Samantha Carouso-Peck, Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Cornell University
Behavioral and Evolutionary Neuroscience

Background and Research

Interests: Development, learning, cognition, animal behavior, psychology, endocrinoology, neuroscience, ornithology, evolution.

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I study social effects on vocal learning in songbirds as a model for human speech acquisition. Using behavioral, endocrine, neurobiological, and phylogenetic techniques, I study the cognitive and evolutionary basis of socially guided vocal learning from a comparative perspective.

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I am currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Active Learning Initiative at Cornell University, conducting pedagogical research on the effect of active learning practices on information retention in undergraduate psychology classes. I am also continuing my vocal learning research, conducting studies of curiosity-driven learning in human infants and the neural mechanisms of social learning in songbirds.

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I studied animal behavior and communication at Williams College, where I obtained a B.A. in Biology in 2010. I went on to study cognition and vocal learning in African Grey Parrots at Brandeis University, and the neural basis of the visual object recognition system in rats at Harvard University.

I received my Ph.D from Cornell University's Psychology Department in May 2019. I am currently seeking post-doctoral and faculty positions.