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The Tool-Dependent Behaviour, Environmental Element Changes, and Psychological Selection: The Origin of the Human Mind

Received: 22 October 2023    Accepted: 15 November 2023    Published: 21 November 2023
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Abstract

This study elucidates the interplay between tool-dependent behavior, environmental dynamics, and the emergence of distinctive human traits during evolution. A breakthrough in the tool-dependent behavior of human ancestors was achieved through tool use in defense and predation, such as using stones and sticks as weapons, creating new survival elements from the environment. This study compares humans’ tool-dependent behavior with other animals’ use of tools: one is a unique, risk-taking, and irreversible behavior change, and the other is a universal and risk-averse behavior. We can distinguish the essential difference between the two behaviors from creating new environmental elements or not. Mainly, this creation determined the direction of tool, cultural, and social improvements, generating the essential differences between human and natural environments. It reveals the reasons for the emergence of special human traits: new elements and directional factors in the human environment, including tool and cultural and social improvements, leading to directional changes in human adaptation, such as gradual uprightness, increased brain capacity, and an acquired, complex language system. From an evolutionary psychology perspective, the adaptive relationship between distinctive psychological mechanisms and environmental factors has been confirmed, addressing the creation of our unique human mind: as environmental directional factors benefit specific psychological development, new psychological mechanisms emerge and shape the human mind. Therefore, unique human environmental changes result in the different selection of human characteristics, i e., psychological selection. A unique and directional psychological evolution characterizes human history. This study explains the origin of the human mind emerging from the relationship between tool-dependent behaviour and environmental changes, which is of great significance for correcting existing significant flaws in evolutionary theory.

Published in American Journal of Life Sciences (Volume 11, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajls.20231105.12
Page(s) 77-82
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Behavior Change, Tool-Dependent, Environmental Elements, Psychological Selection, Psychological Mechanisms

References
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[3] T. J. H. Morgan, N. T. Uomini, L. E. Rendell, L. Chouinard-Thuly, S. E. Street, H. M. Lewis, C. P. Cross, C. Evans, R. Kearney, I. de la Torre, A. Whiten, and K. N. Laland, “Experimental evidence for the co-evolution of hominin tool-making teaching and language,” Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, pp. 6029.
[4] K. Laland, Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017.
[5] X. Liu, “New models of human evolution and psychological selection mechanisms,” Biol. Bull. Beijing, 2016, vol. 51, pp. 3–7.
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[9] Y. Shang, “Animal use tools,” Biol. Bull. Beijing, 2001, vol. 36, pp. 7–9.
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[15] M. V. Flinn, D. C. Geary, and C. V. Ward, “Ecological dominance, social competition, and coalitionary arms races,” Evolution and Human Behavior, 2005, vol. 26, pp. 10–46.
[16] S. Pinker and P. Bloom, “Natural language and natural selection,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1990, vol. 13, pp. 707–727.
[17] W. T. Fitch, The Evolution of Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
[18] D. M. Buss, Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind, 5rd ed., London: Routledge, 2016.
[19] C. R. Darwin, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1rd ed., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981, pp. 160.
[20] A. Whiten, J. Goodall, W. C. McGrew, T. Nishida, V. Reynolds, Y. Sugiyama, C. E. G. Tutin, R. W. Wrangham, and C. Boesch, “Cultures in chimpanzees,” Nature, 1999, vol. 399, pp. 682–685.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Liu, X. (2023). The Tool-Dependent Behaviour, Environmental Element Changes, and Psychological Selection: The Origin of the Human Mind. American Journal of Life Sciences, 11(5), 77-82. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajls.20231105.12

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    ACS Style

    Liu, X. The Tool-Dependent Behaviour, Environmental Element Changes, and Psychological Selection: The Origin of the Human Mind. Am. J. Life Sci. 2023, 11(5), 77-82. doi: 10.11648/j.ajls.20231105.12

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    AMA Style

    Liu X. The Tool-Dependent Behaviour, Environmental Element Changes, and Psychological Selection: The Origin of the Human Mind. Am J Life Sci. 2023;11(5):77-82. doi: 10.11648/j.ajls.20231105.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajls.20231105.12,
      author = {Xiaoming Liu},
      title = {The Tool-Dependent Behaviour, Environmental Element Changes, and Psychological Selection: The Origin of the Human Mind},
      journal = {American Journal of Life Sciences},
      volume = {11},
      number = {5},
      pages = {77-82},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajls.20231105.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajls.20231105.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajls.20231105.12},
      abstract = {This study elucidates the interplay between tool-dependent behavior, environmental dynamics, and the emergence of distinctive human traits during evolution. A breakthrough in the tool-dependent behavior of human ancestors was achieved through tool use in defense and predation, such as using stones and sticks as weapons, creating new survival elements from the environment. This study compares humans’ tool-dependent behavior with other animals’ use of tools: one is a unique, risk-taking, and irreversible behavior change, and the other is a universal and risk-averse behavior. We can distinguish the essential difference between the two behaviors from creating new environmental elements or not. Mainly, this creation determined the direction of tool, cultural, and social improvements, generating the essential differences between human and natural environments. It reveals the reasons for the emergence of special human traits: new elements and directional factors in the human environment, including tool and cultural and social improvements, leading to directional changes in human adaptation, such as gradual uprightness, increased brain capacity, and an acquired, complex language system. From an evolutionary psychology perspective, the adaptive relationship between distinctive psychological mechanisms and environmental factors has been confirmed, addressing the creation of our unique human mind: as environmental directional factors benefit specific psychological development, new psychological mechanisms emerge and shape the human mind. Therefore, unique human environmental changes result in the different selection of human characteristics, i e., psychological selection. A unique and directional psychological evolution characterizes human history. This study explains the origin of the human mind emerging from the relationship between tool-dependent behaviour and environmental changes, which is of great significance for correcting existing significant flaws in evolutionary theory.
    },
     year = {2023}
    }
    

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    AB  - This study elucidates the interplay between tool-dependent behavior, environmental dynamics, and the emergence of distinctive human traits during evolution. A breakthrough in the tool-dependent behavior of human ancestors was achieved through tool use in defense and predation, such as using stones and sticks as weapons, creating new survival elements from the environment. This study compares humans’ tool-dependent behavior with other animals’ use of tools: one is a unique, risk-taking, and irreversible behavior change, and the other is a universal and risk-averse behavior. We can distinguish the essential difference between the two behaviors from creating new environmental elements or not. Mainly, this creation determined the direction of tool, cultural, and social improvements, generating the essential differences between human and natural environments. It reveals the reasons for the emergence of special human traits: new elements and directional factors in the human environment, including tool and cultural and social improvements, leading to directional changes in human adaptation, such as gradual uprightness, increased brain capacity, and an acquired, complex language system. From an evolutionary psychology perspective, the adaptive relationship between distinctive psychological mechanisms and environmental factors has been confirmed, addressing the creation of our unique human mind: as environmental directional factors benefit specific psychological development, new psychological mechanisms emerge and shape the human mind. Therefore, unique human environmental changes result in the different selection of human characteristics, i e., psychological selection. A unique and directional psychological evolution characterizes human history. This study explains the origin of the human mind emerging from the relationship between tool-dependent behaviour and environmental changes, which is of great significance for correcting existing significant flaws in evolutionary theory.
    
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Author Information
  • Bureau of Agriculture, Taishan City, China

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