The technical reasoning hypothesis does not rule out the potential key roles of imitation and working memory for CTC

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alba Motes-Rodrigo ◽  
Eva Reindl ◽  
Elisa Bandini
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
Reasoning Skills ◽  
Technical Reasoning ◽  
Rule Out

Abstract To support their claim for technical reasoning skills rather than imitation as the key for cumulative technological culture (CTC), Osiurak and Reynaud argue that chimpanzees can imitate mechanical actions, but do not have CTC. They also state that an increase in working memory in human evolution could not have been a key driver of CTC. We discuss why we disagree with these claims.

A long view of cumulative technological culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. O'Brien ◽  
R. Alexander Bentley
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reasoning Skills ◽  
Technical Reasoning

Abstract We agree that the emergence of cumulative technological culture was tied to nonsocial cognitive skills, namely, technical-reasoning skills, which allowed humans to constantly acquire and improve information. Our concern is with a reading of the history of cumulative technological culture that is based largely on modern experiments in simulated settings and less on phenomena crucial to the long-term dynamics of cultural evolution.

Causal learning in CTC: Adaptive and collaborative

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Netanel Weinstein ◽  
Dare Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
Social Reasoning ◽  
Causal Understanding ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Reasoning Skills ◽  
Technical Reasoning

Abstract Osiurak and Reynaud highlight the critical role of technical-reasoning skills in the emergence of human cumulative technological culture (CTC), in contrast to previous accounts foregrounding social-reasoning skills as key to CTC. We question their analysis of the available evidence, yet for other reasons applaud the emphasis on causal understanding as central to the adaptive and collaborative dynamics of CTC.

The elephant in the China shop: When technical reasoning meets cumulative technological culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Osiurak ◽  
Emanuelle Reynaud
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Niche ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Reasoning Skills ◽  
Technical Reasoning

Abstract The commentaries have both revealed the implications of and challenged our approach. In this response, we reply to these concerns, discuss why the technical-reasoning hypothesis does not minimize the role of social-learning mechanisms – nor assume that technical-reasoning skills make individuals omniscient technically – and make suggestions for overcoming the classical opposition between the cultural versus cognitive niche hypothesis of cumulative technological culture.

A cognitive transition underlying both technological and social aspects of cumulative culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liane Gabora ◽  
Cameron M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Aspects ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Social Accounts ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
New Information ◽  
Creative Generation ◽  
Representational Redescription ◽  
Reasoning Skills ◽  
Technical Reasoning ◽  
Cognitive Transition

Abstract The argument that cumulative technological culture originates in technical-reasoning skills is not the only alternative to social accounts; another possibility is that accumulation of both technical-reasoning skills and enhanced social skills stemmed from the onset of a more basic cognitive ability such as recursive representational redescription. The paper confuses individual learning of pre-existing information with creative generation of new information.

A little too technical: The threat of intellectualising technical reasoning

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Human Reasoning ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Technical Reasoning

Abstract Osiurak and Reynaud (O&R) claim that research into the origin of cumulative technological culture has been too focused on social cognition and has consequently neglected the importance of uniquely human reasoning capacities. This commentary raises two interrelated theoretical concerns about O&R's notion of technical-reasoning capacities, and suggests how these concerns might be met.

Technical reasoning is important for cumulative technological culture

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Osiurak ◽  
Salomé Lasserre ◽  
Julie Arbanti ◽  
Joël Brogniart ◽  
Alexandre Bluet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Technological Culture ◽  
Technical Reasoning

scholarly journals Training-induced improvement in working memory tasks results from switching to efficient strategies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Malinovitch ◽  
Hilla Jakoby ◽  
Merav Ahissar
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Substantial Improvement ◽  
Training Period ◽  
Specific Strategy ◽  
Training Studies ◽  
Reasoning Skills

Abstract It is debated whether training with a working memory (WM) task, particularly n-back, can improve general WM and reasoning skills. Most training studies found substantial improvement in the trained task, with little to no transfer to untrained tasks. We hypothesized that training does not increase WM capacity, but instead provides opportunities to develop an efficient task-specific strategy. We derived a strategy for the task that optimizes WM resources and taught it to participants. In two sessions, 14 participants who were taught this strategy performed as well as fourteen participants who trained for 40 sessions without strategy instructions. To understand the mechanisms underlying the no-instruction group’s improvement, participants answered questionnaires during their training period. Their replies indicate that successful learners discovered the same strategy and their improvement was associated with this discovery. We conclude that n-back training allows the discovery of strategies that enable better performance with the same WM resources.

Roles of Technical Reasoning, Theory of Mind, Creativity, and Fluid Cognition in Cumulative Technological Culture

Human Nature ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel De Oliveira ◽  
Emanuelle Reynaud ◽  
François Osiurak
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Technical Reasoning

scholarly journals The elephant in the room: What matters cognitively in cumulative technological culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Osiurak ◽  
Emanuelle Reynaud
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Technical Reasoning

Abstract Cumulative technological culture (CTC) refers to the increase in the efficiency and complexity of tools and techniques in human populations over generations. A fascinating question is to understand the cognitive origins of this phenomenon. Because CTC is definitely a social phenomenon, most accounts have suggested a series of cognitive mechanisms oriented toward the social dimension (e.g., teaching, imitation, theory of mind, and metacognition), thereby minimizing the technical dimension and the potential influence of non-social, cognitive skills. What if we have failed to see the elephant in the room? What if social cognitive mechanisms were only catalyzing factors and not the sufficient and necessary conditions for the emergence of CTC? In this article, we offer an alternative, unified cognitive approach to this phenomenon by assuming that CTC originates in non-social cognitive skills, namely technical-reasoning skills which enable humans to develop the technical potential necessary to constantly acquire and improve technical information. This leads us to discuss how theory of mind and metacognition, in concert with technical reasoning, can help boost CTC. The cognitive approach developed here opens up promising new avenues for reinterpreting classical issues (e.g., innovation, emulation vs. imitation, social vs. asocial learning, cooperation, teaching, and overimitation) in a field that has so far been largely dominated by other disciplines, such as evolutionary biology, mathematics, anthropology, archeology, economics, and philosophy.

Diet and teeth: Dietary hypotheses and human evolution

1981 ◽  
Vol 292 (1057) ◽  
pp. 57-64 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Comparative Anatomy ◽  
Function Analysis ◽  
Tooth Wear ◽  
Biomechanical Analysis ◽  
Fossil Hominids ◽  
Early Hominids ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Tooth Form ◽  
Rule Out

Hypotheses concerning the diet of early hominids have played an important role in discussions on human evolution. Three investigations have helped define the extent to which dietary hypotheses may be taken and still be testable. Comparative anatomy is a fairly coarse approach, which despite convergences allows only the most specialized diets to be ruled out. A biomechanical analysis makes it clear that the changes in jaw and tooth form are subtle and outside the resolution given by present understanding of cranial function. Analysis of the microscopic tooth wear of extant species has been carried out. Major dietary types can be distinguished by their microwear. The microwear on fossil hominids appears to rule out certain diets that have been proposed for them.

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