Evolution of CognitionThis group, under the leadership of anthropologists, embraces cognitive sciences in two fundamental ways. Firstly, the evolution of humans as biological organism from our ape-like small-brained ancestors to modern homo sapiens tracks dramatic changes in the size and structure of the brain. This trend is reflected in fossil records. Secondly, while sociocultural anthropologists study the tremendous diversity in human cultures, they recognize the vast underlying similarities in human thought processes and principals in social organizations. The cognitive science comparative approach offers a way of exploring what is universal in humans and what distinguishes human thought from that of other animals.
While anthropologists form the core of the research group on the evolution of cognition, interest in the topic extends to nearly all members of the cognitive science faculty. For instance, linguistic typology, the study of the range of differences and similarities among human languages, can be viewed as an examination of how an important aspect of the human cognitive capacity differs among groups of humans, and between humans and other species. Psychologists in the group have analogous interests with respect to other aspects of cognition, e.g. spatial cognition. (See also "Theory of Mind" above.)
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