Just a brief addition to the Tomasello discussion. There's an interesting study out on autism that is quite relevant. Autistics are known to have difficulty with certain kinds of problem solving (especially social skills). Some fMRI analysis have shown "less activation in the deep parts of the brain responsible for executive function (attention, reasoning and problem solving)." It's especially interesting that it deals with attention, given Tomasello's focus on joint-attention.
I don't know enough about these brain regions to say much, but hopefully others will discuss it. If I find more on it I'll post it in the comments on this post.
Just a note that I have up a page listing all the blog posts that are part of the reading club. It's also in my right sidebar in the archive area as Reading Tomasello. If you aren't a member of the club but have a post at your blog on this book, please post a note there with a link.
Almost as soon as I finished the above I noticed this post over at John Hawks on the study of apes and prefrontal lobe volume in humans. Interesting link up between the problem in this area in autistics, the difference between humans and apes here, and Tomasello's claims.
I was so excited to find the cognitive discussion group although it seemed dormant at the time. I am glad you are keeping things rolling in the meantime. I think that is interesting that they are finding a link between areas of brain effected and difficulty in problem solving. Maybe that has something to do with the rigidity of Autistic people always wanting things to be the same. Routine cuts down a lot on problem solving. Did anybody see the documentary on CNN called "Autism is World." I found it absoltuely captivating. The autistic woman featured tested at a mental IQ of 2 until somebody taught her the facillitative method of guided typing. Before that, she was very much in the world of autism and had not made a connection with language. Her IQ was retested at genius level and she was attending College. The more she was in the world that is intellectual, the more she was out of the world of autism. When she saw running water, she would zone out in an autistic mode and play with the water. One thing I noticed about her is that she was very nervous and excitable when it came to meeting someone. Also, she seemed really nervous and seem to flinch at the automatic sliding glass doors. I read the studdy about the chimps too and was a bit surprised. I know some primates groom each other but that is probably within their family group. Also, I saw someting in a documentary once where an outcast female gorilla took the risk to adopt a baby gorilla as her protector. The real mother rejected the baby and interestingly enough her adopting the baby raised her status in the society and she had her first baby. They wondered if she would accept the baby after the period it was in the nursery as she still had the responsibility of the other gorilla. She did. I am not sure how much one can infer from all of this. I would be cautious from infering too much from the study with chimps. The fact that they do not respond in an artificial human-like setting to giving food at a no cost to them scenario may not measure in nature some of the things that they would do. It may be true that they do not reach out much beyond their own families though. That is a great thing about humankind is that people can help people globally and there is a big push to do that. Well, I hope I am not going overboard with my comments. I love cognitive science although I do not have a lot of background. I sure hope other people will share their thoughts!
I should have some posts on the next chapter soon. I'm glad others are still interested in the discussion. It's unfortunate that Chris appears to have bowed out of blogging.
I've closed comments in order to avoid spam since I don't check this older blog as much anymore.
and Theology
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