The human vocal apparatus is part of a vertically integrated system, and I agree with Licbennan that modern high-speed phonology co-evolved with our capacity for grammar. Olson and I agree that some distinctly human thought skills appear to be fairly recent cultural acquisitions related to the introduction of new symbolic technologies and external (that is, nonbiological) memory storage. Stenning's concern with my use of the term “episodic” can be resolved by distinguishing between episodic storage and retrieval. Baum's suggestions regarding courtship and cognitive evolution seem to apply better to mimetic expression than to language.

Webb has articulated a clear, multi-dimensional framework for discussing simulation models and modelling strategies. This framework will likely co-evolve with modelling. As such, it will be important to continue to clarify these dimensions and perhaps add to them. I discuss the dimension of generality and suggest that a dimension of integrativeness may also be needed.

We discuss five basic principles of E-Z Reader in terms of their potential for models of eye-movement control in object and scene perception. We identify several obstacles which may hinder the extrapolation of the E-Z Reader principles to nonreading tasks, yet find that sufficient similarities remain to justify using E-Z Reader as a guide for modeling eye-movement control in object and scene perception.

Grush has proposed a fairly comprehensive version of the idea of internal models within the framework of the emulation theory of representation. However, the formulation suffers from assumptions that render such models biologically infeasible. Here I present some problems from physiological principles of human movement production to illustrate why. Some alternative views to emulation are presented.

The possibility that two forms of asymmetry underlie handedness is considered. Corballis has proposed that right-handedness developed when gesture encountered lateralized vocalization but may have been superimposed on a preexisting two-thirds dominance. Evidence is reviewed here which suggests that the baseline asymmetry is even more substantial than this, with possible implications for brain anatomy and genetic theories of handedness.

Vigil's socio-relational framework of sex differences in emotional expressiveness emphasizes general sex differences in emotional responding, but largely ignores the social context in which emotions are expressed. There is much empirical evidence showing that sex differences in emotion displays are flexible and a function of specific social roles and demands, rather than a reflection of evolutionary-based social adjustments.

Clahsen has added to the body of evidence that, on average, regular and irregular inflected words behave differently. However, the dual-mechanism account he supports predicts a crisp distinction; the empirical data instead suggest a fuzzy one, more in line with single-mechanism connectionist models.

Williams argues that humans have evolved special purpose adaptations for eliciting medical attention from others, such as a specific facial expression of pain. She also recognises that such adaptations would almost certainly have coevolved with adaptations for providing and responding to medical care. The placebo response may be one such adaptation, and any evolutionary account of pain must also address this important phenomenon.

In the real world, there are choices between large, delayed, punctate rewards and small, more immediate rewards as well as choices between patterns and acts. A common element in these situations is the choice between long- and short-term interests. Key issues for future research appear to be how acts are restructured into larger patterns of behavior, and whether, as Rachlin implies, pattern perception is the cause of pattern generation.

Motor learning can be divided into adaptation and skill learning. The cerebellum plays the major role in adaptation learning, which can be described as context-response linkage. Motor skill learning is development of a new ability such as a sequence of motor actions. Skill learning can occur in patients with cerebellar lesions. Cortical mechanisms play a major role in development of skills, [THACH]

The faith that “comparative analysis of the behaviour of modern primates, in conjunction with an accurate phylogenetic tree of relatedness, has the power to chart the early history of human cognitive evolution” (Byrne 2000 p. 543) runs afoul of the fact that no other primate besides humans is capable of vocal production learning. This basic enabling adaptation for articulate speech bears crucially on the reconstruction of language origins.