Origins of the Modern MindHarvard University Press, 1991 - 424 pages This bold and brilliant book asks the ultimate question of the life sciences: How did the human mind acquire its incomparable power? In seeking the answer, Merlin Donald traces the evolution of human culture and cognition from primitive apes to artificial intelligence, presenting an enterprising and original theory of how the human mind evolved from its presymbolic form. |
Contents
The Need for a Theory of Cognitive Evolution | 5 |
Culture as Evidence for Cognitive Structure | 9 |
The Organization of This Book | 14 |
Copyright | |
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ability adaptation alphabet anatomical animals apes aphasia appear archaic architecture areas aspects auditory australopithecines behavior biological memory brain capacity central cerebral chimpanzee cognitive architecture cognitive evolution cognitive skills complex computational construct cortex cortical cuneiform Darwin device dominant dyslexia emergence episodic memory event perception evidence evolutionary evolved EXMF expression external memory facial function gesture guage hominid Homo erectus human cognitive human culture ideographic images input involved later learning left hemisphere lexical lexicon linguistic logograms major mammals mental models metic mimesis mimetic controller mimetic culture mimetic representation mimetic skill mind modern humans modular modules motor narrative Neanderthal neural neuropsychological Oldowan patterns phonetic phonological pictorial primate procedural memory produce proposed reading regions right hemisphere role semantic semantic memory social society sound specific speech split-brain storage structure symbolic invention theory thought tion transition ture Upper Paleolithic visual symbols visuographic vocal tract Wernicke's words writing