People Transforming Information - Information Transforming People: What the Neanderthals can teach us

摘要

This paper examines the issue of people transforming information and in turnrninformation transforming people, starting from a human adaptation event occurringrn35,000-50,000 years ago, called Enhanced Working Memory (EWM). This hypothesizedrnadaptation separated human cognitive and social development from the Neanderthals'rnallowing humans to adapt and survive through drastically changing social and physicalrnenvironments while the Neanderthals did not. EWM and the advantages to humans itrnprovided are examined in terms of giving humans improved and more flexible decodingrnand encoding cognitive and social architectures. As a result of these architectures, whatrnconstitutes information for humans has also evolved. A Socio-cognitive FrameworkrnModel for Transformational Information Use illustrates how adaptive decoding andrnencoding structures work together to facilitate human adaptation to social andrnenvironmental changes.