ABSTRACT
Technical cognition is an underappreciated and understudied component of modern thinking that played a crucial role in the evolution of hominin cognition. The following chapter proposes a melded model of technical cognition based on ethnographic accounts of craft production and the cognitive psychological concept of expert cognition. The model emphasizes the role of “retrieval structures,” chunks of organized information stored in long-term memory that when activated in working memory provide instant access to huge amounts of task-relevant information. The chapter then applies this model to three selected examples of non-modern cognition: chimpanzee use of stone hammers, the 2.3-million-year-old site of Lokalalei 2C, and the 790,000-year-old site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov. The result is a clear picture of the evolution of technical retrieval structures in regard to long-term memory capacity and cognitive control that did not depend on language.
