Developing the Evolved Social Brain

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-219
Author(s):  
David F. Bjorklund
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Shared Intentionality ◽  
Multilevel Selection Theory ◽  
Intentional Agents ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Development And Evolution

For human hypersociality to evolve required that natural selection operate both at the levels of the individual and the group as described by multilevel selection theory. According to the social brain hypothesis, increased social cognition was the driving force in human social-cognitive evolution. Infants evolved “psychological weapons” designed to obtain attention and caregiving from adults. According to Tomasello’s shared intentionality theory, infants view others as intentional agents, as reflected in shared attention beginning around 9 months, and later, between 3 and 5 years of age, in collective intentionality, in which children establish a group-minded “we” with other people. The development and evolution of hypersociality is reflected in: treating others as intentional agents, perspective taking, empathy, normativity, social learning, prosociality (helping, sharing, sense of fairness), and collaboration. Each of these and other social-cognitive abilities were necessary for the evolution of a hypersocial species and evolved as a result of changes in great ape ontogeny.

Epilogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 266-276
Author(s):  
David F. Bjorklund
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Developmental Timing ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Fourth Section ◽  
Development And Evolution

The final chapter summarizes the major themes of this book, loosely following the content of Chapters 1 through 7. The first section highlights the principles and assumptions of evolutionary developmental psychology, emphasizing that adaptations occurred at all life stages, not just in adults. The second section emphasizes the role of plasticity in both development and evolution, noting that plasticity is greatest early in life. This is followed by a section focusing on the role of timing in evolution, especially genetic-based differences in developmental timing, or heterochrony, with neoteny being especially important for human evolution. The fourth section examines the claim that humans are a neotenous species, as seen in aspects of its physical, behavioral, and cognitive development/evolution. The fifth section examines human hypersociality as being due to modification of great ape ontogeny into unique human social-cognitive abilities, followed by a look at evolutionary mismatches particular to specific stages of life.

How is the moral stance related to the intentional stance and group thinking?

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Rakoczy
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Intentional Stance ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Shared Intentionality ◽  
History Of ◽  
Group Thinking ◽  
Moral Stance

Abstract The natural history of our moral stance told here in this commentary reveals the close nexus of morality and basic social-cognitive capacities. Big mysteries about morality thus transform into smaller and more manageable ones. Here, I raise questions regarding the conceptual, ontogenetic, and evolutionary relations of the moral stance to the intentional and group stances and to shared intentionality.

A Case Study: Unique Challenges of an Adolescent Female With Autism Spectrum Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 314-325
Author(s):  
Kimberly F. Frazier ◽  
Jessica Collier ◽  
Rachel Glade
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Adolescent Female ◽  
Social Thinking

Background The aim of this study was to determine the clinical efficacy of combining self-management strategies and a social thinking approach to address the social performance and executive function of an adolescent female with autism spectrum disorder. Method This research examined the effects of a social knowledge training program, “Think Social,” as well as strategies to improve higher order cognitive abilities. Results and Conclusion Although quantitative improvement was not found, several qualitative gains in behavior were noted for the participants of this study, suggesting a benefit from using structured environmental cues of self-management strategies, as well as improved social understanding through social cognitive training.

Associations Between Higher-Order Values Vary with Age, Education, and Income

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maksim Rudnev
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Value Structures ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Representative Samples

A theory of basic human values relies on the similarity of value structures across countries. It has been well established that the quasi-circumplex value structure as a whole is indeed universal. However, less attention has been paid to the associations between specific values. This study investigated associations between four higher-order values across age, education, and income groups. We analyzed the data from national representative samples collected in 29 countries as part of the fourth round of the European Social Survey with a series of multilevel regressions. Younger age, higher levels of education and income coincided with higher independence of the four adjacent higher-order values, whereas among older, less educated, and less wealthy groups, values tended to merge into a single dimension of Social versus Person Focus. These differences were slightly weaker in more economically developed countries. The group differences in value associations may follow from corresponding differences in the degree of societal and individual empowerment, cognitive abilities, and socialization experiences. Accounting for the individual differences in relations between values may bring deeper understanding and higher predictive power to the studies of links between values and various behaviors or attitudes. , value structure, value interactions, European Social Survey

A model for the individual empowerment using intrinsic personalization of crowdsourcing tasks

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Dennis Paulino
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Financial Compensation ◽  
Social Barriers ◽  
Task Description ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Phd Thesis

Crowdsourcing is a paradigm of outsourcing work that is done using human capabilities through the Internet. Given the various possibilities of overcoming cultural and social barriers, crowdsourcing provides an opportunity for people with disabilities to have a financial compensation and help them feel realised. In crowdsourcing, people with disabilities face problems related with the lack of task description or usability. This article it is presented the main threads for my PhD thesis which main goal is to prove, that it is possible to map crowdsourcing tasks effectively to each individual, focusing particularly on the cognitive abilities.

scholarly journals Frequency of Recent Binge Drinking Is Associated With Sex-Specific Cognitive Deficits: Evidence for Condition-Dependent Trait Expression in Humans

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 147470492095444
Author(s):  
Liana S. E. Hone ◽  
John E. Scofield ◽  
Bruce D. Bartholow ◽  
David C. Geary
Keyword(s):  
Binge Drinking ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Visuospatial Abilities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Binge Drinkers ◽  
Visuospatial Tasks

Evolutionary theory suggests that commonly found sex differences are largest in healthy populations and smaller in populations that have been exposed to stressors. We tested this idea in the context of men’s typical advantage (vs. women) in visuospatial abilities (e.g., mental rotation) and women’s typical advantage (vs. men) in social-cognitive (e.g., facial-expression decoding) abilities, as related to frequent binge drinking. Four hundred nineteen undergraduates classified as frequent or infrequent binge drinkers were assessed in these domains. Trial-level multilevel models were used to test a priori Sex × Group (binge drinking) interactions for visuospatial and social-cognitive tasks. Among infrequent binge drinkers, men’s typical advantage in visuospatial abilities and women’s typical advantage in social-cognitive abilities was confirmed. Among frequent binge drinkers, men’s advantage was reduced for one visuospatial task (Δ d = 0.29) and eliminated for another (Δ d = 0.75), and women’s advantage on the social-cognitive task was eliminated (Δ d = 0.12). Males who frequently engaged in extreme binges had exaggerated deficits on one of the visuospatial tasks, as did their female counterparts on the social-cognitive task. The results suggest sex-specific vulnerabilities associated with recent, frequent binge drinking, and support an evolutionary approach to the study of these vulnerabilities.

MOBILE APPLICATION REMOVES SOCIETAL BARRIERS TO P4 MEDICINE

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
J.-P. Michel
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Mobile Application ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Global Evaluation ◽  
P4 Medicine ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

The overlap between one innovative paradigm (P4 medicine: predictive, personalized, participatory and preventive) and another (a new definition of “Healthy ageing”) is fertile ground for new technologies; a new mobile application (app) that could broaden our scientific knowledge of the ageing process and help us to better analyse the impact of possible interventions in slowing the ageing decline. A novel mobile application is here presented as a game including questions and tests will allow in 10 minutes the assessment of the following domains: robustness, flexibility (lower muscle strength), balance, mental and memory complaints, semantic memory and visual retention. This game is completed by specific measurements, which could allow establishing precise information on functional and cognitive abilities. A global evaluation precedes advice and different types of exercises. The repetition of the tests and measures will allow a long follow up of the individual performances which could be shared (on specific request) with family members and general practitioners.

AGE DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL-COGNITIVE ABILITIES ON THE EXAMPLE OF PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS STEREOTYPE

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-65
Author(s):  
Svetlana Valerevna Zorina ◽  
◽  
Galina Sergeevna Leshina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Age Differences ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Physical Attractiveness ◽  
Social Cognitive
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