Federico Sanchez VargasCohort 2023

• BS, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Psychology

My name is Fede Sánchez Vargas, and I'm from Puerto Vallarta, México. I graduated in 2023 from the University of Rochester with a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a B.A. in Psychology, as well as participated in the Take5 Scholars program, completing a fifth year of study in anthropology and indigenous studies. My previous research includes characterizing manipulation of behavior in a social wasp by an endoparasite and investigating social cognition and attention in marmoset monkeys.

 I am interested in better understanding the cognition of capuchin monkeys (who display remarkable convergence in cognition and social behavior with humans and great apes) in the wild. I seek to use machine vision (artificial intelligence) and novel experimental paradigms to probe at the following questions: 1) How stable are cognitive abilities in the wild, and how do they develop? 2) Is there a relationship between different domains of cognition and social positioning (e.g. rank)? 3) Do capuchins display understanding of the cognitive abilities of their groupmates when choosing who to learn socially from? If not, what information do they rely on? By melding field observation and experiments with more controlled lab paradigms I hope to better characterize variation in cognition and behavior and its sources.

Advisor: Dr. Benitez