Dr. Ljerka Ostojić

Ljerka Ostojić researches the evolution and development of cognitive processes from a comparative perspective. Her main focus is on how we and other animal species perceive and interact with other social agents. How do we interpret their behaviour? Do we ascribe to them an internal life? How do we attend to their actions and the outcomes of these actions? What (cognitive and/or non-cognitive) processes differ when we interact with other social agents and when we deal with physical aspects of our environment?

To investigate this, her research has to date involved theoretical work and behavioural experiments with multiple species from different taxa: humans, corvids (notably Eurasian jays), domestic dogs, and - more recently and through collaborations - also cephalopods.

A second line of work concerns conceptual and methodological issues in comparative research, particularly in behavioural studies. This line of research involves theoretical and empirical, meta-scientific work on research processes and quality management in comparative cognition research.