My areas of research broadly include animal behavior and cognition. By studying animal cognition, we can better understand our own learning development and importantly how better to teach the developing mind. Currently, I investigate comparative mechanisms of analogical reasoning. By comparing the extent to which humans, chimpanzees, rhesus monkeys and capuchin monkeys exhibit analogical reasoning skills we continue to discover the importance of applying information in novel settings and how this ability may have emerged throughout the evolutionary history of primates.

Other areas of interest: Analogical reasoning, concept learning, social learning and cognition, tool use in capuchin monkeys

 

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 Education:

  • Georgia State University   (August 2003 - Present)
    • PhD Program, Cognitive Sciences
    • M. A. (December 2006)
      • What meaning means for same and different: A comparative study in analogical reasoning
  • Franklin & Marshall College   (August 1999 - May 2003)
    • B. A. with honor in major program: Biological Foundations of Behavior / Animal Behavior

Instructional Experience, Georgia State University:

  • Learning & Behavior (Psyc 4120): Fall 2007-Spring 2008
  • Cognitive Psychology (Psyc 4100): Fall 2006-Spring2007

Selected Publications:

Flemming, T. M., Beran, M. J., Thompson, R. K. R., Kleider, H. M., & Washburn, D. A. (2008). What meaning means for same and different: Analogical Reasoning in humans (Homo sapiens), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Journal of Comparative Psychology 122, 176-185. [PDF]

Thompson, R. K. R. & Flemming, T. M. (2008). Analogical apes and paleological monkeys revisited. In D. C. Penn, K. J. Holyoak & D. J. Povinelli. Darwin’s mistake: Explaining the discontinuity between human and nonhuman minds. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31, 149-150. [PDF]

Flemming, T. M., Beran, M. J., & Washburn, D. A. (2007). Disconnect in concept learning by rhesus monkeys: Judgment of relations and relations-between- relations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 33, 55-63. [PDF]

 

Flemming, T. M., Rattermann, M. J., & Thompson, R. K. R. (2006). Differential individual access to and use of reaching tools in social groups of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) and human infants (Homo sapiens). Journal of Aquatic Mammals 32, 491-500. [PDF]

 

Beran, M. J., Harris, E. H., Evans, T. A., Klein, E. D., Chan, B., Flemming, T. M., & Washburn, D. A. (2008). Ordinal judgments of Arabic numerals by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Journal of Comparative Psychology 122, 52-61.

 

Beran, M. J., Klein, E. D., Evans, T. A., Chan, B., Flemming, T. M., Harris, E. H., Washburn, D. A., & Rumbaugh, D. M. (2008). Discrimination reversal learning in capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Psychological Record 58, 3-14.

 

Beran, M. J., Taglialatela, L. A., Flemming, T. M., James, F. J., and Washburn, D. A. (2006). Nonverbal estimation during numerosity judgements by adult humans. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 59, 2065-2082.