Leca, Jean-Baptiste
Professor
- Phone
- (403) 329-2436
- jeanbaptiste.leca@uleth.ca
- Phone
- (403) 317-2831
Lab
- Phone
- (403) 317-2831
Office Hours
PSYC 3805: Wednesday from 11 AM to 1 PM
About Me
I am also an Adjunct Faculty with the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India.
My research aims to integrate behavioral causes, structure, and consequences along a single temporal continuum. Specifically, my research team and I use various analyses of behavioral structure (e.g., kinematic, sequential) to infer behavioral mechanisms and behavioral functions.
To do so, I mainly focus on a range of socially-learned and culturally-maintained object-directed manipulative behaviors (e.g., play, tool use, and fidgeting) as candidate behaviors to apply this paradigm. One of the primary research questions addressed in our lab is whether, and if so, how, the cultural expression of object play facilitates the acquisition of tool use.
To achieve these goals, my research team and I study various forms of object manipulation in macaques and cockatoos (two nonhuman animal taxa that are known for their manipulative propensities) as well as human children. We also examine these behaviors through the lens of behavioral innovations, social learning, and culture.
Simultaneously, and in collaboration with Dr. Paul Vasey and Dr. Noelle Gunst, I study the behavioral structure, mechanisms, and functions of non-conceptive (socio-)sexual behaviors in Japanese macaques from a longitudinal and intergroup comparative perspective.Our field research is mainly conducted in Indonesia (Bali), Japan, Australia, and Grenada.
Biography
From 2003 to 2005 and from 2007 to 2009, I was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, Inuyama, Japan, working in collaboration with Dr. Michael A. Huffman.
In 2010, I was a visiting researcher at the Primate Research Center, Udayana University, Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia, in collaboration with Dr. I Nengah Wandia. Since 2015, I am continuing this research collaboration with Dr. Wandia in Bali.
From 2011 to 2014, I was a post-doctoral research fellow and sessional lecturer in the Department of Psychology, at the University of Lethbridge, Canada, working in collaboration with Dr. Paul L. Vasey.