Research Partners

Goldsmiths, University of London, UK (Coordinator)

INCM-CNRS, Marseille, France

University of Portsmouth, UK

MPI-EVA, Leipzig, Germany

Lund University, Sweden (SEDSU)

ISTC-CNR, Rome, Italy

Publications

2008/In Press

2007

2006

2005

Events

SEDSU WORKSHOP

Novartis Foundation 06/07 December, 2007

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SEDSU SYMPOSIUM

Lund University 29/30 September, 2006

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Welcome to SEDSU


An advanced ability to use and interpret signs is one of the characteristic features of human beings, setting us apart from the rest of the animal world. Through the SEDSU project, European specialists in human and primate cognition will study how sign use changes with the evolutionary development of species and within individual development. A better understanding of the different factors underlying sign acquisition in humans will have important implications for social and educational policies.

The question of what makes us human has occupied the minds of philosophers and scientists across the centuries. Recent advances in genome sequencing have made the debate even more pertinent, as we now know that the quantitative genetic differences between us and many other mammalian, particularly primate, species, are extremely small. The SEDSU project aims to provide one answer by demonstrating that what characterises humans is their advanced ability to engage in sign use.

By studying the relationship between five distinct cognitive domains and their roles in the development of sign use and language, the project team will show how sign use changes, both with the evolutionary development of species and within the lifestage development of individuals. The five domains are divided into work packages – perception and categorisation; iconicity and pictures; spatial conceptualisation and metaphor; imitation and mimesis; and inter-subjectivity and conventions – are each characterised by a developmental profile linked to a distinct semiotic process, such as the use of pictorial representations or gesturing.

Using an interdisciplinary approach and a specially developed set of analytical tools, the team hopes to demonstrate that the transition from one developmental stage to another can be explained by the acquisition of a cognitive ability to use more advanced forms of signs, and to differentiate between the sign itself - such as a word or an abstract symbol - and what it represents.

NEST
NEST (New and Emerging Science and Technology) is a new activity in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). It aims to support unconventional and visionary research with the potential to open new fields for European science and technology, as well as research on potential problems uncovered by science.

Pathfinder: What it means to be human
It is now possible to envisage an integrated understanding of the human mind, linking genetic and biological dimensions to the behavioural and ultimately the societal and cultural. The key question to be addressed is "what features make human cognitive abilities unique, and what are the origins of these features?". Projects will take a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together scientists from disciplines ranging from anthropology, neuroscience, linguistics, biology, genetics, to psychology.