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In order to solve problems, humans are able to synthesize apparently unrelated concepts,
take advantage of serendipitous opportunities, hypothesize, invent, and engage in other
similarly abstract and creative activities, primarily through the use of their visual
systems. In Scenario Visualization, Robert Arp offers an evolutionary account of the
unique human ability to solve nonroutine vision-related problems. He argues that by the
close of the Pleistocene epoch, humans evolved a conscious creative problem-solving
capacity, which he terms scenario visualization, that enabled them to outlive other
hominid species and populate the planet. Arp shows that the evidence for scenario
visualization - by which images are selected, integrated, and then transformed and
projected into visual scenarios - can be found in the kinds of complex tools our hominid
ancestors invented in order to survive in the ever-changing environments of the
Pleistocene world.
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