معرفی
James Close is a Lecturer in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), affiliated with the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the School of Psychology, Sport and Sensory Science. His research focuses on the development and evolution of cognition and prosociality, particularly in humans and animals. He holds a PhD from Cardiff University (2010) and has held positions including Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (2010-2012) and Program Coordinator for Psychology at Webster University in Thailand (2018-2021).
Research interests include unsupervised categorization, prosocial behavior development, and the influence of religion on behavior. He supervises projects on unsupervised categorization, pro-environmental behavior, and fostering prosocial tendencies. Teaching focuses on research methods, cognitive psychology, and behavioral analysis.
Key publications explore cross-species cognition (e.g., chimpanzee visual perception), categorization mechanisms, and similarity judgments. Awards include Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society and Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. He has secured grants like the DAAD scholarship (€4,000, 2010).
Recent work investigates religiosity's impact on risk preferences and mindfulness practices. He contributes to the ARU Centre for Mind and Behaviour and actively participates in international conferences on spirituality and psychology.
