Human origins - PS1101 HP

How can an animal survive evolutionary pressures and pass their genes to the next generation?

By adapting and surviving with learning, problem solving, communication and social skills

Why could ancestors of chimps, gorillas, etc. live without such intellect or problem solving etc.?

Did not have the same selection pressures

Why is there an increasing brain size?

stronger selective pressure

Modern day non-human primates such as chimpanzees can recognise?

More than 30 sounds and body language

What did Savage-Rumbaugh (1990) do?

Taught chimps to use sign language and could use syntax and simple words

To what changes has bipedalism led us to?

anatomical changes enabling speech as our posture changes

What did Chomsky (1950/60) argue?

we have innate mechanisms for language and that there is a universal grammar for all languages

Children can learn languages easily and create novel constructions because…

of our innate mechanisms for language

What do pre-cursors refer to?

Farly forms or preliminary stages that precede and lead to the development of something more advanced.

From the evidence of tool use in other species it shows that some basic culturally learnt tool use doesn’t require..

to know a language

When was the invention of writing?

5000 years ago

Rapid developments in skills and abilities have arisen from….

cultural rather than generic evolution which has been enhanced by more global communication

Tool use in modern-day non-human primates indicates that…

pre-cursors for tool use was present in our ancestors

There’s evidence of increasingly complex tool making from…

2.5 mya

More complex and standardised tools were used by…

late Homo erectus / early Homo sapiens

Our ancestors had to adapt to the environment which led to innate mechanisms for…

language learning and innate intellectual ability