RESEARCH INTERESTS

&

PROFESSIONAL SPECIALIZATION

model of engaged scholarship

&

Ethical commitment to participant communites

In my own research, I collaborate with participant communities and their representative bodies, indigenous rights groups, and international NGOs during study design, data collection, dissemination, and through One Pencil Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. I cofounded One Pencil Project in 2018 and currently serve as President.

one pencil project focuses on research that combines scientific inquiry & engaged Scholarship

One Pencil focuses on scientific research that promotes authentic and long-term commitments to partnership sustainability, responsiveness to causes of inequality, and shared benefits with participant communities. Learn more about our outreach and current investigative work here.

one pencil project promotes models that link academic institutions & community engagement

Models of engaged scholarship acknowledge that academic research institutions represent important sites of power and influence (both positive or negative) on the communities they engage with, the communities they utilize for scientific enquiry, and even the communities in which they are physically embedded. The recent inclusion of Community Engagement within the Carnegie classification system for universities demonstrates that models of community engaged scholarship are becoming increasingly accepted and expected across academic disciplines and institutions.

From the beginning, engaged scholarship has been One Pencil’s core tenet. We draw on the principles outlined by Norris-Tirrell and colleagues (2010), including (1) a long-term commitment to community-engaged research and authentic partnering, (2) civic engagement, (3) and working toward participant community goals, including economic, social, and cultural well-being.

It is my hope that One Pencil Project’s paradigm will be replicated by others throughout the scientific and academic communities in practice, as well as through teaching and mentoring.

recent work linked to engaged scholarship by topic

cultural instututionS & Cognitive development

The formal schooling niche: Longitudinal evidence from Bolivian Amazon demonstrates that higher school quality augments differences in children's abstract reasoning. (under review)

Hunter-gatherer children at school: A view from the Global South. (under review)

Quantifying quality: The impact of measures of school quality on children’s academic achievement across diverse societies. (in press) Developmental Science.

Examining relations between performance on non-verbal executive function and verbal self-regulation tasks in demographically-diverse populations. Developmental Science (2022)

Cultural change reduces gender differences in mobility and spatial ability among forager-pastoralist children, the Twa of northern Namibia. Human Nature (2021)

spatial cognition & enviornmental exploration

Cultural change reduces gender differences in mobility and spatial ability among forager-pastoralist children, the Twa of northern Namibia. Human Nature. (2021)

Spatial cognition, navigation, and mobility among children in a forager-horticulturalist population, the Tsimané of Bolivia. Cognitive Development (2019)

Ecological & cultural perspectives on learning

Beyond Newton: Why assumptions of universality are critical to cognitive science, and how to finally move past them. (under review)

Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter‑gatherer and mixed‑subsistence forager societies. Scientific Reports (2022)

Ecological and Developmental Perspectives on Social Learning. Human Nature (2021)

Cognition & Aging

Navigational experience and the preservation of spatial abilities into old age among a tropical forager-horticulturalist population. Topics in Cognitive Science (2022).

Cognitive performance across the life course of Bolivian forager-farmers with limited schooling. Developmental Psychology (2017)

Parenting across cultures

Fatherhood and Child–Father Attachment in Two Small-Scale Societies. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (2023)

You don’t have to know where you children are, just where they aren’t. Parents and Caregivers Across Cultures (2020)

Patterning of Paternal Investment in Response to Socioecological Change. Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution (2018)

research networks

&

community collaborations

Peer reviewed Publications

(*indicates co-first author or corresponding author. ^indicates equal authorship contribution)

Rawlings, B., *Davis, H.E., Anum, A., Burger, O., Chen, L., Castro Morales, J., Dutra, N., Dzabatou, A., Ngouabi, M., Dzokoto, V., Erut, A., Fong, FTK., Ghelardi, S., Goldwater, M., Ingram, G., Messer, E., Kingsford, J., Lew-Levy, S., Mendez, K., Newhouse, M., Nielsen, M., Pamei, G., Pope-Caldwell, S., Ramos, K., Echeverria Rojas, L.E., Silveira, L., Watzek, J., Wirth, C., & Legare,CH. (in press) Quantifying quality: The impact of measures of school quality on children’s academic achievement across diverse societies. Developmental Science.

*Davis, H.E., Stieglitz, J., Kaplan, H., Maito Tayo, A., & Gurven, M. (under review). The formal schooling niche: School quality augments differences in children’s abstract reasoning in a longitudinal study from Amazonia, Bolivia.

Ninkova, V., Hays, J., Lavi, N., Ali, A., Lopes da Silva Macedo, S., *^Davis, H.E., & Lew-Levy, S. (under review). Hunter-gatherer children at school: A view from the Global South.

Caldwell, A.E. ,Hooper, P., Cummings, D.K., Trumble, B., Stieglitz, J., Gurven, M., Davis, H.E., Kaplan, H.(under review). Physical activity, sedentary behavior and pubertal maturation among Tsimane’ youth and adolescents: Public health implications.

Prall, S., Scelza, B., & Davis,H.E. (under review). Medical mistrust, discrimination, and health care experiences in Namibian pastoralists.

Kroupin, I., Davis, H.E., & Henrich, J.(under review). Beyond Newton: Why assumptions of universality are critical to cognitive science, and how to finally move past them.

Kraft, T., Seabright, E., Alami, S., Hooper, P., Beheim, B., Davis, H.E., Garcia, A., Cummings, D., Eid Rodriguez, D., Trumble, B.C., Stieglitz, J., Kaplan, K., & Gurven, M. (under review). Meta population dynamics of infectious disease transmission in a small-scale human society.

Weisman, K., Ghossainy, ME., Williams, AJ., Payir, A., Lesage, KA., Reyes-Jaquez, B., Amin, T., Anggoro, FK., Burdett, RE., Chen, EC., Coetzee, L., Coley, JD., Dahl, A., Dautel, J., Davis, H.E., Davis, EL., Diesendruck, G., Evans, G., Feeney, A., Gurven, M., Jee, BD., Kramer, HJ., Kushnir, T., McAuliffe, K., McLaughlin, A., Nichols, S., Rockers, PC., Shneidman, L., Srinivasan, M., Tarullo, AR, Taylor, LK., Yu, Y., Yucel, M., Zhao, X., Corriveau, K., & Richert, RA.(under review). The development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior: Protocol for Wave 1 data collection with children and parents by the Developing Belief Network.

Broesch, T., von Rueden, C., Yurkowski, K., Quinn, H., Alami, S., Davis, H.E., Stupica, B., Tari, J., Bureau, J.F. (2023). Fatherhood and father-child attachment in two small-scale societies. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

Ross, C.T., Hooper, P.L., Smith, J.E., Jaeggi, A.V., Smith, E.A., Gavrilets, S., Zohora, F.T., Ziker, J., Xygalatas, D., Wroblewski, E.E., …Davis, H.E., et al.(2023). Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lew-Levy, S., Reckin, R., Kissler, S.M., Boyette, A.H., Crittenden, A., Hagen, R., Haas, R., Kramer, K., Koster, J., O’Brien, M., Pretelli, I., Sonoda, K., Surovell, T., Stieglitz, J., Tucker, B., Lavi, N., Ellis-Davies, K., & *Davis, H.E. (2022). Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies. Scientific reports.

*Davis, H.E., Gurven, M., & Cashdan, E. (2022). Navigational experience and the preservation of spatial abilities into old age among a tropical forager-horticulturalist population. Topics in Cognitive Science.

Henrich, J., Blasi, D., Curtin, C., Davis, H.E., Hong, Z.K., Kelly, D., & Kroupin, I. (2022). A cultural species and its cognitive phenotypes. Review of Philosophy and Psychology.

Wallace, I.J., Kraft, T., Venkataraman, V., Davis, H.E., Holowka, N.B., Harris, A., Lieberman, D., & Gurven, M. (2022). Cultural variation in running techniques among non-industrial societies. Evolutionary Human Sciences.

Dutra, N.B., Chen, L., Anum, A., Burger, O., Davis, H.E., Dzokoto, V.A., Fong, F.F., Ghelardi, S., Mendez, K., Messer, E.J., Newhouse, M., Nielsen, M.G., Ramos, K., Rawlings, B., dos Santos, R., Silveiral, L., Tucker-Drob, E., & Legare, C.H. (2022). Examining relations between performance on non-verbal executive function and verbal self-regulation tasks in demographically-diverse populations. Developmental Science.

*Davis, H.E., Stack, J., & Cashdan, E. (2021). Cultural change reduces gender differences in mobility and spatial ability among seminomadic pastoralist-forager children in northern Namibia. Human Nature.

Kramer, K., Heckman, J., Schacht, R., & Davis, H.E. (2021). Effects of family planning on fertility behaviour across the demographic transition. Scientific Reports.

*Davis, H.E., Crittenden, A.N., & Scalise Sugiyama, M. (2021). Ecological and developmental perspectives on social learning. Human Nature.

*Davis, H.E., & Cashdan, E. (2020). You don’t have to know where your kids are, just where they aren’t: Exploring free-range parenting in the Bolivian Amazon. Parents and Caregivers Across Cultures. (Eds. Ashdown, B Faherty, A.).

*Davis, H.E., & Cashdan, E. (2019). Spatial cognition, navigation, and mobility among children in a forager-horticulturalist population, the Tsimane of Bolivia. Cognitive Development.

Schacht, R., Davis, H.E., & Kramer, K. L. (2018). Patterning of Paternal Investment in Response to Socioecological Change. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

Gurven, M., Fuerstenberg, E., Trumble, B., Stieglitz, J., Beheim, B., Davis, H.E., & Kaplan, H. (2017). Cognitive performance across the life course of Bolivian forager-farmers with limited schooling. Developmental Psychology.

Gurven, M., Stieglitz, J., Trumble, B., Blackwell, A. D., Beheim, B., Davis, H.E., Hooper, P., & Kaplan, H. (2017). The Tsimane Health and Life History Project: Integrating anthropology and biomedicine. Evolutionary Anthropology.

Cashdan, E., Kramer, K., Davis, H.E., Padilla, L., & Greaves, R. (2016). Mobility and navigation among the Yucatec Maya. Human Nature.

Manuscripts in Revision

(available online or by request)

^Davis, H.E., ^Fortier, M., ^Wente, A.O., Fernandez Flecha, M., & Gopnik, A. (under revision). Abstract causal knowledge: Evidence that foraging and subsistence populations learn multiple causality more readily than formally schooled U.S. and Peruvian populations.

Kroupin, I., Davis, H.E., & Henrich, J. (under revision). A review of cultural institutions and cognition in the 20th century.

Ruginski, I., Stepanucci,J., Crittenden, A., Kramer, K., Greaves, R., Sugiyama, L., Davis, H.E., Creem-Regehr, S., & Cashdan, E. (under revision). The MRTX: A chronometric mental rotation task accessible across age and culture.

Broesch, T., Gergely, G., Henrich, J., Barrett, C., Olah, K., Gurven, M., McElreath, R., Kanovsky, M., Schug, M., Von Rueden, C., Davis, H.E., & Laurence, S. (under revision). Evidence for natural pedagogy as a human universal.

Moya, C., Fessler, D., Henrich, J., Zhao, W., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Davis, H.E., Gurven, M., Kanovsky, M., Kushnick, G., Pisor, A., Scelza, B., von Rueden, C., & Laurence, S. (under revision). Norm enforcement in small-scale societies depends on coordinated third party responses and pre-existing relationships.

*Davis, H.E., & Henrich, J. (under revision). Group organization and cultural transmission networks across childhood.

Manuscripts in preparation

(analysis in progress)

Davis, H.E., Gurven, M., & Trumble, B. (n.d.). Trade-offs between skill and physical ability: Strategies shift toward lower variance and smaller package-size animals with older age.

Davis, H.E., Henrich, J., & Muthukrishna, M. (n.d.). Casually identifying the effects of formal schooling on cognition.

*^Davis, H.E., ^Kroupin, I., & Henrich, J. (n.d.). Lost skills: Cognitive trade-offs with formal schooling exposure.

Links to

stories & awards

• The Sausage of Science Podcast: Navigating Childhood Cognition with Dr. Helen Davis. January 2022

• Leigh Mintrun Early Career Award at the Society for Cross Cultural Research (2020)

• Making Science Work: The Queensland Test with 3D Printing. Creativity & Innovation: Utah Marriot News.

• American Anthropology Association’s Book Forum: Best New Investigator Award (2018)

• International Society for Intelligence Research: Best Paper Award (2018)

• Distinguished Leigh Lecture (2018)

• Researchers switch focus in flood-hit Tsimane lands. The Albuquerque Journal (2014)

projects & Blogs

worth checking out

• The One Pencil Project 501(c)(3): The intersection of Education, Scientific Research & Philanthropy

• Prosocial World

• Culture, Cognition, and Coevolution Lab

• The Developing Belief Network: Cognitive & Cultural Influences on Belief

• Society for Cross Cultural Research

• Muthukrishna Lab, London School of Economics

• Mammals Suck….Milk!

• Bonobo Conservation Initiative

• Forager Children Study Group

• Spatial Cognition and Navigation (SCAN) Project

• Gurven Lab: UC Santa Barbara

• GUR Cafe podcast! : From spatial learning to all things Games User Research

• The Global Birth Project

• HIZETJITWA Indigenous Peoples Organisation (HIPO)

• The Tsimane Health and Life History Project

ongoing longitudinal research projects in

southern africa & South America

Contact information