posted 24 February 2005

COPY-AND-PASTE CITATION


William H. Calvin, "The Problem with Guessing Correctly." Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES, June 1-5, 2005) at the University of Texas, Austin. See also http://WilliamCalvin.com/2005/HBES.htm


William H. Calvin 
it's an image, you need to type it, not copy it (spam...)       
 
 University of Washington

 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98195-1800 USA  

 

The Problem with Guessing Correctly

Guessing another’s intentions may be easy if the situation is familiar and the individual is well known.  It is novelty that makes “mind reading” difficult, especially when there is a premium on being right the first time.  I am going to assume some abilities in the great apes and then ask what other evolutionary developments might have augmented them.  Increased sharing involved some keeping track of “who owes what to whom” and cheater detection.  Increased mimicry, so handy for imagining another’s movement planning, was likely gradually augmented.  Ballistic movements improved over the apes and they require “get set” planning that is usually right the first time (or dinner runs away). 

            Yet despite all this, there are long periods of stasis in toolmaking.  Even after we became Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago, progress was very slow until the creative explosion about 50,000 years ago.  This suggests that we should look at this recent expansion in higher intellectual functions for clues to what makes us so good at guessing right the first time.

 



 

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A Brief History
 of the Mind, 2004

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A Brain for All Seasons
2002

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Lingua ex Machina
2000

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The Cerebral Code
1996

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How Brains Think
1996

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Conversations with
Neil's Brain
1994