Modern human beings process information symbolically, rearranging mental symbols to envision multiple potential realities. They also express the ideas they form using structured articulate language. No other living creature does either of these things. Yet it is evident that we are descended from a non-symbolic and non-linguistic ancestor. How did this astonishing transformation occur? Scrutiny of the fossil and archaeological records reveals that the transition to symbolic reasoning happened very late in hominid history - indeed, within the tenure of anatomically recognizable Homo sapiens. It was evidently not simply a passive result of the increase in brain size that typified multiple lineages of the genus Homo over the Pleistocene. Instead, a brain exaptively capable of complex symbolic manipulation and language acquisition was acquired in the major developmental reorganization that gave rise to the anatomically distinctive species Homo sapiens. The new capacity it conferred was later recruited through the action of a cultural stimulus, most plausibly the spontaneous invention of language.

中文翻译：

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习得语言和现代人类认知的初步框架。

现代人类象征性地处理信息，重新排列心理符号以设想多种潜在的现实。他们还使用结构清晰的语言表达他们形成的想法。其他任何生物都不会做这些事情。但是很明显，我们是一个非符号和非语言祖先的后代。如此惊人的转变是如何发生的？对化石和考古记录的审查表明，向象征性推理的过渡发生在原始历史的晚期，实际上是在解剖学上可识别的智人的任期内。显然，不仅仅是大脑大小增加的被动结果，是人类在更新世时期的多个血统的代表。反而，在主要的发育重组过程中，获得了能够复杂地进行符号操作和语言习得的大脑，从而产生了解剖学上与众不同的物种智人。后来，通过文化刺激行动，最有可能是语言的自发发明，招募了它赋予的新能力。