Kolloquium

Mittwoch, den 22.04.2026, um 14:15 Uhr trägt Annette Hohenberger (Uni Osnabrück, Institute of Cognitive Science) online bei uns vor. 

Link: https://uni-freiburg.zoom-x.de/j/64894606019?pwd=uj2mX5ee7Eea91Ep6acbab7DEYZVzo.1

Title: Tools and the Mind

Abstract: 

Innovating and using tools are a hallmark of human cognition, which I will consider from various perspectives in my talk: (pre-)historical, comparative, developmental, neuroscientific, and societal. Since the paleolithic, some 3 mya ago, our ancestors used stone flakes, handaxes, and other tools for various functions such as cutting or scraping meat or cracking nuts. However, many other animals, including apes, (marine) mammals, and big-brained birds, use tools as well and transmit this knowledge through social and cultural learning. Taking a developmental perspective, it has been found that young children until 7-8 years old – although being skillful tool users – have a hard time innovating tools like a hook to lift up an otherwise unreachable object from a tall jar. However, they profit greatly from social demonstration of the hook or the hook making by an adult model. In a neuroscientific perspective, areas in the prefrontal, parietal, and temporal lobe support cognitive skills implicated in tool use, namely working memory, the production system, as well as technical and semantic reasoning, respectively. While physical technologies using classical, handheld tools predominated in the past, we are handling more sophisticated technologies such as cars and computers at present and will increase the use of symbiotic technologies like brain-computer interfaces in the future. I will share with you our own research on preschoolers’ developing tool abilities as well as my experience from regularly teaching a course on “Tools and the Mind” at our Institute of Cognitive Science. Please bring along your own favorite tool and share your experience with it during our discussion.