Psychology

Profile

PhD Psychology
MSc Evolutionary Psychology
BSc Zoology (Hons)

Background

I am the Acting Director of the Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology. Currently, I am also a Visiting Scholar at the Cluster Languages of Emotion, Frei Universitat Berlin. I completed my PhD in 2005, working on the Chimpanzee Facial Action Coding Scheme project (with Kim Bard, Lisa Parr, Sarah-Jane Vick and Marcia Smith Pasqualini). Prior to working at the University of Portsmouth I was a Research Assistant in Cognitive Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University, completed my Masters in Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Liverpool and studied Zoology as an undergraduate at Royal Holloway University of London.  I am a member of the Primate Society of Great Britain, The International Primatological Society and The International Society for Facial Expression.

Personal Homepage:  www.bridgetwaller.com

Teaching responsibilities

I teach on the undergraduate degree programmes for BSc Psychology, BSc Forensic Psychology and BSc Psychology with Criminology.  I teach Biological Psychology (Unit Coordinator), Evolutionary Psychology (Unit Coordinator), Animal Behaviour and Personality and Individual Differences.  I also supervise undergraduate dissertations on facial expression/emotion, social cognition, evolutionary psychology, primate behaviour and human-animal interaction.

Research Interests

The overarching focus of my work is the evolution of social communication.  I am particularly interested in human and non-human primate facial expression and emotion, and how these signals contribute to sociality and social bonding.  I am a certified FACS (Facial Action Coding System) coder and was part of the development team for ChimpFACS – a modification of FACS for use with chimpanzees (The Chimpanzee Facial Action Coding System: funded by the Leverhulme Trust, PI Kim Bard).

Current research projects

• Macaque Study Centre. We have established a facility for cognitive touchscreen research with crested macaques (Macaca nigra) in collaboration with Marwell Wildlife (Winchester).
• Comparing emotional expression across species - GibbonFACS. A Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) funded project within the Excellence initiative Languages of Emotion (Project leaders: Katja Liebal, Bridget Waller and Anne Burrows)
• The evolution of facial movement in domestic dogs (with Juliane Kaminski, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)
• Function of ‘smiling’ and ‘laughing’ in chimpanzee play
• Individual variation in human facial muscles (with Anne Burrows, Duquesne University)
• "Measuring expressive movement in monkeys" R03 grant to Dr. Lisa Parr, Emory University, USA, with Bridget Waller, Co-Investigator, 2007-2009, from National Institutes of Mental Health (NIH- NIMH), US

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Publications before 2006

Parr, L.A., Waller,  B.M. & Fugate, J. (2005). Emotional communication in primates: Implications for neurobiology. Current Opinion in Neurobiology,  15(6), 716-720. 

Bethell, E.J. & Waller,  B.M. (2005). Altruism or cooperation in captive chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes?  Folia Primatologica,  76, 242-244.

Brodie, E.E., Wyatt, R., & Waller, B.M. (2004) Drawing upon representations: An empirical study of artists depicting the human face. Empirical Studies of the Arts  22(2), 171-180.

Brodie, E.E., Whyte, A. & Waller, B.M.  (2003). Increased motor control of a phantom leg in humans results from the visual feedback of a virtual leg.  Neuroscience Letters 341, 167-169.

Book chapters

Parr, L.A. & Waller, B.M. (in press). The evolution of social cognition. In: Handbook of Social Neuroscience, Oxford University Press.

Parr, L.A. & Waller, B.M. (2007). The Evolution of Human Emotion.  In T.M. Preuss & J.H. Kaas (Eds.), The Evolution of Primate Nervous Systems.  London: Elsevier.

Invited talks

Waller, B.M. (2011). Facial expression in human and non-human primates. University of York Psychology Seminar Series, March 2011

Waller, B.M. (2010). Selection for universal facial emotion: How do basic expressions emerge from variation in facial muscle signatures? Comparative Communication Research Workshop (Organisers: Klaus Zuberbuhler and Vincent Janik), Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, April 2010.

Waller, B.M. (2010). How to measure facial expression in another species: An introduction to GibbonFACS. Cluster Languages of Emotion, Frei Universitat Berlin, April 2010.

Waller, B.M. (2010). An evolutionary approach to facial expression. Psychologisches Kolloquium, Frei Universitat Berlin, April 2010.

Waller, B.M. (2009) Primate facial expression: Form and function. Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, Sept 2009.

Waller, B.M. (2009). Universal facial expression: How do basic emotions emerge from facial muscle signatures? Oxford University Psychology Society Seminar Series, May 2009.

Waller, B.M. (2008). What can variation tell us about universality? How basic emotions emerge from individual facial muscle signatures. University of Manchester Psychology Seminar Series, October, 2008.

Waller, B.M.  (2007).  Facial muscles in humans, chimpanzees and rhesus macaques: establishing anatomically based facial expression coding systems.  British Psychological Society Seminar Series ‘Gestural and vocal expression of emotion in primates’ University of Portsmouth, Sept 2007.  

Waller, B.M.  (2007).  The evolutionary psychology of facial communication.  Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioural Ecology Research Group Seminar Series, University of Liverpool, March, 2007

Waller, B.M.  (2006). Comparing faces: Development and application of the ChimpFACS.  Psychology Departmental Seminar Series, University of Durham, Feb 10, 2006

Waller, B.M.  (2005). Facial muscle function in humans and chimpanzees.  Oral presentation at The Facial Measurement and Meaning Conference, University of Durham, Sept 13-16, 2005

Presentations

Waller, B.M. (2010). Communicative function of teeth exposure in the gorilla play face. IPS Kyoto, Japan, 11-19 Sept 2010. 

Waller, B.M. (2008). How uniform are human facial muscles? Implications for the evolution of universal facial emotion. Symposium: Facial expression in primates (Organisers: Parr, Waller, Vick), International Primatological Society XXII Congress, Edinburgh, August, 2008.

Waller, B.M. (2008). Intramuscular electrical stimulation of facial muscles in humans, chimpanzees and rhesus macaques. American Association of Physical Anthropologists 77th Annual Meeting, Columbus, USA. 2008.

Waller, B.M. (2006).  Micro-analysis of facial expression during play in chimpanzees. Oral presentation at the Congress of the International Primatological Society, Entebbe, Uganda. 23-29 June, 2006.

Waller, B.M. (2005). Exploring facial musculature in chimpanzees and humans: Duchenne revisited  and expanded.  Oral presentation at the Leverhulme Trust ChimpFACS Workshop, University of Portsmouth, March 17-20, 2005

Waller, B.M. (2005). Intramuscular electrical stimulation of human facial muscles.  Departmental seminar, University of Portsmouth, March 2, 2005

Waller, B.M., Vick, S.J., Fuglevand, A., Parr, L.A. and Bard, K.A. (2004). Structure and function of facial muscles in Homo sapiens  and Pan troglodytes. Oral presentation at the Congress of the International Primatological Society, Torino, Italy, 22-28 August, 2004

Waller, B.M., Fernandez-Carriba, S, Hopkins, W.D. and Bard, K.A. (2003).  Perception of the chimpanzee ‘smile’ – can we trust our observations? Poster presentation at Facial Measurement and Meaning Conference, Rimini, Italy, September 18-20, 2003

Vick, S.J., Waller, B.M., Parr, L.A., Smith Pasqualini, M.C. and Bard, L.A. (2003). Development of the  Chimpanzee Facial Action Coding System.  Poster presentation at The Social Neuroscience of Emotion Workshop, University of Portsmouth, August, 2003

Waller, B.M. (2003).  Differential behavioural effects of ‘smiling’ and ‘laughing’ in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).  Oral presentation at the Primate Society of Great Britain, Spring Meeting.  University of St. Andrews.  April 10-11, 2003
(Prize awarded for best postgraduate presentation)

Collaborations:

Lisa Parr (Yerkes National Primate Center, Emory University)

Anne Burrows (Department of Physical Therapy, Duquense University)

Katie Slocombe (Department of Psychology, University of York)

Alice Samson (Archeology, Universiteit Leiden)

Katja Liebal (Cluster Languages of Emotion, Frei Universitat Berlin)

Juliane Kaminski (Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology)