Cognitive adaptations for gathering-related navigation in humans

Max M. Krasnow; Danielle Truxaw; Steven J C Gaulin; Joshua New; Hiroki Ozono; Shota Uono; Taiji Ueno; Kazusa Minemoto

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.07.003

Cognitive adaptations for gathering-related navigation in humans

Max M. Krasnow, Danielle Truxaw, Steven J C Gaulin, Joshua New, Hiroki Ozono, Shota Uono, Taiji Ueno, Kazusa Minemoto

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Current research increasingly suggests that spatial cognition in humans is accomplished by many specialized mechanisms, each designed to solve a particular adaptive problem. A major adaptive problem for our hominin ancestors, particularly females, was the need to efficiently gather immobile foods which could vary greatly in quality, quantity, spatial location and temporal availability. We propose a cognitive model of a navigational gathering adaptation in humans and test its predictions in samples from the US and Japan. Our results are uniformly supportive: the human mind appears equipped with a navigational gathering adaptation that encodes the location of gatherable foods into spatial memory. This mechanism appears to be chronically active in women and activated under explicit motivation in men. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	11
Journal	Evolution and Human Behavior
Volume	32
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.07.003
Publication status	Published - Jan 2011

Keywords

Domain specificity
Gathering
Navigation
Sex differences
Spatial cognition

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10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.07.003

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abstract = "Current research increasingly suggests that spatial cognition in humans is accomplished by many specialized mechanisms, each designed to solve a particular adaptive problem. A major adaptive problem for our hominin ancestors, particularly females, was the need to efficiently gather immobile foods which could vary greatly in quality, quantity, spatial location and temporal availability. We propose a cognitive model of a navigational gathering adaptation in humans and test its predictions in samples from the US and Japan. Our results are uniformly supportive: the human mind appears equipped with a navigational gathering adaptation that encodes the location of gatherable foods into spatial memory. This mechanism appears to be chronically active in women and activated under explicit motivation in men. {\textcopyright} 2011 Elsevier Inc.",

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AU - Krasnow, Max M.

AU - Truxaw, Danielle

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AU - New, Joshua

AU - Ozono, Hiroki

AU - Uono, Shota

AU - Ueno, Taiji

AU - Minemoto, Kazusa

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KW - Navigation

KW - Sex differences

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JO - Evolution and Human Behavior

JF - Evolution and Human Behavior

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Cognitive adaptations for gathering-related navigation in humans

Abstract

Keywords

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