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The Learning to be Human Project

The Learning to be Human Project. Nada Khreisheh. Photo: Whitlock 2012. Skill Acquisition in Flaked Stone Technologies:. Role played by aptitude, practice and teaching. Archaeological signatures. Understanding of a task vs physical ability to carry it out.

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The Learning to be Human Project

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  1. The Learning to be Human Project Nada Khreisheh Photo: Whitlock 2012

  2. Skill Acquisition in Flaked Stone Technologies: • Role played by aptitude, practice and teaching. • Archaeological signatures. • Understanding of a task vs physical ability to carry it out. • How this relates to evolution of modern human brains and intelligence. Photo: Whitlock 2011

  3. The Learning to be Human Project: • Leverhulme Trust funded project. • Skill acquisition and early hominid cognitive processes. • 3 Strands: • Emory University, Dietrich Stout – fMRI scans of experimental knappers. • UCL, Stuart Page and James Steele – transmission chain design. • Exeter – experimental study of flintknapping skill acquisition. • Linked by focus on Oldowan, Acheulean and Levallois technologies. • Use of same group of experimental knappers.

  4. Study Group: • 16 people. • 3 groups – core, wider beginners and wider experienced. • Core: • Intensive training. • Contact with artefacts. • Brain scans. • No previous knapping experience. • Wider Beginners: • Less intensive training – focus on practice. • No previous experience. • Based at Exeter • Wider Experienced: • Less intensive training – focus on practice. • Range of experience levels. • Not all based at Exeter

  5. Photos: Whitlock 2011

  6. Aptitude: • Spatial Ability Tests. • Importance of visuospatial representations – Stout et al. 2008. • Questionnaires: • Age • Sex • Practical craft experience • Contact with flaked stone assemblages • Knapping experience • Motor Ability Tests – Core only: • Importance of fine finger movements and object manipulation – Stout and Chaminade 2007, Stout et al. 2008.

  7. Learning: • Sessions: • Introduction to technology. • Demonstration. • Practice with input. • Practice: • 8 hours/month. • Recorded via forms. • Amount of time. • Technology. • Instruction. • Success.

  8. Evaluation: • Skill assessed at regular intervals. • Score 1-5 for connaissance (knowledge). • Score 1-5 for savoir-faire (know-how). • Flakes, cores and tools analysed.

  9. Porcelain Cores: • Mouldable • Similar fracture properties to flint • Consistent material • Readily available • Comparatively inexpensive • Allows for greater reliability of results Photos: Khreisheh 2012, Whitlock 2012.

  10. Skill Levels: • Attempt to assign skill level to performance and products. • Previous research 2-4 different levels. • Lohse 2010: • Beginner • Adept • Crafter • Expert • Based on amount of knowledge and know-how.

  11. Why? • Current interest in knapping skill identification: • Identification of individuals. • Identification of children. • Need for longer term studies: • Previous studies focus on single knapping sessions. • Need for larger number of participants in studies. • Skill acquisition across technologies. • Oldowan, Acheuleanhandaxe and Levallois core. • Skill acquisition as a factor in human cognitive development. • Focus on early technologies • Integration of study of learning process with study of brain scans.

  12. Summary of results: • High-level skill is not simply a result of number of hours practised. • Natural aptitude and teaching have a very important role in skill acquisition • Connaissance and savoir-faire are related in a more complex way than generally understood. • Further work will look at the archaeological signatures and cognitive implications of this. • References: • Lohse, J. C. 2010: Evidence for learning and skill transmission in Clovis blade production and core maintenance, in Bradley, B. A., Collins, M. B. and Hemmings, A.: Clovis technology. Michigan: International Monographs in Prehistory, 157-176. • Pelegrin, J. 1990: Prehistoric lithic technology: some aspects of research, Archaeological Review from Cambridge. 9 (1), 116-25. • Stout, D and Chaminade, T. 2007: The evolutionary neuroscience of tool making, Neuropsychologia. 45, 1091-1100. • Stout, D., Toth, N., Shick, K. and Chaminade, T. 2008: Neural correlates of Early Stone Age toolmaking: technology, language and cognition in human evolution, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 363, 1939-49.

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