Christoph Völter

10/2023–present Research Group Leader
Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

02/2019–present Senior Postdoctoral Researcher
Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

05/2019–04/2023 Honorary Lecturer
School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

05/2016–01/2019 Research Fellow
School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

01/2017–06/2017 Fixed-term Lecturer and Research Coordinator
Living Links Centre to Human Evolution and School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

03/2014–04/2016 Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

02/2011–10/2014 Ph.D. in Biology (Dr. rer. nat.)
Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig and Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

Völter, C. J., Tinklenberg, B., Call, J., & Seed, A. M. (2022). Inhibitory control and cue relevance modulate chimpanzees’ (Pan troglodytes) performance in a spatial foraging task. Journal of Comparative Psychology,136(2), 105-120.
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Marno, H., Völter, C. J., Tinklenberg, B., Sperber, D., & Call, J. (2022). Learning from communication versus observation in great apes. Scientific Reports,12: 2917.
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Karl, S; Anderle, K; Völter, CJ; Virányi, Z (2022): Pet dogs' Behavioural Reaction to Their Caregiver's Interactions with a Third Party: Join in or Interrupt? Animals (Basel). 2022; 12(12):1574
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Reindl, E; Völter, CJ; Campbell-May, J; Call, J; Seed, AM (2022): Exploring the development of attentional set shifting in young children with a novel Intradimensional/Extradimensional shift task. J Exp Child Psychol. 2022; 221:105428
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Völter, CJ; Huber, L (2022): Pupil size changes reveal dogs’ sensitivity to motion cues. iScience. 2022; 25(9):104801
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Völter, CJ; Reindl, E; Felsche, E; Civelek, Z; Whalen, A; Lugosi, Z; Duncan, L; Herrmann, E; Call, J; Seed, AM (2022): The structure of executive functions in preschool children and chimpanzees. Sci Rep. 2022; 12(1):6456
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Huber, L; Lonardo, L; Völter, C; Lamm, C (2022): Dogs understand the false beliefs of humans, but not like humans. -29th Annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition (CO3); APR 6-9, 2022; Online, United States.
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Völter, C; Huber, L (2022): Eye-tracking with dogs: Achievements and challenges. -Vision Research Conference (VRC) 2022; JUN 6-9, 2022; Toronto, Canada.
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Engelmann, J. M., Völter, C. J., O’Madagain, C., Proft, M., Haun, D. B. M., Rakoczy, H., & Herrmann, E. (2021). Chimpanzees consider alternative possibilities. Current Biology,31(20), R1377-R1378.
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Ebel, S. J., Völter, C. J., & Call, J. (2021). Prior experience mediates the usage of food items as tools in great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, and Pongo abelii). Journal of Comparative Psychology,135(1), 64-73.
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Civelek, Z; Völter, CJ; Seed, AM (2021): What happened? Do preschool children and capuchin monkeys spontaneously use visual traces to locate a reward? Proc Biol Sci. 2021; 288(1956):20211101
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Colbourne, JAD; Auersperg, AMI; Lambert, ML; Huber, L; Völter, CJ (2021): Extending the Reach of Tooling Theory: A Neurocognitive and Phylogenetic Perspective. Top Cogn Sci. 2021; 13(4):548-572
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Jordan, EJ; Völter, CJ; Seed, AM (2021): Do capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) use exploration to form intuitions about physical properties? Cogn Neuropsychol. 2021 38 (7-8) 531-543.
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Lonardo, L; Völter, CJ; Lamm, C; Huber, L (2021): Dogs follow human misleading suggestions more often when the informant has a false belief. Proc Biol Sci. 2021; 288(1955):20210906
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Reindl, E; Parkash, D; Völter, CJ; Seed, AM (2021): Thinking inside the box: Mental manipulation of working memory contents in 3- to 7-year-old children. Cogn Dev. 2021; 59:None
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Völter, CJ; Huber, L (2021): Dogs' looking times and pupil dilation response reveal expectations about contact causality. Biol Lett. 2021; 17(12):20210465
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Colbourne, JAD; Auersperg, AMI; Lambert, ML; Huber, L; Völter, CJ (2021): Extending the Reach of Tooling Theory -28th Annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition (CO3), 7.–10.4.2021; APR 7-10, 2021; Online, United States.

Huber, L; Karl, S; Völter, C; Boch, M; Sladky, R;Wagner, IC; Lamm, C (2021): How pet dogs perceive human emotions: multi-method evidence from fMRI, eye-tracking and behavioral research. -28th Annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition (CO3); APR 7-10,2021; Online, United States.

Völter, C; Huber, L (2021): Expectancy violations about physical properties of animated objects in dogs. -43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society; JUL 26-29, 2021; Vienna, Austria.

Völter, CJ; Huber, L (2021): Using pupillometry to study expectancy violations about physical properties of animated objects in dogs. -Canine Science Forum; July 6-9, 2021; Lisbon, Portugal.

Bohn, M., Call, J., & Völter, C. J. (2020). Evolutionary precursors of negation in non-human reasoning. In V. Déprez, & M. Espinal ( Eds. ), The Oxford Handbook of Negation (pp. 577-588). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Karl, S; Boch, M; Zamansky, A; van der Linden, D; Wagner, IC; Völter, CJ; Lamm, C; Huber, L (2020): Exploring the dog-human relationship by combining fMRI, eye-tracking and behavioural measures. Sci Rep. 2020; 10(1):22273
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Völter, CJ; Karl, S; Huber, L (2020): Dogs accurately track a moving object on a screen and anticipate its destination. Sci Rep. 2020; 10(1):19832 Völter, CJ; Lambert, ML; Huber, L (2020): Do nonhumans seek explanations? Anim Behav Cogn. 2020; 7(3):445-451
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ManyPrimates, Altschul, D. M., Beran, M. J., Bohn, M., Call, J., DeTroy, S., Duguid, S. J., Egelkamp, C. L., Fichtel, C., Fischer, J., Flessert, M., Hanus, D., Haun, D. B. M., Haux, L. M., Hernandez-Aguilar, R. A., Herrmann, E., Hopper, L. M., Joly, M., Kano, F., Keupp, S., Melis, A. P., Motes Rodrigo, A., Ross, S. R., Sánchez Amaro, A., Sato, Y., Schmitt, V., Schweinfurth, M. K., Seed, A. M., Taylor, D., Völter, C. J., Warren, E., & Watzek, J. (2019). Establishing an infrastructure for collaboration in primate cognition research. PLoS One,14(10): e0223675.
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Völter, C. J., Mundry, R., Call, J., & Seed, A. M. (2019). Chimpanzees flexibly update working memory contents and show susceptibility to distraction in the self-ordered search task. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,286(1907): 20190715.
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Bueno-Guerra, N., Völter, C. J., de las Heras, Á., Colell, M., & Call, J. (2019). Bargaining in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): The effect of cost, amount of gift, reciprocity, and communication. Journal of Comparative Psychology,133(4), 542-550.
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ManyPrimates, Altschul, D. M., Beran, M. J., Bohn, M., Caspar, K. R., Fichtel, C., Försterling, M., Grebe, N. M., Hernandez-Aguilar, R. A., Kwok, S. C., LLorente, M., Motes Rodrigo, A., Proctor, D., Sánchez Amaro, A., Simpson, E. A., Szabelska, A., Taylor, D., van der Mescht, J., Völter, C. J., & Watzek, J. (2019). Collaborative open science as a way to reproducibility and new insights in primate cognition research. Japanese Psychological Review,62(103), 205-220.

Tennie, C., Völter, C. J., Vonau, V., Hanus, D., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2019). Chimpanzees use observed temporal directionality to learn novel causal relations. Primates,60, 517-524.
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Civelek, Z; Völter, C; Seed, A (2019): Do preschoolers and capuchin monkeys infer causes or learn associations? 53--ASAB Konstanz Summer Conference; AUG 26-28, 2019; Konstanz, Germany.

Felsche, E; Stevens, P; Völter, CJ; Buchsbaum, D; Seed, A (2019): Exploring the use of overhypotheses by children and capuchin monkeys. 1731-1737.-The Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society; July 24-27, 2019; Montreal, Canada.

Völter, C. J., & Call, J. (2018). Intuitive optics: What great apes infer from mirrors and shadows. Animal Cognition,21(4), 493-512.
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Völter, CJ; Tinklenberg, B; Call, J; Seed, AM (2018): Comparative psychometrics: establishing what differs is central to understanding what evolves. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2018; 373(1756)
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Schmelz, M., Duguid, S., Bohn, M., & Völter, C. J. (2017). Cooperative problem solving in giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis) and Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea). Animal Cognition,20(6), 1107-1114.
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Völter, C. J., Rossano, F., & Call, J. (2017). Social manipulation in nonhuman primates: Cognitive and motivational determinants. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews,82, 76-94.
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Bohn, M., Allritz, M., Call, J., & Völter, C. J. (2017). Information seeking about tool properties in great apes. Scientific Reports,7: 10923.
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Völter, C. J., & Call, J. (2017). Causal and inferential reasoning in animals. In G. M. Burghardt, I. M. Pepperberg, C. T. Snowdon, & T. Zentall ( Eds. ), APA handbook of comparative psychology Vol 2: Perception, learning, and cognition (pp. 643-671). US: American Psychological Association.
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Völter, C. J., & Call, J. (2017). Cognition. In A. Fuentes ( Ed. ), International Encyclopedia of Primatology (pp. 196-203). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Völter, C. J., Sentís, I., & Call, J. (2016). Great apes and children infer causal relations from patterns of variation and covariation. Cognition,155, 30-43.
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Völter, C. J., Rossano, F., & Call, J. (2015). From exploitation to cooperation: Social tool use in orang-utan mother–offspring dyads. Animal Behaviour,100, 126-134.
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Völter, C. J., & Call, J. (2014). The cognitive underpinnings of flexible tool use in great apes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition,40(3), 287-302.
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Völter, C. J., & Call, J. (2014). Great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, Pongo abelii) follow visual trails to locate hidden food. Journal of Comparative Psychology,128(2), 199-208.
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Völter, C. J., & Call, J. (2014). Younger apes and human children plan their moves in a maze task. Cognition,130(2), 186-203.
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Völter, C. (2014). Problem solving in great apes: On the effect of visual feedback, causal inferences, and planning. PhD Thesis, Bielefeld Univ., Bielefeld.

Manrique, H. M., Völter, C. J., & Call, J. (2013). Repeated innovation in great apes. Animal Behaviour,85(1), 195-202.
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Völter, C., & Call, J. (2012). Problem solving in great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, and Pongo abelii): the effect of visual feedback. Animal Cognition,15(5), 923-936.
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