Professor Thomas Suddendorf

Fellow

Bio/Profile
Brief biography
Thomas grew up in Germany and joined UQ in 1999 following postgraduate studies in New Zealand. He investigates mental capacities in young children and in animals to answer fundamental questions about the nature and evolution of the human mind. His research has attracted several awards (incl. from the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, the Australian Psychological Society and the American Psychological Association); The Gap was reviewed (inter alia) in Nature, Science and The Wall Street Journal) is being translated into several languages.
Books
Suddendorf, Thomas, Redshaw, Jonathan and Bulley, Adam (2022). The invention of tomorrow: a natural history of foresight. New York, NY, United States: Basic Books.

Suddendorf, Thomas (2013). The gap: the science of what separates us from other animals. New York, NY, United States: Basic Books.

Book Chapters.
Suddendorf, Thomas and Redshaw, Jonathan (2022). Anticipation of future events. Encyclopedia of animal cognition and behavior. (pp. 349-358) Cham, Switzerland: Springer Cham. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7_1082
von Hippel, William, von Hippel, Frank and Suddendorf, Thomas (2021). Evolutionary foundations of social psychology. Social psychology: handbook of basic principles . (pp. 5-22). Ed Paul van Lange, Tory Higgins & Arie Kruglanski. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Suddendorf, Thomas (2020). An evolutionary perspective on mental time travel. The Oxford handbook of psychology of time travel and temporality. edited by Frederick M.E. Grouzet. Oxford,: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190256685.013.12
Bulley, Adam, Redshaw, Jonathan & Suddendorf, Thomas (2020). The future-directed functions of the imagination: from prediction to metaforesight. The Cambridge handbook of the imagination. (pp. 425-444) edited by Anna Abraham. New York, NY, United States: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108580298.026
Suddendorf, Thomas (2019). Die Entwicklung des Unterschieds. Was den Mensch zum besonderen Tier macht. Entwicklung als kinder- und jugendmedizinische Besonderheit. (pp. 10-12) edited by Klaus Rodens. Koeln, Germany: Berufverband der Kinder- und Jugendarzte.
Suddendorf, Thomas and Redshaw, Jonathan (2017). Anticipation of future events. Encyclopedia of animal cognition and behavior. (pp. 1-9) Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1082-1
Suddendorf, Thomas (2016). Die Natur und Erstehung der Kluft zwischen Mensch und Tier. Der Mensch, ein Tier? Das Tier, ein Mensch?. (pp. 55-61) edited by Johannes Weinzirl and Peter Heusser. Wuerzburg, Germany: Verlag Konigshausen & Neumann.
Suddendorf, Thomas, Brinums, Melissa and Imuta, Kana (2016). Shaping one's future self: the development of deliberate practice. Seeing the future: theoretical perspectives on future-oriented mental time travel. (pp. 343-366) edited by Kourken Michaelian, Stanley B. Klein and Karl K. Szpunar. New York, United States: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190241537.003.0017
Suddendorf, Thomas (2014). Uniquely human. The Best Australian Science Writing. (pp. 180-187) Ed by Ashley Hay. Sydney, NSW, Australia: NewSouth.
Suddendorf, Thomas and Dong, Andy (2013). On the evolution of imagination and design. Oxford handbook on the development of imagination. (pp. 453-467) edited by Marjorie Taylor. New York, NY,: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195395761.013.0029
Suddendorf, Thomas (2012). The Rise of the Metamind. The Descent of Mind: Psychological Perspectives on Hominid Evolution. (pp. 218-260) edited by Michael Corballis and Stephen E. G. Lea. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192632593.003.0012
Suddendorf, Thomas (2011). Mirror self-recognition on Earth. Consciousness and the universe: quantum physics, evolution, brain & mind. (pp. 782-787) edited by Roger Penrose, Stuart Hameroff and Subhash Kak. Cambridge, MA, United States: Cosmology Science Publishers.
Suddendorf, Thomas, Addis, Donna Rose and Corballis, Michael C. (2011). Mental time travel and the shaping of the human mind. Predictions in the brain: using our past to generate a future. (pp. 344-354) edited by Moshe Bar. New York, United States: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395518.003.0121
Corballis, Michael C. and Suddendorf, Thomas (2010). The evolution of concepts: a timely look. The making of human concepts. (pp. 365-386) edited by Denis Marshal, Paul C. Quinn and S. E. G. Lea. New York: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549221.003.17
Suddendorf, Thomas and Corballis, M. C. (2008). Episodic memory and mental time travel. Handbook of Episodic Memory. (pp. 31-42) edited by Dere, K., Easton, A., Nadel, L. and Huston, J.. Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/S1569-7339(08)00203-8
Whiten, Andrew and Suddendorf, Thomas (2007). Great ape cognition and the evolutionary roots of human imagination. Imaginative Minds. (pp. 31-59) edited by Ilona Roth. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.5871/bacad/9780197264195.003.0002
Corballis, M. and Suddendorf, Thomas (2007). Memory, Time, and Language. What makes us human?. (pp. 17-36) edited by Pasternak, C.. United Kingdom: Oneworld Publications.
Nielsen, M. G., Suddendorf, T. and Dissanayake, C. (2006). Imitation and self-recogntion in autism: In search of an explanation. Imitation and the Social Mind: Autism and Typical Development. (pp. 138-197) edited by S.J. Rogers and J.H.G. Williams. New York, NY United States: The Guilford Press.
Suddendorf, Thomas and Whiten, Andrew (2003). Reinterpreting the Mentality of Apes. From Mating to Mentality: Evaluating Evolutionary Psychology. (pp. 173-196) edited by K. Sterelny and J. Fitness. New York: Psychology Press. doi: 10.4324/9780203484708
Suddendorf, T. (2001). A developmental link between the production of gestural representation and understanding of mental representation. Theory in Context and Out. (pp. 217-231) edited by S. Reifel. Westport, Connecticut: Ablex Publishing.

Other papers
132 Papers; a dozen press articles (incl CNN, Huffington Post, BBC, TedX, The Conversation)
7 ARC and NHMRC Grants
14 Completed and 4 current PhD Supervisions