Affiliated Research Staff
Great Ape Trust of Iowa
4200 S.E. 44th Avenue
Des Moines IA 50320
Email: rshumaker at greatapetrust.org
Research Interests
Reseach interests include the acquisition, comprehension, and demonstration of numerical competencies in orangutans (Pongo spp.) and bonobos (Pan paniscus). Specific cognitive skills that will be investigated include quantity judgment, labeling of discrete quantities with Arabic numerals, and representation of the numerical abilities by means of the development of a token economy.
Current Research Projects
Reseach projects include the acquisition, comprehension, and demonstration of numerical competencies in orangutans (Pongo spp.) and bonobos (Pan paniscus). Specific cognitive skills that will be investigated include quantity judgment, labeling of discrete quantities with Arabic numerals, and representation of the numerical abilities by means of the development of a token economy.
Recent Publications
Shumaker, R. (in press) Orangutans. Colin Baxter Photography Ltd.
Swartz, K. B., Himmanen, S. A., & Shumaker, R. W. 2006 (submitted for publication). Response strategies in list learning by orangutans (Pongo sp.).
Shillito, D. J., Shumaker, R. W., Gallup, G. & Beck, B. B. (2005). Understanding Visual Barriers: Evidence for Level 1 Perspective Taking in an Orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus). Animal Behaviour, (69), 679-687.
Beck, B., Stoinski, T., Shumaker, R., Ross, S. & Perkins, L. (2005). Animals in Advertising. Communiqué, American Zoological and Aquarium Association, (May), 47-49.
Shumaker, R. W. & Swartz, K. B. (2004). “Mirror Self-Recognition” in Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior (Bekoff, M. ed.), pp. 308-312, Greenwood Publishing Group.
Shumaker, R. W. (2003). “Hominidae I: Great Apes”. Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia, Second Edition, volume 14; Mammals III, pp. 225-240, Thompson Gale Publishing.
Shumaker, R. W. & Beck, B. B. (2003) Primates in Question: The Smithsonian Answer Book. Smithsonian Institution Press.
Shumaker, R. W. & Swartz, K. (2002). “When traditional methodologies fail: Cognitive studies of great apes” in The Cognitive Animal (Bekoff, M.; Allen, C.; Burghardt, G. eds.), pp. 335-343, MIT Press.
humaker, R. W., Beck, B. B., Palkovich, A. M., Guagnano, G. A., and Morowitz, H. (2001). Spontaneous Use of Magnitude Discrimination and Ordination by the Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), Journal of Comparative Psychology, 115(4), 1-7.
Updated -11/09/07
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