Harmony, Perspective, and Triadic Cognition

This book addresses the difference between the mental processes of animals and those of the human mind.

Norman D. Cook (Author)

9780521151719, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 May 2019

366 pages, 158 b/w illus.
23 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.67 kg

'Cook's unique thesis is that the human mind emerged from two related evolutionary changes: triadic sensory processing and cerebral laterality. In making stone tools, our early ancestors learned how to handle visual, auditory and touch information simultaneously in posterior association cortex. But, in making tools they were obliged to train one hand (hemisphere) to be the motor executive. Precisely because the other 'non-dominant' hemisphere was not an executive, it developed its own talents for various types of configurational processing: face recognition, harmony perception, language prosody and other holistic processes not requiring executive control.' Theodor Landis, Université de Genève

The big question in the science of psychology is: why is human cognition and behavior so different from the capabilities of every other animal species on Earth - including our close genetic relations, the chimpanzees? This book provides a coherent answer by examining those aspects of the human brain that have made triadic forms of perception and cognition possible. Mechanisms of dyadic association sufficiently explain animal perception, cognition and behavior, but a three-way associational mechanism is required to explain the human talents for language, tool-making, harmony perception, pictorial depth perception and the joint attention that underlies all forms of social cooperation.

1. Introduction
2. Human hearing: harmony
3. Human seeing: perspective
4. Human work: tools and handedness
5. Human communication: language
6. Consciousness
7. Loose ends
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Neurosciences [PSAN], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR]