#342 H. Clark Barrett: On Mental Adaptations And Modularity Of Mind

Jun 8, 2020

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Dr. H. Clark Barrett is Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and the Director of the Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture at UCLA. He is a biological anthropologist specializing in evolutionary psychology, the study of the mind’s evolved mechanisms and processes. In his work he uses methods from anthropology and psychology to examine universals and variation in how thinking develops across cultures. He conducts field research among the Shuar, an indigenous culture in southeast Ecuador, as well as in Los Angeles. His research has focused on learning and conceptual development in several domains, including “theory of mind,” or the ability to make inferences about others’ thoughts and intentions, and learning about danger. He has also collaborated with a variety of anthropologists, psychologists, and other social scientists on a variety of topics ranging from infant-directed speech to the evolution of morality, and supervise graduate projects on the evolution of cognition. He’s the author of the book The Shape of Thought: How Mental Adaptations Evolve.

In this episode, we focus on the topic of mental adaptations. We first ask what a mental adaptation is. We also refer to modularity of mind, and talk about domain-specific and domain-general modules. Toward the end, we discuss dual-systems theory, and the role that consciousness plays in decision-making.

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