Cognition and imagination
Block 2
2020
Lecture 1
Imagination
Imagination observations
A lot like perceiving, but alos very different
Sometimes perceiving seems to involve imagining
o Known as “filling in” details or perceptual features
Imagery is so vivid, it is almost like perceiving
We have no trouble distinguishing between perception and imagination
Imagination is effortless
o Ie. Imagining the taste of your food
Imagining seems like remembering
More like a constructive exercise
o Eg. Things that havent or couldn’t happen, creative imagining
Can be closely or loosely based on reality
Varieties or senses of the imagination
Imagination as imagery
o Not necessarily visual
Imagination as recall or episodic memories
Imagining the body in action
o Kinetic imagination
Imagination as fantasy or pretense
What is imagination?
The formation of a mental image of something that is not present to the
senses
The act of conceiving an alternative to reality
o Thinking of things different from how they exist in the world
Experiences, scenes in the “minds eye”
Emphasis on imagery
o But also conceiving and thinking
Representation of an object without its presence
Evolutionary perspectives:
More mundane, more cognitive
Emphasis on action and deciison making
Less unique
Human varieties of imagination
Variables associated with human imagination
Characteristics that define human conception of imagination
According to Mithen
, o Engaging with maginary worlds ie. Fantasy
o Imagined perspectives – the world through someone elses eyes
o Narrative imagination – love of stories
o Imaginative leaps
Combining the ordinary and extraudinary to obstain new
insight
Lecture 2
Evolution: the basics
Evolutionay questions in psychology
Asking how and why some feature of human psychology might have
evolved
Questions about origins, heredity, function, and the forces that shaped the
mind over geological timespans
Evolutionary questions about imagination
At what point in the evolution of multicellular organisms with nervous
systems did imagination emerge? In what form?
Was imagination an adaptation? Did it serve some fitness-enhancing
purpose, such that it was selected for and shaped over time?
Or was it a by-product of some other cognitive-behavioural adaptation?
If there are distinctively human forms of imagination, when did these
emerge, and why?
How did play and pretend play evolve?
Important concepts
Evolution
Natural Selection ➢Adaptation
Fitness
Function and design
What is evolution?
Change
Progress?
, Descent with modification ➢Reproduction
o Some offspring are different
Evolution and the ideas of progress
Theatre analogy
o Three tiers of seats are shown
o Are the highest seats better than the lowest seats near the stage?
o Answer: no they are not
Bacteria were the first notions of life that evolved first and
have already colonized most of the available environments
for such organisms
Newcomers (us) are left to find new, more advanced ways
of exisiting
There is no universal law of progressive evolution
Natural selection:
Darwin’s special contribution to evolutionary thinking and theory
o ONE mechanism that can explain a lot of change in evolution
NOT the same thing as evolution
o Generally, natural selection obstructs evolution
Darwins inspiration
Breeding and artificial selection
o Eg. Different types of dog breeds
o The reasons they come to look the way they do
o Saem species, variations amongst them
o Human beings have controlled the breeding and selection by cross
breeding for desirable characteristics
Artifical selection
o Over many years and generations, humans have bred plants and
animals in ways that seek to enhance or exaggerate certain
characteristics and eliminate others
o From a common ancestor, you can get great diversity
Block 2
2020
Lecture 1
Imagination
Imagination observations
A lot like perceiving, but alos very different
Sometimes perceiving seems to involve imagining
o Known as “filling in” details or perceptual features
Imagery is so vivid, it is almost like perceiving
We have no trouble distinguishing between perception and imagination
Imagination is effortless
o Ie. Imagining the taste of your food
Imagining seems like remembering
More like a constructive exercise
o Eg. Things that havent or couldn’t happen, creative imagining
Can be closely or loosely based on reality
Varieties or senses of the imagination
Imagination as imagery
o Not necessarily visual
Imagination as recall or episodic memories
Imagining the body in action
o Kinetic imagination
Imagination as fantasy or pretense
What is imagination?
The formation of a mental image of something that is not present to the
senses
The act of conceiving an alternative to reality
o Thinking of things different from how they exist in the world
Experiences, scenes in the “minds eye”
Emphasis on imagery
o But also conceiving and thinking
Representation of an object without its presence
Evolutionary perspectives:
More mundane, more cognitive
Emphasis on action and deciison making
Less unique
Human varieties of imagination
Variables associated with human imagination
Characteristics that define human conception of imagination
According to Mithen
, o Engaging with maginary worlds ie. Fantasy
o Imagined perspectives – the world through someone elses eyes
o Narrative imagination – love of stories
o Imaginative leaps
Combining the ordinary and extraudinary to obstain new
insight
Lecture 2
Evolution: the basics
Evolutionay questions in psychology
Asking how and why some feature of human psychology might have
evolved
Questions about origins, heredity, function, and the forces that shaped the
mind over geological timespans
Evolutionary questions about imagination
At what point in the evolution of multicellular organisms with nervous
systems did imagination emerge? In what form?
Was imagination an adaptation? Did it serve some fitness-enhancing
purpose, such that it was selected for and shaped over time?
Or was it a by-product of some other cognitive-behavioural adaptation?
If there are distinctively human forms of imagination, when did these
emerge, and why?
How did play and pretend play evolve?
Important concepts
Evolution
Natural Selection ➢Adaptation
Fitness
Function and design
What is evolution?
Change
Progress?
, Descent with modification ➢Reproduction
o Some offspring are different
Evolution and the ideas of progress
Theatre analogy
o Three tiers of seats are shown
o Are the highest seats better than the lowest seats near the stage?
o Answer: no they are not
Bacteria were the first notions of life that evolved first and
have already colonized most of the available environments
for such organisms
Newcomers (us) are left to find new, more advanced ways
of exisiting
There is no universal law of progressive evolution
Natural selection:
Darwin’s special contribution to evolutionary thinking and theory
o ONE mechanism that can explain a lot of change in evolution
NOT the same thing as evolution
o Generally, natural selection obstructs evolution
Darwins inspiration
Breeding and artificial selection
o Eg. Different types of dog breeds
o The reasons they come to look the way they do
o Saem species, variations amongst them
o Human beings have controlled the breeding and selection by cross
breeding for desirable characteristics
Artifical selection
o Over many years and generations, humans have bred plants and
animals in ways that seek to enhance or exaggerate certain
characteristics and eliminate others
o From a common ancestor, you can get great diversity
