Human Cognition - Introduction

There is nearly total scientific consensus that ancestral Homo sapiens evolved to anatomically modern humans in Africa between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. Based on mitochondrial DNA, physical anthropology and archaic specimens, it is thought that one branch of modern humans began migrating from Africa around 60,000 years ago replacing earlier populations of Neanderthals and Homo erectus in Europe and Asia. There is, however, considerable debate regarding whether the earliest anatomically modern humans behaved similarly to recent or existing humans. There are two opposing hypotheses regarding the origins of modern cognition and behavior. Some scholars argue that humans achieved anatomical modernity around 200,000 years ago. Later, around the time of migration, humans adopted modern cognition and behaviors. The opposing view is that humans achieved anatomical, cognitive and behavioral modernity simultaneously at the earliest dates. 

It is impossible to say with certainty that the brain and central nervous system of these earliest modern humans were identical to ours because there are no fossil records of brain tissue. However, fossilized evidence of a unique cranial anatomy, potentially housing a modern brain, along with physical evidence of symbolism, complex behaviors, and strategy development suggests that there may have been few, if any, mechanical differences between the brains of early humans and those of humans today. So let us assume that all of the mechanical parts that must be present for cognition to occur were available 150,000 years ago. The senses and emotions were functional, the ability to store information was complete, the processing mechanism to render experience was intact, and the capacity to speak was available. Let us assume that the quality and quantity of the system of information collection and processing are the same today as it was when man first walked out of Africa.

Did these earliest Homo sapiens think and behave like us? Probably not! Human cognition, the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses, is a subjective process constructed with a nervous system and brain. Experiences are unique to the observer and, therefore, so are memories. How the observer is defined by the observer, “the self”, is subject to those experiences and memories. The filters that are used to make sense of experiences are determined by how “the self” is defined, the complexity of the language in use, and by the external influences of collective memory (the memory, morals, and laws of the groups in which we interact). Prehistoric human cognition and behavior, therefore, were different than they are today; not because the mental equipment being used was different, but because the experiences, language and collective memories of our distant ancestors were so poorly defined, limited and uninformed.

In the coming weeks, we will explore the lives of these earliest modern humans to learn about cognition. We will be introduced to a typical caveman, Alph, who was born 32,000 years ago to Zed and Mum along the banks of the Ardèche River in what today we call southern France. In our example, Alph and his family were Cro-Magnon humans that lived near the end of the last great ice age in the forests around the Chauvet Cave, an hour’s drive north of Avignon. We will follow Alph as he grew from infancy through his childhood, as he learned to speak his clan’s language, defend his people and hunt with the other clansmen. We will follow Alph through his trials and tribulations of courtship and parenthood, and his final years as the clan’s Shaman assistant. We will look inside Alph’s brain to understand how he sensed the world around him, how his memories were created, how his emotions drove him, how he learned to talk, to reason, and to experience himself and his wildest imaginations. We will explore the mental life of a caveman to learn about human cognition.