The evolution of cognition / edited by Cecilia Heyes and Ludwig Huber.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Heyes, Cecilia M.

Huber, Ludwig, 1950-

Series:

Vienna series in theoretical biology

The Vienna series in theoretical biology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Genetic psychology.

Psychology, Comparative.

Physical Description:

viii, 386 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2000]

Summary:

In the last decade, "evolutionary psychology" has come to refer exclusively to research on human mentality and behavior, motivated by a nativist interpretation of how evolution operates. This book encompasses the behavior and mentality of nonhuman as well as human animals and a full range of evolutionary approaches. Rather than a collection by and for the like-minded, it is a debate about how evolutionary processes have shaped cognition.

The debate is divided into five sections: Orientations, on the phylogenetic, ecological, and psychological/comparative approaches to the evolution of cognition; Categorization, on how various animals parse their environments, how they represent objects and events and the relations among them; Causality, on whether and in what ways nonhuman animals represent cause and effect relationships; Consciousness, on whether it makes sense to talk about the evolution of consciousness and whether the phenomenon can be investigated empirically in nonhuman animals; and Culture, on the cognitive requirements for nongenetic transmission of information and the evolutionary/consequences of such cultural exchange.

Notes:

"A Bradford book."

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

0262082861

OCLC:

42383494