Diverse pathways to satisfying informative intentions

Speaker: Dr Christophe Heintz (Central European University, Vienna, Austria and Visiting Scholar at the GRCDI, University of St Andrews)

This presentation examines the diverse strategies for satisfying informative intentions, arguing that ostensive communication represents just one approach within a broader spectrum of intentional behaviours. Evidence suggests that both humans and non-human great apes routinely satisfy informative intentions without ostension, that is, without providing evidence of their communicative intention. Humans frequently provide non-ostensive evidence about environmental states, as when shopkeepers position products within visual fields, or about their own intentions, as when moving on one side of the pavement when crossing someone. Similarly, non-human great apes display behaviours indicating intentions, such as specific gestures to solicit grooming, without displaying evidence of their communicative intent.

I present findings supporting the hypothesis that great apes possess genuine informative intentions, including intentions to let others know their desires. However, the systematic display of evidence about communicative intentions appears uniquely human. The presentation includes an analysis of the adaptive value of ostensive behaviour and proposes an account for its evolutionary emergence.

Speaker bio
Christophe Heintz is working on the role of adaptive cognition in shaping cultural evolution and cooperation. He is a cognitive psychologist at Central European University (CEU), Vienna.