1. Social Nature
Chapter 6

2. Social Nature of Intelligence*
Hyper
Rich social experience (over million years) hyper social instincts (memory, language, empathy, sympathy, collaboration, and reasoning)
Facilitate meeting of minds
Expectant
Capacity to think, learn and achieve is expectant (depends) of the social experience that constructed it
Cultivate common purpose
Dependent
Social experience is the greatest provocateur of thinking and learning
* Interrelated

3. Extended
Invention of a variety of media that extends social interactions beyond face-to-face encounters
Extended the mind’s reach
Virtuous
Instinctive moral orientation to prosocial behavior
Achieve behaviors that would benefit the group

4. Human brain evolved from rich social experiences
Physiological architecture of the brain is the platform in which your intelligence performs, but social experience is an influential architect and operator of the platform
Social definition as living together or as interrelated interdependent elements
The beginning of the universeorganized simple structures into complex and evolving systems = brain is a system that is disposed to
interact with like brain systems

5. Selfish gene theory = individual life forms
consistently do things to benefit the survival
of genes
The History – The Experience
Ancient primate, 50 million yrs. ago began to develop
the size of their brain as result of cost benefit
calculations on how to get food
Benefiting life in social communities – vigilance against
enemies
So they began to refine their sensory processing of
visual and auditory information to be attuned to
any type of communication or warning—those who
were better at it became leaders of the communities
And hierarchies in the social group were developed

6. Emotions began to develop within the social group by
Stability
Emotions began to develop within the social group by
social observation skills as result of keeping
homeostasis within the group
With emotions became the development of awareness
and the ability to infer, predict, and planmental
capacity to anticipate events
And approximately 2.5 millions years ago, humans put
together a neural pattern for tool making = social aspect
of learninginventions are usual contributions of a few
working together
Language emerged from social experience (intimacy)
Broca area and Wernicke’s area were developed in the
brain to deal with this behavior

7. What are the implications for the future using the evolution information that we have discussed?
In other words, based on what we are currently doing in our lives, how do you see the human being as a social entity in the future?

8. Evolutionrefinement of what already been changed
Collateral Development Collateral Development
Walking erect – 2
footed balancenew
brain circuitry
Upright posture –
better perspective for
visual scanning
Hand dexterity to make
and use tools
Reduced exposure to
the sun
Linear Development
Evolutionrefinement of what already been changed
Cognitive fluidity = Swiss Army Knife
Social heritage of brain’s evolutionary experience is displayed in:
Its size and organization
Emotional acuity (security)
Capacity to create and manipulate mental templates (executive functions)
And, figure things out
Cells and molecules
opened to environmental
influences

9. Facing Environmental Influences
Highly evolved neural mechanisms
Syntactic and & semantic language
Evolved neural mechanisms for social interactions
Muscle endings in their facial skinfacial expressions
Verbal messages include expressions, tone
And at times smell, taste & touch
Gut feeling
Consciousness = meaning, memory, emotion, & reflection
Reflective manipulation of informationexecutive skills
Awareness and management of emotions to good effect

10. Let’s refine our previous answers….
Do you see any future linear evolutionary changes as result of your past answers?
How about collateral development?
Do you think that we will expand our present state of consciousness as result of the changes that you mentioned?

11. Social unfolding of its potential
Ontogeny (development)
Philogeny (evolution)
Fundamental work of the brain occurs through the flow of electrochemically encoded information at the neural cell
The growth of the cell is both environmentally and genetically directed
As the primitive brain began to face more complicated tasks, specifically neural networks were developed (evolution)
These networks progressively influenced the genetic adaptations
These genetic adaptations needed the influence of the environment to flourish

12. The Human Brain is Experience Expectant and Experience Dependant
At certain developmental periods on the human life, there is a genetically generated excess of neural networks
Occurs from birth to adolescence
Dendritic & axonal extensions ready
Pruning also occurs
Expectations of certain stimulation cues occur
Plasticity
Life long process
Experience Dependant
Brain is ready to have environmental interaction in order to grow and mature
“Use it or lose it, but do not abuse it”

13. Social Experience Actualizes Human Intelligence
The Human Brain Seeks Ways to Expand Opportunities to Interact With Other Brains
50,000 yrs. ago written language graphics
Now, communication technologies, radio, photography, movies, television, & Internet
Social Experience Actualizes Human Intelligence
Brain was made to interact with other brains
Social interaction since early childhood are the bases for adulthood intellectual capacities