Assist. Prof. Dr. Gökhan Gönül

I have a background in cognitive and developmental sciences, psychology, and sociology, and my research focuses on the development of technical, social, and goal-directed cognition, including tool use and innovation, goal understanding, social learning, and hierarchical cognition. My goal is to conduct robust, multidisciplinary research and make strong theoretical contributions that integrate evolutionary, developmental, and cultural-anthropological perspectives.

Keywords:
Developmental cognitive science, Evolution of cognition, Technical and social cognition

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Dr. Alaz Aydın

My research investigates the computational and neural underpinnings of social cognition, with a specific focus on Bayesian inference as a model for Theory of Mind reasoning. I aim to bridge the gap between formal probabilistic models and their biological implementation, exploring how the brain represents and updates internal models of other agents’ mental states.

Keywords:
Theory of mind, Bayesian cognitive modeling, Joint-attention, fNIRS, EEG, Eye-tracking

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Alibey Öztürk

I am a PhD student in Cognitive Science at METU with a background in physics, and my research focuses on the sense of agency and its relation to selfhood. I am particularly interested in how agency judgments are shaped by predictive and post hoc processes, and in studying these questions from experimental and theoretical perspectives.

Keywords:
Metacognition, Action control, Sense of agency, Self-representation, Cognitive modeling

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Batuhan Karataş

I am currently pursuing my PhD in Cognitive Science at METU, and my background is in Linguistics. The fundamental research questions that I am most interested in are: (i) how is it that children acquire languages so quickly and seemingly effortlessly; and (ii) what are the properties of natural language?

My main research interest is in natural language grammar, where I largely focus on theoretical syntax and semantics.

Keywords:
Grammar, Syntax, Semantics

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Nergis Bilge Karabulut

I am a PhD student at the Department of Cognitive Science, Graduate School of Informatics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye.

My research interests center on the evolution of cognition and language, and multimodal learning. I seek to explore these topics by employing cross-species and cross-cultural comparative approaches, and computational modelling.

Keywords:
Language evolution, Evolution of cognition, Comparative cognition

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Özge Günay

I hold a B.A. and M.A. in English Language Teaching and am currently a Ph.D. candidate in Cognitive Science at METU. My research broadly explores how cognition, language, and interaction intertwine.

Keywords:
Theory of Mind, Cognitive Development, Social Cognition

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Ayça Aydoğan

I graduated in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from METU and am currently pursuing my Master’s Degree in Cognitive Science. Also, I’ve been working as a Software Engineer for more than 4 years.

Keywords:
Music cognition, Hierarchical representations

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Erbil Babacanoğlu

I graduated from the Department of Computer Engineering at Gazi University and. I am currently doing my Master’s Degree in Cognitive Science at METU. I seek to explore the social learning strategy switches.

Keywords:
Belief update, Social learning

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Merve Ceren Berk

I graduated from the Department of Early Childhood Education at Middle East Technical University, with a minor in Molecular Biology and Genetics. I am currently pursuing my master’s degree in the same field.

My research focuses on cognitive development in early childhood, curiosity, exploration, tool making, and children’s problem-solving processes. My academic interests particularly center on social interactions, tool innovation, and the ways children’s learning experiences are shaped.

Keywords:
Cognitive Evolution, Cultural Cognition

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Özgün Özdoğan

I graduated from the Department of Biology at Middle East Technical University (METU). Throughout my undergraduate studies, I focused on neuroscience and evolutionary biology. 

Keywords:
Cognitive Evolution, Cultural Cognition

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Yağmur Esendemir

I completed both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the Department of Psychology at Bilkent University. I am particularly interested in the emergence and evolution of social cognition and its role in the origins of culture. As part of my master’s thesis, I researched overimitation in preschool children, investigating how children learn from others through overimitation.

My broader research interests include tool use, cultural cognition, and sociocultural learning. I am especially interested in exploring how social learning and cultural transmission emerge and evolve across species through comparative research involving humans and non-human animals.

Keywords:
Social cognition, Comparative cognition, Overimitation, Social learning

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Muharrem Satılmış

I am a second-year student in Early Childhood Education. In addition to my core coursework, I have taken several courses from the psychology department, which have helped me build a foundational understanding of cognitive neuroscience.

Keywords:
Neuroscience, Neuropsychology

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Assoc. Prof. Özlem Çankaya

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Early Learning and Curriculum Studies at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Canada.

My research examines cognitive development in early childhood, with particular attention to how children’s learning and thinking are shaped by play materials, cultural resources, and interactions with others. My work aims to generate evidence that supports educators and families in fostering children’s cognitive development and learning.
Keywords: Play, executive function, toys, cognitive development, cognition, culture.

Department: Early Learning and Curriculum Studies

Degrees: PhD, Cognitive Science, Carleton University (2013)
M.A., Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGill University (2008)
B.Sc., Early Childhood Education, Middle East Technical University (2005)

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Assoc. Prof. Thomas Castelain

I am a Serra Húnter Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the Universitat de Girona, Spain. I am co-PI of the Comparative Minds research group and Director of the Human Development Lab (UdG). My research examines how humans communicate, learn from others, and develop social understanding. I focus on preschoolers, studying how their communication and sociality develop as they learn to interact with others. I explore how culture shapes these abilities across societies, including small-scale populations, and use research with non-human primates and social robots to broaden our understanding of communication, cognition, and social learning.

Keywords: Communication, sociality, social cognition, cognitive development, culture.

Department: Psychology – Comparative Minds research group

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