Description

This fast talking casual video hosted by Julian might appeal to middle school or high school students.  He cites anthropologist Steven Mithen of the University of Reading to describe the seven steps in the development and use of imagination.

Discussion Questions

• What is the “theory of mind” and how did it help our human ancestors of 3.5 million years ago known as Australopithecus develop imagination?
• Why does a long childhood contribute to the human ability to imagine?
• What new skill by early homo sapiens was the first of the final four steps toward imagination because it could assign sounds to concrete objects and abstract ideas that led to “cognitive fluidity”?
• How do you describe the step in the development of imagination that was called “the extended mind?” What did it involve?

Keywords: Imagination, Theory of Mind, Evolution, consciousness, language, brain, development, history, anthropology,