The Implications of the Working Memory Model for the Evolution of Modern Cognition

What distinguishes the cognition of biologically modern humans from that of more archaic populations such as Neandertals? The norm in paleoanthropology has been to emphasize the role of language and symbolism. But the modern mind is more than just an archaic mind enhanced by symbol use. It also possesses an important problem solving and planning component. In cognitive neuroscience these advanced planning abilities have been extensively investigated through a formal model known as working memory. The working memory model is now well-enough established to provide a powerful lens through which paleoanthropologists can view the fossil and archaeological records. The challenge is methodological. The following essay reviews the controversial hypothesis that a recent enhancement of working memory capacity was the final piece in the evolution of modern cognition

Beyond Symbolism and Language

Despite 20 years of concerted attention, paleoanthropology has established little of substance concerning the evolution of the modern mind, if by substance we mean conclusions that would be of interest and use to scholars of human cognition. Part of this failure can be linked to a poverty of appropriate interpretive concepts. There is more to the modern mind than symbolism and language, the two "abilities" most often cited in the paleoanthropological literature. Modern humans have a sophisticated ability to make and execute elaborate plans of action, something known in the cognitive science literature as executive functions. Cognitive science has further established that these executive functions are enabled by working memory, an interpretive concept introduced by Alan Baddeley in 1974 and subsequently tested by more than 30 years of intensive research. Recently, Coolidge and Wynn have advanced a controversial hypothesis that it was an enhancement of working-memory capacity that powered the final evolution of the modern mind. Wenner-Gren International Symposium 139 met in March 2008 in Cascais, Portugal, to discuss this hypothesis and the evolution of working memory and executive reasoning in general. Consider the following scenarios: 1. A Kansas farmer planted 25% more acreage in maize despite having had a poor harvest the previous year and despite the marginal condition of his land (in terms of rainfall) for maize production. When asked why he had chosen to do this, he replied that the price of crude oil had risen above $100 a barrel. 2. Toward the end of the rainy season, a hunter-gatherer in Western Australia sets an intentional bushfire and burns a sizeable tract of land. This results in a second green-up, which attracts the herbivores that are an important component of his diet. A year later, he sets fire to a different tract of land; he does not return to the original tract for more than a decade

On the relationship between neurocognitive measures and olfactory dysfunction in COVID-19 patients with and without anosmia

One of the predominant symptoms of the COVID-19 virus is the complete (anosmia) or partial (hyposmia) loss of smell. Anosmia may be a critical neurocognitive symptom because there is an empirically demonstrated association of anosmia with neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, etc. The present study assessed the neurocognitive disorder patterns in recovered COVID-19 patients who either self-reported anosmia or its absence. Of the 60 adult participants (n = 32 males, n = 28 females; Mage = 20.78 years, range = 18–31 years), 15 reported COVID-19 induced anosmia, 15 reported COVID-19 without anosmia, and 30 reported not having contracted COVID-19. The participants were first administered a 10-item smell test, and analysis of variance revealed significantly better scores for the control group than the other two groups. Further, there was no significant difference in smell scores between the patients who self-reported anosmia or denied it. This statistical pattern was consistent across all neuropsychological tests: short- and long-term verbal memory, digit span, Trail Making, and a self-report 46-item neurocognitive scale. Regardless of the self-report of anosmia or denial, all thirty COVID-19 patients scored significantly poorer than the control group on all of the tests and neurocognitive scale. In summary, the self-report of anosmia appears to be unreliable, and the COVID-19 patients who were found to be anosmic on the initial objective smell test demonstrated poorer neuropsychological performance than controls

Human species and mating systems: Neandertal-Homo sapiens reproductive isolation and the archaeological and fossil records

Summary -The present paper examined the assumption of strong reproductive isolation (RI) betwee

A Psychometric Investigation of Highly Dependent Adult Children

This study established the psychometric properties of a new measure to assess the behavior of adults who are highly dependent on their parent(s), particularly in light of their capacity to function independently and whose behavior appears deviant even when compared to cultural norms. In the present study, these adults were labeled Highly Dependent Adult Children (HDAC). A 32-item HDAC Scale was constructed, based on a review of the behaviors typical of HDAC as reported in the relevant literature. It was found to have excellent internal reliability (Cronbach’s α= .93; N= 665 adults) and good test-retest reliability (r= .84; one-week interval; N= 104 adults). A principal component analysis of the HDAC scale revealed six components: alexithymia, blaming/inadequacy, default dependency, aggression, somatization, and limited socialization (N= 665). The HDAC overall scale sum (N= 104) was correlated strongly and positively with the passive-aggressive, borderline, paranoid, narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive, sadistic, antisocial, schizotypal, and depressive personality disorders scales of the Coolidge Axis II Inventory (CATI), and moderately and positively correlated with a CATI scale measuring executive dysfunction of the frontal lobes. The results of the study suggest that the behaviors associated with HDAC may be related to comorbid alexithymia, personality disorders, and executive dysfunction, and future research with the scale is warrante