ABSTRACT
There is a current longstanding debate over whether the greater part of cognition is best characterised as being domain speci®c. In keeping with Roberts' introduction to this volume, we will refer to the view that most, if not all, cognition is domain speci®c, as extreme domain speci®city, one version of which is massive modularity. The view that domain speci®city and/or modularity characterises human cognition has been popular since the 1980s, deriving support from an apparent convergence among philosophical, evolutionary, and empirical considerations. Indeed, its perceived consilience with evolutionary biology has been argued to be a particular strength of this viewpoint (see Cosmides & Tooby, 1994).
