The ontogeny and phylogeny of human cooperative problemsolving and social preferences in cooperative contexts.

My proposed PhD will explore human cooperative problem-solving
in both evolutionary and developmental contexts. Using an
experimental paradigm never before used with children, but
popular amongst researchers of non-human animal cognition, I will
explore the relationship between social intelligence and problemsolving
ability in the development of cooperative problem-solving
in children. I expect that children will be unable to solve the task
until both social and problem-solving skills have matured. I will also
explore the role and development of social biases in cooperative
contexts. A recent hypothesis suggests that such biases and
preferences should change throughout development as children
will go from being highly dependent upon their adult carers, to
needing to develop peer relationships that will aid survival in later
life. I will test this using a partner-choice experiment with children
between the ages of 2 and 6 years old, and an experiment that
evaluates concerns for reputations using different observers. I
expect that young children should prefer to cooperate and be
more concerned for their reputation around adults, but that, as
children develop, their concerns for cooperative partnership and
reputation should switch to being more peer-oriented. Finally, I
will explore human cooperative problem-solving abilities in an
evolutionary context, testing two species of corvid (a bird family
known for their high levels of intelligence) with vastly different
social structures, in the same task. This will help to clarify the role
of selective pressures on social cognition in the evolution of human
cooperative problem-solving.