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The Evolution and Development of Human Social Cognition

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Mind the Gap

Abstract

Humans’ ancestors experienced intense selection pressures to develop enhanced social-cognitive abilities, facilitating the coevolution of an extended childhood, larger brain, and increased social complexity. This chapter describes the emergence of human social-cognitive abilities from an evolutionary developmental perspective, focusing on the importance of social interaction and epigenetic inheritance. The development of shared attention and referential communication, empathy, social learning, and theory of mind is discussed as it occurs in human children, and research demonstrating the importance of parent–child interactions and individual differences in maternal behavior during the development of these abilities is highlighted. A discussion of how these abilities are expressed in mother-reared and enculturated chimpanzees is also included and indicates that these animals possess substantial social-cognitive competencies, which, under certain rearing conditions, can be modified to resemble a more Homo sapiens way of thinking. This is strongly suggestive that our common ancestor with chimpanzees also possessed the neurological plasticity to adapt its behavior and cognition in response to changes in environmental conditions.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    David F. Bjorklund, Kayla Causey & Virginia Periss

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  1. David F. Bjorklund
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Correspondence to David F. Bjorklund .

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  1. Abt. Soziobiologie, Deutsches Primatenzentrum, Kellnerweg 4, Göttingen, 37077, Germany

    Peter M. Kappeler

  2. Dept. Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, U.S.A.

    Joan Silk

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Bjorklund, D.F., Causey, K., Periss, V. (2010). The Evolution and Development of Human Social Cognition. In: Kappeler, P., Silk, J. (eds) Mind the Gap. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02725-3_17

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