Sept. 24th: Tool use and technology

Man the Tool-maker

a classic scientific definition of humans emphasizing tool-making.

Chimpanzee tool use

challenged the idea that tool-making is uniquely human and led Louis Leakey to reconsider the definitions of “man” and “tool.”

Human technological history

includes stone tools

Techno-organic evolution

the idea that technology and biological evolution can influence one another.

Cumulative cultural evolution (CCE)

cultural knowledge improves over generations through social learning and builds beyond what individuals could invent alone.

High-fidelity social transmission

accurately copying behaviors or knowledge from others.

Cultural selection

biased copying causes some cultural traits to spread more successfully than others.

Sequential improvement

cultural technologies can be repeatedly modified and improved over generations.

Cultural traits beyond individual invention

accumulated cultural knowledge can become more complex than any one individual could independently create.

Ratchet effect

cumulative cultural evolution allows improvements to accumulate without being lost across generations.

Enhanced cultural content

increasingly complex cultural knowledge can create selection for enhanced learning capacities.

Biocultural feedback

culture and biology continuously influence one another

Sustained autocatalytic feedback

a self-reinforcing cycle in which changes in brains

Human success story

the lecture presents human cultural and technological evolution as a sustained feedback process between brains and culture.

Human Rubicon

the idea of a major evolutionary divide between humans and other animals that may be questioned by evidence of animal tool use.

Enlightenment and human progress

Enlightenment thought encouraged the belief that human societies could continually develop economically and culturally.

Enlightenment technology connection

technological inventions and scientific revolutions contributed to optimism about human progress.

“Improving” in CCE

improvement does not necessarily mean a simple directional increase; it can involve changes in materials

Tooling up

increasing investment in raw materials

Raw materials

the physical materials required to create a technology or tool.

Production

the processes involved in making a tool or technology.

Maintenance

the effort required to preserve and continue using a technology.

Skill learning

learning the abilities necessary to successfully produce or use a technology.

Directional trend

the assumption that technological evolution consistently progresses toward greater complexity or improvement.

Diversification

technological evolution can instead involve increasing variation and adaptation to different contexts.

Context-sensitive diversification

technologies may vary depending on environmental conditions and the costs and benefits of using them.

Technology costs and benefits

technologies are favored when their benefits outweigh the costs of production and maintenance.

Neanderthal fire use

evidence shows Neanderthals used fire for cooking in some times and places

Neanderthal fire interpretation

we should not assume Neanderthals had the same relationship with fire as modern humans.

Adaptive minimum

the minimum level of a trait necessary for survival or successful functioning.

Variation above an adaptive minimum

traits can vary substantially beyond the minimum needed for adaptation.

Long-term directional selection

selection that produces a consistent directional change in a trait over long periods.

Stone tools

an important form of early human technology requiring complex production skills.

Reason 1 for stone tools

stones were readily available.

Reason 2 for stone tools

broken rocks naturally produce sharp edges that can be useful.

Reason 3 for stone tools

stone knapping is difficult and requires specialized skill.

Stone knapping

the process of intentionally striking stone to remove flakes and create useful edges.

Chimpanzee tool-making vs. stone knapping

many chimpanzee tools can be made quickly without training

Oldowan

an early stone-tool technology dating to about 2.5 million years ago.

Late Acheulean

a later Lower Paleolithic stone-tool tradition dating to about 0.5 million years ago.

Lower Paleolithic toolmaking

early stone-tool production that developed increasingly complex technological skills.

Interdisciplinary approaches to skill learning

understanding technology requires combining evidence from multiple fields and approaches.

Diverse demands of human technologies

human technologies place different demands on cognition

Common features of technologies

production

Production

involves physically creating or manipulating materials to produce an intended result.

Materiality

the physical properties and constraints of materials involved in production.

Simulation

mentally representing possible actions or outcomes before performing them.

Prediction

anticipating the likely outcome of an action.

Control

adjusting actions to achieve a desired physical outcome.

Production cognition

tool-making involves simulation

Right inferior fronto-parietal network

brain regions associated with tool-making and related production processes.

rIFG

right inferior frontal gyrus

FDG-PET

a brain-imaging method used in the lecture to examine brain activity during action execution.

fMRI

a brain-imaging method used to examine brain activity during action observation.

DTI

diffusion tensor imaging

Action execution

performing an action

Action observation

watching another person perform an action.

Tool-making and brain connectivity

tool-making is associated with right inferior fronto-parietal regions and relevant connectivity.

Comparative evidence

comparisons between chimpanzee and human brains can reveal differences in neural organization related to technology.

Superior longitudinal fasciculus

a white-matter pathway examined when comparing chimpanzee and human brain connectivity.

Collaboration

working with other individuals toward shared goals.

Collaboration functions

involves synchrony

Synchrony

coordinating actions or behavior in time with other people.

Mentalizing

representing or understanding the mental states of oneself and others.

Affiliation

forming and maintaining social bonds with others.

Internal models of self and other

mental representations used to understand one's own actions and the actions or states of other individuals.

Moving in sync and social bonds

synchronized movement can contribute to stronger social connections.

Rubber hand illusion

an illusion demonstrating how sensory information can influence the perceived ownership of a body part.

Mirror self-recognition (MSR)

the ability to recognize oneself in a mirror.

Reproduction

another common feature of human technologies alongside production and collaboration.

Variation

the raw material of evolution.

Prior experience and aptitude

previous experience can influence how easily an individual learns a new skill.

Gross motor experience

previous experience with broad physical movements can influence later skill learning.

Neuroanatomical variation

differences in brain anatomy can contribute to differences in learning aptitude.

Prepared mind

previous experience can prepare the brain to learn related skills more efficiently.

Learning to learn

experience can improve the ability to acquire new skills.

Faster plastic accommodation

prior experience can allow the brain to adapt more quickly to new technological demands.

Neuroplasticity

the brain's ability to change structurally or functionally in response to experience and learning.

Biocultural feedback mechanism

cultural practices can alter learning and brain organization

Perceptual-motor hypothesis of technology

technology may shape cognition through repeated interactions between perception and motor action.

Perceptual-motor relationship

technological behavior links what an individual perceives with the motor actions needed to manipulate the environment.

Problem of Paleolithic stability

the persistence of some Paleolithic technologies raises questions about why technologies do not always show continuous directional improvement.

General mechanisms and particular histories

technological evolution reflects both general mechanisms and the specific historical contexts in which technologies develop.