ROCEEH
Cognition Working Area
The expansion of cognitive capacities is a major aspect in human evolution. We study the development from a biocultural-ecological perspective.
Based on archaeological remains past behaviors are reconstructed. Comparing these performances with modern animal and human examples we infer cognitive aspects such as causal understanding, expert shortcuts, attention item-range and span, and learning/teaching. Diachronic studies give evidence about the development of these aspects; synchronic studies shed light on variety and conditions. Based on these analyses we elaborate integrative models of cultural and cognitive evolution with interdependent biological, social and ecological factors.
