A team of researchers from the University of Neuchâtel studied the ability to associate a new sound with an object, amidst a noisy but familiar environment. This cognitive faculty of rapid association is attested in humans, as well as domesticated animals like cats and dogs. This new research shows that neither gorillas nor orangutans, though they are primates like us, make use of this so-called “fast mapping” ability.
To study the behaviour of chimpanzees in a non-intrusive fashion, a team of researchers from the University of Neuchâtel and Idiap Research Institute, in Martigny, members of the NCCR Evolving Language, have proposed a new approach based on artificial intelligence (AI), to automatically analyse primate videos.
Researcher James Henderson (Idiap Research Institute) received an ERC Advanced Grant to work on large language models (LLMs), deep learning computational models that can perform language-related tasks.
Humans from different cultures speak to their children using a form of speech known as “child-directed speech”, or “baby talk”. Though to us, it may seem natural to communicate directly with our little ones, it appears that this characteristic is far from prevalent in non-human great apes, new research on the cover of the journal Science Advances shows.
NCCR researchers Klaus Zuberbühler, Gwendolyn Wirobski (University of Neuchâtel), and Friederike Range (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna) have received a 1.4 million CHF WEAVE grant from the Austrian Science Fund and the Swiss National Science Foundation to study communication and cognition in wolves and dogs.
As of this year, Paola Cerrito, PhD, took on the chair of human evolution at the University of Zurich, as well as a position of principal investigator within the NCCR Evolving Language. Her research work on human evolution focuses on life history, meaning a species-specific pattern of growth, survival and reproduction.
What do monkeys, ChatGPT, and we have in common? According to Quentin Gallot, a PhD candidate at the University of Neuchâtel and researcher at NCCR Evolving Language, they all possess extraordinary predictive abilities that manifest in similarities in their communication systems.
Bonobos create complex and meaningful combinations of calls resembling the word combinations of humans. In this study, researchers at the University of Zurich and Harvard University challenge long-held assumptions about what makes human communication unique and suggest that key aspects of language are evolutionary ancient.
Du 31 mars au 6 avril, découvrez les chimères genevoises lors d’une véritable quête à travers la ville ! Entre musées, parcs et librairie, les chimères sont partout… Retrouvez les toutes à l’aide de la carte interactive.
Last week professors Paola Merlo and Valentina Borghesani, and NCCR Outreach Officer Coralie Debracque, visited primary school students in the canton of Geneva. The aim: to present their daily lives as researchers, between meetings, reading and teaching, but also to reinforce the place of women scientists, and even professors, in the collective imagination.