Frederick L. Coolidge is an American psychologist known for his work in cognitive archaeology. He has been a Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs since 1979.[1] With Karenleigh A. Overmann, he currently co-directs the Center for Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.[2] He also teaches for the Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India.[3]

Education

Coolidge completed his doctorate in psychology in 1974 at the University of Florida, followed by a clinical internship (1974–1975) and postdoctoral fellowship (1975–1976) in clinical neuropsychology at Shands Teaching Hospital, University of Florida.[1]

Research

Often in collaboration with archaeologist Thomas G. Wynn, Coolidge has published more than 50+ articles and book chapters in cognitive archaeology. He has also published more than 140+ articles in psychological research, including personality assessment and behavior genetics.[1] With his colleague Thomas Wynn, Coolidge developed the "Enhanced Working Memory Hypothesis", the idea that small but heritable changes in working memory and other executive functions were critical to human cognitive evolution.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Coolidge and Wynn have also collaborated on Neandertal cognition,[11][12] cognitive differences between Neandertals and contemporary Homo sapiens,[13][14][15] technical cognition, and creativity.[16] In 2008, Coolidge co-chaired the 139th Numbered Wenner-Gren Symposium with Wynn. Entitled "Working Memory: Beyond Language and Symbolism," the proceedings were published as a special issue of Current Anthropology.[17] In 2011, he and Wynn established the Center for Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.[18]

Honors

  • In 1987, 1992, and 2005, Coolidge was awarded Fulbright Fellowships for work in India.[1][3]
  • In 1990, Coolidge was designated as a University of Colorado Presidential Teaching Scholar.[1][3]
  • In 2005, Coolidge received the UCCS Letters, Arts and Sciences Annual Outstanding Research and Creative Works Award.[1][3]
  • In 2007, Coolidge received the UCCS Annual Faculty Award for Excellence in Research.[1][3]
  • In 2015, Coolidge was appointed senior visiting scholar at Keble College, University of Oxford.[1]
  • In 2020, Coolidge was appointed guest professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India.[1][3]

Enhanced Working Memory Hypothesis (EWMH)

The Enhanced Working Memory Hypothesis (EWMH) proposes that a small but heritable change in executive functioning may have been the reason why Homo sapiens persisted and flourished, while cousin species like the Neandertals went extinct.[4][5] Executive functions are the higher-level cognitive skills used to control and coordinate other abilities and behaviors; they consist of the abilities to make decisions, plan, strategize, organize, inhibit behavior, and temporally sequence events. The EWMH was inspired, in part, by Coolidge’s reaction to an article by paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall[19] that had suggested the between-species difference related to language.[20] From his work in behavior genetics,[21] Coolidge understood the heritability of the executive functions and surmised that possible differences in the executive functioning of the two human species had perhaps enabled Homo sapiens to outcompete the Neandertals.[20] He proposed the idea to his colleague, archaeologist Thomas Wynn, resulting in a collaboration to operationalize executive functions so they could be detected in the archaeological record, as for example, resourcing strategies like traps suggest the involvement of executive functions like planning and inhibition because they involve significant amounts of time between an action (building and setting a trap) and its reward (harvesting prey).[20] Coolidge and Wynn have focused in particular on the executive function Working Memory, expanding on the classic model by psychologist Alan Baddeley[22][23] and examining signs of change in Working Memory in the archaeological record[24] and its effects in domains like technical cognition and creativity.[16]

Selected works in cognitive archaeology and cognitive evolution

Authored books

  • Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2012). How to Think like a Neandertal. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199742820.
  • Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas (2018). The Rise of Homo sapiens: The Evolution of Modern Thinking (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190680916.
  • Coolidge, Frederick L. (2020). Evolutionary Neuropsychology: An Introduction to the Evolution of the Structures and Functions of the Human Brain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190940942.
  • Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2022). An Introduction to Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology. Routledge. ISBN 9780367856953.

Edited volumes

  • De Beaune, Sophie A.; Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas, eds. (2009). Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521769778.
  • Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2017). Cognitive Models in Palaeolithic Archaeology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190204112.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2019). Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190854614.
  • Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2023). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192895950.

Articles

Book chapters

  • Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas (2012). "Cognitive Prerequisites for the Evolution of Indirect Speech". In Tallerman, Maggie; Gibson, Kathleen R. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199541119.
  • Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2012). "The Evolution of Working Memory". In Alloway, Tracy Packiam; Alloway, Ross G. (eds.). Working Memory: The Connected Intelligence. Psychology Press. ISBN 9781848726185.
  • Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2023). "The Expert Neandertal Mind and Brain, Revisited". In Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192895950.

Authored books in other subjects

  • Coolidge, Frederick L. (2006). Dream Interpretation as a Psychotherapeutic Technique. Radcliffe. ISBN 9781846190179.
  • Segal, Daniel L.; Coolidge, Frederick L.; Rosowsky, Erlene (2006). Personality Disorders and Older Adults: Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment. Wiley. ISBN 9780471649830.
  • Coolidge, Frederick L. (2015). Memory Consolidation as Function of Sleep and the Circadian Rhythm (2nd ed.). Andesite Press. ISBN 9781296831158.
  • Coolidge, Frederick L. (2020). Statistics: A Gentle Introduction (4th ed.). SAGE. ISBN 9781506368436.
  • Coolidge, Frederick L. (2022). The Science of Dream Interpretation. Elsevier Science. ISBN 9780323884945.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Frederick L. Coolidge, Ph.D." University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
  2. "UCCS Center for Cognitive Archaeology Faculty". University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. 2021. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Frederick L. Coolidge". 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Coolidge, Frederick L; Wynn, Thomas (2001). "Executive Functions of the Frontal Lobes and the Evolutionary Ascendancy of Homo sapiens". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 11 (3): 255–260. doi:10.1017/S0959774301000142.
  5. 1 2 Coolidge, Frederick L; Wynn, Thomas (2005). "Working Memory, Its Executive Functions, and the Emergence of Modern Thinking". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 15 (1): 5–26. doi:10.1017/S0959774305000016.
  6. Coolidge, Frederick L; Wynn, Thomas (2008). "Why Not Cognition?". Current Anthropology. 49 (5): 895–897. doi:10.1086/524386. S2CID 145732440.
  7. Balter, Michael (2010). "Does 'Working Memory' Still Work?". Science. 328 (5975): 162. doi:10.1126/science.328.5975.162. PMID 20378789. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  8. Balter, Michael (2019). "Did Working Memory Spark Creative Culture?" (PDF). Retrieved June 5, 2021.
  9. Wurz, Sarah (2012). "The Transition to Modern Behavior". Nature Education Knowledge. 3 (10): 15. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  10. Tryon, Christian (2013). "Testing Models of Modern Human Origins with Archaeology and Anatomy". Nature Education Knowledge. 4 (3): 4. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  11. Coolidge, Frederick L; Wynn, Thomas (2004). "The Expert Neandertal Mind". Journal of Human Evolution. 46 (4): 467–487. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.01.005. PMID 15066380.
  12. Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L (2012). How to Think like a Neandertal. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199329229.
  13. Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (2016). "The False Dichotomy: A Refutation of the Neandertal Indistinguishability Claim". Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 94: 1–21.
  14. Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2023). "The Expert Neandertal Mind and Brain, Revisited". In Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192895950.
  15. Bower, Bruce (2004). "In the Neandertal Mind: Our Evolutionary Comrades Celebrated Vaunted Intellects before Meeting a Memorable Demise". Science News. 166 (12): 183–184. doi:10.2307/4015497. JSTOR 4015497. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  16. 1 2 Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L (2014). "Technical Cognition, Working Memory and Creativity". Pragmatics & Cognition. 22 (1): 45–63. doi:10.1075/pc.22.1.03wyn.
  17. Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L (2010). "Working Memory: Beyond Symbolism and Language". Current Anthropology. 51 (S1). doi:10.1086/650526. S2CID 142942270.
  18. "Thomas Wynn, Ph.D." University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  19. Tattersall, Ian (2000). "Once We Were Not Alone". Scientific American. 282 (1): 56–62. Bibcode:2000SciAm.282a..56T. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0100-56. JSTOR 26058564.
  20. 1 2 3 Coolidge, Frederick L (2019). "The Enhanced Working Memory Model: Its Origin and Development". In Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (eds.). Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 406–431. ISBN 9780190854614.
  21. Coolidge, Frederick L; Thede, Linda L; Young, Susan E (2002). "The Heritability of Gender Identity Disorder in a Child and Adolescent Twin Sample". Behavior Genetics. 34 (4): 251–257. doi:10.1023/A:1019724712983. JSTOR 26058564. PMID 12211624. S2CID 25159803.
  22. Baddeley, Alan D (2012). "Working Memory: Theories, Models, and Controversies". Annual Review of Psychology. 63: 1–29. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100422. PMID 21961947.
  23. Baddeley, Alan D; Hitch, Graham J (1974). Bower, Gordon H (ed.). The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory, Vol. 8. New York: Academic Press. pp. 47–89. ISBN 9780080863597.
  24. Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L (2003). "The Role of Working Memory in the Evolution of Managed Foraging". Before Farming. 2 (1): 1–16. doi:10.3828/bfarm.2003.2.1.

See also

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