Do animals use names? Conceptual and empirical criteria

In recent years, several claims have been put forth suggesting that animals of different species address each other using receiver-specific calls that function as individual names. If accurate, this w...

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Are dolphins the only animals that call each other by name?

Science chats with cognitive psychologist Kelly Jaakkola about why this complex behavior is so difficult to find in the animal kingdom

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Addressing longstanding challenges in cognitive science with language models

Cognitive science faces ongoing challenges in research integration, formalization, conceptual clarity, and other areas, partly due to its multifaceted and interdisciplinary nature. Recent advances in artificial intelligence, particularly the development of language models, offer tools that may help address these longstanding issues. Specifically, they can help map fragmented literatures, formalize verbal theories, identify overlap among constructs and measures, generate predictions across tasks, and extract cultural or ecological structure from naturalistic data. However, these opportunities come with risks, including oversimplification, opacity, deskilling, and bias. Taken together, we conclude that language models could serve as tools for a more integrative and cumulative cognitive science when used judiciously to complement, rather than replace, human agency.

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Do animals use names? Conceptual and empirical criteria

In recent years, several claims have been put forth suggesting that animals of different species address each other using receiver-specific calls that function as individual names. If accurate, this would demonstrate a capacity for symbolic social reference that has rarely been documented in nonhuman communication systems. To evaluate such claims, we propose three minimal criteria for identifying names: individual reference, symbolic representation, and shared meaning. We then review the evidence relevant to these criteria in the species for which name-like calls have been suggested: spectacled parrotlets, common marmosets, African elephants, and bottlenose dolphins. Together, these criteria provide a clear and theoretically grounded framework for exploring the use of name-like calls in nonhuman animals.

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Wired for coherence: a network theory of self

People change across daily situations and life transformations, yet maintain a stable sense of self. Explaining this stability requires understanding how identities, traits, values, and memories interact—what changes together, what resists change, and how. We propose that the self is represented as a dynamic causal network of self-aspects linked by beliefs about how they influence one another. Coherence arises when activated self-aspects align with internal beliefs and contextual demands. When disrupted, the network restores coherence through activation shifts that preserve structure or through structural reorganization that reshapes it. This perspective distinguishes the self from associative, categorical, or hierarchical accounts by specifying directional dependencies that constrain change, and highlights how modifying connections among self-aspects promotes coherence and well-being.

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Four missing keystones in the evolutionary origins of music

Music is pervasive across human history, cultures, and development, yet its evolutionary origins remain unresolved due to the interplay of cultural and biological influences. We argue that identifying uniquely human musicality requires cross-primate comparative research that integrates rhythm and melody processing with exposure, computational principles, and intrinsic reward.

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The emerging field of cognitive brain–computer interfaces

Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) have achieved transformative success in restoring movement and communication. However, extending these approaches to decoding or recovery of cognitive function, such as attention or memory, poses fundamentally new challenges. Cognitive BCIs will need to contend with distributed and dynamic neural processes that differ sharply from the more localized, stable representations underlying motor and language control, imposing new technical and conceptual demands. Conversely, neuromodulation, long used in neurological and psychiatric therapies, offers a complementary methodological path and initial translational applications through causal modulation of cognitive circuits. Integrating these approaches into adaptive, closed-loop systems could allow cognitive BCIs to restore mental function and bridge systems neuroscience and next-generation neurotherapeutics capable of monitoring and shaping human cognition in real time.

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A decade of comparing brains to DNNs: Progress and perspectives

Over the past decade, comparisons between deep neural networks (DNNs) and the human brain have become central to cognitive neuroscience. Early work focused on vision, driven by the success of convolutional neural networks in object recognition, before such comparisons later gained traction in language with the rise of large-scale language models. These comparisons have validated existing hypotheses and generated new ones, challenging views of information processing, connectivity, and computational goals. Despite progress, debates persist over the interpretability and validity of mapping DNNs to brains, underscoring the need for more refined models and methods. Looking ahead, integrating cross-modal insights from vision and language, together with improved modeling and experimental frameworks, promises to advance the mechanistic understanding of cognition.

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Multidimensional social cognitive profiles: implications for adolescent internalizing psychopathology

Adolescence is a period of vulnerability for internalizing mental health disorders. One underappreciated mechanism of internalizing psychopathology is higher-order social cognition (i.e., cognitive processing of information about the self and others), which is highly salient during adolescence. We propose that the protracted development of social cognition during adolescence results in highly individualized, multidimensional profiles that can be characterized across four core dimensions (Propensity, Degree, Positivity, and Negativity). A social cognitive profile with greater Propensity, Degree, and Negativity, and decreased Positivity, along with associated decreases in Accuracy, may confer greater risk for internalizing psychopathology, particularly if applied inflexibly across contexts. Future research may test the utility of these profiles for stratification, prediction, or intervention targeting.

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Is AI making us stupid?

Many worry that AI use will erode human cognition. We discuss evidence suggesting that offloading cognition to AI can impede skill acquisition and lead to skill decay, but risks depend on how AI is used. We also consider whether our basic cognitive abilities might prove more resilient to this erosion.

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Clarifications about there being two necessary conditions for consciousness

We recently proposed a modification to an influential conceptual framework in consciousness science: Ned Block’s distinction between phenomenal (P) consciousness and access (A) consciousness [1]. Instead, we proposed that there is only one type of consciousness, requiring two necessary conditions [2]. Importantly, we did not propose a new definition of consciousness; we agree with the current consensus that it is a ‘subjective experience’ in the here and now, or ‘what it is like’ from a first-person perspective.

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What consciousness is should be determined empirically, not a priori

Mudrik et al. [1] raise an important concern: that research on consciousness risks fragmentation. They partly attribute this to Block’s distinction between phenomenal (P-) and access (A-) consciousness [2] and propose treating them as jointly necessary conditions of any conscious state. This ‘tectonic’ move is rhetorically appealing. Our concern is that it risks resolving a central empirical question by definition. In doing so, it (i) introduces a substantive theoretical commitment under the guise of a neutral clarification, (ii) constrains the space of admissible theories, and (iii) sets a high, anthropocentric threshold for consciousness.

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Does reframing access and phenomenality advance consciousness science?

In their timely opinion piece, Liad Mudrik et al. [1] propose to reconceptualize the longstanding distinction between access (A) and phenomenal (P) consciousness. Rather than constituting two types of consciousness, they argue, A and P should be reframed as two conditions that are jointly necessary for consciousness. This change, we are told, offers the promise of progress on entrenched debates between sensory and cognitive theories of consciousness and can move us toward theoretical unification.

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In defense of a distinction

Thirty years ago, Block proposed a hugely influential distinction between phenomenal (P) and access (A) consciousness [1,2]. A state is P-conscious if there is something it is like to be in it, and A-conscious if its content is available for reasoning, rational action guidance, and report. Block’s distinction is principally conceptual, but Block has since offered introspective, behavioral, and neuroscientific grounds for thinking that A-consciousness and P-consciousness actually dissociate. For instance, he has argued that iconic and fragile short-term memories are often P-conscious but not A-conscious; that ‘exclusion’ paradigms evidence contents which are P-conscious but not A-conscious; and that local recurrent processing in posterior regions realizes P-consciousness without the anterior activity required for A-consciousness [3–6].

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Positive appraisal style as a key factor in stress resilience

Why do some people remain mentally healthy under stress, while others develop symptoms? Recent observational and interventional evidence indicates that positive appraisal style—the tendency to interpret threats in a mildly positive fashion—is a key resilience factor and a promising target for preventive interventions.

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What can we learn from studying replay in humans?

Noninvasive methods are making it possible to study neural replay in humans. Although focused on alignment with rodent findings, human research often tacitly assumes that replay is linked to conscious, deliberate thought. This assumption represents a missed opportunity to investigate the links between replay and consciousness, as well as cross-species differences more broadly.

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Rethinking reciprocity

Reciprocity theory holds a hallowed status in evolutionary social sciences because it provides a way to explain cooperation among unrelated individuals. Theorists have developed a large body of mathematical work based on the iterated prisoner’s dilemma game that explores which strategies are evolutionarily stable in a range of conditions, including scenarios involving behavioral errors. However, there is a mismatch between the vigorous pace of theoretical research and the trickle of empirical studies that have tested predictions generated by the theoretical work. Furthermore, findings from the empirical work on dyadic cooperation in humans diverge from theoretical predictions in significant ways. This discrepancy indicates that the standard theoretical framework is poorly equipped to account for key aspects of real-world cooperation. To better align with real-world observations, theoretical explorations of reciprocity need to shift their focus toward understanding how actors choose partners and maintain relationships.

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Misinformation as strategy: Epistemic consequences and the undermining of shared truth

Misinformation influences cognition—shaping memory, beliefs, attitudes, reasoning, and decision-making. While intentionally disseminated misinformation (i.e., disinformation) has long served persuasive functions, its strategic use to generate epistemic uncertainty has grown in prominence. Such strategic manipulation by incentivised actors serves to construct ‘alternative realities’ that undermine shared truth and institutional trust. This review analyses recent evidence on the direct cognitive and behavioural impacts of misinformation, examines the transformative roles of social media and generative AI, and considers broader epistemological consequences, including the erosion of truth norms and implications for democratic discourse. Addressing these challenges requires coordinated individual and systemic interventions that integrate psychological, technological, educational, and regulatory approaches to strengthen epistemic resilience and safeguard evidence-informed public reasoning and decision-making.

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Geographical psychology: Spatial variation in psychological phenomena and their consequences

Psychological traits are not uniformly distributed across space; they are geographically clustered. The emerging interdisciplinary field of geographical psychology integrates insights from psychology and the social sciences to understand the causes and consequences of this clustering. By leveraging big data, geospatial analysis, and computational modeling, researchers have identified robust geographical patterns across regions and nations in personality, values, well-being, and prejudice. This review synthesizes key findings on these geographical differences and how they relate to societal-level and individual-level outcomes. Opportunities and challenges for a cognitive science that incorporates a geographical perspective are discussed. Overall, a geographical perspective highlights the dynamic interplay between place and psychology, offering new insights into human behavior and pathways for integrating geography into cognitive science.

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Multi-brain neurofeedback: what are we training for?

Multi-brain neurofeedback offers new possibilities for guiding social interaction by capturing and modulating interpersonal neural dynamics in real time. We propose a hierarchical framework where neurofeedback targets shared sensory dynamics (signal), socio-cognitive processes (functional), or social outcomes (system). We highlight key methodological challenges and potential real-world therapeutic and pedagogical applications.

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The developing vocal self

Developmental voice change exposes a gap in models of self-voice processing: these models explain predictive control and self-voice recognition but not how vocal signals integrate into self-representations. I propose a hierarchical framework in which recursive interactions across sensorimotor predictions, self-voice representations, and higher-order self-representations support the emergence of the vocal self.

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Searching beyond decrements: Attentional guidance across the adult lifespan

Visual search depends on attentional priority, shaped by stimulus salience, current goals, and prior experiences. Although overall search performance declines with age, it remains unclear to what extent this reflects impaired attentional guidance rather than other age-related changes. In this review article, we evaluate how each source of guidance operates across adulthood. Once perceptual factors and general slowing are accounted for, experience-based guidance is largely preserved across timescales, from intertrial priming to lifetime knowledge. Guidance by stable goals and physical salience is also broadly intact. However, specific age-related changes emerge: the influence of past experiences increases under demanding conditions, and goal-directed attention becomes less efficient when priorities must be rapidly reconfigured, pointing to difficulty in resolving conflicts between past and present priorities.

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Looking into working memory through micro eye movements

Understanding how humans select, rehearse, and transform internal representations ‘in mind’ is vital. Gaining access to these latent working-memory processes, however, is not trivial. Here, I review the recent discovery that working-memory processes ‘leak’ into spatial biases in minuscule eye movements known as microsaccades. I first unpack this central finding and position it alongside complementary findings from the literature on attention, memory, and eye movements. Next, I adopt a pragmatic perspective, showcasing how microsaccade biases can be leveraged as a versatile signal to ‘track’ working-memory processes, with benefits that complement traditional brain-imaging approaches. Finally, I outline opportunities and future avenues opened by this recently exposed and remarkably reliable association between externally accessible micro eye movements and internal working-memory processes.

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