evolution of intelligence

evolution of intelligence

1. definition

   • ability to aacquire and apply knowledge and skills
     • not just possessing knowledge, but applying it
   • not performing well on an IQ test
     • Saxe (1988) found that children working as street vendors can solve complicated maths problems without formal schooling
   • focussing on socio-ecologically important knowledge and applying it to solve problems in relation to survival and reproduction
     • intelligence is flexible- more than 1 solution to a problem
   • phenotypic plasticity- ability to change behvaiour according to change in environment (phenotype/genotype)

2. intelligent behaviours

   • executive functioning
     • cognitive abilities that help plan and execute complex behaviours
   • inhibit behaviour and responses (inhibit first response- important for planning future)

3. different environments

   • environment affects what type of tasks people are good at
     • Stressful childhood= worse at inhibiting responses (more impulsive)
   • Mittal et al (2015) found that childhood poverty had an association with ability to shift attention rapidly between different tasks
     • poverty may enhance cognitive functions when people face uncertain environments rather than be detrimental
   • important to look at intelligence within ecologically valid context to see which behaviours are adaptive in different behaviours

4. Tinbergen's four why's

   • proximate- describes organism's structure and mechanisms and ontogeny
   • evolutionary- why organisms are the way they are by describing how selection shaped current forms and phylogeny
     • phylogeny- history of a species from fossils and DNA (how did it evolve) Sequential changes in a species over times
   • developmental- explanation of current form in a sequence
     • ontogeny- description of organisms development- developmental explanation for sequential changes (how does it develop)
   • single form- explanation of one form of a species
     • mechanism- organisms structure and how it works- mechanistic explanation for what an organisms structures are and how they work (what causes the development)
     • adaptation- characteristics of a species and how they give an advantage. Why an organism is the way it is (why did it evolve)

5. brain evolution

   • brain size and structure relate to intelligence and reflect the type of problems being solved
     • neocortex has been added and is involved in higher functions (perception, motor commands, spatial reasoning, language)
       • costly on metabolism
   • social living (in groups) is a driving force behind the evolution of a complex brain
   • encephalization- brain size after consideration of body size
   • number of neurons /efficiency of neurons can measure intelligence
   • Australopithecines - genus Homo = brain has trebled in size
     • humans have largest brain in relation to body size
       • benefits of a large brain must outweigh the costs (dangerous childbirth, need for nutritious diet etc)
   • convergent cognitive evolution- similar intelligence evolved in different species
     • Corvids & humans distantly related (last common ancestor 350m years ago)
   • divergent brain evolution- different brains produce similar intelligence
   • Dunbar's number
     • group size can be predicted from relative brain size. Average group size is 150. This is the limit considering our brain size and complexity
     • Barry Wellman argued against this saying we are not as constrained as Dunbar said as people can remember 250-1500 individuals

6. Hyper-active agency detection (Justin Barrett)

   • tendency to think everything around us has agency (act with reason and intention

7. Theory of mind

   • ability to understand that others have emotions, intentions and these are not the same as ours
     • try infer wht goes on in other's minds- don't know what goes on but can construct a thoery based on evidence (facial expressions)
   • fully deveopled by 4
   • Austistic people have impaired or non-existent TOM
   • demands imposed by living in groups is responsible for evolution of TOM (Dunbar & Shultz)
   • an adaptation?
     • Modular- impaired in autism and works in disorders where other cognitive capabilities are impaired
     • universal & follows particular sequence
     • innate & automatic
     • stereotypical developmental pattern
     • brain areas- certain areas used to infer mental states
   • self recognition, imitation, joint attention
   • other species have components of it