Human Cognitive Development Research Articles

GLOBAL EVOLUTION AND PROSPECTS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

There are two opposing equally well-argued views on the emergence and development of all things: either the evolution of the world that led to the emergence of life and intelligence is something natural, or everything happened quite by accident and could have been different. It determines the aim and the tasks which are the emergence of intelligence can be considered as a certain stage of such a naturally unfolding evolutionary process, or it is the result of a coincidence. Research methods are complex and is based on philosophicalanthropological and philosophical-cultural analysis of the problems of global evolutionism and the development of human intelligence in their dialectical unity.The principles of systematicity, objectivity, ascent from the abstract to the concrete, etc. are also used to solve specific research tasks. Research results: Analysis of the process of universal evolutionism shows that the general direction of the development of existence is the movement from the appearance of simple objects to the formation of the highest of the material structures known today, which are the bearer of intelligence in its biological forms. The author argues the position that further evolution, with a high probability, will occur as a transition from intelligence on organic carriers - the human mind - to artificial intelligence based on inorganics. Together or separately from the human mind, artificial intelligence has the ability to give a new impetus to the development of earthly civilization, penetration into deep space and the development of its limitless possibilities.Discussion. Opponents of the concept of global evolutionism were limited to the planetary scale and for the most part considered the universe as a whole infinite and stationary, and therefore devoid of history. However, it is more attractive to think that the development of the biosphere embodies a number of trends that affected long before the formation of the Earth and the solar system, and this direction is focused on creating an integrated theory of the past from the Big Bang to the present. Conclusion. The global evolution of all things moves in the direction from inorganics to organics - in the form of life and mind, and then - again to inorganics - in the form of artificial intelligence. There is a kind of denial of denial, the further steps of which, and even more so, the end result, can only be guessed.

Intrinsic negative feedback as a limiting factor for the evolution of higher forms of intelligence.

Longstanding scientific efforts have been dedicated to answer why and how our particular intelligence is generated by our brain but not by the brain of other species. However, surprisingly little effort has been made to ask why no other species ever developed an intelligence similar to ours. Here, I explore this question based on genetic and paleontologic evidence. Contrary to the established view, this review suggests that the developmental hurdles alone are not high enough to explain the uniqueness of human intelligence (HI). As an additional explanation I propose that HI is normally not retained by natural selection, because it is, under most conditions, an intrinsically unfavourable trait. This unfavourableness, however, cannot be explained by physical constraints alone; rather, it may also be rooted in the same emotional and social complexity that is necessary for the development of HI. Thus, a major obstacle towards HI may not be solely the development of the required physical assets, but also to cope with harmful individual, social and environmental feedback intrinsically associated with this trait.

A proof of concept for machine learning-based virtual knapping using neural networks

Prehistoric stone tools are an important source of evidence for the study of human behavioural and cognitive evolution. Archaeologists use insights from the experimental replication of lithics to understand phenomena such as the behaviours and cognitive capacities required to manufacture them. However, such experiments can require large amounts of time and raw materials, and achieving sufficient control of key variables can be difficult. A computer program able to accurately simulate stone tool production would make lithic experimentation faster, more accessible, reproducible, less biased, and may lead to reliable insights into the factors that structure the archaeological record. We present here a proof of concept for a machine learning-based virtual knapping framework capable of quickly and accurately predicting flake removals from 3D cores using a conditional adversarial neural network (CGAN). We programmatically generated a testing dataset of standardised 3D cores with flakes knapped from them. After training, the CGAN accurately predicted the length, volume, width, and shape of these flake removals using the intact core surface information alone. This demonstrates the feasibility of machine learning for investigating lithic production virtually. With a larger training sample and validation against archaeological data, virtual knapping could enable fast, cheap, and highly-reproducible virtual lithic experimentation.

Enhancing human indoor cognitive map development and wayfinding performance with immersive augmented reality-based navigation systems

Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience where computer-generated perceptual information is superimposed into the real-world environment. Most existing research in AR-based wayfinding has focused on the technological aspects of developing AR-based software or devices to realize navigation. No previous investigations have focused on understanding the impact of immersive augmented reality (IAR)–based systems on human wayfinding performance from the cognitive perspective. Aimed at investigating the influence of IAR-based systems on people’s cognitive map development and their subsequent wayfinding performance as well as the effect of using three-dimensional (3D) layout models in IAR environments in addition to superimposed guideposts, an experiment was carried out in a building with a complex floor plan. A total of 54 university students were evenly divided into three groups: a control group with no IAR assistance, a second group using an IAR-based navigation system that includes only superimposed guideposts, and a third group using an IAR-based navigation system that includes both guideposts and a 3D layout model. Each participant was asked to conduct a spatial exploration task in the environment, sketch a floor map based on their spatial cognition, and perform a wayfinding task to find eight specific locations in the building. An analysis of the participants’ performance and responses to a number of self-evaluation questionnaires collected in the experiment indicates that IAR technology can help people develop their cognitive maps more effectively and can substantially improve their wayfinding performance with a much lower workload. A second finding is that adding a 3D layout model can enhance the effect of an IAR-based navigation system in terms of cognitive map development. The findings from this research extend the existing knowledge about IAR-based navigation and further verify that AR technology has the potential to reduce human workload for cognitive tasks. The results also could support its more effective application in various scenarios that require assisted wayfinding and cognitive map training, such as emergency evacuation drills.

What causes differences in fracture rates of silcrete during heat treatment? A near-infrared study of water-related transformations in South African silcretes

Discussions of heat treatment in the southern African Middle Stone Age often focus on the importance of this innovation to the development of complex technologies and the evolution of modern human cognition. Debates regarding the context of silcrete heat treatment typically include the amount of time and resource investment needed, and when the earliest occurrences of heat treatment appear in the archaeological record. However, silcrete is a heterogeneous material and the potential effects of this heterogeneity on the thermal transformations that occur during heat treatment are not well established. We undertook a series of controlled experiments using direct transmission near-infrared spectroscopy on South African silcretes from multiple sources heated to a range of maximum temperatures to examine the degree of heterogeneity in starting structural content and the evolution of thermal transformations. We found that material source is an important determinant of starting concentrations of H2O, SiOH, and pore space in silcrete, as well as the thermal evolution of these variables. These results shed light on the degree and sources of variation in the structural content and thermal behavior of silcrete during heat treatment and allow for a better understanding of the heterogeneity of silcrete as a raw material and the implications of this for African Middle Stone Age pyrotechnology.

Gender differences in cognitive development in cohorts of young, middle, and older adulthood over 12 years.

Understanding gender differences in human cognitive development may contribute to understanding the gender differences in outcomes in cognitive ageing. However, evaluation of this topic has been hindered by a lack of representative, longitudinal data from different aged cohorts measured on the same cognitive tests. Gender differences in cognitive abilities were evaluated in three population-based cohorts (baseline age-span 20 to 76, 52% female, 94% Caucasian, 5% Asian and 1% other ethnic background, baseline N = 7,485), initially drawn from the electoral role in Australia where voting is compulsory, that were assessed four times over 12 years on measures of verbal memory, processing speed, working memory, verbal ability, and reaction time. Linear mixed models showed that within each cohort, women had better verbal memory and men had better working memory and faster reaction times. Verbal ability and processing speed showed variable gender differences in the young and middle-aged cohorts but no difference in the oldest cohort. In young and middle age, there were no gender differences in rates of change in verbal memory, processing speed, reaction time, verbal ability, or working memory. In old age, the gender differences were only observed in rates of change in verbal memory. Women showed more verbal memory decline between the 8-year and 12-year follow-ups than men, despite retaining higher average memory performance than men. We conclude that from ages 20-76, gender differences in cognitive abilities are stable except for faster memory ageing among women in the eighth decade. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A density-based evolutionary clustering algorithm for intelligent development

Inspired by the clustering mechanism of human cognitive development, this paper proposes a density-based evolutionary clustering algorithm based on incremental data (DBEC). The DBEC algorithm is developed from a zero sample state without prior knowledge, and the control parameter can evolve as the number of samples increases, which simulates the human cognitive development process structurally. Furthermore, we propose conservative, robust, and radical DBEC algorithms based on different combinations of strategies. These three types of DBEC algorithms have different characteristics, and can find various clustering attributes of the samples to be clustered. Finally, we analyse the performance of three types of DBEC algorithms and compare their result with those of other popular clustering algorithms on the datasets in the experiment. The results show the effectiveness of DBEC algorithms.

Learning Order Parameters from Videos of Skyrmion Dynamical Phases with Neural Networks

The ability to recognize dynamical processes in physical events and to abstract physical concepts or even to reveal physical laws, lies at the core of human cognitive development. Modern machine learning methods have been given high hopes for realizing such ability, but are still in their infancy. Here we present our progress in this capability. The main purposes of this paper are to use neural networks for classifying the dynamical skyrmion phases of videos and to demonstrate that neural networks can learn physical concepts from the dynamical process. To this end, we employ multiple neural networks to recognize the static phases (image format) and dynamical phases (video format) of a particle-based skyrmion model. Our results show that neural networks, without any prior knowledge, can not only correctly classify these phases, but also predict the phase boundaries that agree with those obtained by simulation. We further propose a parameter visualization scheme to interpret what neural networks have learned. We show that neural networks can learn two order parameters from videos of dynamical phases and predict the critical values of two order parameters. Finally, we demonstrate that only two order parameters are needed to identify videos of skyrmion dynamical phases. Hence, this parameter visualization scheme can be used to determine how many order parameters are needed to fully recognize the input phases. Our work sheds light on the future use of neural networks in discovering meaningful physical concepts and revealing unknown yet physical laws from videos.

The Evolution of Complementary Cognition: Humans Cooperatively Adapt and Evolve through a System of Collective Cognitive Search

We propose a new theory of human cognitive evolution, which we term Complementary Cognition. We build on evidence for individual neurocognitive specialization regarding search abilities in the modern population, and propose that our species cooperatively searches and adapts through a system of group-level cognition. This paper sets out a coherent theory to explain why Complementary Cognition evolved and the conditions responsible for its emergence. Using the framework of search, we show that Complementary Cognition can be contextualized as part of a hierarchy of systems including genetic search and cognitive search. We propose that, just as genetic search drives phenotypic adaptation and evolution, complementary cognitive search is central to understanding how our species adapts and evolves through culture. Complementary Cognition has far-reaching implications since it may help to explain the emergence of behavioural modernity and provides a new explanatory framework for why language and many aspects of cooperation evolved. We believe that Complementary Cognition underpins our species’ success and has important implications for how modern-day systems are designed.

Evolution of human behaviour and societies

Early in their book A story of us, the evolutionary psychologists Leslie Newson and Peter Richerson remark of very early hominins that “we can't know what it is like to experience life with a brain so very different from our own” (p. 34). These words neatly encapsulate an unfortunate reality that confronts anyone who tries to understand or reconstruct the evolution of human cognition: we humans are so completely imprisoned within our own cognitive style as to be incapable of fully imagining what was going on in the minds of extinct hominins who were behaviourally highly sophisticated, but who nonetheless did not think like us—which basically includes all of them. The reason for this difficulty is that we modern Homo sapiens are entirely unique in the living world in the way in which we manipulate information about our exterior and internal worlds. We do this symbolically, which is to say that we deconstruct those worlds into vocabularies of mental symbols that we can then combine and recombine in our minds, according to rules, to make statements not only about the world as it is, but as it might be. And evidence in the archaeological record for the routinely symbolic behaviours that are our best proxies for the apprehension of the world in this fashion is at best very sparse indeed prior—and even for some time subsequent—to the initial appearance of Homo sapiens.

The Skilful Origins of Human Normative Cognition

Abstract I briefly present and motivate a ‘skill hypothesis’ regarding the evolution of human normative cognition. On this hypothesis, the capacity to internally represent action-guiding norms evolved as a solution to the distinctive problems of standardizing, learning and teaching complex motor skills and craft skills, especially skills related to toolmaking. We have an evolved cognitive architecture for internalizing norms of technique, which was then co-opted for a rich array of social functions. There was a gradual expansion of the normative domain, with ritual playing an important role in bridging the gap between concrete, enacted norms and general, abstract norms, such as kinship norms. I conclude by stating nine predictions arising from the skill hypothesis.

A study on the age related anatomical variations of some of the cerebral cortical sulci of human brain

Background: The sulcal patterns may be useful in studying the mechanisms of both neuro developmental and neuro degenerative changes that occur during brain maturation and ageing. Magnetic resonance imaging has facilitated the non-invasive study of human cerebral and cognitive development.
 Aims and Objective: To find out the age related anatomical variations of some of the cerebral cortical sulci and gyri of the brain.
 Materials and Methods: The study was done using the MRI images of brain of normal healthy adults aged between 20-70 years. A total of 200 images were analysed consisting of that from 119 male subjects and 81 female subjects from the Department of Radiodiagnosis, Government Medical College Kottayam.
 Results: Using statistical analysis it was found that as the age advances there was decrease in the depth, in case of central sulcus, pre-central sulcus and post-central sulcus. The width of the pre-central sulcus and post-central sulcus was found to increase with age. The changes in the width of the central sulcus were not significant.
 Conclusion: The observations of the undertaken study indicated that age changes do occur in the sulci ofthe brain and there was a sequential change in relation to the different periods of adult life. These changes are probably due to the volume loss of the brain due to the atrophy that occurs during aging.

Culture and psychopathology: An attempt at reconsidering the role of social learning

This paper proposes a model for developmental psychopathology that is informed by recent research suggestive of a single model of mental health disorder (the p factor) and seeks to integrate the role of the wider social and cultural environment into our model, which has previously been more narrowly focused on the role of the immediate caregiving context. Informed by recently emerging thinking on the social and culturally driven nature of human cognitive development, the ways in which humans are primed to learn and communicate culture, and a mentalizing perspective on the highly intersubjective nature of our capacity for affect regulation and social functioning, we set out a cultural-developmental approach to psychopathology.

The place of interdisciplinary relationships in science projects of the gifted students in Turkey

IInstructional design is essential for human cognitive development, and interdisciplinary relationships of those settings have an important role on human cognition. Such instructional settings including various disciplines are current issues in educational researches. As seen in Turkish Science Education Curriculum (TSEC), some relationships between science and environment have been stated and emphasized for mental structures. Learning with projects can help to explore those mental processes. The gifted students can learn effectively and more rapidly than their fellows by the way of such interdisciplinary learning practices. Since these relationships in the curriculum provide the gifted students and the teachers making integrations with disciplines, the project based learning practices include various integrations. Therefore, this documentary study was conducted to student projects selected in a project competition carried out by the gifted students throughout Turkey to explore such interdisciplinary relationships. For the purpose of determining these relationships in student practices made by the Science and Art Centers’ (SAC) students accepted as gifted ones, a total of 76 projects were subjected to the content analysis. With the result of categorization process, they focused on two disciplines to overcome with their problems in general. They prefered to make relationships between firstly biology and chemistry and secondly biology and physics to find valuable answers to their daily life problems. They used the both disciplines’ topics more than other traditional area of science education called as physics. They could make less integrations on physics topics with other disciplines as compared with the connections made between biology and chemistry. Additionally, they could make only 4 connections with geology and geography. Although the 56 of the gifteds’ projects have an interdisciplinary viewpoint totally, only 20 of them include only one scientific disciplines. Such frequencies are important for PBL as it can be a way of coping with the integration problems doing the practices in gifted education spesificially and science education in general.

Sialylated human milk oligosaccharides program cognitive development through a non-genomic transmission mode

Breastmilk contains bioactive molecules essential for brain and cognitive development. While sialylated human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) have been implicated in phenotypic programming, their selective role and underlying mechanisms remained elusive. Here, we investigated the long-term consequences of a selective lactational deprivation of a specific sialylated HMO in mice. We capitalized on a knock-out (KO) mouse model (B6.129-St6gal1tm2Jxm/J) lacking the gene responsible for the synthesis of sialyl(alpha2,6)lactose (6′SL), one of the two sources of sialic acid (Neu5Ac) to the lactating offspring. Neu5Ac is involved in the formation of brain structures sustaining cognition. To deprive lactating offspring of 6′SL, we cross-fostered newborn wild-type (WT) pups to KO dams, which provide 6′SL-deficient milk. To test whether lactational 6′SL deprivation affects cognitive capabilities in adulthood, we assessed attention, perseveration, and memory. To detail the associated endophenotypes, we investigated hippocampal electrophysiology, plasma metabolomics, and gut microbiota composition. To investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms, we assessed gene expression (at eye-opening and in adulthood) in two brain regions mediating executive functions and memory (hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, PFC). Compared to control mice, WT offspring deprived of 6′SL during lactation exhibited consistent alterations in all cognitive functions addressed, hippocampal electrophysiology, and in pathways regulating the serotonergic system (identified through gut microbiota and plasma metabolomics). These were associated with a site- (PFC) and time-specific (eye-opening) reduced expression of genes involved in central nervous system development. Our data suggest that 6′SL in maternal milk adjusts cognitive development through a short-term upregulation of genes modulating neuronal patterning in the PFC.

Development of attention networks from childhood to young adulthood: A study of performance, intraindividual variability and cortical thickness

Human cognitive development is manifold, with different functions developing at different speeds at different ages. Attention is an important domain of this cognitive development, and involves distinct developmental trajectories for separate functions, including conflict processing, selection of sensory input and alertness. In children, several studies using the Attention Network Test (ANT) have investigated the development of three attentional networks that carry out the functions of executive control, orienting and alerting. There is, however, a lack of studies on the development of these attentional components across adolescence, limiting our understanding of their protracted development. To fill this knowledge gap, we performed a mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal study using mixed methods to examine the development of the attentional components and their intraindividual variability from late childhood to young adulthood (n = 287, n observations = 408, age range = 8.5–26.7 years, mean follow up interval = 4.4 years). The results indicated that executive control stabilized during late adolescence, while orienting and alerting continued to develop into young adulthood. In addition, a continuous development into young adulthood was observed for the intraindividual variability measures of orienting and alerting. In a subsample with available magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data (n = 169, n observations = 281), higher alerting scores were associated with thicker cortices within a right prefrontal cortical region and greater age-related cortical thinning in left rolandic operculum, while higher orienting scores were associated with greater age-related cortical thinning in frontal and parietal regions. Finally, increased consistency of orienting performance was associated with thinner cortex in prefrontal regions and reduced age-related thinning in frontal regions.

Information technologies, literacy, and cognitive development: an ecolinguistic view

This article questions the belief that the IT revolution enhances human cognitive development. Starting with a brief description of an alarming tendency observed over the past quarter century, I will identify two major methodological pitfalls of modern education responsible for a profound lack of understanding of the nature and role of language as human ecology on the one hand, and information and information technologies as part of this ecology, on the other; this lack of understanding accounts for the steady decline in the development of young intellects in the information era. To curb this developmental regress, we must change the perspective both on language and information by using a systems approach to humans as linguistic organisms. Such an approach involves identification of the biological function of language as a cognitive-semiotic ability to take into account what is not perceptually present and its relation to sapience. It is argued that this ability (operations on first-order abstractions) is the biological (neurophysiological) basis for abstract thought which is further radically enhanced with the advent of writing (operations on second-order abstractions). The cognitive dynamics of reading and writing reconstruct language as a cognitive domain of interactions, giving rise to a new way of thinking based on the experience of interpreting inscriptions. IT-generated virtual reality deprives young individuals of the essential formative experience of operations on second-order abstractions, impeding their cognitive development.

Rupture and Repair in Mentalization-Based Group Psychotherapy

ABSTRACT The article explores ideas about the role of group mentalizing—the experience of joint attention and shared intentionality—as a process that can support the emergence of more collaborative and salutogenic social functioning. This is based on developmental and evolutionary thinking about the importance of joint attention in human social cognitive development and functioning. The importance of experiencing rupture and repair as part of the process of thinking together—while also working with the separate nature of our thoughts—is described, emphasizing that it is through an understanding of the complex and inevitably uneven and challenging nature of joint attention and social cooperation that such cooperation is itself made possible.

Four-Field Co-evolutionary Model for Human Cognition: Variation in the Middle Stone Age/Middle Palaeolithic

Here we explore variation and similarities in the two best-represented population groups who lived during the Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic—the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Building on approaches such as gene-culture co-evolution, we propose a four-field model to discuss relationships between human cognitive evolution, biology, technology, society, and ecology. We focus on the pre-50-ka phase, because we reason that later admixing between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in Eurasia may make it difficult to separate them in terms of cognition, or any of the other fields discussed in this paper. Using our model enabled us to highlight similarities in cognition between the two populations in terms of symbolic behaviour and social learning and to identify differences in aspects of technical and social cognition. Dissimilarities in brain-selective gene variants and brain morphology strongly suggest differences in some evolutionary trajectories that would have affected cognition. We therefore suggest that rather than insisting that Neanderthals were cognitively ‘the same’ as Homo sapiens, it may be useful to focus future studies on Neanderthal-specific cognition that may have been well-developed within their specific context at the time.

Механизм творчества: почему мы открываем новое

The article presents an attempt to substantiate the mechanism of creativity as a development of the activity on its own initiative, the emergence and develop­ment of which is the highest level of human cognitive activity. The author correl­ates this understanding of creativity with the phenomenon of giftedness and sees the fundamental difference between creative thinking and productive thinking – the latter does not go beyond the solution of the proposed problems and consists in mastering the required algorithm for this. The article describes in detail the method developed for research on the development of cognition in humans, and the experimental model, which differs from the traditional model of "stimu­lus-response", which, according to the author, allows us to observe the phe­nomenon of creativity as an activity initiated by the subject himself. Such an ex­periment was conducted by the author and his followers for half a century on the same subjects: first they were students of the physics and mathematics school, then graduates of universities and institutes, and eventually became scientists, teachers or employees of firms. As a proof of the validity and prognosticality of the method, the author considers not the sample size, but the stability of the in­dicators of creativity of the participants of the experiment shown in the diagnosis over half a century.