2022 Volume 36 Issue 2 Pages 175-193
“Cognition behavior”, a phrase coined by the present author, means understanding laws hidden in the environment and then acting. The objects of cognition behavior are events, phenomena, and things that are recognized as one unit in a person’s daily life. An individual recognizes the laws of the structure and function of an object and solves problems in daily life as actions based on that recognition. “Archaeological learning psychology,” another phrase coined by the present author, is based on the premise that the cultural and learning adaptability underlying cognition behavior changes as brain weight increases. In the present article, the survey and observation method of cognition behavior and archaeological learning psychology is used to analyze the path from the past to the present of a tool in relation to the concepts of behavior shaping and generalization. As an experimental method, an internal “mental event” is formed and then externalized and can be analyzed objectively, targeting things and events that existed in daily life in the past, but are now not seen due to industrialization. For example, for the task of thread reeling (making thread), when a modern person is given material such as cotton, how thread and a reel are created is analyzed (discovery-invention experimental method). In a miniature method experiment, participants created houses and people from clay in order to simulate prehistoric life or life in the present disaster. As an experiment, I introduced spinning (making thread) and construction of a pole for drying clothes. The results showed that, in such experimental situations, few of the participants recognized and acted on scientific laws beyond empirical rules. Their cognition behavior was formed as trial and error learning (shaping behavior with contingent reinforcement).
