Fred Coolidge
Psychology
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Since 2000, I've retreaded myself. I started reading intensively about archaeology and anthropology. It's been a true renaissance for me. I had this idea that a cognitive model I had published a bit about (working memory and executive functions) might explain some changes in the archaeological record.
Tom and I published our first paper in 2001 in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Then came an article in the journal Before Farming: The Anthropology and Archaeology of Hunters-Gathers, one in the Journal of Human Evolution (about Neanderthal minds!), and one this spring in the Journal of Anthropological Research. We co-taught a course last fall called Cognitive Evolution and we'll teach it again this fall. And we put together a book prospectus under review by Oxford U. Press. It's like a whole new career for me.
Science News Article 2004
- Coolidge, F. L. & Wynn, T. (in press). Working memory, its executive functions, and the evolution of cognition. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Will appear Spring 2005 issue.
- Wynn, T. & Coolidge, F. L. (2004). The skilled Neanderthal mind. Journal of Human Evolution, 46, 467-487.
- Coolidge, F. L. & Wynn, T. (2004). A cognitive and neuropsychological perspective on the Chatelperronian. Journal of Anthropological Research, 60, 55-73.
- Wynn, T. & Coolidge, F. L. (2003). The role of working memory in the evolution of managed farming. Before Farming: The Anthropology and Archaeology of Hunters-Gatherers, 2, 1-16.
- Wynn, T. & Coolidge, F. L. (2002). The role of working memory in skilled and conceptual thought. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 25, 703-704.
- Coolidge, F. L. & Wynn, T. (2001). Executive functions of the frontal lobes and the evolutionary ascendancy of Homo sapiens. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 11, 255-260.
- Coolidge, F. L. & Wynn, T. (2004). Dreams of early hominids and the evolution of cognition. Article submitted to Evolutionary Anthropology.