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The Learning to be Human Project

Learn about the role of aptitude, practice, and teaching in skill acquisition in stone technologies and its relation to modern human brain evolution. Explore the methodologies, experimental studies, and cognitive processes involved in the Learning to be Human Project. Discover how skill levels are assigned, the importance of natural aptitude, teaching, and cognitive implications in human skill acquisition.

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The Learning to be Human Project

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  1. The Learning to be Human Project Nada Khreisheh Photo: Whitlock 2012

  2. Skill Acquisition in Flaked Stone Technologies: • Role played by aptitude, practice and teaching. • Archaeological signatures. • Understanding of a task vs physical ability to carry it out. • How this relates to evolution of modern human brains and intelligence. Photo: Whitlock 2011

  3. The Learning to be Human Project: • Leverhulme Trust funded project. • Skill acquisition and early hominid cognitive processes. • 3 Strands: • Emory University, Dietrich Stout – fMRI scans of experimental knappers. • UCL, Stuart Page and James Steele – transmission chain design. • Exeter – experimental study of flintknapping skill acquisition. • Linked by focus on Oldowan, Acheulean and Levallois technologies. • Use of same group of experimental knappers.

  4. Study Group: • 16 people. • 3 groups – core, wider beginners and wider experienced. • Core: • Intensive training. • Contact with artefacts. • Brain scans. • No previous knapping experience. • Wider Beginners: • Less intensive training – focus on practice. • No previous experience. • Based at Exeter • Wider Experienced: • Less intensive training – focus on practice. • Range of experience levels. • Not all based at Exeter

  5. Photos: Whitlock 2011

  6. Aptitude: • Spatial Ability Tests. • Importance of visuospatial representations – Stout et al. 2008. • Questionnaires: • Age • Sex • Practical craft experience • Contact with flaked stone assemblages • Knapping experience • Motor Ability Tests – Core only: • Importance of fine finger movements and object manipulation – Stout and Chaminade 2007, Stout et al. 2008.

  7. Learning: • Sessions: • Introduction to technology. • Demonstration. • Practice with input. • Practice: • 8 hours/month. • Recorded via forms. • Amount of time. • Technology. • Instruction. • Success.

  8. Evaluation: • Skill assessed at regular intervals. • Score 1-5 for connaissance (knowledge). • Score 1-5 for savoir-faire (know-how). • Flakes, cores and tools analysed.

  9. Porcelain Cores: • Mouldable • Similar fracture properties to flint • Consistent material • Readily available • Comparatively inexpensive • Allows for greater reliability of results Photos: Khreisheh 2012, Whitlock 2012.

  10. Skill Levels: • Attempt to assign skill level to performance and products. • Previous research 2-4 different levels. • Lohse 2010: • Beginner • Adept • Crafter • Expert • Based on amount of knowledge and know-how.

  11. Why? • Current interest in knapping skill identification: • Identification of individuals. • Identification of children. • Need for longer term studies: • Previous studies focus on single knapping sessions. • Need for larger number of participants in studies. • Skill acquisition across technologies. • Oldowan, Acheuleanhandaxe and Levallois core. • Skill acquisition as a factor in human cognitive development. • Focus on early technologies • Integration of study of learning process with study of brain scans.

  12. Summary of results: • High-level skill is not simply a result of number of hours practised. • Natural aptitude and teaching have a very important role in skill acquisition • Connaissance and savoir-faire are related in a more complex way than generally understood. • Further work will look at the archaeological signatures and cognitive implications of this. • References: • Lohse, J. C. 2010: Evidence for learning and skill transmission in Clovis blade production and core maintenance, in Bradley, B. A., Collins, M. B. and Hemmings, A.: Clovis technology. Michigan: International Monographs in Prehistory, 157-176. • Pelegrin, J. 1990: Prehistoric lithic technology: some aspects of research, Archaeological Review from Cambridge. 9 (1), 116-25. • Stout, D and Chaminade, T. 2007: The evolutionary neuroscience of tool making, Neuropsychologia. 45, 1091-1100. • Stout, D., Toth, N., Shick, K. and Chaminade, T. 2008: Neural correlates of Early Stone Age toolmaking: technology, language and cognition in human evolution, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 363, 1939-49.

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