François Osiurak
I am professor (full) in psychology and cognitive sciences at the EMC laboratory, Lyon 2 University, France, and member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF).
My curriculum vitae is available here.
My research topic
The term cumulative technological culture describes the increase in the efficiency and complexity of tools and techniques in human populations over generations. The origin of this phenomenon is a fascinating conundrum, considered in 2005 by the journal Science as one of the 125 big scientific questions of our time.
My research aims to provide insights into the cognitive foundations of cumulative technological culture through a research program involving several disciplines of cognitive science (psychology, cognitive neuroscience, anthropology, computational modelling, and philosophy).
My focus is on the role played by technical cognition, the Cinderella of cognitive science, in cumulative technological culture. I am exploring how this cognitive ability interacts with social learning to make the accumulation of techniques and tools emerge over generations.
The full list of my publications can be found here (or pdf version). Below are selected publications that offer a quick glimpse of my work.
Selected publications
Bringing cumulative technological culture beyond copying versus reasoning
See the commentary by Cecilia Heyes and our reply.
The elephant in the room: What matters cognitively in cumulative technological culture
See the 26 commentaries on this target article and our response.
My closest collaborators
Josselin Baumard, Université de Rouen Normandie, Rouen, France
Nicolas Claidière, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Aix-Marseille, France
Giovanni Federico, IRCCS Synlab SDN, Naples, Italie
Mathieu Lesourd, Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
Yves Rossetti, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Lyon, France