The Comparative Minds research group uses an interdiscplinary method (compared psychology, cognitive and linguistic psychology) and combines different research methods and techniques to undertake research in the area of psychology and of (psycho)linguistics. In this way, the group takes an evolutionary, comparative, experimental, linguistic, and cross-cultural approach to studying animal and human behaviour, cognition, and communication. This type of methodology also makes it possible to create connections between the generation of knowledge in the field of psychology and (psycho)linguistics, and its theoretical and practical application in the field of education and mental health.

More specifically, the group’s main goals of are to:

1. contribute to the understanding of human nature by investigating the evolutionary roots of various aspects of human behaviour, and by identifying shared and unique characteristics between species
2. provide relevant knowledge about the development of socio-cognitive and communicative skills, and their application in the field of education
3. incorporate a multimodal vision of communication (joint integration of gestures and speech) to understand the value of speech gestures and prosody in linguistic and cognitive processing and learning, as well as their application in the field of education
4. contribute, from a comparative perspective in the study of animal behaviour, their impact on human health and well-being, understanding the evolutionary bases of behaviour and helping in the prevention and treatment of mental health problems.

Matters considered include the following:

What are the unique psychological, cognitive and communicative traits and characteristics of our species? What is the ontogeny and phylogeny of communication and language? How have certain socio-cognitive and communicative capacities evolved in humans and what could be the explanatory factors for these? What is the impact of culture on cognition? How do multimodal language strategies (prosodic and gestural) develop in different communicative contexts? What contribution does it have to make in the development of language and in the processes of teaching and learning a language? What are the evolutionary and phylogenetic foundations of mental disorders in humans?