Title: Transmission of and interference from others' cognitive states: evidence from human children and great apes

Contact to meet Sophie: Dr Barbora Siposova barbora.siposova@warwick.ac.uk

Human adults automatically co-represent the task of a co-actor online when acting in a minimally joint manner (Sebanz et al., 2003). This mechanism is argued to have evolved to aid prediction of a joint action partner, but it also causes interference on one’s own task performance in certain circumstances. I will present a series of studies looking at the ontogeny and phylogeny of this phenomenon. Study 1 looked at how co-representation develops over childhood, with results suggesting that this is a fairly late-developing phenomenon (around 4 years). Study 2 looked at why co-representation might develop at this age, by measuring individual differences in children's co-representation interference in relation to other developing cognitive skills such as executive functions and Theory of Mind. Study 3 introduces an evolutionary perspective, investigating whether this tendency is a human-specific adaptation (possibly for collaboration) or whether it is shared with great apes. I am currently expanding this investigation of task interference to transmission of/interference from other cognitive or emotional states, and hope to present some preliminary data from a new project on stress transmission from adults to children.

Dr Sophie Milward, University of Portsmouth

Host: Dr John Michael

3.30pm Refreshments in Common Roon

4pm Talk