Citation

Hoffmann GC, Gordon MS. J. Mind Behav. 2016; 37(3/4).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Institute of Mind and Behavior)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this essay we argue that the human perceptual and sensory mechanisms, which have been described as part of the emergence of our species during the Pleistocene, are part of a much earlier evolutionary trend. Evidence for the pre-human development of our perceptual systems is explored using the comparative literature of non-primates and non-mammals. Furthermore, we argue that evolutionary psychology theorists have tended to misconstrue the mechanisms of perception through an anthrocentric lens. Other lines of thought contend that much of hominid cognition and perception is evolutionarily unique to the point that a broad cognitive discontinuity exists between humans and other species. While the emergence of our species during the Pleistocene clearly has a significant influence on the human brain and mind, it is our contention that perception, and, arguably, the basis of most cognition, is related to much more longstanding environmental constraints as they impacted biological development. Comparative evidence from primates, other mammals, and non-mammalian species, in addition to an evaluation of evolutionary forces and history, are used in support of this argument. The human mind seems to be ancient in its architecture having been sculpted by longstanding and pre-human ecological constraints originating in perceptual mechanisms that significantly pre-date the Pleistocene.

Language: en