The evolution of scenario visualization and the early hominin mind
pp. 143-159
in: Liz Swan (ed), Origins of mind, Berlin, Springer, 2013Abstract
In this chapter, I argue that scenario visualization—viz., a mental activity whereby visual images are selected, integrated, and then transformed and projected into visual scenarios for the purposes of solving problems in the environments one inhabits—emerged in our hominin past and accounts for certain kinds of vision-related creativity. The kinds of problems with which our hominin ancestors were confronted most likely were of the spatial relation and depth relation types related to basic survival—such as judging the distance between an object and oneself, determining the size of an approaching object, matching an object to any number of associated memories, and anticipating the need for a particular kind of tool to accomplish a task—and so the capacity to scenario visualize would have been useful for their survival. Thus, scenario visualization has been and continues to be relevant for vision-related forms of creative problem-solving.