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Cross-Cultural Comparison

Is human cognition universal across all humans? Cross-cultural variability provides a natural laboratory to investigate this question. To date, cross-cultural cognitive differences have been found for example in the cognitive processing of color, number, time and space. Hence, despite their low genetic variability in comparison to all other apes, humans show greater cognitive variability within their species than have been documented in any other primate. However, the nature of cross-cultural differences in humans, their stability, extent and ontogeny are highly controversial.

 

Cross-Species Comparison

What were the cognitive structures of our evolutionary ancestors? Are there inherited cognitive defaults in humans? If so, which ones are evolutionarily old, and which ones are recent innovations? We try to create empirical access to these questions via phylogenetic ancestral state reconstruction. Any cognitive ability, which is part of a shared repertoire between related species, is likely to be part of the evolutionary inheritance ever since their last common ancestor. The great apes are a close family of species with a common ancestor (Hominidae). Today 5 Hominid species are still in existence: Orangutans, Gorillas, Bonobos, Chimpanzees and Humans. If all these species share a particular cognitive preference or ability, it is most likely part of the evolutionary inheritance of the family at least ever since their last common ancestor, and therefore also an evolutionarily old, inherited cognitive default in humans. In this way, behavioral continuities and discontinuities across species are used to understand evolutionary past.

 

Cross-Age Comparison

How do inherited cognitive structures and the specificity of our cultural context interact? At the intersection of our evolutionary past and our cultural circumstance lies child development. For a better understanding of cross-cultural variability we investigate it's emergence in human children across cultures. At the same time we investigate how children come to understand and participate in the uniquely human forms of group behaviour creating and maintaining inter group differences over time. Understanding the emergence of a system offers extraordinary insight into its functioning.