The social nature of primate cognition

Abstract

The hypothesis that the enlarged brain size of the primates was selected for by social, rather than purely ecological, factors has been strongly influential in studies of primate cognition and behaviour over the past two decades. However, the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis, also known as the social brain hypothesis, tends to emphasize certain traits and behaviours, like exploitation and deception, at the expense of others, such as tolerance and behavioural coordination, and therefore presents only one view of how social life may shape cognition. This review outlines work from other relevant disciplines, including evolutionary economics, cognitive science and neurophysiology, to illustrate how these can be used to build a more general theoretical framework, incorporating notions of embodied and distributed cognition, in which to situate questions concerning the evolution of primate social cognition.

Mirror neurons and the social nature of language: The neural exploitation hypothesis

“…Barrett et al (in press) have recently *persuasively, in my opinion*argued that apparent cognitive complexity in the social domain emerges from the interaction of brain, body and world, rather than being a mere outcome of the level of intrinsic cognitive complexity that primate species possess. Viewing social cognition as an embodied and situated enterprise (see Anderson, 2003;Barsalou, 1999;Barrett & Henzi, 2005;Clark, 1997;Gallese, 2003;Lakoff & Johnson, 1980Niedenthal, Barsalou, Winkielman, Krauth-Gruber, & Ric, 2005) offers the possibility of a new neuroscientific approach to language. Let us see why and how by first briefly introducing the perspective of phenomenology, which provides stimulating perspectives on the nature and structure of human experience and its connection to language, by putting bodily action at the center of the stage.…”

“…No one can deny that we use what we call ''propositional attitudes.'' However, it is far from clear that this is the sole or even principal character of human social cognition (see Barrett & Henzi, 2005;Barrett et al, in press;Gallese, 2001Gallese, , 2006. It must be added that the chances that we will find boxes in our brain containing the neural correlates of beliefs desires and intentions as such probably amount to next to zero.…”

Adjusted Pedagogy for Teaching Statistics

“…Another form of social learning occurs via group discussion interaction that enables transferring of ideas and thus learning from individuals to the entire class. Hearing other perspectives helps students judge and improve the quality of their own thinking (Barrett, 2005).…”

“…Solving problems in an active learning environment enables the learning of problem solving skills that remain life-long skills (Barrett, 2005). A form of active learning is problem based learning.…”

Foundations of computational psychiatry: a mathematical treatment of embodied cognition and its disorders

“…The fundamental decomposition of the intelligent system is not into independent information processing units which must interface with each other via representation. Instead, the intelligent system is decomposed into independent and parallel activity producers which all interface directly to the world through perception and action... everything is both central and peripheral... Barrett and Henzi (2005) summarize matters as follows:…”