Working memory, its executive functions, and the emergence of modern thinking：（工作记忆、执行功能和现代思想的出现）.pdfVIP

Working Memory, its Executive Functions, and the Emergence of Modern Thinking Frederick L. Coolidge Thomas Wynn This article examines thepossible origins of modern thinking by evaluating the cognitive models of working memory, executive functions and their interrelationship. W epropose that a genetic mutation affected neural netzuorks i n the prefrontal cortex approximately 60,000 to 130,000years ago. O u r review of cognitive and archaeological evidence yields two possibilities: either it was non-domain specific, affecting general working memory capacity and its executivefunctions, or the mutation was domain-specific, affecting pho- nological storage capacity. W ediscuss the sequelae of thesepossibilities for modernity, in- cluding language enhancement, greater reasoning, planning, and modelling abilities, and increases i nfluidlgeneral intelligence. I n 1848,25-year-old Phineas Gage was the foreman that an enhancement of working-memory capacity of a railroad crew. He accidentally dropped a 1314 occurred in the relatively recent human past, most pound iron-tamping rod on a dynamite charge. The likely after the first appearance of anatomically mod- resulting explosion drove the rod through the left ern humans, and that this development was the final side of his face and out the top portion of his skull. piece in the evolution of human executive reasoning His attending physician wrote that . . . his mind ability, language, and culture. was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was no longer Gage Executive functions (Harlow 1868, 340)