Evolution and the Psychology of Thinking: The Debate

The field of evolutionary cognitive psychology has stimulated considerable interest and debate among cognitive psychologists and those working in related areas. In this collection, leading experts evaluate the status of this controversial field, providing a critical analysis of its main hypotheses These hypotheses have far reaching implications for cognition. At the general level, current evolutionary cognitive psychology states a highly modular view of the mind, and so rejects, controversially, any general logical or learning ability. However, it also provides a detailed, content-dependent account of conditional reasoning and probablility judgements, which in turn has significant, and equally controversial, implications about the nature of human reasoning and decision-making. The contributions range from those that are highly critical of the hypotheses to those that support and develop them. The result is a uniquely balanced, cutting-edge evaluation of the field that will be of interest topsychologists, philosophers and those in related subjects who wish to find out what evolutionary considerations can tell us about the human mind.