Mind over matter addresses the interaction between cognitive development in humans and their material culture, and applies theories of this to the Neanderthals, proposing that shorter Neanderthal childhoods had an effect on the level of creativity and experiment seen in their material culture. The book summarises key thinking in studies of cognitive science and ontogeny, and also provides an overview of the Mousterian industry and its characteristics in comparison to Upper Palaeolithic industries. Fieldwork to test the theory of a developmental influence on material culture was carried out and the results are found to support the theory.

Jennie Robinson (nee Hawcroft) studied at Durham and Sheffield Universities and then taught at Leeds University before taking up a lectureship at the University of Central Lancashire, where she is now course leader and a senior lecturer.