Human Cognition Lab
This brand new laboratory is funded by the ERC Advanced Grant "SOMACCA", and is dedicated to studying human cognition in a broad comparative framework. SOMACCA stands for "The Syntax of Mind: A Computational, Comparative Approach". This five year grant will study the pattern-perception and rule-learning capabilities that underlie human music, spoken language, and visual art, and aim to determine the degree to which they are shared with non-human animals.
We have two human testing booths set up, and will soon be seeking participants!
Projects:
Auditory and Visual Pattern Pereception (Prof Tecumseh Fitch/Dr. Angela Stöger Horwath)
Comparative work on humans, pigeons and nonhuman primates using an "artificial grammar" paradigm aims to determine the level of complexity of patterns that different species are able to perceive and understand. "Complexity" is measured using the framework of formal language theory.
Visual Pattern Perception: (Mag. Gesche Westphal)
Comparative work on humans, pigeons and keas is ongoing, and seeks to understand the perception of hierarchical visual stimuli in these different species.
Recursion: (Dr. Mauricio Martins)
This project is focused on the cognitive mechanisms underlying recursion in human language, and the degree to which these are shared between music, vision and spoken language.
University Vienna
Althanstrasse 14
1090 Vienna
T: +43-1-4277-76101
F: +43-1-4277-9761