I am interested in the evolution of social cognition, and the way in which genetic, physiological, developmental and emotional processes, as well as socio-ecological factors, influence social attention and cognition in humans and non-human primates. Unravelling these interactions will increase our understanding of human evolution, and can be applied to improve psychological wellbeing in human and non-human primates.

People who are anxious or depressed interpret ambiguous information in a more negative way and have a greater expectation of negative future events than do people who are in a more positive emotional state. This negative ‘cognitive bias’ can make the world appear to be more threatening than it is and lead to a downward spiral which, in the extreme, may result in the onset of affective disorders such as clinical anxiety or depression. Our recent work (Bethell et al 2012a, published in the journal Animal Welfare) showed that monkeys who had recently undergone a veterinary check-up showed a more pessimistic interpretation of ambiguous cues than they did on an otherwise normal day. If short term stress can cause monkeys to interpret the (same) ambiguous cues more negatively, are monkeys also at risk of the same downward spiral in mental health that humans are?

Computer-based tasks can be used to capture biases in cognition in humans. For example, when shown a pair of faces, one angry and one neutral, anxious people are faster to look towards the angry face than the neutral face, and do so faster than do non-anxious people. When engaged in an ongoing task, anxious people show more disrupted performance when an angry distractor is presented compared with non-anxious people performing the same task. These tasks may be adapted for use with other species.
 
My research involves the development of field-based tasks for use with free-ranging primates, and computer-based methods for use with captive animals. This approach should extend our ability to assess good versus poor psychological wellbeing in other species, and further our understanding of the evolution of psychological and affective disorders in humans.

Through 2012 I am developing a field-based method for assessing social attention in free-ranging rhesus macaques on the island of Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. This work is in collaboration with the research labs of Professor Dario Maestripieri (University of Chicago) and Dr Lauren Brent (Duke University). This current project builds on my most recent work with captive rhesus macaques which shows that stressful husbandry procedures can dramatically affect social attention in ways that may have profound implcations for wellbeing (Bethell et al 2012b); Using an experimental eye-gaze paradigm, we found monkeys are generally vigilant of angry faces, but become highly avoidant of the same faces when they have recently undergone a statutory - but nevertheless stressful - health check. Avoidance of potentially threatening stimuli may  impair ability to deal mentally with subsequent stressors and this can impair wellbeing. In humans, extreme avoidance of even mildly threatening cues is characteristic of affective disorders such as social phobia.

I am collaborating with Dr Nicola Koyama to develop methods that measure the effects of enrichment interventions at different developmental stages on cognitive, behavioural and physiological measures of wellbeing in the Syrian hamster. The hamster welfare Laboratory at Liverpool John Moores University has opportunities for final year student projects. Please contact Dr Bethell or Dr Koyama for further information.