scholarly journals Likeness-making and the evolution of cognition

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajo Greif
Keyword(s):  
Human Cognition ◽  
Lower Paleolithic ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Geometric Patterns ◽  
Figurative Art ◽  
Tentative Evidence ◽  
Symbol Use ◽  
Early Human

AbstractPaleontological evidence suggests that human artefacts with intentional markings might have originated already in the Lower Paleolithic, up to 500.000 years ago and well before the advent of ‘behavioural modernity’. These markings apparently did not serve instrumental, tool-like functions, nor do they appear to be forms of figurative art. Instead, they display abstract geometric patterns that potentially testify to an emerging ability of symbol use. In a variation on Ian Hacking’s speculative account of the possible role of “likeness-making” in the evolution of human cognition and language, this essay explores the central role that the embodied processes of making and the collective practices of using such artefacts might have played in early human cognitive evolution. Two paradigmatic findings of Lower Paleolithic artefacts are discussed as tentative evidence of likenesses acting as material scaffolds in the emergence of symbolic reference-making. They might provide the link between basic abilities of mimesis and imitation and the development of modern language and thought.

scholarly journals Animal residues found on tiny Lower Paleolithic tools reveal their use in butchery

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavia Venditti ◽  
Emanuela Cristiani ◽  
Stella Nunziante-Cesaro ◽  
Aviad Agam ◽  
Cristina Lemorini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cutting Tools ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Lower Paleolithic ◽  
Early Evidence ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Early Humans ◽  
By Products ◽  
Early Human

Abstract Stone tools provide a unique window into the mode of adaptation and cognitive abilities of Lower Paleolithic early humans. The persistently produced large cutting tools (bifaces/handaxes) have long been an appealing focus of research in the reconstruction of Lower Paleolithic survival strategies, at the expenses of the small flake tools considered by-products of the stone production process rather than desired end products. Here, we use use-wear, residues and technological analyses to show direct and very early evidence of the deliberate production and use of small flakes for targeted stages of the prey butchery process at the late Lower Paleolithic Acheulian site of Revadim, Israel. We highlight the significant role of small flakes in Lower Paleolithic adaptation alongside the canonical large handaxes. Our results demonstrate the technological and cognitive flexibility of early human groups in the Levant and beyond at the threshold of the departure from Lower Paleolithic lifeways.

Quantitative Conditions and Convergent Operations That Are Compatible With the Universe as a Persistent Generator of Successive Simulations

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 4178-4187
Author(s):  
Michael A Persinger ◽  
Stanley A Koren
Keyword(s):  
Structural Organization ◽  
Total Duration ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Electron Orbit ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Massive Information ◽  
The Universe

                The capacity for computer-like simulations to be generated by massive information processing from electron-spin potentials supports Bostrom’s hypothesis that matter and human cognition might reflect simulations. Quantitative analyses of the basic assumptions indicate the universe may display properties of a simulation where photons behave as pixels and gravitons control the structural organization. The Lorentz solution for the square of the light and entanglement velocities converges with the duration of a single electron orbit that ultimately defines properties of matter. The approximately one trillion potential states within the same space with respect to the final epoch of the universe indicate that a different simulation, each with intrinsic properties, has been and will be generated as a type of tractrix defined by ±2 to 3 days (total duration 5 to 6 days). It may define the causal limits within a simulation. Because of the intrinsic role of photons as the pixel unit, phenomena within which flux densities are enhanced, such as human cognition (particularly dreaming) and the cerebral regions associated with those functions, create the conditions for entanglement or excess correlations between contiguous simulations. The consistent quantitative convergence of operations indicates potential validity for this approach. The emergent solutions offer alternative explanations for the limits of predictions for multivariate phenomena that could be coupled to more distal simulations.

Shifting Concepts

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
Central Area ◽  
Linguistic Meaning ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Linguistic Communication ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Conceptual Variation

Concepts stand at the centre of human cognition. We use concepts in categorizing objects and events in the world, in reasoning and action, and in social interaction. It is therefore not surprising that the study of concepts constitutes a central area of research in philosophy and psychology. Since the 1970s, psychologists have carried out intriguing experiments testing the role of concepts in categorizing and reasoning, and have found a great deal of variation in categorization behaviour across individuals and cultures. During the same period, philosophers of language and mind did important work on the semantic properties of concepts, and on how concepts are related to linguistic meaning and linguistic communication. An important motivation behind this was the idea that concepts must be shared, across individuals and cultures. However, there was little interaction between these two research programs until recently. With the dawn of experimental philosophy, the proposal that the experimental data from psychology lacks relevance to semantics is increasingly difficult to defend. Moreover, in the last decade, philosophers have approached questions about the tension between conceptual variation and shared concepts in communication from a new perspective: that of ameliorating concepts for theoretical or for social and political purposes. The volume brings together leading psychologists and philosophers working on concepts who come from these different research traditions.

Concluding Summary

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Figdor
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research ◽  
Internal And External Factors ◽  
Conceptual Confusion

Chapter 10 provides a summary of the argument of the book. It elaborates some of the benefits of Literalism, such as less conceptual confusion and an expanded range of entities for research that might illuminate human cognition. It motivates distinguishing the questions of whether something has a cognitive capacity from whether it is intuitively like us. It provides a conceptual foundation for the social sciences appropriate for the increasing role of modeling in these sciences. It also promotes convergence in terms of the roles of internal and external factors in explaining both human and nonhuman behavior. Finally, it sketches some of the areas of new research that it supports, including group cognition and artificial intelligence.

scholarly journals Extended parenting and the evolution of cognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1803) ◽  
pp. 20190495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Uomini ◽  
Joanna Fairlie ◽  
Russell D. Gray ◽  
Michael Griesser
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Cultural Learning

Traditional attempts to understand the evolution of human cognition compare humans with other primates. This research showed that relative brain size covaries with cognitive skills, while adaptations that buffer the developmental and energetic costs of large brains (e.g. allomaternal care), and ecological or social benefits of cognitive abilities, are critical for their evolution. To understand the drivers of cognitive adaptations, it is profitable to consider distant lineages with convergently evolved cognitions. Here, we examine the facilitators of cognitive evolution in corvid birds, where some species display cultural learning, with an emphasis on family life. We propose that extended parenting (protracted parent–offspring association) is pivotal in the evolution of cognition: it combines critical life-history, social and ecological conditions allowing for the development and maintenance of cognitive skillsets that confer fitness benefits to individuals. This novel hypothesis complements the extended childhood idea by considering the parents' role in juvenile development. Using phylogenetic comparative analyses, we show that corvids have larger body sizes, longer development times, extended parenting and larger relative brain sizes than other passerines. Case studies from two corvid species with different ecologies and social systems highlight the critical role of life-history features on juveniles’ cognitive development: extended parenting provides a safe haven, access to tolerant role models, reliable learning opportunities and food, resulting in higher survival. The benefits of extended juvenile learning periods, over evolutionary time, lead to selection for expanded cognitive skillsets. Similarly, in our ancestors, cooperative breeding and increased group sizes facilitated learning and teaching. Our analyses highlight the critical role of life-history, ecological and social factors that underlie both extended parenting and expanded cognitive skillsets. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Life history and learning: how childhood, caregiving and old age shape cognition and culture in humans and other animals’.

scholarly journals Effect of Cocoa and Cocoa Products on Cognitive Performance in Young Adults

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3691
Author(s):  
María Angeles Martín ◽  
Luis Goya ◽  
Sonia de Pascual-Teresa
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Blood Oxygenation ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Randomized Controlled Studies ◽  
Cocoa Products ◽  
Cocoa Flavanols

Increasing evidence support a beneficial role of cocoa and cocoa products on human cognition, particularly in aging populations and patients at risk. However, thorough reviews on the efficacy of cocoa on brain processes in young adults do not exist precisely due to the limited number of studies in the matter. Thus, the aim of this study was to summarize the findings on the acute and chronic effects of cocoa administration on cognitive functions and brain health in young adults. Web of Science and PubMed databases were used to search for relevant trials. Human randomized controlled studies were selected according to PRISMA guidelines. Eleven intervention studies that involved a total of 366 participants investigating the role of cocoa on cognitive performance in children and young adults (average age ≤25 years old) were finally selected. Findings from individual studies confirm that acute and chronic cocoa intake have a positive effect on several cognitive outcomes. After acute consumption, these beneficial effects seem to be accompanied with an increase in cerebral blood flow or cerebral blood oxygenation. After chronic intake of cocoa flavanols in young adults, a better cognitive performance was found together with increased levels of neurotrophins. This systematic review further supports the beneficial effect of cocoa flavanols on cognitive function and neuroplasticity and indicates that such benefits are possible in early adulthood.

The role of the anterior prefrontal cortex in human cognition

Nature ◽  
10.1038/20178 ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 399 (6732) ◽  
pp. 148-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Koechlin ◽  
Gianpaolo Basso ◽  
Pietro Pietrini ◽  
Seth Panzer ◽  
Jordan Grafman
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Anterior Prefrontal Cortex

Hegel on the Nature of Scepticism

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 80-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dietmar H. Heidemann
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Philosophical Method ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
Knock Down ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Early View ◽  
The One ◽  
Intrinsic Feature

In the Encyclopaedia Logic, Hegel states that ‘philosophy … contains the sceptical as a moment within itself — specifically as the dialectical moment’ (§81, Addition 2), and that ‘scepticism’ as ‘the dialectical moment itself is an essential one in the affirmative Science’ (§78). On the one hand, the connection between scepticism and dialectic is obvious. Hegel claims that scepticism is a problem that cannot be just removed from the philosophical agenda by knock-down anti-sceptical arguments. Scepticism intrinsically belongs to philosophical thinking; that is to say, it plays a constructive role in philosophical thinking. On the other hand, scepticism has to be construed as the view according to which we cannot know whether our beliefs are true, i.e., scepticism plays a destructive role in philosophy no matter what. It is particularly this role that clashes with Hegel's claim of having established a philosophical system of true cognition of the entirety of reality. In the following I argue that for Hegel the constructive and the destructive role of scepticism are reconcilable. I specifically argue that it is dialectic that makes both consistent since scepticism is a constitutive element of dialectic.In order to show in what sense scepticism is an intrinsic feature of dialectic I begin by sketching Hegel's early view of scepticism specifically with respect to logic and metaphysics. The young Hegel construes logic as a philosophical method of human cognition that inevitably results in ‘sceptical’ consequences in that it illustrates the finiteness of human understanding. By doing so, logic not only nullifies finite understanding but also introduces to metaphysics, i.e., the true philosophical science of the absolute.

scholarly journals Notes on the nature of avant-garde and constructivism

2020 ◽  
pp. 106-119
Author(s):  
Vadim Markovich Rozin
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Analysis Methods ◽  
Figurative Art ◽  
The Family ◽  
Methods Of Reconstruction ◽  
Applied Arts

Based on the materials of the family of architects Zimonenko-Feierstein, this article examines the peculiarities of avant-garde and constructivism. Roman Feierstein and Lyubov Zimonenko graduated the Moscow University of Arctitecture and were taught by pedagogues – the representative of avant-garde and constructivism. To understand the nature of avant-garde and constructivism, the author characterizes the goals and tasks solved by these trends and concepts, as well as analyzes the works of Roman Feierstein and Lyubov Zimonenko. It is demonstrated that constructivists create artistic reality, juxtaposing and simultaneously combining various processes and contents, sending over consciousness of a spectator to a particular reality. This pattern is inherent not only to figurative art, but also literature. The article employs situational and comparative analysis, methods of reconstruction of the works of applied arts and generalization. As a result, the author was able to reveal certain peculiarities of avant-garde and constructivism as an approach and activity, as well as underline that avant-garde and constructivism as approaches also suggest conceptualism. The role of conceptualism consists in outlining and explaining of reality, created by an artist for their audience.

scholarly journals On the Cognitive Foundation of Lexical Classification of the Subject World

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
Alexey D. Koshelev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Cognition ◽  
Language Of Thought ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Specific Level ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lexical Classification

The paper presents a language of thought (a set of cognitive units and relations) used to provide non-verbal definitions for the following five concepts: ARMCHAIR, MUG, RAVINE, LAKE, TREE. These definitions make it possible to describe concepts on two levels of specificity. On the first level, a concept is presented as a holistic cognitive unit. On the second, more specific, level, the same concept is viewed as a partitive system, i.e. a hierarchical system of its parts, the latter being smaller concepts into which the original holistic unit is decomposed. A hypothesis is advanced that such structure is inherent to all visible objects. The partitive system is argued to play a major role in human cognition. It, first, provides for an in-depth understanding of the perceived objects through understanding the role of their parts, and, second, underlies the formation of the hierarchy of concepts with respect to their generality. Besides, it can be considered as one of the defining properties of the human species as it accounts for the human ability to purposefully change the world.

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