An Integrative Model of Human Brain, Cognitive, and Behavioral Evolution

The evolved function of brain, cognitive, and behavioral systems is to allow organisms to attempt to gain control of the social, biological, and physical resources that have covaried with survival and reproductive options during the species’ evolutionary history. The information generated by these resources ranges from stable (e.g., prototypical shape of human face) to unpredictable (e.g., changing facial expressions). Stable information is predicted to result in the evolution of modular brain and cognitive systems and implicit, automatic behavioral responses. For humans, these systems coalesce around the domains of folk psychology, folk biology, and folk physics. Unpredictable information is predicted to be associated with the evolution of brain and cognitive systems that enable explicit, consciously driven top-down behavioral responses. For humans, the evolution of these explicit systems resulted in the emergence of self-awareness and the ability to consciously simulate control-related problem solving behavioral strategies. A motivation-to-control theory that incorporates these folk domains and conscious, self-aware problem solving is described.