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SUMMARY:Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking    - Profess
 or Cecilia Heyes\, All Souls College and Department of Experimental Psycho
 logy\, University of Oxford
DTSTART:20180511T153000Z
DTEND:20180511T163000Z
UID:TALK104110@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Louise White
DESCRIPTION:Evolutionary psychology casts the human mind as a collection o
 f cognitive instincts - organs of thought shaped by genetic evolution and 
 constrained by the needs of our Stone Age ancestors. This picture was plau
 sible 25 years ago but\, I argue\, it no longer fits the facts.  Research 
 in psychology and neuroscience - involving nonhuman animals\, infants and 
 adult humans - now suggests that genetic evolution has merely tweaked the 
 human mind\, making us more friendly than our pre-human ancestors\, more a
 ttentive to other agents\, and giving us souped-up\, general-purpose mecha
 nisms of learning\, memory and control. Using these resources\, our specia
 l-purpose organs of thought are built in the course of development through
  social interaction. They are products of cultural rather than genetic evo
 lution\, cognitive gadgets rather than cognitive instincts.\n\n \n\n 
LOCATION:Ground Floor Lecture Theatre\, Department of Psychology
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