What Early Sapiens Cognition Can Teach Us: Untangling Cultural Influences on Human Cognition Across Time

Bender, Andrea

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00099

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 77 publications

(65 reference statements)

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“…It may seem plausible that by conducting cross-cultural studies, one would be able to identify the universal core of human cognition, with the core being conceived as those aspects that do not vary across cultures. This popular assumption, however, is delusive, largely because cross-cultural differences are neither sufficient nor necessary to diagnose the impact of culture (Bender, 2020b). Moreover, an absence of cultural differences is impossible to prove, as this would presuppose a complete survey of all cultural traditions ever, both present and past.…”

Section: Bringing Culture To the Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

The dual role of culture for reconstructing early sapiens cognition.

Bender,

Straffon,

Gatewood

et al. 2024

Psychological Review

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Questions on early sapiens cognition, the cognitive abilities of our ancestors, are intriguing but notoriously hard to tackle. Leaving no hard traces in the archeological record, these abilities need to be inferred from indirect evidence, informed by our understanding of present-day cognition. Most of such attempts acknowledge the role that culture, as a faculty, has played for human evolution, but they underrate or even disregard the role of distinct cultural traditions and the ensuing diversity, both in present-day humans and as a dimension of past cognition. We argue that culture has exerted a profound impact on human cognition from the start in a dual manner: It scaffolds cognition through both development and evolution, and it thereby continually diversifies the form and content of human thinking. To unveil early sapiens cognition and retrace its evolutionary trajectories, this cognitive diversity must be considered. We present two strategies to achieve this: large-scale extrapolation and phylogenetic comparison. The former aims at filtering out diversity to determine what is basic and universal versus culturally shaped (illustrated for theory of mind abilities). The latter capitalizes on the diversity to reconstruct evolutionary trajectories (illustrated for religious beliefs). The two methods, in combination, advance our understanding of the cognitive abilities of our early sapiens ancestors and of how these abilities emerged and evolved. To conclude, we discuss the implications of this approach for our insights into early cognition itself and its scientific investigation.

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Section: Bringing Culture To the Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

The dual role of culture for reconstructing early sapiens cognition.

Bender,

Straffon,

Gatewood

et al. 2024

Psychological Review

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show abstract

“…The main step of the framework is cognitive. Cognition, by which we understand and function in the world, is said to be embodied (Anderson, 2003;Atkinson, 2010;Semin & Smith, 2002), social (Fiske & Haslam, 1996;Frith & Frith, 2008;Gallese, Keysers & Rizzolatti, 2004), cultural (Bender, 2020;D'Andrade, 1981;Tomasello & Rakoczy, 2003), situated (Semin & Smith, 2002;Wilson, 2002), and distributed (Kirsh, 2006;Spurrett & Cowley, 2004). The cognitive step draws on the view that metaphor is an "indispensable structure of human understanding utilizing which we figuratively comprehend our world" (Johnson, 1987, p. xx).…”

Section: Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Filtering of Metaphor Translating: A Cognitive Science Perspective

Alghbban

Maalej

2023

SSRN Journal

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“…Within cognitive evolution research, we can find different approaches and strategies ( Bender, 2020 ), and we can differentiate between at least two basically diverse approaches: one that considers cognitive evolution within a representational framework, and another that investigates it in a bodily engagement setting. Here, I will not focus on the question of mental representation, but rather on the effect public representations can have on social organization and cognitive capacity.…”

Section: Representational Means Chains Of Thoughtsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thought-Shapers Embedded

Kondor

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Accepting the idea that the mental representations of concepts, diagrams, relations, plans, etc., are thought-shapers, I suggest going a bit further. Any kind of representation, be it mental or public, i.e., accessible to others, bears thought-shaping potential, albeit not in the same manner. Just as the idea of embodied cognition takes into consideration environmental facilities and obstacles, I suggest investigating thought processes in a broader context, i.e., placing thought-shapers in the context of their formation. I propose that the elements of the above mentioned definition of thought-shapers are built upon a structure that consists of representational skills, means, and institutions. In accordance with the idea of embeddedness and enactment, the need for communication and the given cognitive and physical aptitudes result in different kinds of expression, i.e., different kinds of representations available to others. When an expressional mode solidifies, it opens up new possibilities and limitations. I propose that mundane, almost unnoticeable affordances and their accompanying limits do shape our thoughts thoroughly. In my argument for the thought-shaper potential of the generative technique of public representations, I will delineate a historical overview of representational means in tandem with the main characteristics of different eras’ crucial ideals and patterns of reasoning. I will close the historical overview with a terminological excursion exploring how publicly available representation and mental representation relate to each other and the kinds of ambiguities that accompany the latter term’s use. Accordingly, embedding thought-shapers, I will outline the evolution of different representational techniques and skills. Then, because language is a decisive representational means, I will investigate its orientating and distortive potential. I will rely on some of Bergson’s lesser-known remarks. I will illuminate how ocular-centrism was able to be a decisive metaphor in science and philosophy for long centuries, until recently even. In conclusion, as a case study, I will illuminate how the term “mental representation” as a highly abstract term facilitates and at the same time hinders philosophical and scientific inquiry.

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What Early Sapiens Cognition Can Teach Us: Untangling Cultural Influences on Human Cognition Across Time

Cited by 10 publications

References 77 publications

The dual role of culture for reconstructing early sapiens cognition.

The dual role of culture for reconstructing early sapiens cognition.

Cultural Filtering of Metaphor Translating: A Cognitive Science Perspective

Thought-Shapers Embedded

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