The Language Game

The Language Game

Author: Morten H. Christiansen

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2022-02-22

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1541674979

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Forget the language instinct—this is the story of how we make up language as we go Language is perhaps humanity’s most astonishing capacity—and one that remains poorly understood. In The Language Game, cognitive scientists Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater show us where generations of scientists seeking the rules of language got it wrong. Language isn’t about hardwired grammars but about near-total freedom, something like a game of charades, with the only requirement being a desire to understand and be understood. From this new vantage point, Christiansen and Chater find compelling solutions to major mysteries like the origins of languages and how language learning is possible, and to long-running debates such as whether having two words for “blue” changes what we see. In the end, they show that the only real constraint on communication is our imagination.


Comparative Cognition

Comparative Cognition

Author: Edward A. Wasserman

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 734

ISBN-13: 9780195167658

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In 1978, Hulse, Fowler, and Honig published Cognitive Processes in Animal Behavior, an edited volume that was a landmark in the scientific study of animal intelligence. It liberated interest in complex learning and cognition from the grasp of the rigid theoretical structures of behaviorism that had prevailed during the previous four decades, and as a result, the field of comparative cognition was born. At long last, the study of the cognitive capacities of animals other than humans emerged as a worthwhile scientific enterprise. No less rigorous than purely behavioristic investigations, studies of animal intelligence spanned such wide-ranging topics as perception, spatial learning and memory, timing and numerical competence, categorization and conceptualization, problem solving, rule learning, and creativity. During the ensuing 25 years, the field of comparative cognition has thrived and grown, and public interest in it has risen to unprecedented levels. In their quest to understand the nature and mechanisms of intelligence, researchers have studied animals from bees to chimpanzees. Sessions on comparative cognition have become common at meetings of the major societies for psychology and neuroscience, and in fact, research in comparative cognition has increased so much that a separate society, the Comparative Cognition Society, has been formed to bring it together. This volume celebrates comparative cognition's first quarter century with a state-of-the-art collection of chapters covering the broad realm of the scientific study of animal intelligence. Comparative Cognition will be an invaluable resource for students and professional researchers in all areas of psychology and neuroscience.


The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition

Author: Thomas R. Zentall

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-03-20

Total Pages: 941

ISBN-13: 019993066X

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In the past decade, the field of comparative cognition has grown and thrived. No less rigorous than purely behavioristic investigations, examinations of animal intelligence are useful for scientists and psychologists alike in their quest to understand the nature and mechanisms of intelligence. Extensive field research of various species has yielded exciting new areas of research, integrating findings from psychology, behavioral ecology, and ethology in a unique and wide-ranging synthesis of theory and research on animal cognition. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition contains sections on perception and illusion, attention and search, memory processes, spatial cognition, conceptualization and categorization, problem solving and behavioral flexibility, and social cognition processes including findings in primate tool usage, pattern learning, and counting. The authors have incorporated findings and theoretical approaches that reflect the current state of the field. This comprehensive volume will be a must-read for students and scientists who want to know about the state of the art of the modern science of comparative cognition.


Avian Cognition

Avian Cognition

Author: Carel ten Cate

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-06-22

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1107092388

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An overview of current research and experimental approaches in avian cognition and how this relates to other species.


The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology

Author: Jennifer Vonk

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2012-02-13

Total Pages: 591

ISBN-13: 0199738181

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This volume brings together leading experts in comparative and evolutionary psychology. Top scholars summarize the histories and possible futures of their disciplines, and the contribution of each to illuminating the evolutionary forces that give rise to unique abilities in distantly and closely related species.


Behavioural Brain Research in Naturalistic and Semi-Naturalistic Settings

Behavioural Brain Research in Naturalistic and Semi-Naturalistic Settings

Author: E. Alleva

Publisher: Springer

Published: 1995-07-31

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13:

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The September 1994 NATO ASI, held in Acquafredda di Maratea, Italy, had the goal of filling a gap in the behavioral neuroscience of mammals, namely the relations between ecology and behavior in the so- called laboratory species (today mostly mice and rats). To this end, a group of neuroscientists who have developed an approach of combining laboratory and field techniques for the study of brain, behavior, and ecology in singing and food-storing birds were brought together with students of mouse and rat behavior with a penchant towards evolutionary biology. The proceedings, including informal discussion groups, are organized in four parts: brain, behavior, ontogeny, and evolution; bird studies; hippocampus--a hot issue; and behavioral brain research, methodology, and telemetry. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Invertebrate Learning and Memory

Invertebrate Learning and Memory

Author: Elizabeth A. Tibbetts

Publisher: Elsevier Inc. Chapters

Published: 2013-06-18

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 0128071907

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Individual recognition is often considered a cognitively challenging form of recognition because it requires flexible learning and memory. Because Polistes paper wasps are one of the few invertebrates known to have individual recognition, they provide a good model for exploring how individual recognition shapes cognitive evolution. Here, we review previous work on individual recognition in paper wasps with a particular focus on learning and memory. In this review, we (1) explore the evolution of individual recognition in paper wasps, including the selective pressures thought to shape the origin and maintenance of individual recognition; (2) discuss the extent of memory for specific individuals during paper wasp social interactions; (3) describe a negative reinforcement training method that can be used for comparative learning research in wasps and other invertebrates; and (4) explain how individual recognition has shaped the evolution of specialized visual learning in paper wasps.


On the Origin of Autonomy

On the Origin of Autonomy

Author: Bernd Rosslenbroich

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2014-04-15

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 331904141X

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This volume describes features of autonomy and integrates them into the recent discussion of factors in evolution. In recent years ideas about major transitions in evolution are undergoing a revolutionary change. They include questions about the origin of evolutionary innovation, their genetic and epigenetic background, the role of the phenotype and of changes in ontogenetic pathways. In the present book, it is argued that it is likewise necessary to question the properties of these innovations and what was qualitatively generated during the macroevolutionary transitions. The author states that a recurring central aspect of macroevolutionary innovations is an increase in individual organismal autonomy whereby it is emancipated from the environment with changes in its capacity for flexibility, self-regulation and self-control of behavior. The first chapters define the concept of autonomy and examine its history and its epistemological context. Later chapters demonstrate how changes in autonomy took place during the major evolutionary transitions and investigate the generation of organs and physiological systems. They synthesize material from various disciplines including zoology, comparative physiology, morphology, molecular biology, neurobiology and ethology. It is argued that the concept is also relevant for understanding the relation of the biological evolution of man to his cultural abilities. Finally the relation of autonomy to adaptation, niche construction, phenotypic plasticity and other factors and patterns in evolution is discussed. The text has a clear perspective from the context of systems biology, arguing that the generation of biological autonomy must be interpreted within an integrative systems approach.


Conservation Behavior

Conservation Behavior

Author: Oded Berger-Tal

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-05-03

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 1316558606

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Conservation behavior assists the investigation of species endangerment associated with managing animals impacted by anthropogenic activities. It employs a theoretical framework that examines the mechanisms, development, function, and phylogeny of behavior variation in order to develop practical tools for preventing biodiversity loss and extinction. Developed from a symposium held at the International Congress on Conservation Biology in 2011, this is the first book to offer an in-depth, logical framework that identifies three vital areas for understanding conservation behavior: anthropogenic threats to wildlife, conservation and management protocols, and indicators of anthropogenic threats. Bridging the gap between behavioral ecology and conservation biology, this volume ascertains key links between the fields, explores the theoretical foundations of these linkages, and connects them to practical wildlife management tools and concise applicable advice. Adopting a clear and structured approach throughout, this book is a vital resource for graduate students, academic researchers, and wildlife managers.