Evo-Devo and Cognitive Science
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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Evo-devo and cognitive science Ploeger, A.; Galis, F. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-33038-9_44-1 Publication date 2016 Document Version Final published version Published in Evolutionary developmental biology License Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Ploeger, A., & Galis, F. (2016). Evo-devo and cognitive science. In L. Nuno de la Rosa, & G. Müller (Eds.), Evolutionary developmental biology: A reference guide Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33038-9_44-1 General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). 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UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:26 Sep 2021 Evo-devo and Cognitive Science Annemie Ploeger and Frietson Galis Contents Introduction ....................................................................................... 2 Developmental Cognitive Science ............................................................... 3 Evolutionary Cognitive Science .................................................................. 4 Evo-devo and Cognitive Science ................................................................. 5 Evolutionary Developmental Cognitive Science ............................................. 5 Developmental Systems Theory .............................................................. 5 Genes X Environment Interactions ........................................................... 6 Epigenetics .................................................................................... 8 Evolutionary Developmental Comparative Cognitive Science ... .. ... ... .. ... ... .. ... ... .. 9 Evolutionary Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience ....................................... 9 Evolutionary Developmental Biology and Cognitive Science ............................... 10 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 11 Cross-References ................................................................................. 11 References ........................................................................................ 11 Abstract Evo-devo is an approach that integrates knowledge on evolution and develop- ment. Cognitive science is a research field that tries to unravel the functioning of the mind and the underlying processes. In this chapter, the main subfields within cognitive science that have contributed to a better understanding of the evolution and development of the mind are discussed. Highlighted are the subfields of evolutionary cognitive science, developmental systems theory, genes  environ- ment interaction research, epigenetics, comparative cognitive science, and A. Ploeger (*) Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] F. Galis (*) Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 1 L. Nuño de la Rosa, G.B. Müller (eds.), Evolutionary Developmental Biology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-33038-9_44-1 2 A. Ploeger and F. Galis cognitive neuroscience. Finally, the question what cognitive scientist can learn from research in evolutionary developmental biology is addressed. Many evo-devo biologists study morphogenesis, which is relevant for cognitive devel- opment, but it is not always straightforward how to apply their knowledge to cognitive science research. Interdisciplinary research is strongly recommended, so scholars from different fields such as morphology, genetics, neuroscience, primatology, and psychology can learn from each other and contribute to the unraveling of the working of the mind. Keywords Evo-devo • Cognitive science • GÂE interactions • Epigenetics • Developmental systems Introduction Cognitive science is a broad, interdisciplinary research field that tries to unravel the functioning of the mind and the underlying processes. It includes the study of perception, motor control, attention, consciousness, learning, memory, represen- tation of knowledge, language, problem-solving, creativity, decision-making, rea- soning, and intelligence (e.g., Newell 1990). The emergence of cognitive science has been called the cognitive revolution, which started in 1959. Linguist Noam Chomsky argued that language acquisition cannot be explained by simple stimulus–response associations proposed by behaviorism, which was the dominant paradigm in psychology at that time. Behaviorists, amongst others their famous proponents Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike, John B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner, argued that mental processes cannot be scientifically studied and that psycholo- gists should restrict their research to observable behavior. Chomsky’s discussion preluded the rise of cognitive science. Cognitive science has become a successful field, partly because of the develop- ment of new research tools, such as brain imaging techniques and computer simu- lations. Cognitive neuroscience is a rapidly growing subfield in which concepts such as attention and memory are linked to specific brain areas and neural activity. Artificial intelligence is another subfield that uses insights from cognitive research to create computer models of the mind. In huge programs such as the Human Brain Project, headed by physiologist Henry Markram (see Markram et al. 2011), knowl- edge on cognitive architectures, brain simulations, high-performance computing, neuroinformatics, neurorobotics, and other disciplines is combined with the aim to simulate the whole human brain. Results from this kind of projects show the fruitfulness of cognitive science and also how important technological progress has been. The first aim of this chapter is to provide an introduction of the history of the attempts of cognitive scientists to integrate their work with developmental and evolutionary approaches. After the cognitive revolution, the study of cognitive Evo-devo and Cognitive Science 3 development started to grow. Jean Piaget, with his stage theory of cognitive devel- opment, became the major proponent of this field. Later, in the 1990s, the study of the evolution of cognition arose under the flag of evolutionary psychology. Major proponents of this field in the 1990s were cognitive psychologist Leda Cosmides, anthropologist John Tooby, linguist Steven Pinker, and social psychologist David Buss. In the first years of the new millennium, the first attempts were made to integrate developmental and evolutionary approaches to cognitive science by devel- opmental psychologists David Bjorklund and David Geary, among others. Only lately, attempts have been made to integrate evo-devo biology and cognitive science. The second aim is to show the importance of evo-devo research for cognitive science. Evo-devo is an approach that integrates knowledge on evolution and development (see chapter on the “▶ History of Evo-devo”). Evolutionary biologists study evolutionary change of organisms over generations; developmental biologists study the development of organisms within a single lifetime. Evo-devo researchers try to unravel the interaction between these two processes – evolution and develop- ment, to obtain a fuller understanding of each of these processes. Before the contribution of evo-devo research to cognitive science is described, first the contributions of developmental cognitive science and evolutionary cognitive science are explained separately. Developmental Cognitive Science Developmental cognitive science is the study of cognitive development, from prenatal development to cognitive aging. The study of prenatal cognitive develop- ment is limited, because it is hard to study the cognition of fetuses in the womb. Most of this research is focused on the senses, especially the visual and auditory system. Vision research with premature infants revealed that they can distinguish between light and dark at 28 weeks after conception, and that they can distinguish different patterns at 30 weeks. Considering the auditory system, fetuses start to react with movement to acoustic stimulation between 23 and 25 weeks. It is also well known that newborns remember sounds they heard during their last month in the womb. In addition, newborns show a preference for their mother’s voice compared to a stranger, and they can discriminate between their mother’s and a foreign language. In general, developmental cognitive scientists study the same topics as cognitive scientists, but they emphasize differences between children and adults by conducting longitudinal or cross-sectional studies. An example of a topic that recently has attracted a lot of attention is the development of executive functions. This is an umbrella term for all processes necessary for cognitive control, such as inhibition,