Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Cognitive capacities such as learning, reasoning, anddecision-making are often studied in tasks where a single par-ticipant acts in isolation. Yet humans don’t learn, reason, andmake decisions in a vacuum. Human cognition is distinc-tively social: Much of what we do influences—and is influ-enced by—other people.The goal of this workshop is to bring together diverse per-spectives on the interplay between human cognition and thedynamic, social environments we inhabit. The workshop isorganized around three key themes. Theme 1 lays out thecognitive tools that equip individuals to thrive in social en-vironments, including specialized mechanisms for teachingand learning from others. Theme 2 examines how the socialenvironment is itself shaped by the dynamic interactions be-tween multiple individuals, producing emergent behaviors atthe level of the collective. Finally, Theme 3 explores howhuman cognition responds to the demands of particular so-cial environments, including how cultural variability in socialcognition might emerge across development.Collectively, the research showcased in this workshopenriches this year’s conversation on “How to Develop aMind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines”by highlighting the social and cultural context of learn-ing and development. In addition, our speakers representa broad cross-section of the conference, spanning multi-ple disciplines (computer science, anthropology, psychol-ogy), perspectives (computational, ecological, developmen-tal), and career stages (from research assistants to full pro-fessors). Below, we describe each theme and presentercontributions in detail. To take part in the workshop,visit cognitioncollectivesandculture.github.io forthe current schedule.