Vienna, January 31, 2021 -- Human expression is open-ended, versatile and diverse, ranging from ordinary language use to painting, from exaggerated displays of affection to micro-movements that aid coordination. In their new research "Expression unleashed: The evolutionary & cognitive foundations of human communication", published online as a preprint ready for external commentary by Cambridge University Press on January 5, Senior Researcher Thom Scott-Phillips and Associate Professor Christophe Heintz from Central European University (CEU)’s Department of Cognitive Science explain how and why humans, and only humans, evolved the cognitive capacities that, in turn, lead to massive diversity and open-endedness in how humans express themselves and communicate with one another.
The researchers claim that this expressive diversity is united by an interrelated suite of cognitive capacities, the evolved functions of which are the expression and recognition of informative intentions. Language use is but one of these modes of expression, albeit one of manifestly high importance. They make cross-species comparisons, describe how the relevant cognitive capacities can evolve in a gradual manner, and survey how unleashed expression facilitates not only language use but novel behavior in many other domains too, focusing on the examples of joint action, teaching, punishment and art, all of which are ubiquitous in human societies but relatively rare in other species.
The paper will be published in Behavioral & Brain Sciences in February, where it will be accompanied by commentaries from leading researchers in cognitive and evolutionary science, along with a reply from the authors. See a recent article about the research in New Scientist here.