缅北禁地

Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Francesca De Petrillo

Lecturer in Psychology

Background
I received my Ph.D. in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, with a focus on Anthropology, from the University Sapienza of Rome, Italy, where I compared economic decision-making strategies across adults, young children, and non-human primate species to shed light on the evolutionary origins and developmental trajectories of human decision-making. I then completed two postdoctoral fellowships, first at Harvard University and the University of Michigan, and then at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France. During this period, I compared decision-making and cognitive control across multiple primate species, including rhesus macaques, Barbary macaques, and lemurs, to test how socioecology shapes cognition. 
Research

My research seeks to elucidate how different species acquire and process information from the physical and the social world and whether variation in cognitive abilities, including decision strategies, relates to differences in life history, ecology, and social structure. I address these questions by studying the cognitive abilities supporting decision-making and executive control of different primate populations, including captive brown capuchin monkeys, free-ranging populations of macaques, and different species of lemurs. Other aspects of my research examine the origins of monetary systems, specifically whether the ability to categorize money can be traced back to non-human primates. To do so, I analyse the exchange behaviour of brown tufted capuchin monkeys. 


Teaching

I am the module leader for PSY3057: Decision Making and Cooperation: understanding our choices, and I contribute to PSY2020: Introduction to comparative cognition & behaviour.


I am the Strand Leader for the Psychology PARTNERS Summer School.


I supervise students for the BSc Psychology and MRes in Animal Behaviour and Human Evolution programmes. I am also open to supervising PhD students. If you'd like to discuss potential supervision, don't hesitate to contact me.


Publications

  • Articles

    • Roome HE, De Petrillo F, Price E. . PsyArXiv 2024. Submitted.
    • Molho C, De Petrillo F, Garfield ZH, Slewe S. . Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B 2024, 379(1897), 20230034.
    • Ciacci F, Mayerhoff S, De Petrillo F, Gastaldi S, Brosnan SF, Addessi E. . American Journal of Primatology 2023, 85(10), e23542.
    • De Petrillo F, Rossi F, Gastaldi S, Addessi E. . Animal Behaviour 2023, 202, 73-86.
    • De Petrillo F, Nair P, Cantwell A, Rosati AG. . Psychological Science 2022, 33(9), 1408-1422.
    • De Petrillo F, Bettle R, Rosati AG. . Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2022, 45, 101134.
    • De Petrillo F, Rosati AG. . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 2021, 376(1819).
    • De Petrillo F, Rosati AG. . Animal Behaviour 2020, 164, 193-204.
    • De Petrillo F, Paoletti M, Bellagamba F, Manzi G, Paglieri F, Addessi E. . Behavioural Processes 2020, 176, 104137.
    • De Petrillo F, Rosati AG. . Evolution and Human Behavior 2019, 40(5), 436-446.
    • De Petrillo F, Caroli M, Gori E, Micucci A, Gastaldi S, Bourgeois-Gironde S, Addessi E. . Animal Cognition 2019, 22, 169-186.
    • De Petrillo F, Rosati AG. . Behavioural Processes 2019, 164, 201-213.
    • Zoratto F, Oddi G, Gori E, Micucci A, De Petrillo F, Paglieri F, Adriani W, Laviola G, Addessi E. . Behavioural Brain Research 2018, 347, 37-48.
    • De Petrillo F, Tonachella G, Addessi E. . Animal Behaviour 2017, 129, 249-256.
    • De Petrillo F, Gori E, Micucci A, Ponsi G, Paglieri F, Addessi E. . Animal Cognition 2015, 18, 1019–1029.
    • De Petrillo F, Micucci A, Gori E, Truppa V, Ariely D, Addessi E. . Frontiers in Psychology 2015, 6, 1193.
    • De Petrillo F, Ventricelli M, Ponsi G, Addessi E. . Animal Cognition 2015, 18, 119–130.