The expert Neandertal mind.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Cognitive neuropsychology, cognitive anthropology, and cognitive archaeology are combined to yield a picture of Neandertal cognition in which expert performance via long-term working memory is the centerpiece of problem solving. This component of Neandertal cognition appears to have been modern in scope. However, Neandertals' working memory capacity, which is the ability to hold a variety of information in active attention, may not have been as large as that of modern humans. This characteristic helps us understand features of the archaeological record, such as the rarity of innovation, and allows us to make empirically based speculations about Neandertal personality.
منابع مشابه
Locomotor advantages of Neandertal skeletal morphology at the knee and ankle.
We quantified Neandertal knee extensor and ankle plantarflexor moments to determine whether differences between Neandertal and recent human skeletal morphology represent important functional differences. Neandertal skeletal differences in the patella, tibial tuberosity, and calcaneus were used to modify a computer model of recent humans to calculate the moment arms and moments of Neandertal kne...
متن کاملThe Neandertal type site revisited: interdisciplinary investigations of skeletal remains from the Neander Valley, Germany.
The 1856 discovery of the Neandertal type specimen (Neandertal 1) in western Germany marked the beginning of human paleontology and initiated the longest-standing debate in the discipline: the role of Neandertals in human evolutionary history. We report excavations of cave sediments that were removed from the Feldhofer caves in 1856. These deposits have yielded over 60 human skeletal fragments,...
متن کاملBeyond Shovel-Shaped Incisors: Neandertal Dental Morphology in a Comparative Context
Most research on Neandertal teeth has focused on shovel shaped incisors and/or taurodont molars. In the past 15 years there has been a renewed interested in Neandertal dental morphology, especially with regard to how they compare to recent and fossil modern humans. However, no complete description of Neandertal dental morphology has been published since the mid-1950s. Many more Neandertals and ...
متن کاملNeandertal cannibalism and Neandertal bones used as tools in Northern Europe
Almost 150 years after the first identification of Neandertal skeletal material, the cognitive and symbolic abilities of these populations remain a subject of intense debate. We present 99 new Neandertal remains from the Troisième caverne of Goyet (Belgium) dated to 40,500-45,500 calBP. The remains were identified through a multidisciplinary study that combines morphometrics, taphonomy, stable ...
متن کاملModern cognition in the absence of working memory: does the working memory account of Neandertal cognition work?
There are difficulties in attempting to derive a picture of the mental life of early humans. These difficulties are particularly severe when the cognitive neuropsychology of modern adults is taken as the basis for such an attempt. Cognitive neuropsychologists assume that one can tell something about ‘‘normal’’ mental operation by examining what happens when certain cognitive components are abse...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Journal of human evolution
دوره 46 4 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2004