannot do? Reasoning about ‘capability’. Animal Cognition, 12, 267-286.
Subiaul, F., Vonk, J., Barth, J., &. Okamoto-Barth, S. (2008). Do Chimpanzees learn reputation by observation? Evidence from direct and indirect experience with generous and selfish strangers. Animal Cognition, 11, 611-623.
Vonk, J., Brosnan, S.F., Povinelli, D.J., Henrich, J. Shapiro. S., Richardson, A, Lambeth, S.P. & Silk, J.B. (2008). Chimpanzees do not take advantage of low-cost opportunities to deliver food to group-mates. Animal Behaviour, 75, 1757 - 1770.
Vonk, J. & Horton, K.D. (2006). The role of automatic and conscious retrieval processes in directed forgetting. Memory & Cognition, 34, 505-517.
Silk, J., Brosnan, S.F., Vonk, J., Henrich, J., Povinelli, D.J., Shapiro, S., Richardson, A, Lambeth, S.P., & Mascaro, J. (2005). Chimpanzees are indifferent to the welfare of unrelated group members. Nature, 437, 1357-1359.
Horton, K.D., Wilson, D.E., Vonk, J., Kirby, S.L., & Nielsen, T. (2005). A comparison of implicit memory and process dissociation with the speeded response procedure: Depth of processing and attentional effects on automatic retrieval. Acta Psychologica, 119, 235-263.
Vonk, J., & MacDonald, S.E. (2004). Levels of abstraction in orangutan (Pongo abelii) categorization. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 118, 3-13.
Povinelli, D.J. & Vonk, J. (2004). We don’t need a microscope to explore the chimpanzee’s mind. Jointly published in Mind and Language, 19, 1-28, and S. Hurley & M. Nudds (Eds.) Rational Animals (2006) Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Povinelli, D.J. & Vonk, J. (2003). Chimpanzee Minds: Suspiciously Human. Trends in Cognitive Science, 7, 157-160.
Vonk, J. (2003). Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and Orangutan (Pongo abelii) understanding of first and second order relations. Animal Cognition, 6, 77-86.
Vonk, J. (2002). Can Orangutans (Pongo abelii) and Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) acquire concepts for social relationships? International Journal of Comparative Cognition, 15, 257-277.
Vonk, J., & MacDonald, S.E. (2002). Natural concept formation in a juvenile gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) at 3 levels of abstraction. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour, 78, 315-332.
Clark, M.M., Vonk, J.M., & Galef, B.G. Jr. (1998). Intrauterine position, parenting and nest-site attachment in male Mongolian Gerbils. Developmental Psychobiology, 32, 177-181.
Clark, M.M., DeSousa, D., Vonk, J., & Galef, B.G. Jr. (1997). Parenting and potency: routes to reproductive success in male Mongolian gerbils. Animal Behaviour, 54, 635-642.
Clark, M.M., Vonk, J.M., & Galef, B.G. Jr. (1997). Reproductive profiles of adult Mongolian Gerbils gestated as the sole fetus in a uterine horn. Physiology and Behaviour, 61, 77-81.
Books
Vonk, J. & Shackelford, T.K. (Eds) (2012). Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology, Oxford University Press.
Chapters and Commentaries
Vonk, J. & Shackelford, T.K. (in press). Comparative evolutionary psychology: Current status and a proposal for a more integrated future. Invited chapter for J. Wright (ed) International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences 2nd Edition, Elsevier U.K..
Vonk, J. & Mosteller, K.W. (in press) Perceptual versus conceptual memory processes in a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). In Howe, M., Toglia, M., Otgaar, H., & Schwartz, B. (Eds). What is Adaptive about Adaptive Memory. Oxford University Press.
Vonk, J., & Shackelford, T.K. (in press). An introduction to comparative evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary Psychology.
Vonk, J. (2013). Concepts, comparative perspectives. Article commissioned for the Encyclopedia of the Mind. H. Pashler (Ed.). Sage Publishers, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Vonk, J. & Povinelli, D.J. (2012). Similarity and difference in the conceptual systems of primates: The Unobservability hypothesis. In E.Wasserman and T. Zentall (Eds.) Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition, 2nd Ed. Oxford University Press.
Vonk, J. & Shackelford, T.K. (2012). Toward Bridging Gaps: Finding Commonality among Evolutionary and Comparative Psychologists. In. J. Vonk & T. Shackelford (Eds) Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology, pp 3-16. Oxford University Press. New York
Vonk, J. & Shackelford, T.K. (2012). Comparative Evolutionary Psychology: A United Discipline for the Study of Evolved Traits In. J. Vonk & T. Shackelford (Eds) Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology, pp 547-560. Oxford University Press. New York.
Finsterwald, A., Reaux, J.E., Vonk, J., & Povinelli, D.J. (2012). Sorting Weight. In Povinelli, D.J. (Ed.) World without weight: perspectives on an alien mind. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Povinelli, D.J., Reaux, J.E., Dunphy-Lelii, S.L., & Vonk, J. (2012). Weight As Impediment. In Povinelli, D.J. (Ed.) World without weight perspectives on an alien mind. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Povinelli, D.J., Vonk, J. & Castille, C.M., (2012). Developing (f) Weight. In Povinelli, D.J. (Ed.), World without weight: perspectives on an alien mind. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Vonk, J., Finsterwald, A., Dorton, W., Reaux, J.E., Faughn, C. Penn, D.C., & Povinelli, D.J., (2012). The Impact of Weight. In Povinelli, D.J. (Ed.) World without weight: perspectives on an alien mind. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Vonk, J., Reaux, J.E., & Povinelli, D.J. (2012). Close Imposters: Balance, Support, and Deformation. In Povinelli, D.J. (Ed.), World without weight: perspectives on an alien mind. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Vonk, J., & Povinelli, D.J. (2011). Preliminary Investigations of Cognitive Plasticity: Social and Physical Causality in Home-Reared Chimpanzees. In Naomi Eilan, Hemdat Lerman & Johannes Roessler (eds.), Perception, Causation, and Objectivity. Issues in Philosophy and Psychology. pp 342-367. Oxford University Press.
Vonk, J. & Povinelli, D.J. (2010). Animal Intelligence. Article commissioned for Corsini’s Encyclopedia of Psychology, 4th edition. Wiley Publishers, Washington D.C..
Vonk, J. & Povinelli, D.J. (2006). Similarity and difference in the conceptual systems of primates: The Unobservability hypothesis. In E.Wasserman and T. Zentall (Eds.) Comparative Cognition: Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence. Oxford University Press, England. pp.363-387.
Silk, J., Brosnan, S.F., Vonk, J., Henrich, J., Povinelli, D.J., Shapiro, S., Richardson, A, Lambeth, S.P., & Mascaro, J. (2006). Animal Behaviour: Chimpanzee choice and prosociality (reply). Nature, 440, E6.