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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 13, 2025

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Cognitive novelties, informational form, and structural-causal explanations.

Andrew Buskell1

  • 1Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Synthese
|November 11, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Humans engineer environments to foster cognitive novelties. Analyzing informational form through structural-causal explanations aids understanding cognitive trait development and evolution.

Keywords:
Cognitive evolutionCultural evolutionExplanationNovelties

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Evolutionary Psychology
  • Philosophy of Mind

Background:

  • A framework exists for explaining the origin of human cognitive novelties, defined as qualitatively distinct cognitive traits.
  • This framework, the niche construction approach, posits that humans engineer epistemic environments to facilitate cognitive development.
  • The role of informational form in cognitive novelty development requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To introduce structural-causal explanations as a key strategy within the niche construction approach.
  • To demonstrate how analyzing informational form can advance the understanding of cognitive novelties.
  • To provide a case study illustrating the application of structural-causal explanations.

Main Methods:

  • The study proposes structural-causal explanations, focusing on the organized relations within content-carrying informational vehicles (informational form).
  • It draws upon recent work by Cecilia Heyes on cognitive development.
  • A case study of a novel mathematical capacity is developed to illustrate the explanatory strategy.

Main Results:

  • Structural-causal explanations, by focusing on informational form, offer a valuable explanatory strategy for the niche construction approach.
  • This approach aids in applying existing explanatory tools to cognitive novelties.
  • The analysis generates new empirical targets for research into cognitive development.

Conclusions:

  • Attention to informational form is crucial for advancing the niche construction approach to cognitive novelties.
  • Structural-causal explanations provide a robust method for understanding how cognitive traits develop and evolve.
  • This research opens new avenues for empirical investigation into the origins of human cognitive uniqueness.