CSC - Alexandra Rosati / The primate origins of complex cognition
CSC - Alexandra Rosati / The primate origins of complex cognition
Thursday November 7, Alexandra Rosati joins us from the University of Michigan to discuss her work on the evolutionary origins of the human mind, as understood through comparative primatology. The abstract for her talk on "The primate origins of complex cognition" is below.
Human cognition is marked by especially high levels of cognitive control and flexible decision-making. What are the evolutionary roots of these cognitive traits? I will present research examining different aspects of value-based decision-making, executive function, and social decision-making capacities across primate species that vary in features of their natural history such as diet, social structure, and life history. I will use this data to test hypotheses about why different facets of ‘intelligent’ behavior emerge across species, as well as how these differences emerge in comparative development.