Applied Cognitive Science

Leda Cosmides and John Tooby are best known for their work in pioneering the new field of evolutionary psychology. This multidisciplinary new approach weaves together evolutionary biology, cognitive science, human evolution, hunter gatherer studies, neuroscience, and psychology into a new approach to discovering the mechanisms of the human mind and... brain. According to this new view, by understanding the adaptive problems our hunter-gatherer ancestors faced during their evolution, researchers can uncover the detailed functional designs of the emotions, reasoning instincts and motivations that human evolution produced. Cosmides and Tooby both developed their interest in rebuilding psychology along evolutionary lines while undergraduates at Harvard, which is where they met, married, and began their 29 year collaboration. Toobys A.B. was in experimental psychology and his Ph.D. in biological anthropology; Cosmides A.B. was in biology and her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology. They did postdoctoral work with Roger Shepard, a cognitive psychologist at Stanford, and were then made Fellows at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, where they formed the Special Project on Evolutionary Psychology with three other researchers. In 1990 they moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where they are professors of psychology and anthropology and co-direct the UCSB Center for Evolutionary Psychology. In 1992, they published The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, an edited volume designed to be a state of the art survey of the new field. Tom Kalil is Chief Innovation Officer at Schmidt Futures. In his role at Schmidt Futures, Tom leads initiatives to harness technology for societal challenges, improve science policy, and identify and pursue 21st century moonshots. Tom served in the White House for two Presidents (Obama and Clinton), helping to design and launch national science and technology initiatives in areas such as nanotechnology, the BRAIN initiative, data ...Read More