Hominid Event Cognition

Human language relies on a rich cognitive machinery, partially shared with other animals. Speficailly, agent-patient relations in event cognition drive how languages are processed neurally and expressions structured syntactically. What was the evolutionary transition that enabled compositional abilities to be recruited for vocal and gestural communication? The thesis follows up on the hypothesis that the key evolutionary transition is more in expressive rather than conceptual abilities, focusing on the difference between simple and complex events. To explore this topic, I will conduct research on how great apes and humans perceive, represent and communicate agent-patient interactions and how this relates to language cognition. The data collection will be conducted with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans at the Basel Zoo using eye-tracking and touch screen technologies.