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:
sense of agency, selfhood, agency judgments

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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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