Psychology

Profile

Professor

Freie Universität Berlin

katja.liebal@fu-berlin.de

Background

My background is mainly in Biology (Diploma, University of Leipzig in 2001). For my PhD I worked on gestural communication of apes in the department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. From 2005 - 2008 I worked as a lecturer in the Psychology department at Portsmouth University before starting a research position at the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.  Since 2009 I am a junior professor for Evolutionary Psychology in the Clusterinitiative Languages of Emotion, Free University Berlin.

For a complete CV please click here

Teaching Responsibilities

Comparative Psychology, Applying Psychology, Biological Psychology, Observation Research, Primate Communication, Qualitative Research Skills.

Project supervision covers the areas of social communication and socio-cognitive skills of human and nonhuman primates.

Research

My main interest concerns the multimodal communication of primates and the underlying socio-cognitive skills. Currently I am a member of the Excellence Cluster Languages of Emotion at Freie Universität of Berlin.  Projects include research on empathy in captive and semi-wild great apes (with Amrisha Vaish and Michael Tomasello), the development of a GibbonFACS (with Bridget Waller and Anne Burrows), and cross-cultural studies to investigate the comprehension and expression of emotions (with Daniel Haun, Juliane Kaminski, and Isabell Wartenburger).

Current projects and collaborations:

• Comparing emotion expression across species - development of a GibbonFACS
  Bridget Waller, University of Portsmouth, UK, and Anne Burrows, Duquesne University, US
• Evolutionary roots of human social interaction
  Daniel Haun, Juliane Kaminski, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
• Processing of Emotion and Language - Development and interaction across lifespan
  Isabell Wartenburger, University of Potsdam, Silke Telkemeyer, Freie Universität Berlin
• Empathy in great apes?
  Amrisha Vaish, Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology,   
  Leipzig

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Publications

Tempelmann, S., Kaminski, J., & Liebal, K. (2011,in press). Focus on the essential: all great apes know when others are being attentive. Animal Cognition.

Liebal, K., Reddy, V., Hicks, K., Jonnalagadda, S., & Chintalapuri, B. (2011). Socialization Goals and Parental Directives in Infancy: The Theory and the Practice. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 10(1), 113-131.

Schneider, C., Call, J., & Liebal, K. (2010). Do bonobos say NO by shaking their head? Primates, 1-4.

Arbib, M., Liebal, K., Pika, S. (2008). Primate vocalization, gesture, and the evolution of human language. Current Anthropology, 49(6), 1053-1075.

Liebal, K., Mueller, C., Pika, S. (2007). Gestural Communication in Nonhuman and Human Primates. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Liebal K, Pika S, Tomasello M (2006), Gestural communication orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus). Gesture, 6 (1), 1-38.

Pika S, Liebal K, Tomasello M (2005). Gestural communication in subadult bonobos (Pan paniscus): Repertoire and use. American Journal of Primatology, 65 (1), 39-61.

Pika S, Liebal K, Call J, Tomasello M (2005). The gestural communication of apes. In: Gestural Communication in Nonhuman and Human Primates. K. Liebal, C. Müller and S. Pika (Eds.), Gesture, 5 (1/2), 39?54.

Liebal K, Pika S, Tomasello M (2004). Social communication in siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus): use of gestures and facial expressions. Primates, 45(1), 41-57.

Liebal K, Pika S, Call J, Tomasello M (2004). To move or not to move: how apes alter the attentional state of others. Interaction Studies, 5(2), 199-219.

Liebal K, Call J, Tomasello M (2004). The use of gesture sequences in chimpanzees.
American Journal of Primatology, 64(4), 377-396.

Pika S, Liebal K, Tomasello M (2003). Gestural communication in young gorillas (Gorilla gorilla): gestural repertoire and use. American Journal of Primatology, 60(3): 95-111.