3.- SEVEN STEPS TO IMAGINATION

 

Why do we spend an inordinate amount of time immersed in worlds that exist only in our heads? Neuroscientists and psychologists used to regard our propensity to conjure up and then flesh out fictional scenarios, people and objects as mere mental fluff.

Now imagination is recognised as playing a central role in human thought, from planning and creativity to memory and problem-solving. It protects our mental health and may even be the fragile foundation on which human society is built

Descripción: http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/teaser/blog/201409/imagination-220.jpgAccording to Steven Mithen, an anthropologist at the

 

According to Steven Mithen, an anthropologist at the University of Reading, UK, who specialises in the evolution of the mind, seven key changes were needed to allow the emergence of human imagination as we know it. Each happened for other purposes, the first three in our distant ancestors, but the final four exclusively to Homo sapiens

1 Theory of mind

What is it? The knowledge that others have beliefs and thoughts that are different from one's own. Probably evolved in response to larger social groups

How does it support imagination? Allows "thought experiments" about thoughts and behaviours of others

2 Human life history

What is it? A long period of infant helplessness plus an extended childhood and adolescence. May have evolved to resolve the conflict between bipedalism – which narrows the pelvis – and large brain size

How does it support imagination? Enables an extended period with no adult responsibilities, giving the opportunity for imaginative play

3 Specialised intelligence

What is it? The evolution of dedicated mental modules to deal with specific types of thought or behaviour

How does it support imagination? Allows the combination of different types of knowledge or ways of thinking to create new ideas

4 Language

What is it? Strictly speaking, a system of words and grammatical rules. Mithen argues that only Homo sapiens evolved true language

How does it support imagination? Enables the creation, sharing and elaboration of ideas that couldn't have been conceived of in a single human mind

5 Cognitive fluidity

What is it? Using language to more efficiently combine specialist knowledge across cognitive domains

How does it support imagination? Allows the creation of novel thoughts and ideas including metaphors and symbols

6 The extended mind

What is it? The use of technologies such as writing and computer chips to store and share ideas

How does it support imagination? Allows existing ideas to be built on and improved

7 Sedentary lifestyle

What is it? The transition from nomadic hunter-gathering to settled farming lifestyles

How does it support imagination? Through a massive expansion of the shared, extended mind and also the creation of food surpluses so individuals could spend time on creative pursuits

Do other animals have the power of imagination?

 

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 Humans are probably uniquely imaginative. But some researchers who study apes and other clever tool-making animals such as crows and scrub jays see powers of imagination in their subjects: they plan ahead when making complex tools and solve problems they have never encountered before without resorting to trial and error.

 

Nicky Clayton of the University of Cambridge says the explanation is that the crows are imagining what might happen if they do X or Y and picking the right option according to the imagined outcomes.

 

But Josep Call of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, isn't convinced. Can chimpanzees and other animals conceive of something that isn't present, or think of something that happened yesterday? Yes, absolutely, Call says. We see this in the way they cache food and later go back to find it. But he maintains that there is simply no convincing evidence that they can do any more than this.

 

"I would love to know if chimpanzees can entertain the notion of a unicorn, but we have no idea," he says. "As far as I can tell, we don't even know whether they can entertain two possible scenarios to solve a problem." In Call's view, it is impossible to say whether the animals that solve problems without trial and error are consciously imagining different solutions, or subconsciously integrating information to come up with the correct solution. "I'm not saying animals can't imagine two different scenarios," he says. "I just don't see the evidence for it."

 

He does, however, agree that animals probably have rich mental lives. In experiments carried out around a decade ago, captive chimpanzees were taught artificial codes to allow them to communicate. Suddenly, the animals began to express desires and other emotions – proof, says Call, that there is more going on inside their heads than meets the eye.

 

"Very often people will say the mental lives of animals must be impoverished because they don't have language," says Call. "I think the mental lives of chimpanzees are very rich."

 

We may never know if our great ape cousins can muse about unicorns, or dream up imaginary friends or worlds, but one thing just about everyone agrees on is that even if they do, they are no match for humans in terms of the sheer amount of time spent immersed in make-believe.