The Learning to be Human Project

Nada Khreisheh

Photo: Whitlock 2012

Skill Acquisition in Flaked Stone Technologies:

• Role played by aptitude, practice and teaching.• Archaeological signatures.• Understanding of a task vs physical ability to carry it

out.• How this relates to evolution of modern human brains

and intelligence.

Photo: Whitlock 2011

The Learning to be Human Project:

• Leverhulme Trust funded project.• Skill acquisition and early hominid cognitive processes.• 3 Strands:• Emory University, Dietrich Stout – fMRI scans of

experimental knappers.• UCL, Stuart Page and James Steele – transmission

chain design.• Exeter – experimental study of flintknapping skill

acquisition.• Linked by focus on Oldowan, Acheulean and Levallois

technologies.• Use of same group of experimental knappers.

Study Group:

• 16 people.• 3 groups – core, wider beginners and wider experienced.• Core:

• Intensive training.• Contact with artefacts.• Brain scans.• No previous knapping experience.

• Wider Beginners:• Less intensive training – focus on practice.• No previous experience.• Based at Exeter

• Wider Experienced:• Less intensive training – focus on practice.• Range of experience levels.• Not all based at Exeter

Photos: Whitlock 2011

Aptitude:

• Spatial Ability Tests.• Importance of visuospatial representations – Stout et al.

2008.• Questionnaires:• Age• Sex• Practical craft experience• Contact with flaked stone assemblages• Knapping experience

• Motor Ability Tests – Core only:• Importance of fine finger movements and object

manipulation – Stout and Chaminade 2007, Stout et al. 2008.

Learning:• Sessions:• Introduction to technology.• Demonstration.• Practice with input.

• Practice:• 8 hours/month.• Recorded via forms.• Amount of time.• Technology.• Instruction.• Success.

Evaluation:

• Skill assessed at regular intervals.

• Score 1-5 for connaissance (knowledge).

• Score 1-5 for savoir-faire (know-how).

• Flakes, cores and tools analysed.

Porcelain Cores:

• Mouldable• Similar fracture properties to flint• Consistent material• Readily available• Comparatively inexpensive• Allows for greater reliability of results

Photos: Khreisheh 2012, Whitlock 2012.

Skill Levels:

• Attempt to assign skill level to performance and products.• Previous research 2-4 different levels.• Lohse 2010:• Beginner• Adept• Crafter• Expert

• Based on amount of knowledge and know-how.

Why?• Current interest in knapping skill identification:• Identification of individuals.• Identification of children.

• Need for longer term studies:• Previous studies focus on single knapping sessions.

• Need for larger number of participants in studies.• Skill acquisition across technologies.• Oldowan, Acheulean handaxe and Levallois core.

• Skill acquisition as a factor in human cognitive development.• Focus on early technologies

• Integration of study of learning process with study of brain scans.

Summary of results:

• High-level skill is not simply a result of number of hours practised.

• Natural aptitude and teaching have a very important role in skill acquisition

• Connaissance and savoir-faire are related in a more complex way than generally understood.

• Further work will look at the archaeological signatures and cognitive implications of this.

References:• Lohse, J. C. 2010: Evidence for learning and skill transmission in Clovis blade production and core

maintenance, in Bradley, B. A., Collins, M. B. and Hemmings, A.: Clovis technology. Michigan: International Monographs in Prehistory, 157-176.

• Pelegrin, J. 1990: Prehistoric lithic technology: some aspects of research, Archaeological Review from Cambridge. 9 (1), 116-25.

• Stout, D and Chaminade, T. 2007: The evolutionary neuroscience of tool making, Neuropsychologia. 45, 1091-1100.

•  Stout, D., Toth, N., Shick, K. and Chaminade, T. 2008: Neural correlates of Early Stone Age toolmaking: technology, language and cognition in human evolution, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 363, 1939-49.