Core cognition is all about how our brains understand and make sense of the world around us. Scientists study how we understand things like numbers, objects, space, and other people. We also look at how we think about ourselves and how we can use our knowledge to make decisions. We want to understand how these abilities develop in humans and how they compare to other animals like great apes.

• Spatial cognition: The mental processes involved in perceiving, understanding, and navigating through space.
• Analogical reasoning: Drawing similarities between different situations or concepts to make inferences or solve problems.
• Numerical cognition: The cognitive processes involved in understanding quantities and probabilities.
• Metacognition: Awareness and control of one’s own cognitive processes, such as monitoring and regulating learning.

Social cognition is all about how we understand and interact with other people. Scientists study how we can figure out what others are thinking and feeling, and how we use that information to guide our own behavior and communicate with them. They think that this ability is what makes humans different from other animals and allows us to learn from each other and work together. We study how we understand things like what others see, know, want, feel, and believe, and how we use that understanding in social situations. We also look at how our ability to understand others is different from or similar to great apes, and how our social and physical environment affects our social skills.

Theory of mind: The ability to understand and attribute mental states, such as beliefs, desires, and intentions, to oneself and others.

Perspective-taking: The cognitive process of imagining oneself in another person’s position and understanding their point of view.

Hyperactive agency detection: The cognitive bias to percieve faces, purposes, or agents, even when there are none present. 

Social learning is the process of learning from others by observing their actions and behaviors. It’s how we acquire knowledge and skills by watching and imitating others. Scientists study how both humans and animals figure out what information is important in social interactions, who they prefer to learn from, and when they choose to follow what the majority is doing. We want to understand how humans learn socially, what we have in common with other animals like great apes, and how our environment affects our learning strategies.

• Social preferences: Individual preferences for specific individuals as sources of information or models for learning.
• Selective trust: The ability to determine which individuals are more reliable and trustworthy sources of information.
• Social conformity: The tendency to adjust one’s beliefs or behaviors to match those of a social group.
• Overimitation: The tendency to imitate all aspects of a model’s behavior, even when some actions are unnecessary or irrelevant to achieving a goal.
• Teaching: The deliberate transmission of knowledge or skills from one individual to another, with the intention of facilitating learning.