In the Mind's Eye: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Evolution of Human Cognition

by April Nowell (Editor)

The last decade has witnessed a sophistication and proliferation in the number of studies focused on the evolution of human cognition, reflecting a renewed interest in the evolution of the human mind in anthropology and in many other disciplines. The complexity and enormity of this topic requires the coordinated efforts of many researchers. This volume brings together the disciplines of palaeontology, psychology, anatomy, and primatology. Together, they address a number of issues, including the evolution of sex differences in spatial cognition, the role of archaeology in the cognitive sciences, the relationships between brain size, cranial reorganization and hominid cognition, and the role of language and information processing in human evolution.

200 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I wanted, which was a nonacademic-friendly version of "What did they know and when did they know it?" It's more about people in various fields (neuroanatomists, experts in homimid vocal tracts, people who study information processing or linguistics) explaining how their specialties can offer clues to the subject. The chapters range from impenetrable ("A Pragmatic View of the Emergence of Paleolothic Symbol-Using" by Martin Byers) to interesting ("The Archaeology of the Oldest Artificial Memory Systems" by Francesco d"Errico and "The Origins of Speaking a Language" by William Noble and Iain Davidson).

[Riversue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this - it is a bit dated though.