Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T03:26:45.080Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What are the evolutionary causes of mental time travel?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2007

Mathias Osvath  and
Peter Gärdenfors
Mathias Osvath
Affiliation:
Cognitive Science Department, Lund University, Lund, SE-222 22, Sweden. [email protected]://www.fil.lu.se/lucs/staff/person.asp?id=155&[email protected]://www.fil.lu.se/lucs/staff/person.asp?id=42
Peter Gärdenfors
Affiliation:
Cognitive Science Department, Lund University, Lund, SE-222 22, Sweden. [email protected]://www.fil.lu.se/lucs/staff/person.asp?id=155&[email protected]://www.fil.lu.se/lucs/staff/person.asp?id=42
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We are not entirely satisfied with the evolutionary explanation provided by Suddendorf & Corballis (S&C) for why only humans should be capable of advanced mental time travel. General social factors do not suffice, given that other primates are also highly social. We discuss the evolutionary mechanisms that have generated mental time travel typical to humans, focusing on ecological factors.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , June 2007 , pp. 329 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bickerton, D. (2002) Foraging versus social intelligence in the evolution of protolanguage. In: The transition to language, ed. Wray, A., pp. 207–25. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dally, J. M., Emery, N. J. & Clayton, N. S. (2006b) Food-caching western scrub-jays keep track of who was watching when. Science 312(5780):1662–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Waal, F. (1982) Chimpanzee politics – Power and sex among apes. Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Mulcahy, N. J. & Call, J. (2006) Apes save tools for future use. Science 312:1038–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Naqshbandi, M. & Roberts, W. A. (2006) Anticipation of future events in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) and rats (Rattus norvegicus): Tests of the Bischof- Köhler hypothesis. Journal of Comparative Psychology 120:345–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osvath, M. & Gärdenfors, P. (2005) Oldowan culture and the evolution of anticipatory cognition. Lund University Cognitive Studies 122:1–16.Google Scholar
Plummer, T. (2004) Flaked stones and old bones: Biological and cultural evolution at the dawn of the dawn of technology. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 47:118–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raby, C. R., Alexis, D. M., Dickinson, A. & Clayton, N. S. (2007) Planning for the future by western scrub-jays. Nature 445(7130):919–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Toth, N. (1985) The Oldowan reassessed: A close look at early stone artefacts. Journal of Archeological Science 12:101–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar