Situated Social Cognition

南非祖鲁人有句谚语“Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”（一个人通过他人成为一个人）。然而，这不仅仅是一句谚语，因为它构成了我研究心理学方法的基石。通过研究我们的非人类灵长类表亲的社会行为与我们自己的社会行为的关系，我们可以发现其他人的行为是如何帮助塑造他们生活的社会世界的。灵长类动物强烈的社会性是其决定性的特征之一，人们认为它决定了大脑的大小和结构，以及我们在这个世界上思考和行动的特定方式。这一领域的研究通常认为社会认知是一种抽象的、“无实体”的过程，只发生在大脑内部。然而，最近在神经生物学、机器人和认知科学方面的研究强调，与世界和其他个体的身体接触，可以而且应该被视为任何认知过程的重要组成部分。反过来，这意味着认知可以被认为是可见的、公开的和社会的，而不仅仅是不可见的、隐藏的和私人的。当我们观察其他动物的行为模式时，我们可以看到它们的心理活动在我们面前展开。重点关注自然社会环境中的行为，目的是测试关于社会互动支撑和塑造生活史过程、认知发展和社会生活方式的预测，并评估情感和感知机制对社会理解和群体结构的影响。通过这种方式，我们可以探索在整个生命周期中居住的各种“社会生态位”是如何影响心理功能的，同时也可以突出人类和非人类灵长类动物之间有趣的相似之处，并指出一些同样有趣的差异可能在哪里。通过挑战长期以来关于灵长类动物认知和社交的范式，这项工作为一种新的认知和社会心理学铺平了道路，通过更多地了解驾驭复杂社会景观所需的技能，有可能增强个体的社会体验

The Zulu people of South Africa have a saying "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" (A person is a person through people"). This is more than just a proverb, however, as it forms the bedrock of my approach to the study of psychology. By investigating the social behavior of our non-human primate cousins in relation to our own, we can discover how the actions of others help shape the social worlds in which they live. The intensely social nature of primate life is one of its defining characterisics, and is thought to have shaped both the size and structure of the brain, and the particular ways in which we think and act in the world. Research in this area has usually considered social cognition to be an abstract, 'disembodied' process that take places solely inside the head. Recent work in neurobiology, robotics and cognitive science, however, emphasizes that physical, bodily engagement with the world, and with other individuals, can and should be considered as part and parcel of any cognitive process.This, in turn, means that cognition can be considered as visible, public and social, and not simply as invisible, hidden and private. We can see the mental activity of other animals roll out in front of us, as we observe their patterns of behaviour over time. With a focus on behaviour in its natural social setting, the aim here is to test predictions regarding the manner in which social interactions both scaffold and shape life history processes, cognitive development and social life, and assess the influence of emotional and perceptual mechanisms on social understanding and group structure. In this way, we can explore how the various kinds of 'social niches' inhabited throughout the lifespan influence psychological functioning, as well as highlight both the interesting similarities between human and non-human primates, and pinpointing where some of the equally interesting differences may lie. By challenging long-held paradigms about cognition and socialization in primates, this work paves the way for a new kind of cognitive and social psychology, with the potential to enhance individual social experience by understanding more about the skills needed to navigate our complex social landscapes