What does cognitive development look like in a world without schools or formally educated parents or communities? What if our most fundamental measures of cognitive performance were influenced by small amounts of schooling or by having parents, siblings or others who attended schools in one’s household or community? Growing evidence suggests that the human mind is shaped by the socially and culturally incentivized institutions it is exposed to during our unusually long childhood. Yet, many contemporary theories of early learning capacities and cognition are drawn from samples where formal schooling, a prolific cultural institution, has been nearly ubiquitous for at least a century. In such novel environments, the impact of formal schooling on cognition and learning can easily be confused with species-wide maturational processes. This talk will discuss research focused on fundamental aspects of cognition and the institutions and cultural transitions shaping them using findings from two unique, ongoing studies in Amazonia, Bolivia and in the Namib Desert of Namibia and Angola. Additionally, this talk will address growing challenges associated with cross-cultural research, as well as the need for a conscientious commitment to participant communities.

Helen Davis
Harvard University
https://helen-elizabeth-davis.com/