Stephan P. Kaufhold

I am a Psychologist and Cognitive Scientist studying the social behavior and cognition of primates. Currently, I am a PhD student in the Department of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego , where I work in the Comparative Cognition Laboratory of Dr. Federico Rossano.

Research Interests

I study the ultimate and proximate causes of social behaviors, group dynamics, and cognitive abilities, with a primary focus on non-human primates, including macaques, gibbons, orangutans, and chimpanzees. My research involves collecting data from sanctuary-living animals in semi-naturalistic environments using non-invasive observational, quasi-experimental, and experimental methods. Some of my current research questions are:

What determines whether conspecifics cooperate or compete with each other in specific interactions?
How does physical proximity shape primates' social interactions, including social tolerance, social learning, and cooperation?
In what ways does culture influence primate behavior and cognition?
What are the ultimate and proximate effects of pathogens and parasites on primate behavior and cognition?

Current Projects

I am conducting several research projects exploring social tolerance, inhibitory control, pathogen sensitivity, and social learning in macaques at the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary in Southern Texas. My work combines observational and experimental methods to address key questions in primate cognition and behavior. For example, I am collaborating with Jack Terwilliger to develop and implement custom computer vision algorithms for accurately tracking macaques' proximity and trajectories using real-world coordinates during social tolerance tests.

Background

Before starting my PhD, I earned both a Bachelor's and Master's of Science in Psychology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. During this time, I also interned and worked at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Psychology in Leipzig, Germany.

You can download my full CV as a PDF below:

Download my full CV

Publications

You can find a current list of my peer-reviewed publications on my Google Scholar page.

Kaufhold, S.P., Goguen, A., Viano, K., Jenings, K., & Rossano, F.(in preparation). Pathogen Sensitivity in Macaques: The Role of Early Life Experiences and Disease Exposure.

Ma, X.*, Lin, Y., Xu, Y., Kaufhold, S.P., Terwilliger, J., Meza, A., Zhu, Y., Rossano, F., & Wang, Y., (under review). AlphaChimp: Tracking and Behavior Recognition in Chimpanzees. [Link]

Kaufhold, S. P., Sánchez-Amaro, A., Tan, J., Fernández-Navarro, S., Atencia, R., & Rossano, F. (2024). Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) strategically manipulate their environment to deny conspecifics access to food. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 17579. [PDF]

Ma, X.*, Kaufhold, S. P.*, Su, J.*, Zhu, W., Terwilliger, J., Meza, A., Zhu, Y., Rossano, F. & Wang, Y. (2023). ChimpACT: A Longitudinal Dataset for Understanding Chimpanzee Behaviors. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 37(9). [PDF]

Van Leeuwen, E. J. C., DeTroy, S. E., Kaufhold, S. P., Dubois, C., Schütte, S., Call, J., & Haun, D. B. M. (2021). Chimpanzees behave prosocially in a group-specific manner. Science Advances, 7(9), eabc7982. [PDF]

Sánchez-Amaro, A., Tan, J., Kaufhold, S. P., & Rossano, F. (2021). How environmental unpredictability and harshness affect chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in risk-choice and temporal discounting tasks. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 135(2), 232. [Link]

Rossano, F.*, Kaufhold, S. P.*, (2021). Animal Communication Overview. In Call, J., Kaufman A. & Kaufman J. (eds.) Handbook of Animal Cognition. Cambridge University Press. [Link]

Kaufhold, S. P., & Rossano, F. (2020). Proximate mechanisms and relational history: the interdependence of food transfers in socially housed orang-utans (Pongo abelii). Animal Behaviour, 167, 243-253. [Link]

Sánchez-Amaro, A., Tan, J., Kaufhold, S. P., & Rossano, F. (2020). Gibbons exploit information about what a competitor can see. Animal Cognition, 23(2), 289-299. [PDF]

Kaufhold, S. P.*, & Van Leeuwen, E. J. C.* (2019). Why intergroup variation matters for understanding behaviour. Biology Letters, 15(11), 20190695. [PDF]

* indicates shared first authorship

Contact

Please reach out for any questions about my research, potential collaborations, post-doctoral opportunities, job offers, or interview inquiries. I am also happy to connect with students seeking advice on academic careers or exploring internship opportunities. You can contact me via email at spkaufho@ucsd.edu.