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Cecilia Heyes
Cecilia Heyes FBA (born 6 March 1960) is a British psychologist who studies the evolution of the human mind. She is a Senior Research Fellow in Theoretical Life Sciences at All Souls College, and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Oxford. She is also a Fellow of the British Academy (psychology and philosophy sections), and President of the Experimental Psychology Society.
Heyes is the author of Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking (2018), described by Tyler Cowen as "an important book and likely the most thoughtful of the year in the social sciences".
Heyes has argued that the picture presented by some evolutionary psychology of the human mind as a collection of cognitive instincts – organs of thought shaped by genetic evolution over very long time periods – does not fit research results. She posits instead that humans have cognitive gadgets – "special-purpose organs of thought" built in the course of development through social interaction. These are products of cultural rather than genetic evolution, and may develop and change much more quickly and flexibly than cognitive instincts.
In 2017, Heyes gave the Chandaria Lectures at the Institute of Philosophy, University of London. She has written for the Times Literary Supplement and given a number of radio and television interviews.
Cecilia was the youngest of four children born to Helen Heyes (née Henneker) and James Heyes, who died in 1965. She credits her brother, Vincent Heyes, with having "taught his little sister how to argue, and how to enjoy doing it – in the right company – above nearly all things". She was the first member of her family to go to university.
After passing the eleven-plus exam, Heyes studied at Highworth Grammar School for Girls and then obtained a Bachelor of Science (1981) and PhD (1984) in psychology at University College London (UCL). In 2016 she was awarded a Doctor of Science, a higher doctorate, by the University of Oxford.
In her first postdoctoral research position (1984–1986), Heyes studied evolutionary epistemology, a blend of philosophy, evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Funded by a two-year Harkness Fellowship, she worked with Donald T. Campbell at Lehigh University, with William Wimsatt at the University of Chicago, and with Daniel Dennett at Tufts University.
Returning to the UK and to experimental psychology, from 1986 to 1989 Heyes was a Research Fellow of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. During this period she studied animal learning and cognition in the laboratory of Nicholas Mackintosh and Tony Dickinson.
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Cecilia Heyes
Cecilia Heyes FBA (born 6 March 1960) is a British psychologist who studies the evolution of the human mind. She is a Senior Research Fellow in Theoretical Life Sciences at All Souls College, and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Oxford. She is also a Fellow of the British Academy (psychology and philosophy sections), and President of the Experimental Psychology Society.
Heyes is the author of Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking (2018), described by Tyler Cowen as "an important book and likely the most thoughtful of the year in the social sciences".
Heyes has argued that the picture presented by some evolutionary psychology of the human mind as a collection of cognitive instincts – organs of thought shaped by genetic evolution over very long time periods – does not fit research results. She posits instead that humans have cognitive gadgets – "special-purpose organs of thought" built in the course of development through social interaction. These are products of cultural rather than genetic evolution, and may develop and change much more quickly and flexibly than cognitive instincts.
In 2017, Heyes gave the Chandaria Lectures at the Institute of Philosophy, University of London. She has written for the Times Literary Supplement and given a number of radio and television interviews.
Cecilia was the youngest of four children born to Helen Heyes (née Henneker) and James Heyes, who died in 1965. She credits her brother, Vincent Heyes, with having "taught his little sister how to argue, and how to enjoy doing it – in the right company – above nearly all things". She was the first member of her family to go to university.
After passing the eleven-plus exam, Heyes studied at Highworth Grammar School for Girls and then obtained a Bachelor of Science (1981) and PhD (1984) in psychology at University College London (UCL). In 2016 she was awarded a Doctor of Science, a higher doctorate, by the University of Oxford.
In her first postdoctoral research position (1984–1986), Heyes studied evolutionary epistemology, a blend of philosophy, evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Funded by a two-year Harkness Fellowship, she worked with Donald T. Campbell at Lehigh University, with William Wimsatt at the University of Chicago, and with Daniel Dennett at Tufts University.
Returning to the UK and to experimental psychology, from 1986 to 1989 Heyes was a Research Fellow of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. During this period she studied animal learning and cognition in the laboratory of Nicholas Mackintosh and Tony Dickinson.
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