Table of Contents

1. The emergence of cognitive abilities: the contribution of neuropsychology to archaeology Sophie A. de Beaune; 2. Technical invention in the Paleolithic: what if the answer comes from the cognitive and neuropsychological sciences? Sophie A. de Beaune; 3. Innovation and creativity: a neuropsychological perspective Andreas Kyriacou; 4. The archaeology of consciousness Matt Rossano; 5. Prehistoric handedness and prehistoric language Natalie Uomini; 6. How to think a simple spear Miriam Haidle; 7. Long-term memory and middle Pleistocene 'mysterians' Michael J. Walker; 8. The quest for a common semantics: observations on definitional criteria of cognitive processes in prehistory Carolina Maestro and Carmine Collina; 9. Cognition and the emergence of language: a contribution from lithic technology Jacques Pelegrin; 10. Language and the origin of symbolic thought Ian Tattersall; 11. Implications of a strict standard for recognizing modern cognition in the Paleolithic Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge; 12. Imagination and recursion: issues in the emergence of language Eric Reuland; 13. Whither evolutionary cognitive archaeology? Thomas Wynn.

Promotional Information

This book uses evidence from empirical studies to understand conditions that led to the development of cognitive processes during evolution.

About the Author

Sophie A. de Beaune is Professor of Prehistory at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 and researcher at CNRS in France. The author of eight books, most recently L'Homme et l'Outil: L'Invention technique durant la Préhistoire, she is also director of a book series entitled 'Le passé recomposé' at CNRS Editions. Frederick L. Coolidge is Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He has published extensively in behavioral genetics, neuropsychology, psychopathology assessment, and cognitive archaeology, with recent articles in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, the Journal of Human Evolution, and the Journal of Archaeological Research, among others. Thomas Wynn is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He has published extensively on the evolution of human cognition, culminating in a target article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2002).