Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Top Cogn Sci. 2012 Oct;4(4):513-24. doi: 10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01210.x. Epub 2012 Jul 3.
What was the role of music in the evolutionary history of human beings? We address this question from the point of view that musicality can be defined as a cognitive trait. Although it has been argued that we will never know how cognitive traits evolved (Lewontin, 1998), we argue that we may know the evolution of music by investigating the fundamental cognitive mechanisms of musicality, for example, relative pitch, tonal encoding of pitch, and beat induction. In addition, we show that a nomological network of evidence (Schmitt & Pilcher, 2004) can be built around the hypothesis that musicality is a cognitive adaptation. Within this network, different modes of evidence are gathered to support a specific evolutionary hypothesis. We show that the combination of psychological, medical, physiological, genetic, phylogenetic, hunter-gatherer, and cross-cultural evidence indicates that musicality is a cognitive adaptation.
音乐在人类进化历史中的作用是什么？我们从音乐能力可以被定义为认知特质这一观点出发来探讨这个问题。虽然有人认为我们永远不可能知道认知特质是如何进化的（Lewontin，1998），但我们认为，通过研究音乐能力的基本认知机制，例如音高的相对感知、音高的音调编码和节拍感应，我们可能会了解音乐的进化。此外，我们还表明，可以围绕音乐能力是一种认知适应的假说，建立一个法则网络证据（Schmitt & Pilcher，2004）。在这个网络中，收集不同模式的证据来支持特定的进化假说。我们表明，心理学、医学、生理学、遗传学、系统发生学、狩猎采集者和跨文化证据的结合表明，音乐能力是一种认知适应。
