Scaffolding minds: human collective intelligence through space, body and material symbols

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary Anthropology
• Cognitive Science
• Archaeology

Background:

• Human collective intelligence (CI) is an emergent group capacity exceeding individual capabilities.
• Epistemic niche construction (ENC) is proposed as a distinct evolutionary trajectory sustaining CI.
• Humans modify informational landscapes via material scaffolds for cognitive enhancement and social coordination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define criteria for identifying epistemic niche construction (ENC) in the archaeological record.
• To track the emergence of ENC through material culture.
• To understand how ENC practices scaffold and amplify collective intelligence (CI).

Main Methods:

• Development of a framework with criteria for defining and identifying ENC.
• Application of the framework to three domains of material culture: spatial structuring, body culturalization, and exosomatic information storage.
• Analysis of persistent, publicly accessible, and incremental modifications sustaining behavioral coordination.

Main Results:

• Criteria for ENC emergence in the archaeological record were proposed.
• ENC was examined in spatial organization, human body modification, and information-storing artifacts.
• Material culture and environments were transformed into epistemic infrastructures.

Conclusions:

• Epistemic niche construction (ENC) is a key mechanism in the evolution of human collective intelligence (CI).
• Material culture and environmental modifications serve as targeted epistemic infrastructures.
• These infrastructures amplify group-level cognitive performances, influencing human cognition and social organization.