New Thinking: Advances in the Study of Human Cognitive Evolution

An interdisciplinary conference focusing on new ideas and discoveries in research on the evolution of human cognition The conference focuses on genetic, developmental, and socio-cultural processes that have played a particularly significant role in the evolution of human cognition, and on uniquely human cognitive achievements in domains such as causal understanding, language, social learning, theory of mind and meta-cognition. The event was supported by All Souls College, The British Academy, Guarantors of Brain, and Magdalen College's Calleva Centre, and took place on 23rd and 24th June 2011.

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Episodes

The Social Brain on the Internet

In primates and humans alike, the number of social relationships an individual can have is constrained in part by its social cognitive competences and in part by the time available to invest in face-to-face interaction. I will show that time, in particular, has a significant effect on the quality and stability of social relationships. If the quality of a relationship is a function of the time invested in it, then we might expect a technology that allows an individual to cut through the time cons...

Aug 23, 2011•44 min

Why the Hominin Cognitive Niche Was and Is a Crucially Socio-cognitive Niche

The talk argues that hominin evolution fundamentally relied on a socio-cognitive niche, contrasting with previous 'cognitive niche' theories. It draws on diverse evidence, including archaeological records of early hunting and tool use, and ethnological studies of hunter-gatherers, highlighting their unique levels of egalitarianism, cooperation, and complex communication. The discussion also incorporates recent observational and experimental studies on non-human primates' socio-cognitive abilities, cultural transmission, and theory of mind, providing a comprehensive view of human cognitive evolution.

Aug 23, 2011•50 min

Metacognition and the Social Mind: How Individuals Interact at the Neural Level

I will review recent research in neuroimaging and computation neuroscience, and present a new paradigm for studying decision making in pairs. Results from this paradigm demonstrate that discussion between the partners is necessary and sufficient for creating an advantage for the group decision and a more accurate picture of the world than can be achieved by either partner alone. I conclude that metacognition - the ability to introspect upon one's own experience and to communicate this to another...

Aug 23, 2011•38 min

Experiencing Language

The evolutionary relationship between human linguistic capacity and humans' emotional make-up has not, as yet, received focused attention. Was the evolution of language in our lineage possible because early hominines were emotionally different from their ancestors, and, if so, in what ways? Has language altered human emotions? We discuss and develop recent proposals that an important precondition for the evolution of human language was the evolution of social emotions in pre-linguistic humans. W...

Aug 23, 2011•44 min

Signals, Honesty and the Evolution of Language

The evolution of language is a long-standing puzzle for many reasons. One is that its very virtues as a system of communication seem to open the door to ruinous free-riding and deception. This paper will locate and partially solve that problem within a framework explaining the evolution of honest signals and informational co-operation in human evolution, and will use that framework to develop a partial picture of language evolution. Presented by Kim Sterenly (Philosophy, Australian National Univ...

Aug 23, 2011•49 min

Embodiment: Taking Sociality Seriously

A very wise person of our acquaintance once said, 'Read old books to get new ideas'. Here, we pursue the ideas presented in old books by Lev Vygotsky and George Herbert Mead as a means to account for the differences in social life between human and non-human primates and, by extension, their cognition. We consider the contrasting perspectives of Vygotsky and Mead on the links between thought and language, and relate these to subsequent developments in the study of animal cognition, and the emerg...

Aug 22, 2011•43 min

Cortico-cerebellar Evolution and the Distributed Neural Basis of Cognition

Biologists interested in cognitive evolution have focussed on the dramatic expansion of the forebrain, particularly the neocortex, in lineages such as primates. Another structure, however - the cerebellum - contains four to five times more neurons than the neocortex, is massively and reciprocally inter-connected with it via intermediate nuclei, has complex cognitive and learning functions, and yet has been largely ignored in accounts of cognitive evolution. This talk explores the correlated evol...

Aug 22, 2011•45 min

A New Comparative Psychology

In their classic 1969 paper Hodos and Campbell bemoaned the absence of appropriate evolutionary theory in comparative psychology. In this talk I will argue that despite the advent of Evolutionary Psychology the situation has changed only a little today. In fact, some Evolutionary Psychologists go so far as to argue that comparative analyses are of little importance. I will oppose this view and outline how modern Bayesian phylogenetics can provide a framework for answering questions about the evo...

Aug 22, 2011•46 min

The Mystery of Cumulative Culture

Human demographic and ecological success is frequently attributed to our capacity for cumulative culture, which allows human knowledge and technology to build up and improve over time. Yet it remains a mystery why other animals might possess socially learned traditions but lack this capacity for cumulative cultural knowledge gain. Nor is it immediately apparent what cognitive, social or demographic factors are necessary for accumulation to occur. Here I explore the factors that led to the evolut...

Aug 22, 2011•54 min

Cultural Inheritance of Cultural Learning

It is widely acknowledged that the cumulative cultural inheritance of technological skills and social practices has played a major role in shaping the ways of life of modern humans. The term 'cultural learning' refers to the psychological processes that make cultural inheritance possible. Curiously, even those researchers who have been most influential in demonstrating the importance of cultural inheritance emphasise that cultural learning depends on gene-based psychological adaptations. Like Ev...

Aug 22, 2011•55 min

Welcome and Introduction

Introduction to the "New Thinking: Advances in the Study of Human Cognitive Evolution" conference.

Aug 22, 2011•4 min

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