{"title":"Inferences from absences.","authors":"Kim Sterelny","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24001006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24001006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stibbard-Hawkes shows that cultures using material symbols might well not leave traces of that practice in the archaeological record. The paper thus poses an important challenge: When is absence of evidence evidence of absence? This commentary uses behavioural ecology to make modest progress on this problem.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e17"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Svetlana Kuleshova, Michael Pleyer, Johan Blomberg, Marta Sibierska, Sławomir Wacewicz
{"title":"Revising the null model in language evolution research.","authors":"Svetlana Kuleshova, Michael Pleyer, Johan Blomberg, Marta Sibierska, Sławomir Wacewicz","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000992","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000992","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We comment on the consequences of the target article for language evolution research. We propose that the default assumption should be that of language-readiness in extinct hominins, and the integration of different types of available evidence from multiple disciplines should be used to assess the likely extent of the realization of this readiness. The role of archaeological evidence should be reconsidered.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e12"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shared intentionality may have been favored by persistence hunting in <i>Homo erectus</i>.","authors":"Jared Vasil","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000979","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Shared intentionality is the derived hominin motivation and skills to align mental states. Research on the role of interdependence in the phylogeny of shared intentionality has only considered the archeological record of <i>Homo heidelbergensis</i>. But ethnographic and fossil data must be considered, too. Doing so suggests that shared intentionality may have been favored in <i>Homo erectus</i> to support persistence hunting.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e20"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sports, team games, and physical skill competitions as an important source of symbolic material culture with low preservation probability.","authors":"Andrew C Gallup, Omar Tonsi Eldakar","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24001031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24001031","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sports, team games, and physical skill competitions appear to be a human universal and may have been prevalent throughout the hominin lineage. These activities are cognitively complex and can be associated with a distinctive and symbolic material culture. Yet, many of the artifacts used by foraging groups for sports, team games, and athletic competitions often have a low preservation probability.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e9"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Behavioural modernity is dead: Long live behavioural modernity.","authors":"Matthias A Blessing","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24001018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24001018","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Using Neanderthal symbolism, I extend on Stibbard-Hawkes to show that reconsidering the link between cognitive capacity and material culture extends beyond matters of preservation. A reconceptualization of behavioural modernity inclusive of both extant and extinct populations must begin with an honest theoretical separation of biological and behavioural modernity, which requires to critically engage with how we frame the underlying questions.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e5"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Not just symbolism: Technologies may also have a less than direct connection with cognition.","authors":"Annemieke Milks","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000852","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000852","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>I expand Stibbard-Hawkes' exploration of symbolism and cognition to suggest that we also ought to reconsider the strength of connections between cognition and technological complexity. Using early weaponry as a case study I suggest that complexity may be \"hidden\" in early tools, and further highlight that assessments of technologies as linear and progressive have roots in Western colonial thought.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e14"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Perishable material choice indicates symbolic and representational capacities.","authors":"Elpida Tzafestas","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000918","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000918","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The absence of symbolic material cultural objects in the archaeological record does not prove absence of symbolic cognition. Sometimes perishable materials are selected for symbolic roles, for practical concerns or to indicate a temporary condition. Also some symbolic functions may predate the use of durable materials. Finally, child play and artisan experimentations usually involve cheap and perishable materials. These are symbolic and representational activities that do not leave a material trace.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e19"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cultural innovation is not only a product of cognition but also of cultural context.","authors":"Yotam Ben-Oren, Erella Hovers, Oren Kolodny, Nicole Creanza","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X2400089X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X2400089X","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Innovations, such as symbolic artifacts, are a product of cognitive abilities but also of cultural context. Factors that may determine the emergence and retention of an innovation include the population's pre-existing cultural repertoire, exposure to relevant ways of thinking, and the invention's utility. Thus, we suggest that the production of symbolic artifacts is not guaranteed even in cognitively advanced societies.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e4"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Animal artefacts challenge archaeological standards for tracing human symbolic cognition.","authors":"Jan Verpooten, Alexis De Tiège","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000967","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000967","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stibbard-Hawkes challenges the link between symbolic material evidence and behavioural modernity. Extending this to non-human species, we find that personal adornment, decoration, figurative art, and musical instruments may not uniquely distinguish human cognition. These common criteria may ineffectively distinguish symbolic from non-symbolic cognition or symbolic cognition is not uniquely human. It highlights the need for broader comparative perspectives.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e21"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Negative priors and inferences from absence of evidence in cognitive and linguistic archaeology: Epistemically sound and scientifically strategic.","authors":"Aritz Irurtzun","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000864","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000864","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The article provides an important warning but its general conclusions should be nuanced: (i) When there is no evidence for it, we should depart from the hypothesis that a species lacks a particular cognitive capacity, and (ii) inferences from absence of evidence can be epistemically sound and scientifically strategic in cognitive and linguistic archaeology.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e11"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}