I am a postdoctoral researcher with a background in psychology. I am interested in cognitive development, social cognition, comparative psychology, and animal cognition. My current work focus is on social comparison processes and social learning (over-imitation) in nonhuman primates and preschool-aged children.

I conducted behavioral research with great apes at the Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center and with 2-6 year old children at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropolgoy in Leipzig. My research in Leipzig focused on social evaluations and reputation management under the supervision of Esther Herrmann, Amrisha Vaish and Michael Tomasello. For my PhD, I worked at the University of Göttingen in the Department of Cognitive Developmental Psychology with Hannes Rakoczy and Tanya Behne. I conducted behavioral studies with preschoolers to investigate the role of normativity in children’s over-imitation. I am currently working with long-tailed macaques at the German Primate Center in Göttingen. In collaboration with Julia Fischer, Thomas Mussweiler (Cologne/London) and Thomas Bugnyar (Vienna), I investigate similarities and differences of social comparison processes of humans and nonhuman primates. I use touchscreen tasks and mechanical apparatuses to explore the effects of social partners in co-action settings.

seit 2015

Post-doc, Kognitive Ethologie, Deutsches Primatenzentrum

Promotion 2014

Abteilung für kognitive Entwicklungspsychologie, Universität Göttingen

Diplom Psychologie 2009

Universität Würzburg

Hoehl, S., Keupp, S., Schleihauf, H., McGuigan, N., Buttelmann, D., & Whiten, A. (2019). 'Over-imitation': A review and appraisal of a decade of research. Developmental Review, 51, 90-108. https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1YKhm~810JIZx

Keupp, S., Titchener, R., Bugnyar, T., Mussweiler, T., & Fischer, J. (2018, November 2). Competition is crucial for social comparison processes in long-tailed macaques. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/aqg3t

Keupp, S., Behne, T., & Rakoczy, H. (2018). The Rationality of (Over)imitation, Perspectives on Psychological Science,13(6), 678-687. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1745691618794921

Keupp, S., Barbarroja, N., Topolinski, S., & Fischer, J. (2018). Are monkeys intuitive Aristotelians? Associations between target size and vertical target position in long-tailed macaques
Royal Society Open Science 5: 170889

Keupp, S., Bancken, C., Schillmöller, J., Rakoczy, H., & Behne, T. (2016). Rational Over-Imitation: Preschoolers consider material costs and copy causally irrelevant actions selectively. Cognition, 147, 85-92.

Schmitt V, Federspiel I, Eckert J, Keupp S, Tschernek L, Faraut L, Schuster R, Michels C, Sennhenn-Reulen H, Bugnyar T, Mussweiler T, Fischer J (2016). Do monkeys compare themselves to others? Animal Cognition, DOI 10.1007/s10071-015-0943-4. 

Keupp, S., Behne, T., Zachow, J., Kasbohm, A., & Rakoczy, H. (2015). Overimitation is not automatic: Context sensitivity in children's overimitation and action interpretation of causally irrelevant actions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 130, 163-175.

Keupp, S., Behne, T., & Rakoczy, H (2013). Why do children over-imitate? Normativity is crucial. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 216, 392-406.

Herrmann, E., Keupp, S., Hare, B., Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Direct and indirect reputation formation in nonhuman great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus) and human children (Homo sapiens). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 127, 63–75.