Origins and Evolution of Imagination, From Australopithecus to Modern-Day Deep Learning.
Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science January 1, 2026 Kiranpreet K Sidhu, Raymond Roy, Amedeo D'Angiulli
Imagination is formally specified as imaginative generativity (IG), a transdisciplinary construct describing how organisms produce novel multisensory imaginings. This capacity allows anticipation of environmental changes and guides internally directed actions, supporting adaptive behavior that may influence species-level development. The paper distinguishes IG from related processes like vivid representing and mental imagery, situates this distinction within an evolutionary and archaeological account of representational change, and uses contemporary AI systems as comparative cases to identify restricted functional analogues of IG. Evidence from neuroscience, biology, and cognitive science is integrated to refine understanding of imaginative processes and their relationship to cognition and consciousness.