Prehistoric stone tools, chess expertise, and cognitive evolution: An experiment about recognizing features in flint debitage

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvan I. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Cognitive Evolution

Evolution of Cognitive Archaeology through Evolving Cognitive Systems

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Original Work ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Cognitive Systems ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Productive Research ◽  
Tool Technology

Tom Wynn’s original work that looked at the evolution of stone tool technology using Piaget’s developmental sequence was the beginning of productive research into the evolution of hominin and human cognition. In this chapter, I evaluate those beginnings and discusses recent attempts to provide a more satisfactory understanding of changes in stone tool technologies, including work by Philip Barnard and William McGrew, subsequent work by Tom Wynn, and my own work with various collaborators. It suggests that some of the previous understandings of cognitive evolution were shaped by the fact that approaches to stone tools were largely determined in the nineteenth century. I propose some new ways of looking at stone tools and the sort of story that allows for more productive models of the evolution of human cognition.

scholarly journals Cave men: Stone tools, Victorian science, and the ‘primitive mind’ of deep time

2010 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul B. Pettitt ◽  
Mark J. White
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Phases Of Development ◽  
Victorian Science ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Archaeological Sediments

Palaeoanthropology, the study of the evolution of humanity, arose in the nineteenth century. Excavations in Europe uncovered a series of archaeological sediments which provided proof that the antiquity of human life on Earth was far longer than the biblical six thousand years, and by the 1880s authors had constructed a basic paradigm of what ‘primitive’ human life was like. Here we examine the development of Victorian palaeoanthropology for what it reveals of the development of notions of cognitive evolution. It seems that Victorian specialists rarely addressed cognitive evolution explicitly, although several assumptions were generally made that arose from preconceptions derived from contemporary ‘primitive’ peoples. We identify three main phases of development of notions of the primitive mind in the period.

scholarly journals Stone toolmaking and the evolution of human culture and cognition

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1567) ◽  
pp. 1050-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dietrich Stout
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Initial Attempt ◽  
Systematic Method ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Rates Of Change ◽  
Technological Complexity ◽  
Continuous Record

Although many species display behavioural traditions, human culture is unique in the complexity of its technological, symbolic and social contents. Is this extraordinary complexity a product of cognitive evolution, cultural evolution or some interaction of the two? Answering this question will require a much better understanding of patterns of increasing cultural diversity, complexity and rates of change in human evolution. Palaeolithic stone tools provide a relatively abundant and continuous record of such change, but a systematic method for describing the complexity and diversity of these early technologies has yet to be developed. Here, an initial attempt at such a system is presented. Results suggest that rates of Palaeolithic culture change may have been underestimated and that there is a direct relationship between increasing technological complexity and diversity. Cognitive evolution and the greater latitude for cultural variation afforded by increasingly complex technologies may play complementary roles in explaining this pattern.

scholarly journals An Introduction to Cognitive Archaeology

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 386-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick L. Coolidge ◽  
Thomas Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cognitive Archaeology ◽  
Cave Art

Cognitive archaeology studies human cognitive evolution by applying cognitive-science theories and concepts to archaeological remains of the prehistoric past. After reviewing the basic epistemological stance of cognitive archaeology, this article illustrates this interdisciplinary endeavor through an examination of two of the most important transitions in hominin cognitive evolution—the appearance of Homo erectus about 2 million years ago, and the recent enhancement of working-memory capacity within the past 200,000 years. Although intentionally created stone tools date to about 3.3 million years ago, Homo erectus produced a bifacial, symmetrical handaxe whose design then persisted for nearly the next 2 million years. An enhancement in working-memory capacity may have been responsible for the relative explosion of culture within the past 50,000 years, which included personal ornamentation, highly ritualized burials, bow-and-arrow technology, depictive cave art, and artistic figurines.

Stone Tools and Spatial Cognition

2019 ◽  
pp. 200-224
Author(s):  
Derek Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Visuomotor Control ◽  
Feedback Mechanism ◽  
Visuospatial Memory ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
The Brain ◽  
The Way

Spatial cognition is fundamental to producing stone tools, with specific, dedicated neuronal pathways. These arise from primary sensory areas and later interact with higher-level pathways for increasingly complex purposes. These higher processes involve visuospatial memory, visuomotor control, attention, and planning. Although clarifying the way these pathways interact helps explain cognitive evolution, there is the problem of ascertaining how these attributes interact and feed back with the materials undergoing modification. Determining when and in what way this feedback mechanism led to a reshaping of cerebral architecture within the context of evolution of the brain is problematic because the link with cerebral substructures is not straightforward. This partly results from a delay between a cognitive attribute and its expression. This chapter explores the intricacies of spatial cognition in relation to these issues, especially with reference to making and using stone tools.

scholarly journals An earlier origin for stone tool making: implications for cognitive evolution and the transition to Homo

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1698) ◽  
pp. 20150233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason E. Lewis ◽  
Sonia Harmand
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Behavioural Diversity

The discovery of the earliest known stone tools at Lomekwi 3 (LOM3) from West Turkana, Kenya, dated to 3.3 Ma, raises new questions about the mode and tempo of key adaptations in the hominin lineage. The LOM3 tools date to before the earliest known fossils attributed to Homo at 2.8 Ma. They were made and deposited in a more C 3 environment than were the earliest Oldowan tools at 2.6 Ma. Their discovery leads to renewed investigation on the timing of the emergence of human-like manipulative capabilities in early hominins and implications for reconstructing cognition. The LOM3 artefacts form part of an emerging paradigm shift in palaeoanthropology, in which: tool-use and tool-making behaviours are not limited to the genus Homo ; cranial, post-cranial and behavioural diversity in early Homo is much wider than previously thought; and these evolutionary changes may not have been direct adaptations to living in savannah grassland environments. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution'.

scholarly journals Introduction: Cognitive Archaeology at the Crossroads

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karenleigh A. Overmann ◽  
Frederick L. Coolidge
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Developmental Theory ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Archaeology ◽  
Look Back ◽  
The Moment

We look back at the field of cognitive archaeology by discussing the moment of insight that inspired one of its pioneers, Thomas Wynn, to apply Piagetian developmental theory to the question of human cognitive evolution as understood through geometric relations in stone tools. We also review the work of other pioneers in the field, including Colin Renfrew and John Gowlett. We briefly describe the articles contained in the volume. Lastly, we look forward at where the field of cognitive archaeology may be headed.

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