Connecting Minds. Integrating models of cognitive evolution.

The field of cognitive evolution incorporates research from different fields and disciplines ranging from palaeoanthropology and archaeology to biology and cognitive science. While guided by a common interest, the origins of non-human and human cognition, and a unifying evolutionary framework, often these varied approaches diverge more than they overlap. Recent methodological and empirical developments in neuroscience, genomics, and the fossil record are quickly revolutionising research paradigms in cognitive evolution, while simultaneously broadening the gap between current data and existing interpretive frameworks, many of which were formulated decades ago.

We aim at reducing those breaches by opening a dialogue among researchers who find themselves in the middle of these changes and are even generating the knowledge that is challenging the established paradigms. During our workshop, we will discuss developments across several disciplines with the goal of connecting our data and finding points of integration to support updated and well-informed interdisciplinary models of cognitive evolution. Our program will allow for group and individual exchanges that, we hope, will generate lasting collaborations that will blaze a trail for future research on the evolution of cognition.