Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2008 - Volume 31, Issue 03  

Open Peer Commentary

The “mechanism” of human cognitive variation

Matthew K. Belmontea1

a1 Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401. belmonte@mit.edu http://www.mit.edu/~belmonte/

Abstract

The theory of psychosis and autism as diametrical disorders offers a tractable and testable view of normal and abnormal human cognitive variation as a function of opposing traits grouped by their selection for maternal and paternal reproductive fitness. The theory could be usefully rooted and developed with reference to the lower-level perceptual and attentional phenomena from which social cognitive modules are developmentally refined.