The Evolution of Intelligence

TL;DR

This paper reviews interdisciplinary research on the evolution of human intelligence, highlighting biological, archaeological, and cognitive insights into how humans developed advanced communication and reasoning abilities.

Contribution

It synthesizes findings from multiple fields to provide a comprehensive understanding of the factors driving the evolution of human intelligence.

Findings

Comparative brain studies reveal unique aspects of human intelligence.

Analysis of ancient habitats and skeletons offers clues on environmental influences.

Fossil relics inform about cognitive and social development in ancestors.

Abstract

How did the human species evolve the capacity not just to communicate complex ideas to one another but to hold such conversations from across the globe, using remote devices constructed from substances that do not exist in the natural world, the raw materials for which may have been hauled up from the bowels of the earth? How did we come to be so intelligent? Research at the interface of psychology, biology, anthropology, archaeology, and cognitive science is culminating in an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how human intelligence evolved. Studies of the brains of living humans and great apes and the intellectual abilities they support are enabling us to assess what is unique about human intelligence and what we share with our primate relatives. Examining the habitats and skeletons of our ancestors gives cues as to environmental, social, and anatomical factors that both constrain and enable the evolution of human intelligence. Relics of the past also have much to tell us about the thoughts, beliefs, and abilities of the individuals who invented and used them.