Foundations of Psychology

What can technology tell us about cognitive development

• The use of technology informs our understanding of how cognitive abilities are developed

• Complex tool making indicates intelligence, planning and communication

• What cognitive abilities are required for using/making tools

• problem-solving

• Learning

• Planning

• Communication

What is the distinction between cultural evolution and genetic evolution in modern human

• genetic evolution - refers to innate intellectual abilities e.g learning, problem solving

• Cultural evolution - the ability to adapt to environmental change’s utilising our genetically evolved capacity for learning and language which lead to the rapid development of skills and technology in recent years e.g the invention of writing, Industrial Revolution

What selective pressures drive the development of intellect in hominids

• hominids had to adapt to seasonal environments in the savannah

• Survival required learning, problem-solving, social skills and communication abilities

Three key characteristics that distinguish humans from other primates

• Bipedalism

• Advanced tool making

• Symbolism

Orrorin Tugenensis - 6 million years ago

• Bipedalism - locomotion with two limbs

• Similiar size to chimpanzee

• Considered a serious candidate for the first hominid that walked upright

Australopithecus Afarensis - 3-4 Million years ago

• e.g Lucy

• walked upright

• brain size was about 35% of normal human brain

Homo Habilis - 2.4 - 1.4 million years ago

• Primitive stone tools

• Brain size about 50% the size of modern human brain

• Regarded as the earliest representative of the genus Homo

Homo Erectus - 1.89m - 110,000 years ago

• brain size was around 60-70% the size of modern human brain

• used fire to cook, stay warm and repel predators

• Utilized base camps - associated with Acheulean tools

Homo neanderthalensis - 400,000- 40,000 years ago

• Large brains - adapted to cold

• Used sophisticated tools - mousterian mode

• controlled fire , created shelters, clothing and symbolic objects

Homo sapiens - 300,000 years ago to present

• Use of specialised composite tools - upper palaeolithic

• Transitioned to producing food 12,000 years ago

• led to industrial and technological revolutions.

non-stone tools

• biodegradable

• likely used long before stone tools but the evidence is not preserved

• examples include sticks, leaves, plant fibres, shells, feathers, animal hair and fur.

Oldowan tools - 2.5 million years

• Primitive stone tools characterised by chipping stones to make a cutting edge

• Used to break open animal carcasses or strip plant fibres

• Associated with homo habilis

Acheulean Tools - 1.5 million years

• Characterised by hand axes chipped from both side with multiple strikes to make a two sided cutting edge

• used for cutting meat, woodwork and digging

• Associated with homo ergaster and homo erectus

Mousterian Tools - 200.000 years ago

• tools characterised by several phases of manufacturing and reworking

• included spear points for hunting and scrapers for cleaning hides

• Associated with Homo neanderthalensis and Homosapiens

Upper Palaeolithic tools - 45,000- 10.000 years ago

• highly sophisticated tools including knives, arrow heads, sewing needles , harpoons and fish hooks

• Associated with homo sapiens

Symbolism

• The capacity to represent objects, people, events or concepts by arbitrary but meaningful symbols

• using them in cultural practices - considered a key trait that makes us human

Peirce’s three levels of reference

• Iconic signs - physical resemblance

• Indexical signs - temporal or spatial association e.g shell beads used as social signals

• Symbolic signs - purely arbitrary relationship e.g words in language

when did modern languages likely develop?

• Modern languages may have developed with modern humans 40.000-35,000 years ago

• this is argued based on findings of complex abilities such as finely made composite tools, use of bone/antler and cave art at the time

why was language adaptive?

language allowed hominids to warn of danger, communicate good hunting places, instruct how to make tools and promote complex social structures

What is Chomsky’s theory regarding language acquisition

• humans possess innate mechanisms for language including a “ universal grammar”

• This explains why children learn language easily and can spontaneously create novel constructions

What physiological change may have enabled speech

• Bipedalism may have led to anatomical changes that enabled speech and allowed for greater vocal range

Preliterate culture

• A civilisation that existed before writing was invented

• knowledge in these cultures were confined to know-how without theoretical understanding

Animism

• The belief that objects and nature are inhabited by spirits with like human-like characteristics that cause events to happen

• Sir Edward Burnett Tylor introduced the term

Significance of Writing

• critical developments that allowed the accumulation of knowledge and understanding

• Written records act as external memory and allow incompatibilities in myths to become visible which enable scientific thinking

Pictogram

• An information conveying sign that consists of a picture resembling the person, animal or object it represents

Presentism vs Historicism

P - interpreting the past using modern-day values and context

H - Studying the past for its own sake without relating it to the present

The matthew effect

• Attributing excessive credit to famous figures which inflates their perceived historical impact

Zeitgeist

• The “spirit” of the times

• the idea that discoveries happen when society is ready and preceding factors align

Rationalism vs Empiricism

• R - knowledge comes from innate truths and logic not sensory experience

• E - knowledge is gained through cumulative sensory experience

Deductive vs Inductive reasoning

D - top-down - starts with an irrefutable truth premise to reach a certain conclusion

I - bottom-up - uses repeated observations to form a general rule

Ockham’s razor back

• the principle of explanatory parsimony

• the simplest explanation - trimming away unnecessary details - usaulaly the best

Plato’s tripartite soul

• reasoning - located in brain

• sensation/emotion - located in the heart

• appetite - located in the liver

Aristotle’s Brain Theory

• the heart is the primary organ (warm/central)

• the brain is secondary and it exists to cool the hearts tempers

Galen’s Ventricular Theory

• the belief that ventricles (hollow spaces in the brain) were the seat of life where spirits produced different behaviours

Aristotle’s Laws of Association

• four principles used for active recall

• Similarity, Contiguity, Contrast and Frequency

Scholasticism

• a medieval movement that reconciled classical greek philosophy (primarliy Aristotle) with Christian Theology

Geocentric vs Heliocentric

G - Earth is centre of the universe (Aristotle/Ptolemy)

H - The sun is the centre ( Copernicus/ Galileo)

Ibn Sina

• wrote the standard medical text - The Canon

• Proposed 7 interior and 5 external senses

Maimonides

• Used Aristotelian rationalism to understand religious texts and studied psychosomatic disorders

Rationalism

• the belief that knowledge comes from within the individual rather than from external experience

key proce