BS168 Cecilia Heyes author of "Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking"

Brain Science with Ginger Campbell, MD: Neuroscience for Everyone

Ginger Campbell, MD

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Neuroscience, Medicine, Brain, Science

4.8 • 896 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2020

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

BS 168 is an interview with psychologist Cecilia Heyes from Oxford University in the UK. We talk about her fascinating book "Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking." Our focus is on exploring the evidence that several cognitive skills that appear to be unique to humans are learned from other people rather than being inherited genetically as is often assumed. The proposal that language is a cognitive gadget NOT a cognitive instinct is controversial and has very important implications.

Links and References:

Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking by Cecilia Heyes
Oostenbroek J, Slaughter, V, et. Al. (2016). Comprehensive longitudinal study challenges the existence of neonatal imitation in humans. Current Biology 26(10), 1334-1338.
See show notes at http://brainsciencepodcast.com for additional links and references.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The idea of the book is it's asking the question what makes human lives so odd so
0:10.5	strange relative to those of other animals.
0:14.0	We are intensely social and cooperative,
0:19.0	immensely adaptable.
0:21.0	We've had for good and ill a huge impact on our environment.
0:28.1	We are strange animals and people who are interested in finding out what makes us strange, some of them concentrate on our behavior,
0:39.0	some concentrate on our anatomy on the way our brains are structured, but I'm among the people who try to answer that
0:48.2	question, why do we humans lead such peculiar lives, with reference to the mind about the way in which we think.
0:56.8	How does the way we think differ from the way in which other animals think?
1:02.3	And how did it come to be that way?
1:05.0	Welcome to brain science, the podcast that explores how recent discoveries in
1:13.2	neuroscience are helping unravel the mystery of how our brains make us human.
1:18.6	I'm your host, Dr. Ginger Campbell, and this is episode 168.
1:25.0	Before I tell you about today's guest, I want to remind you that you can find additional
1:29.0	episodes of brain science, along with complete show notes and episode transcripts, on my website at brain
1:36.2	science podcast.com. You can send me feedback via email at brain science podcast at gmail.com, voice feedback via Speak Pipe at
1:46.7	Speak Pipe.com forward slash Doc Artemis.
1:50.9	You can post to our Br Science Podcast fan page on Facebook and I also want to
1:57.2	encourage you to post your comments to the Brain Science
2:01.0	Podcast group on Goodreads.
2:03.3	The shortcut to that site is Brain Science Forum.com.
2:09.1	My guest today is Cecilia Hayes,
	...

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