Culture - the hen and the egg of human cognition

Culture refers to shared meanings, common knowledge and behavioral patterns of groups and societies. These knowledge structures or models of reality are conceptual tools for coordinating social interactions and communications and regulating adaptive behavioral strategies. Their construction and maintenance depend on groups' structure and cultural artifacts and also on the changing environmental demands. The article presents the Donald's model of cultural and cognitive evolution, according to which three major transitions in the representations of reality have taken place during the evolution of hominids along with the accompanying changes in the social structure, technology and cultural artifacts: from episodic to mimetic culture, then to mythic culture and finally to theoretic culture. The author examines ontogenetic correlates to the proposed evolutionary model of modern mind and tries to assess the role of social interaction in the development of capacity for symbolic representations