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Student Shared Summer Internship Research at Conference

Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2008

Veronica Geretz, a Westminster College senior psychology and philosophy major, made a poster presentation at the Mid-West Primate Interest Group conference at the University of Notre Dame Sept. 19-20.

Geretz served a summer internship at Hiram College's Primate Research Lab with Dr. Kimberley Phillips, associate professor and chair of the psychology and biology department at Hiram. The presentation, "Tool Manipulation in Cotton-top Tamarins (Saguinus oedipus)," was the result of her research project.

The research was funded through a Psi Chi Summer Research Grant and will be published in the winter issue of the Psi Chi Undergraduate Journal.

The abstract for the poster explained: "Investigating tool use in non-human primates allows researchers to understand when advanced skills were developed evolutionarily in the primate order. Cotton-top tamarins in captivity have been shown to use tools in past research. Tamarins' ability to manipulate tools, a more specific aspect of tool use requiring reorientation of a tool, has not been revealed through past investigations. The results indicate that although tamarins possess the propensity to use tools, manipulating tools requires motor skills or a means-ends understanding tamarins do not possess."

Geretz is a daughter of Mary Geretz and Michael Geretz, both of Norwalk, Ohio, and a graduate of Saint Paul High School.

Contact Dr. Kirk Lunnen, Westminster associate professor of psychology and Geretz's faculty adviser, at (724) 946-7203 or e-mail lunnenkm@westminster.edu for more information.

Veronica Geretz