Adaptive specializations, social exchange, and the evolution of human intelligence
نویسندگان
چکیده
Blank-slate theories of human intelligence propose that reasoning is carried out by general-purpose operations applied uniformly across contents. An evolutionary approach implies a radically different model ofhuman intelligence. The task demandsofdifferent adaptive problems select for functionally specialized problem-solving strategies, unleashing massive increases in problem-solving power for ancestrally recurrent adaptive problems. Because exchange can evolve only if cooperators can detect cheaters, we hypothesized that the human mind would be equipped with a neurocognitive system specialized for reasoning about social exchange. Whereas humans perform poorly when asked to detect violations of most conditional rules, we predicted and found a dramatic spike in performancewhen the rule specifies an exchange and violations correspond to cheating. According to critics, people’s uncannyaccuracyatdetectingviolations of social exchange rules does not reflect a cheater detection mechanism, but extends instead to all rules regulating when actions are permitted (deontic conditionals). Here we report experimental tests that falsify these theories by demonstrating that deontic rules as a classdonotelicit thesearch for violations.Weshowthat thecheater detection system functionswith pinpoint accuracy, searching for violations of social exchange rules only when these are likely to reveal the presence of someonewho intends to cheat. It does not search for violations of social exchange rules when these are accidental, when they do not benefit the violator, or when the situation would make cheating difficult.
منابع مشابه
Social life, evolution of intelligence, behaviour and human brain size
Social life is one of the most critical factors of the evolution of the behavior of non-human primates and humans. Several factors, such as an increase in brain size, adaptive modules, and grooming, are related to the complexities of social groups. Although some scientists have mentioned foraging as a rival hypothesis for the evolution of behavior, in this research, we tried to investigate the ...
متن کاملColloquium paper: adaptive specializations, social exchange, and the evolution of human intelligence.
Blank-slate theories of human intelligence propose that reasoning is carried out by general-purpose operations applied uniformly across contents. An evolutionary approach implies a radically different model of human intelligence. The task demands of different adaptive problems select for functionally specialized problem-solving strategies, unleashing massive increases in problem-solving power f...
متن کاملTwo phylogenetic specializations in the human brain.
In this study, two anatomical specializations of the brain in apes and humans are considered. One of these is a whole cortical area located in the frontal polar cortex (Brodmann's area 10), and the other is a morphologically distinctive cell type, the spindle neuron of the anterior cingulate cortex. The authors suggest that the spindle cells may relay to other parts of the brain--especially to ...
متن کاملOn Feasibility of Adaptive Level Hardware Evolution for Emergent Fault Tolerant Communication
A permanent physical fault in communication lines usually leads to a failure. The feasibility of evolution of a self organized communication is studied in this paper to defeat this problem. In this case a communication protocol may emerge between blocks and also can adapt itself to environmental changes like physical faults and defects. In spite of faults, blocks may continue to function since ...
متن کاملAn Adaptive Learning Game for Autistic Children using Reinforcement Learning and Fuzzy Logic
This paper, presents an adapted serious game for rating social ability in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The required measurements are obtained by challenges of the proposed serious game. The proposed serious game uses reinforcement learning concepts for being adaptive. It is based on fuzzy logic to evaluate the social ability level of the children with ASD. The game adapts itsel...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2011