Cooperation and human cognition: the Vygotskian intelligence hypothesis

Nicholas Humphrey's social intelligence hypothesis proposed that the major engine of primate cognitive evolution was social competition. Lev Vygotsky also emphasized the social dimension of intelligence, but he focused on human primates and cultural things such as collaboration, communication a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 2007-04, Vol.362 (1480), p.639-648
Main Authors: Moll, Henrike, Tomasello, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Animals
Biological Evolution
Child
Children
Chimpanzees
Cognition
Communication
Cooperation
Cooperative Behavior
Gestures
Hominidae - physiology
Human Children
Humans
Intelligence
Models, Biological
Primate Cognitive Evolution
Primates
Social Intelligence
Social interaction
Toys
Vygotskian Intelligence Hypothesis
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Summary:Nicholas Humphrey's social intelligence hypothesis proposed that the major engine of primate cognitive evolution was social competition. Lev Vygotsky also emphasized the social dimension of intelligence, but he focused on human primates and cultural things such as collaboration, communication and teaching. A reasonable proposal is that primate cognition in general was driven mainly by social competition, but beyond that the unique aspects of human cognition were driven by, or even constituted by, social cooperation. In the present paper, we provide evidence for this Vygotskian intelligence hypothesis by comparing the social-cognitive skills of great apes with those of young human children in several domains of activity involving cooperation and communication with others. We argue, finally, that regular participation in cooperative, cultural interactions during ontogeny leads children to construct uniquely powerful forms of perspectival cognitive representation.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2006.2000