Syntactical Structures and the Evolution of Mind and Culture

From language and memory, to music and narrative – humans display a remarkable ability to create and understand complicated sequences. Every day, we effortlessly combine thousands of actions, thoughts and objects to create complex artefacts, explanations, and aesthetic forms, from tying a shoelace to telling a story, from appreciating a melody to cooking a meal.  The project team proposes that this syntactical ability lies at the heart of what it means to be human. This project presents a theory with testable hypotheses about how human activities, artefacts, cultures and aesthetic forms are created and organised; about the specialised human capacities that support this; about how these capacities evolved; and about the universal processes that generate them. Even more broadly, it is also a critical analysis of how different disciplinary perspectives on the syntactical basis of phenomena such as literary narratives, reasoning, music, and autobiographical memories, can enrich one another. Through an adventurous interdisciplinary exploration of the sequential nature of the human condition, this project will open up new avenues of enquiry about the role of syntactical structure spanning cognitive and cultural domains, including literature, music, and dance. By doing so, it will shed new light on the human mind, cultural evolution, and aesthetics.

Ambition

This project’s ambition is to assemble a unifying theory of ‘syntax’ that would articulate its general significance for multiple disciplines. Key to achieving this is the development of interdisciplinary dialogue across the many domains in which syntactical structure plays a vital part. The Project Team will draw on a range of disciplines, including cognitive science, literary analysis, anthropology, musicology, computer science, philosophy and history of science. By bringing these distinct areas of inquiry together, they aim to develop a new, synthetic, vision of syntactical structures which they  posit as a basis both for conceptualizing the uniqueness of our species and for explaining its impressive cultural and ecological expansion, as well as its extraordinary imaginative abilities, behavioural flexibility and dazzling cultural diversity. The project is organized into four interlocking themes:

1. Mind, brain, cognition: We will start by investigating the topic of serial ordering within cognitive science and comparative psychology in order to rethink some of these fields’ fundamental, yet often uncritically used, concepts and ontologies. Here, we are interested in questioning the very idea of a cognitive ‘mechanism’, as well as of the modelling of brain structure and function through concepts such as ‘modularity’, ‘domain specificity’, and ‘executive control’. The advent of ‘4E cognition’ represents an exciting new direction in the cognitive sciences that could help resolve the mind-body problem through the integration of embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended cognitive processes. We will explore the opportunities that 4E cognition offers to expand the theory of serial ordering and syntax and its role in cognitive evolution. Central to our analysis of syntactical structures is the historical and cultural context of concepts relating to the organisation of the mind and mental properties. Mental concepts and categories are often modelled on culture-specific and historically contingent preoccupations (e.g., ‘executive control’) and technologies (e.g., computers), providing a strong argument for considering historical and cultural contexts of these ideas. Part of our discussion will thus focus on the philosophical history of where and how, in what conceptual forms, and in which epistemic and cultural contexts, ‘syntax’ emerged as a way of accounting for what is distinctive or unique about the human mind and behaviour. This will enable a robust reflexive examination of the epistemic, cultural or ideological assumptions that this particular framing entails, and how this then informs some of our present models and ideas.

Background reading  

Lashley, K (1951) The Problem of Serial Order in Behavior. A. Jeffress (Ed.), Cerebral mechanisms in behavior, Wiley, New York (1951), pp. 112-131 link

• In this classic paper, Karl Lashley proposes and explores the hypothesis that “serial ordering” is a key problem solved by the human mind enabling it to grasp, predict and manipulate the world in unique ways. It is summarized in Fitch & Martins, who evaluate it in relation to contemporary cognitive neuroscience below*

Fitch & Martins (2014) Hierarchical processing in music, language, and action: Lashley revisited. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. ISSN 0077-8923 link

• Updates Lashley’s arguments and relates them to contemporary cognitive neuroscience

Asano et al (2022) Moving beyond domain-specific versus domain general options in cognitive neuroscience. Cortex 154, 259-268 link

• Proposes a solution to the debate about whether cognitive processes are domain-general or -specific, focusing on mechanisms of syntactical thought and their role in language and music
  
  

Barrett, L (2018) The Evolution of Cognition: A 4E Perspective. in Newen A et al (eds) The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition. link

• Outlines the implications of 4e (embodied, enactive, embedded, extended) cognition for understanding non-human minds and cognitive evolution  

Graziano MSA. (2016) Ethological Action Maps: A Paradigm Shift for the Motor Cortex. Trends Cogn Sci. 20(2):121-132. link

 
2. Learning, culture, evolution: Whatever neural systems and cognitive dynamics enabled humans to comprehend and execute syntactically organised actions, they hugely enhanced social learning, providing the cognitive preconditions for the efflorescence of diverse cultural forms. These range from ritualistic movements that promote bonding and intersubjective synchrony, to complex skills that have generated the myriad of arts and technologies over time. However, we still lack understanding of precisely how the capacity to learn and comprehend ordered sequences translates into the distinctive human capacity for cumulative culture, expression, and imagination. Through interdisciplinary discussion, we will go beyond simplistic definitions of culture as ‘socially learned information’ and generate new ways of understanding syntactical structuring as not simply an auxiliary scaffolding for the encoding of meaning in cultural forms and artefacts, but as, in fact, decisive for understanding both cultural stability and change. 

Heyes C (2020) Psychological Mechanisms Forged by Cultural Evolution. Current Directions in Psychological Science 29, 399-404. link

• Builds on Heyes’ ideas about how mechanisms of cultural transmission are themselves built by culture, and arguing for domain-general sequence-learning as a specific building block
  
  

Brand CO, Mesoudi A, Smaldino PE. (2021) Analogy as a Catalyst for Cumulative Cultural Evolution. Trends Cogn Sci. 2021 Jun;25(6):450-461. link

• Addresses cognitive mechanisms of cultural evolution: the headline is about analogy but the core is about sequence encoding 

Ellis R (2018) Bodies and Other Objects: The Sensorimotor Foundations of Cognition. Cambridge University Press

• from opposable thumbs and manipulation through tool-making to social cognition and human culture!

3. Narrativity, causality, meaning

Nowhere is the human capacity for combining events into complex hierarchical chains of causal relations more apparent than in narratives. Narratives shape both fictional and factual accounts; they are central to both science and literature; they lie at the core of individual, highly personal, dreams and memories as well as collective, eminently public, histories and political messages. In other words, narrative underlies both our subjectivity and our sociality. As Carrithers (1992) argues, “Narrativity distinguishes humans from other species and is key to understanding our complex social world…it consists not merely in telling stories, but of understanding complex nets of deeds and attitudes”. On this view, we are Homo narrans, a creature who understands and shapes our world through narratives and stories. Narratives are not always linear:  the creative and playful capacities of narrative structure, from circuitous plotting and unexpected endings to time travel and the construction of parallel universes, may be seen as experiments in causality, veritable laboratories in which theoretical questions about the philosophy of temporality, subjectivity and consciousness are developed. Here, we will focus on how humans use narrative syntax to make sense of the world and exert influence over it. 

Carrithers, M (1991) Narrativity: mindreading and making societies. (PDF attached)

• Explores the significance for social life of a distinctively human way of understanding the world; the narrative mode of thought 

Paul Armstrong (2019) Neuroscience, Narrative, and Narratology. Poetics Today 40(3):395-428 link and PDF attached

• Argues for an embodied cognitive science of narratology

McNeill LD (1996) Homo inventans: the evolution of narrativity. Language & Communication, 16, No. 4, pp. 331 360, link

• Explores parallels between and common processes underlying tool use, language, stories and more

4. Aesthetics, music, dance: Temporal sequences form the core basis of many aesthetic forms, including those in which narrativity may not at first seem explicit. Homologies such as violations of expected expressive sequence structures in music and dance, causing surprise or stimulating sensations in the audience, are similarly important artistic devices. Can the hierarchical sequencing of language and music be explained in terms of different uses of the same mental mechanisms and bodily affordances? Here, we ask how far parallels in the notion of syntactical structure, including its computational description, can be taken in the realm of art, focusing on music and dance. Building on the findings of the preceding weeks and extending its impact to a wider audience, we will organise a dance performance with musical accompaniment in collaboration with the music department and student dance society, followed by commentary and discussion including the performers reflections on the experience of learning and performing sequences. The event will serve to exemplify the various issues tackled by a project, intertwining questions of embodiment with the social role of culture, and linking compositionality with narrativity.

Asano R and Boeckx C (2015) Syntax in language and music: what is the right level of comparison? Front. Psychol. 6:942 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00942 

Alva Noë (2015) Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature, Hill and Wang, ISBN 9780809089178.

 
The interdisciplinary approach:
Genuine interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for this project. First, understanding syntactical structures across multiple domains (cognitive science, literature, music, etc.) and levels of analysis (e.g. computational, behavioural and experiential) depends on expertise in diverse disciplines and methods. Interdisciplinary synthesis is needed to link concepts, define terms and enrich our understanding and use of these concepts.  Second, we recognise that the concepts we deploy within disciplines are historically and culturally situated, and thus we emphasise the importance of history and reflexivity, which can be provided by historical analysis and triangulation across disciplines. Third, while its focus is on syntactical structures, our project also addresses broader ontological problems in cognitive science which provide a huge opportunity to develop new insights through interdisciplinary dialogue. We will explore an overlapping set of issues from multiple disciplinary perspectives, including questions over the heuristic value and inconsistent use of traditional categories of cognitive and emotional processes, to challenge a lack of theoretical coherence in broader organising concepts such as ‘domain-specificity’ and ‘modularity’. We will consider how evolutionary perspectives and notions of embodiment can inform ontological considerations and at the same time build bridges between the sciences and the humanities, leading to a both deeper and more multifaceted understanding of the role and nature of syntactical structures.

Project team:
Our project leadership team is drawn from three faculties to provide complementary yet distinct disciplinary expertise in evolutionary, comparative and historical perspectives on mind and culture (Psychology, Anthropology, MLAC). It provides extensive experience in interdisciplinarity. Rob Barton’s research focuses on cognitive, behavioural and brain evolution, including studies linking neuro-cognitive evolution to sequence processing. He has a long track record of supporting interdisciplinary research, as former HoD and current DoR of an integrated bio-social anthropology department, and as a co-Director (6 years) and Acting Executive Director (1.5 years) of the Institute of Advanced Study. Zanna Clay leads the Comparative and Cross-cultural Development Lab in the Department of Psychology. Her research focuses on the evolution of communication, language, empathy and culture, using comparative cross-species, cross-cultural and developmental approaches. Andy Byford approaches our topic from the perspective of the history and philosophy of science. He works on the history of comparative psychology, ethology, animal neuroscience and behavioural ecology, and has expertise in the topic of narrative. The large majority of the wider team were involved in our IAS Development Project, and include musicologists and computer scientists interested in syntactical structure, literature scholars and anthropologists interested in narrativity and embodiment, experts in cultural evolution and the evolution of art and toolmaking, philosophers of mind, language and linguistics, comparative psychologists, and cognitive scientists. We plan to draw in others relevant to particular themes (e.g. cognitive neuroscientists, developmental psychologists and sports scientists), providing insights respectively on neural mechanisms, the ontogeny of behavioural complexity, and embodied sequencing skills in sport. 

Our Visiting Fellows also provide highly complementary expertise. Louise Barrett has been at the forefront of developing and applying ideas about embodied and extended cognition to understanding cognitive evolution and social interaction, and has strong interdisciplinary credentials (e.g. she has twice been invited to give the annual British Wittgenstein Society lecture). Paul Armstrong is a professor of English whose work focuses on the relations between neuroscience and literary theories of reading and narrative and has a recent book on ‘Stories and the Brain’.



Organization & methods:
Our proposal builds on our successful IAS Development Project which attracted participants from across eight departments spanning all three faculties, as well as external UK and international attendees. Our workshops identified the four key themes noted above. Building on the format of our workshop series: we will commence with an introductory and orientation week, followed by fortnightly thematic presentations and structured discussions; team members will alternate weekly to lead further discussion and reflection to expand on themes and develop further insights to guide and take the project forward. Each theme will be led by a specialist drawn from our team, with VFs and visiting scholars playing a critical role. This will allow flexibility to adjust how we approach each theme and continuous reflection on the interdisciplinary process. It also creates ample opportunity between workshops for team members and VFs to develop some of the concrete objectives (see below), as well as for VFs to engage in wider university activities and collaborations. Our 2022 workshops were enhanced by the contributions of a limited number of external participants online: therefore, we will invite additional international scholars to join us in this way. In the final week of the project, we will summarise and plan future activities. We have already set up a ‘Syntax’ Teams channel to facilitate ongoing communication and as a repository for presentations and readings. Two of the PIs (Barton, Clay) are due research leave, and plan to take this following the IAS project term to consolidate the project, and to realise its objectives. 



Schedule:

Our themes will be explored in a series of weekly workshops throughout Michaelmas Term, with the following times (UK time) and physical locations (for virtual participants, we will include a zoom or teams link on the booking form):

All events will be at 11.00-13.00 in the IAS Seminar Room (Cosin’s Hall) followed by informal buffet lunch 13.00-14.00 in the IAS Common Room

1. Informal preparation and brainstorming

Tuesday 15^th October (by invitation: PIs, fellows, IAS directors and project affiliates) 

 2. Workshops: open to all but capacity of the seminar room is 30, so please register attendance using this MS Form [MS Form here].  

 Introduction to project and participants 
Tuesday 22^nd October

 Workshops 1-2: Mind, brain, cognition
Tuesday 29^th October – workshop 1
Tuesday 5^th November – workshop 2

 Workshops 3-4: Learning, culture, evolution
Tuesday 12^th November – workshop 3
Friday 15^th November – workshop 4

 Workshops 5-6: Narrativity, causality, meaning
Tuesday 19^th November – workshop 5
Thursday 21^st November – workshop 6

Workshops 7-8: Aesthetics, music, dance
Tuesday 26^th November – workshop 7
Tuesday 3^rd December – workshop 8

 Overview, conclusions & next steps
Tuesday 10^th December – round table discussion

Building on the format of an earlier workshop series supported by the IAS and a Research Development Project,  the team will commence with an introductory and orientation week, followed by fortnightly thematic presentations and structured discussions; team members will alternate weekly to lead further discussion and reflection to expand on themes and develop further insights to guide and take the project forward. Each theme will be led by a specialist drawn from our team, with IAS Fellows and visiting scholars playing a critical role. This gives flexibility to adjust how each theme is approached, with continuous reflection on the interdisciplinary process. It also creates ample opportunity between workshops for team members and IAS Fellows to develop some of the concrete objectives,  as well as given the project's IAS Fellows opportunity to engage in wider university activities and collaborations. 

Objectives:

Key short-term objectives:

1. Consolidate an interdisciplinary research network Durham around the topic of syntactical structures and begin to extend its reach nationally and internationally.
2. Develop 2-3 interdisciplinary position papers (with indicative journals):

1. 1. on cognitive ontologies and comparative psychology (e.g. Trends in Cognitive Sciences)
   2. on sequence structuring as a basis of human cultural activities (e.g. Synthese)
   3. on the history of ‘executive control’ (e.g. Science, Technology and Human Values)

1.  
2. Apply to run a Royal Society and/or British Academy meeting (April 2025 and January 2025 deadlines) on a) Syntax, behaviour and the brain (RS)/ (b) Syntax and narrativity (BA)
3. Propose a special issue of Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc on the evolution of syntax

Principal long-term objectives are:

1. to establish a Centre for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Durham University, and use this as a basis to:
2. develop a strong interdisciplinary application for programme funding such as a Leverhulme Centre or ERC Synergy.