Cognitive fluidity
Encyclopedia
Cognitive fluidity is a term first popularly applied by Steven Mithen
in his book The Prehistory of the Mind, a search for the origins of Art, Religion and Science.
The term cognitive fluidity describes how a modular
primate mind has evolved into the modern human mind by combining different ways of processing knowledge and using tools to create a modern civilization. By arriving at original thoughts, which are often highly creative and rely on metaphor and analogy modern humans differ from archaic humans. As such, cognitive fluidity is a key element of the human attentive consciousness. The term has been principally used to contrast the mind of modern humans, especially those after 50,000 B.P. (before present), with those of archaic humans such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus. The latter appear to have had a mentality that was original domain-specific in structure; a series of largely isolated cognitive domains for thinking about the social, material, and natural worlds. These are termed “Swiss penknife minds” with a set of special modules for specific domains such as Social, Natural history, General, Technical and Language intelligence. With the advent of modern humans the barriers between these domains appear to have been largely removed in the attentive mode and hence cognition became more fluid. Consciousness is of course attentive and self-reflective, and the role of the modular intelligences in neurological “Default mode” is a topic for current research in self-reflective human consciousness.
Steven Mithen
Steve Mithen is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading. He has written a number of books including The Singing Neanderthals and The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science.-See also:...
in his book The Prehistory of the Mind, a search for the origins of Art, Religion and Science.
The term cognitive fluidity describes how a modular
Modularity of mind
Modularity of mind is the notion that a mind may, at least in part, be composed of separate innate structures which have established evolutionarily developed functional purposes...
primate mind has evolved into the modern human mind by combining different ways of processing knowledge and using tools to create a modern civilization. By arriving at original thoughts, which are often highly creative and rely on metaphor and analogy modern humans differ from archaic humans. As such, cognitive fluidity is a key element of the human attentive consciousness. The term has been principally used to contrast the mind of modern humans, especially those after 50,000 B.P. (before present), with those of archaic humans such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus. The latter appear to have had a mentality that was original domain-specific in structure; a series of largely isolated cognitive domains for thinking about the social, material, and natural worlds. These are termed “Swiss penknife minds” with a set of special modules for specific domains such as Social, Natural history, General, Technical and Language intelligence. With the advent of modern humans the barriers between these domains appear to have been largely removed in the attentive mode and hence cognition became more fluid. Consciousness is of course attentive and self-reflective, and the role of the modular intelligences in neurological “Default mode” is a topic for current research in self-reflective human consciousness.
See also
- Behavioral modernityBehavioral modernityBehavioral modernity is a term used in anthropology, archeology and sociology to refer to a set of traits that distinguish present day humans and their recent ancestors from both living primates and other extinct hominid lineages. It is the point at which Homo sapiens began to demonstrate a...
- Evolutionary psychology of religionEvolutionary psychology of religionThe evolutionary psychology of religion is the study of religious belief using evolutionary psychology principles. It is one approach to the psychology of religion. As with all other organs and organ functions, the brain and cognition's functional structure have been argued to have a genetic basis,...
- Evolutionary origin of religionsEvolutionary origin of religionsThe evolutionary origin of religions theorizes about the emergence of religious behavior during the course of human evolution.- Nonhuman religious behavior :...
- IQ testing environmental variances
External links
- (1996) The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05081-3.
- The Prehistory of the Mind The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science By Steven Mithen Reviewed by Andy Gorman