Murillo Pagnotta

Murillo Pagnotta

Researcher and course instructor in psychology / cognitive science



The evolution of early symbolic behaviour.

The eSYMb project was an ERC Consolidator Grant project led by Prof Kristian Tylén at Aarhus University from September 2022 until his untimely death in November 2024. Kristian’s aim was to establish a novel integrative framework for the investigation of early symbolic evolution, using records from archaeology in behavioural experimental investigations and computational modelling. Starting from the assumption that symbolic artefacts evolve adaptively over time to better fulfil their intended symbolic functions, the project investigated structural changes to symbolic artefacts and their cognitive implications to inform inferences about their past use. The project aimed at establishing transparent, data-driven methods and criteria to test concrete hypotheses about early human symbolic behaviour from archaeological sites across the world, focussing on the later part of human evolution (~150.000–12.000 years ago) based on measures critical to symbolic cognition and behaviour.

You can read more about the project here.

Associated publications in which I participate:

  • Pagnotta, M., Tylén, K., Qvist, A. S., Kjeldsen, R. F., Rojo, S., Heimann, K., Fay, N., Johannsen, N. N., Riede, F., Lombard, M., & Fusaroli, R. (Accepted). Simulating symbolic evolution in the lab: potentials and implications of using transmission chains to study early symbolic behaviour at the emergence of Homo sapiens. Link to the preprint.
  • Pagnotta, M., Psujek, M., Straffon, L. M., Fusaroli, R., & Tylén, K. (2025). Drawing Animals in the Paleolithic: The Effect of Perspective and Abbreviation on Animal Recognition and Aesthetic Appreciation. Topics in Cognitive Science, tops.70023. Link to the publication.
  • Wisher, I., Riede, F., Matthews, J., Pagnotta, M., & Tylén, K. (2025). Children as playful artists. Hunter Gatherer Research, 11(1), 1–39. Link to the publication.
  • Pagnotta, M., Wisher, I., Petersen, M. L., Riede, F., Fusaroli, R., & Tylén, K. (2024). The evolution of symbolic artefacts: How function shapes form. Evolution and Human Behavior, 45(3), 261–267. Link to the publication.
  • Wisher, I., Pagnotta, M., Palacio‐Pérez, E., Fusaroli, R., Garate, D., Hodgson, D., Matthews, J., Mendoza‐Straffon, L., Ochoa, B., Riede, F., & Tylén, K. (2023). Beyond the image: Interdisciplinary and contextual approaches to understanding symbolic cognition in Paleolithic parietal art. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 32(5), 256–259. Link to the publication.