The Origins of Representations: Cognitive and Brain Development

This book provides an account of the origins and development of iconic and symbolic representations in our evolutionary lineage, the hominis, and of the cognitive capacities and brain structures that support such a development. At first, it introduces the three basic types of signs, such as indices, icons, and symbols, used by most animals, including apes and hominins, for communicating and interacting with the environment, and discusses the differences among them. In turn, it explains the evolution from non-representational indices to iconic, first, and then symbolic representations in terms of the evolution of the cognitive capacities in our lineage. The main emphasis is on the cognitive capabilities that support the use of these types of signs, such as attention, executive functions, and working memory, among others. The discussion centers on determining these capacities, and how and why these capacities evolved in the phylogenesis of hominids. Further, evidence from psychology and neuroscience are used to shed light on the development of these capacities in hominins, together with knowledge about the basic brain structures supporting these capacities, such as the prefrontal cortex, and their development at the ontogenetic and phylogenetic scales.  All in all, this book offers a theory of the development of our representational arsenal from its beginnings characterized by simple signs to its modern form made of highly abstract symbols.

Introduction.- Signs and Representations.- Symbolic Representations.- Analog or Iconic Representations.- From Non-representational Indices to Representational Icons; What is Cognitively required for Representations and Icons?.- The Road to Symbols; Why Symbols?.- Cognitive Capacities and Symbol Usage.

Athanassios Raftopoulos is Professor of Epistemology and Cognitive Science at the Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus and holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University (2002). He also gained: a Diploma (DEA) in Philosophy from the University of Sorbonne, a MA in Philosophy and History of Science from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Bsc in Physics and BA In Philosophy and Psychology, from the University of Thessaloniki. Professor Raftopoulos research interests cover Philosophy of Perception, Cognitive penetrability of perception and the epistemic role of Perception, Philosophy of Science, and Epistemology. He published two monographs on Philosophy and Epistemology of Perception with MIT and Palgrave Macmillan, respectively, edited, and co-edited seven books on the above-mentioned topics, with various publishers, including Oxford and Cambridge University Press. He is an Advisory Editor of the book series SAPERE, published by Springer, and he is the author of more than 100 papers and book chapters. In addition, he has delivered numerous talks and plenary lectures at conferences.