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A Brunswikian evolutionary developmental theory of preparedness and plasticity

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Abstract

The domain-independent and domain-dependent approach to the evolution of cognition have been taken by separate groups of researchers who have focused exclusively on either the formal properties or the distinct cognitive demands of tasks. We express the view that synthesizing the two approaches could lead to a more complete understanding, and propose such a comprehensive model of cognitive evolution and development. First, we discuss how Egon Brunswik demonstrated the importance of the relationship between the organism and the environment, and how his research and that of others has led to the domain-independent and domain-dependent views. Second, we use Brunswikian concepts to propose a two-parameter evolutionary model of cognitive development that specifies how particular behaviors come to be characterized by independent levels of biological preparedness and developmental plasticity. Our theory incorporates both a domain-independent organizing principle and the importance of domain-dependent processes. Third, we briefly discuss one unique prediction arising from the Brunswikian Evolutionary Developmental theory and describe preliminary supporting evidence.

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... Also important to SD-IE are the concepts of preparedness and plasticity (Figueredo et al., 2006). The former represents the degree to which an organism is genetically predisposed toward a particular developmental trajectory, whereas the latter constitutes the degree to which gene-environment interaction induced phenotypic changes during development may alter that prepared trajectory. ...
... Prediction 1: Individual differences in the degree of biological LH preparedness (Figueredo et al., 2006), i.e., the degree to which a population might be predisposed (or prepared) toward developing a particular specialized set of life history traits, are partly heritable. Individual differences in biological preparedness may have been shaped by a variety of related evolutionary pressures, such as those relating to genetic accommodation (West-Eberhard, 2003), and also biased epigenetic rules of development, which may stem from gene-culture co-evolution (Lumsden and Wilson, 1983). ...
... The measures employed in the analyses involving the Swedish STAGE data were not precisely equivalent to those employed in the MIDUS based study. As a measure of K, the Mini K was employed (Figueredo et al., 2006). This is a 20 item short-form measure of K which exhibits adequate reliability (0.73) and an excellent validity (0.91) (Figueredo et al., 2014). ...
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Life history (LH) strategies refer to the pattern of allocations of bioenergetic and material resources into different domains of fitness. While LH is known to have moderate to high population-level heritability in humans, both at the level of the high-order factor (Super-K) and the lower-order factors (K, Covitality, and the General Factor of Personality), several important questions remain unexplored. Here, we apply the Continuous Parameter Estimation Model to measure individual genomic-level heritabilities (termed transmissibilities). These transmissibility values were computed for the latent hierarchical structure and developmental dynamics of LH strategy, and demonstrate; (1) moderate to high heritability of factor loadings of Super-K on its lower-order factors, evidencing biological preparedness, genetic accommodation, and the gene-culture coevolution of biased epigenetic rules of development; (2) moderate to high heritability of the magnitudes of the effect of the higher-order factors upon their loadings on their constituent factors, evidencing genetic constraints upon phenotypic plasticity; and (3) that heritability of the LH factors, their factor loadings, and the magnitudes of the correlations among factors, are weaker among individuals with slower LH speeds. The results were obtained from an American sample of 316 monozygotic (MZ) and 274 dizygotic (DZ) twin dyads and a Swedish sample of 863 MZ and 475 DZ twin dyads, and indicate that inter-individual variation in transmissibility is a function of individual socioecological selection pressures. Our novel technique, opens new avenues for analyzing complex interactions among heritable traits inaccessible to standard structural equation methods.
... There is evidence that taller women have their first menstruation later, marry later, and get their first child later (e.g., Sear, 2006). In general, because of limited resources, individuals, in order to successfully reproduce, are forced to make trade-offs between mating effort, i.e. locating a mate and courting him or her, and parenting efforts, i.e. gestation, childbirth, and postnatal care of children (e.g., Chisholm, 1993; Figueredo, Vasquez, Brumbach, Schneider, Sefeek, et al., 2006). These trade-offs can be arranged on a continuum that was originally often described in terms of the r-K model of reproductive strategies (e.g., Charles and Egan, 2005, Ellis, 1988), but is now more commonly referred to as the fast-slow continuum of life history strategy. ...
... Although both strategies are equally favored by natural selection, they differ in the type of reproductive success they maximize. Whereas the fast strategy particularly maximizes short-term reproductive success, the slow life history strategy maximizes long-term reproductive success (e.g., Figueredo et al., 2006; Kaplan and Gangestad, 2005). That is, having fewer, high quality, offspring may result, ...
... On the basis of the preceding discussion, we expected that women who have – due to their height – fewer chances of attracting an investing long-term mate, will be more likely to engage in a faster life history strategy, whereas women who are desired by men and have higher fitness – i.e., women of medium height – will more likely adopt a slower life history strategy. In a series of psychometric studies, Figueredo and his colleagues (e.g., Figueredo et al., 2005; 2006), have shown that a slow life history strategy can be conceptualized as a higher order construct characterized by a number of reproductive, parental and sexual behaviors, including good executive functions, positive relationships with one's parents, positive attachment to an adult partner, low mating effort, low Machiavellianism, low levels of risk taking, more foresight and planning, and persistence and self-directedness. To summarize, in three samples of female undergraduate students, the present research expands previous research from a life history perspective. ...
Article
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It was hypothesized that women of medium height would show a more secure, long-term mating pattern characterized by less jealousy, less intrasexual competition and a "slower" life history strategy. In three samples of female undergraduate students clear support was found for these hypotheses. In Study 1, among 120 participants, height was curvilinearly related to well-established measures of possessive and reactive jealousy, with women of medium height being less jealous than tall as well as short women. In Study 2, among 40 participants, height was curvilinearly related to intrasexual competition, with women of medium height being less competitive towards other women than tall as well as short women. In Study 3, among 299 participants, height was curvilinearly related to the Mini-K, a well-validated measure of "slower" life history strategy, with women of medium height having a slower life history strategy than tall as well as short women. The results suggest that women of medium height tend to follow a different mating strategy than either tall or short women. Various explanations and implications of these results are discussed.
... Environments that are variable or heterogeneous pose special adaptive problems, and complex social environments are both. Ecological contingencies that are variable over evolutionary time are expected to select organisms that are phenotypically plastic enough to adapt by means of learning over developmental time (Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006). Such adaptive developmental plasticity depends critically on the existence of reliable and valid cues that signal which alternative phenotype is optimal under each set of localized conditions (West-Eberhard, 2003); in the absence of such reliable and valid cues, the adaptive solution to environmental variability is the production of genetically diverse individuals that are dispersed along the expected distribution of locally optimal trait values. ...
... Such adaptive developmental plasticity depends critically on the existence of reliable and valid cues that signal which alternative phenotype is optimal under each set of localized conditions (West-Eberhard, 2003); in the absence of such reliable and valid cues, the adaptive solution to environmental variability is the production of genetically diverse individuals that are dispersed along the expected distribution of locally optimal trait values. However, ecological cues are typically neither completely reliable and valid nor completely unreliable and invalid, but are instead characterized by some ecological validity coefficient ranging between zero and one (Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006). Under such intermediately stochastic conditions, organisms should evolve a combination of genetic diversity and developmental plasticity to collectively fill the available ecological niche space. ...
Chapter
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The informational nature of biological organization, at levels from the genetic and epigenetic to the cognitive and linguistic. Information shapes biological organization in fundamental ways and at every organizational level. Because organisms use information—including DNA codes, gene expression, and chemical signaling—to construct, maintain, repair, and replicate themselves, it would seem only natural to use information-related ideas in our attempts to understand the general nature of living systems, the causality by which they operate, the difference between living and inanimate matter, and the emergence, in some biological species, of cognition, emotion, and language. And yet philosophers and scientists have been slow to do so. This volume fills that gap. Information and Living Systems offers a collection of original chapters in which scientists and philosophers discuss the informational nature of biological organization at levels ranging from the genetic to the cognitive and linguistic. The chapters examine not only familiar information-related ideas intrinsic to the biological sciences but also broader information-theoretic perspectives used to interpret their significance. The contributors represent a range of disciplines, including anthropology, biology, chemistry, cognitive science, information theory, philosophy, psychology, and systems theory, thus demonstrating the deeply interdisciplinary nature of the volume's bioinformational theme. Bradford Books imprint
... Integrating the Bioecological Model with LH theory, it becomes evident that within the confines of species-typical developmental constraints and other forms of biological preparedness (Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006;West-Eberhard, 2003), developmental plasticity may produce coordinated suites of traits that emerge as higher-order constructs when examined from a trait perspective . Thus, the theoretical rationale behind the Integrative Biopsychosocial Model can be described as follows. ...
... Black (2014), heritable differences explain a substantial portion of the measurable temporal stability in both higher-order and lower-order life history factors over a 10-year interval during adulthood, rivaled only in magnitude by the influence of the non-shared environment. Also consistent with the evolutionary developmental theories of West-Eberhard (2003) and Figueredo, Hammond, and McKiernan (2006), significant genetic interaction ("guidance") is required at every step of the epigenetic process of development, and are naturally selected to do so by the processes of genetic accommodation and genetic assimilation (sensu Waddington, 1957). ...
Article
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The psychometric trait approach to human life history, based on common factor modeling, has recently come under some criticism for neglecting to inquire into the developmental progression that orients and executes human life history trajectories (Copping, Campbell, Muncer, 2014). It was asserted that the psychometric approach wholly focuses on creating a higher-order latent factor of life history by subsuming individual differences with developmental and social experiences, ignoring ontogenetic progression. Implicit in the critique is the assumption that developmental perspectives and latent approaches are mutually exclusive and incompatible with each other. The response to this critique by Figueredo and colleagues (2015) proposed instead that developmental perspectives and latent trait approaches are both compatible and necessary to further research on human life history strategies. The current paper uses three independent cross-sectional samples to examine whether models of human life history are best informed by a developmental perspective, psychometric trait approach, or both.
... The essence of human intelligence is more or less equivalent to what in nonhuman animals we variously call developmental, behavioral, or phenotypic plasticity, so a brief discussion of the evolutionary dynamics of this phenomenon is warranted (for a more detailed discussion, see Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006). Invariant instincts and routinized behavioral repertoires are believed to be bioenergetically cheaper alternatives to the phenotypic plasticity afforded by human cognitive abilities, for reasons articulated in the expensive brain hypothesis. ...
... Theoretically, developmental plasticity and behavioral flexibility have been posited to evolve under conditions of increased environmental variability (Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006). More specifically, human general intelligence has been posited to be selected in response to environmental novelty that confronted individuals with evolutionarily unfamiliar problems to solve (Kanazawa, 2012). ...
Article
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After many waves of out-migration from Africa, different human populations evolved within a great diversity of physical and community ecologies. These ambient ecologies should have at least partially determined the selective pressures that shaped the evolution and geographical distribution of human cognitive abilities across different parts of the world. Three different ecological hypotheses have been advanced to explain human global variation in intelligence: (1) cold winters theory (Lynn, 1991), (2) parasite stress theory (Eppig, Fincher, & Thornhill, 2010), and (3) life history theory (Rushton, 1999, 2000). To examine and summarize the relations among these and other ecological parameters, we divided a sample of 98 national polities for which we had sufficient information into zoogeographical regions (Wallace, 1876; Holt et al., 2013). We selected only those regions for this analysis that were still inhabited mostly by the aboriginal populations that were present there prior to the fifteenth century AD. We found that these zoogeographical regions explained 71.4% of the variance among national polities in our best measure of human cognitive ability, and also more concisely encapsulated the preponderance of the more specific information contained within the sampled set of continuous ecological parameters.
... In this approach, PDs are conceptualized as stable evolutionary strategies that respond to environmental stimuli (Buss, 2009). Personality traits reflect differences in effectiveness of adjustment to complex social interactions (Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006). Personality disorders and the dysfunctional emotions incorporated in them play adaptive roles; personality disorder traits may be conceptualized as adaptive strategies to deal with painful situations (Molina et al., 2009). ...
... The transcultural studies on PDs document its worldwide global occurrence and suggest a degree of psychological unity of PDs. This can be interpreted in terms of the evolutionary perspective and/or in terms of similarity between the neurobiological/ neurogenetic mechanisms of PDs among different nations (Figueredo et al., 2006;Gawda et al., 2016;Molina et al., 2009). ...
Article
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This article reviews cross-cultural research on personality disorders. The concept of personality disorders is discussed in terms of whether they are universal phenomena or specific to Western society. Then, research on the prevalence of personality disorders in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia is reviewed. The overall rates of the prevalence of personality disorders range from 2.40% to 20.00%. The data document that the prevalence of borderline and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders is the highest, especially in high-income countries. The cross-cultural differences in the prevalence of the specified personality disorders are explained by its influencing factors such as race, ethnicity, social requirements, and the dimension of individualism-collectivism. The occurrence of personality disorders across cultures suggests some degree of psychological unity, and in turn, similarities in the neurobiological mechanisms of personality disorders.
... Personality traits reflect differences in the effectiveness with which people adopt different strategies in complex social interactions. Sociality is a major cause of personality variation; the complex combination of selective pressures accounts for the strategic mix of heritability and environment in human personality development (Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006). From evolutionary perspective also, emotions and dysfunctional emotions incorporated in PDs play an adaptive role, e.g., depression may be an integral part of adaptive syndrome, it facilitates disengagement (Nesse, 1998). ...
... Second, the similarity in our findings to the data from literature on sex differences in PDs suggests culture-independent evolutionary interpretation. If we conceptualize PDs from evolutionary perspective as different strategies to adapt to the complex social interactions (Figueredo et al., 2006), we may interpret our findings on sex differences as a result of differences in adaptation to social roles (Buss, 2009). The human social behavioral system thesis is one of the evolutionary approaches which enables to describe personality pathology. ...
Article
The aim of the present study is to establish the prevalence of personality disorders (PDs) in a healthy (nonclinical) Polish population, to examine sex difference in PDs, and to show the structure of clusters which PDs form with regard to men and women. A large sample of 1460 individuals of age between 18 and 65 years was examined. The Structured Clinical Interview for Axis II was used to obtain information on PDs, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview to obtain information on other disorders, and an interview to record demographic data. Results show that approximately 9% of the sample had at least one PD (the overall rate is 8.9%) and rates on sex differences in PDs are similar to other European and North American countries. The most prevalent PDs are obsessive-compulsive (9.6%), narcissistic (7%), and borderline (7%). Results show the considerable comorbidity of PDs which means that about 9% of the adult population have at least one PD and in fact they display features of many specific PDs. A factor analysis revealed that 12 PDs form different clusters in men and women.
... Integrating the Bioecological Model with LH theory, it becomes evident that within the confines of species-typical developmental constraints and other forms of biological preparedness (Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006;West-Eberhard, 2003), developmental plasticity may produce coordinated suites of traits that emerge as higher-order constructs when examined from a trait perspective . Thus, the theoretical rationale behind the Integrative Biopsychosocial Model can be described as follows. ...
... Black (2014), heritable differences explain a substantial portion of the measurable temporal stability in both higher-order and lower-order life history factors over a 10-year interval during adulthood, rivaled only in magnitude by the influence of the non-shared environment. Also consistent with the evolutionary developmental theories of West-Eberhard (2003) and Figueredo, Hammond, and McKiernan (2006), significant genetic interaction ("guidance") is required at every step of the epigenetic process of development, and are naturally selected to do so by the processes of genetic accommodation and genetic assimilation (sensu Waddington, 1957). ...
Article
Full-text available
The psychometric trait approach to human life history, based on common factor modeling, has recently come under some criticism for neglecting to inquire into the developmental progression that orients and executes human life history trajectories (Copping, Campbell, & Muncer, 2014). It was asserted that the psychometric approach wholly focuses on creating a higher-order latent factor of life history by subsuming individual differences with developmental and social experiences, ignoring ontogenetic progression. Implicit in the critique is the assumption that developmental perspectives and latent approaches are mutually exclusive and incompatible with each other. The response to this critique by Figueredo and colleagues (2015) proposed instead that developmental perspectives and latent trait approaches are both compatible and necessary to further research on human life history strategies. The current paper uses three independent cross-sectional samples to examine whether models of human life history are best informed by a developmental perspective, psychometric trait approach, or both.
... There are essentially three solutions to the problem of adaptation to environments that are variable or heterogeneous in either time or space (including 'ecological space'): (1) developmental plasticity, (2) genetic diversity, and (3) spatial migration. According to Brunswikian Evolutionary Developmental (BED) theory, ecologies that are variable over evolutionary time select for organisms that are phenotypically plastic enough to adapt by means of learning over developmental time (Figueredo, Hammond and McKiernan 2006). However, such behavioural development depends critically on the existence of reliable and valid cues that signal which alternative phenotype is optimal under each set of localized conditions in time, space and ecology; in the absence of such reliable and valid cues, the solution to either environmental temporal variability or spatial heterogeneity is the production of genetically diverse individuals that are dispersed along the expected distribution of locally optimal trait values (West-Eberhard 2003). ...
... In fact, according to some psychologists who favour the situation side of the person-situation debate (e.g., Mischel, Shoda and Smith 2004), the very definition of a personality disorder is unchanging personality in the face of the changing environmental contexts that a person encounters. In contrast, we propose that the biological preparedness for and the developmental plasticity of certain behaviours can and do vary independently of each other (Figueredo, Hammond and McKiernan 2006). In our view, personality traits represent dispositions to respond to environmental contingencies in certain ways, and to seek out environments in which prepared behaviours are suitable, but they do not represent the unalterable necessity to behave in the predisposed manner. ...
Article
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Integration with evolutionary theory could enhance personality theory by generating original predictions about the mechanisms governing personality. Novel hypotheses about how personality works can be derived from theories about the ultimate function of personality traits. In this chapter, we propose that sociality is the major cause of personality variation in humans. Specifically, adaptation to different micro-niches within the overall social ecology of the species is what leads to the differentiation of personality traits among individuals. Climactic and ecological fluctuations during repeated Ice Ages may have historically provided much of the initial impetus by exacerbating social competition, but the larger population densities occasioned by the Neolithic Revolution in human subsistence economies (e.g., farming, herding, industrial and now information-based) have largely taken their place in recent human history. We suggest that this complex combination of selective pressures accounts for the strategic mix of heritability and environmentality observed in human personality development. These selective pressures serve as the ultimate causes of adaptive personality variation and provide some unique predictions regarding these proximate causes of personality. Further, these predictions are not limited to the adaptive aspects of personality. Predictions about by-products and trade-offs that result from pursuing one adaptive personality strategy over another are also derivable. Thus, personality variation retains its adaptive significance even to this day. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Suggesting that the brain overcomes these challenges solely through 'plasticity' is akin to asserting that it accomplishes them through magic". Yet, while the majority of evolutionary psychologists agree with this viewpoint, there are those who believe that in addition to specialized mechanisms, humans have also developed domain-general mechanisms [38][39][40][41][42][43]. ...
Article
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This paper explores the dual-processing hypothesis of the mind, Systems 1 and 2, by examining debates between cognitive and evolutionary psychologists. I structure the discussion in a back-and-forth manner to emphasize the differences. I show that, while the majority of cognitive psychologists now embrace the dual-processing theory of the mind, Systems 1 and 2, there are still some who disagree. Most evolutionary psychologists, in contrast, dispute the existence of System 2, a domain-general mind, although some disagree. However, a consensus is growing in favor of System 2, although evolutionary psychologists’ concerns must be addressed. The uniqueness of this review is that it contrasts the perspectives of cognitive psychologists with evolutionary psychologists, which is uncommon in the cognitive psychology literature, which tends to overlook evolutionary viewpoints.
... Suggesting that the brain overcomes these challenges solely through 'plasticity' is akin to asserting that it accomplishes them through magic". Yet, while the majority of evolutionary psychologists agree with this viewpoint, there are those who believe that in addition to specialized mechanisms, humans have also developed domain-general mechanisms [38][39][40][41][42][43]. ...
Preprint
Most cognitive psychologists now accept the dual-processing theory of the mind, Systems 1 and 2, but there are some who disagree. Most evolutionary psychologists, in contrast, deny the ex-istence of System 2, a domain-general mind, but there are some who disagree. This entry shows that a consensus is emerging in favor of System 2, but the challenges raised by evolutionary psychologists must be addressed.
... An alternative model to the evolutionary-psychological one proposed by Kurzban et al. (2001) and discussed in the Introduction is the Brunswikian evolutionary-developmental theory (Figueredo et al., 2006). This theory posits that there are domain-independent and domain-dependent processes, which regulate the ways in which behaviors are characterized by "independent levels of biological preparedness and plasticity" (p. ...
Article
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The “erasing race” effect is the reduction of the salience of “race” as an alliance cue when recalling coalition membership, once more accurate information about coalition structure is presented. We conducted a random-effects model meta-analysis of this effect using five United States studies (containing nine independent effect sizes). The effect was found (ρ = 0.137, K = 9, 95% CI = 0.085 to 0.188). However, no decline effect or moderation effects were found (a “decline effect” in this context would be a decrease in the effect size over time). Furthermore, we found little evidence of publication bias. Synthetically correcting the effect size for bias stemming from the use of an older method for calculating error base rates reduced the magnitude of the effect, but the it remained significant. Taken together, these findings indicate that the “erasing race” effect generalizes quite well across experimental contexts and would, therefore, appear to be quite robust. We reinterpret the theoretical basis for these effects in line with Brunswikian evolutionary-developmental theory and present a series of predictions to guide future research in this area.
... Evidence points to the power of both settings and situations to moderate and sometimes mediate behavior. The idea is that behavior is not unconstrained, but the cues (Figueredo et al, 2006) supported by affordances (Gibson, 1966) that the organism detects prompt some conception of to-be-solved problems. Cues and affordances can be either evolutionarily instilled or learned over developmental time through experience, thus creating a behavioral or experiential history. ...
Article
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Studies of Proenvironmental behavior (PEB) commonly take a person-centered approach, assuming that the primary determinants of behavior are a person's attributes. Hence, PEB studies typically measure attitudes, values, intentions, knowledge, altruism, environmentalism, etc. - all of which reside in the individual and all of which are posited to cause pro/anti-environmental behavior. Although the empirical base is substantial, person-factors often do not predict behavior well and the posited close relationship between intention and behavior is rarely demonstrated. One reason for this is that part of the "causal" story is missing - the causal role played by context (setting/situation). Hence, the present chapter focuses on various contexts that present to-be-solved adaptive problems and that display affordances, cues, and stimuli that guide adaptive behavior. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) represented the "person-factor" approach; however, we suspected the TPB in isolation would not sufficiently explain behavioral choices. In our study, instead of measuring behavioral intention in a contextual vacuum, we presented each behavioral choice within the context of written multidimensional vignettes. Each context consisted of physical settings as well as theoretically driven dimensions of social situations. We systematically varied the social dimensions to "cue" specific adaptive problems, on the assumption that person-by-context relationships provide more stable and externally valid predictions of PEB than intentionality alone. Settings accounted for a significant proportion of variance in both pro- and anti-environmental behavior. Traditional theory, such as TPB, did not predict context-specific behavior; however, components of the theory did predict behavior in the aggregate. We conclude that attending to the context in which environmental behavior occurs provides a better basis for predicting, understanding, and affecting changes in PEB.
... Phylogenetic neoteny, that is, the slowed growth and delayed maturation relative to prior generations which leads to persistence of juvenile characteristics into adulthood (Brune, 2000), may be the result of selective pressures over the EEA. Neurologically plastic and large brains may have allowing us to solve novel adaptive problems (Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2005;Geary, 2004) nested within complex situations (Bjorklund, & Rosenberg, 2005;Geary, 2004) and complex burgeoning societies (Dunbar, 1998;Geary, 2004). ...
... This finding is consistent with Brunswikian evolutionary developmental theory (Figueredo et al. 2006a), which predicts that variance in ecological conditions over evolutionary time should select for developmental plasticity as a buffer against environmental change, whereas mean ecological conditions should only select for phenotypes that are matched to the "average" environment. Thus, the recurrent ice ages did not select for individuals who were permanently adapted to chronic cold; instead, the repeated glacial and interglacial cycles selected for bigger brains that enabled individuals to rapidly adapt to alternating periods of hot and cold. ...
Article
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The current paper synthesizes theory and data from the field of life history (LH) evolution to advance a new developmental theory of variation in human LH strategies. The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum; that harshness (externally caused levels of morbidity-mortality) and unpredictability (spatial-temporal variation in harshness) are the most fundamental environmental influences on the evolution and development of LH strategies; and that these influences depend on population densities and related levels of intraspecific competition and resource scarcity, on age schedules of mortality, on the sensitivity of morbidity-mortality to the organism's resource-allocation decisions, and on the extent to which environmental fluctuations affect individuals versus populations over short versus long timescales. These interrelated factors operate at evolutionary and developmental levels and should be distinguished because they exert distinctive effects on LH traits and are hierarchically operative in terms of primacy of influence. Although converging lines of evidence support core assumptions of the theory, many questions remain unanswered. This review demonstrates the value of applying a multilevel evolutionary-developmental approach to the analysis of a central feature of human phenotypic variation: LH strategy.
... This model is also consistent with both the theory and the observation that diminishing family size is causally involved in the Flynn effect (Rönnlund & Nilsson, 2008Zajonc & Mullally, 1997), as this indicates an increase in inter-generational transfers of parental effort. Furthermore, the model is concordant with the involvement of hippocampal functioning in the Flynn effect (Baxendale & Smith, 2012), as cognitive modules relevant to behavioral manifestations of high K-strategies are believed to relate to the hippocampus (Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006;. ...
... In ecologies that required immediate behavioral responses to environmental stimuli, deliberative thought processes or muted emotional responses may have been detrimental to survival. Unstable environments, which provide inconsistent, unreliable, or invalid cues to optimal behavior, should selectively favor individuals who are relatively inflexible in developmental time (West-Eberhard, 2003;Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006). In contrast, more stable environments that have reliable and valid cues available on which to base adaptive behavioral contingencies may instead select for individuals high in behavioral flexibility. ...
Article
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Much previous theory and evidence in both social and evolutionary psychology has been equivocal and inconsistent regarding whether in-group altruism should predict out-group hostility, and whether this effect should be positive or negative in direction. A "slow" Life History (LH) strategy emphasizes both kin-selected altruism and reciprocal altruism as means of investing heavily in offspring, blood relatives, and mutualistic social relationships with both kith and kin. We therefore investigated whether a slow LH strategy, as a measurable individual-difference variable favoring in-group altruism (positive ethnocentrism), should predict out-group hostility (negative ethnocentrism), and what the direction of the hypothesized effect would be. We found that a multivariate latent variable representing slow LH strategy served as a protective factor against a latent variable representing Negative Ethnocentrism. These results were replicated in the United States of America and in the Republic of Costa Rica using Multisample Structural Equation Model with cross-sample equality constraints.
... In our opinion, a major issue in the current jealousy debate is the artificial distinction between fixed 'innate' cognitive modules and domain-general social learning processes (Harris, 2003Harris, , 2005). Psychological adaptations are much better conceptualized as the result of innate learning preparednesses that canalize experiences (including sociocultural influences) towards the reliable ontogenetic development of functionally specialized cognitive modules (Barrett, 2006; Cummins & Cummins, 1999; Cummins, Cummins, & Poirier, 2003; Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006;). What is selected for in the evolutionary process, then, is not a cognitive module, but a developmental system that interacts with relevant aspects of the individual environment in developing a cognitive module (Barrett, 2006). ...
Article
The two evolutionary psychological hypotheses that men react more jealous than women to sexual infidelity and women react more jealous than men to emotional infidelity are currently controversial because of apparently inconsistent results. We suggest that these inconsistencies can be resolved when the two hypotheses are evaluated separately and when the underlying cognitive processes are considered. We studied jealousy with forced-choice decisions and emotion ratings in a general population sample of 284 adults aged 20–30 years using six infidelity dilemmas and recordings of reaction times. The sex difference for emotional jealousy existed for decisions under cognitive constraint, was also evident in the decision speed, increased for faster decisions, and was stronger for participants with lower education. No evidence for a sex difference in sexual jealousy was found. Our results support the view of a specific female sensitivity to emotional infidelity that canalizes the development of an adaptive sex difference in emotional jealousy conditional to the sociocultural environment. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... The present results are in contrast to studies in which fear conditioned to animal fear-relevant stimuli is not reduced following an identical instruction manipulation (i.e., verbal instruction and removal of the shock electrode; Hughahl & Öhman, 1977;Hugdahl, 1978;Lipp & Edwards, 2002). Taken together, existing research on learning biases to racial out-group faces suggest that either (a) racial out-group members are not fear-relevant or (b) a module view of preparedness is overly simplistic and requires expansion (see Barrett, Frederick, Haselton & Kurzban, 2006;Figueredo, Hammond & McKiernan, 2006). ...
Article
Previous research has shown resistance to extinction of fear conditioned to racial out-group faces, suggesting that these stimuli may be subject to prepared fear learning. The current study replicated and extended previous research by using a different racial out-group, and testing the prediction that prepared fear learning is unaffected by verbal instructions. Four groups of Caucasian participants were trained with male in-group (Caucasian) or out-group (Chinese) faces as conditional stimuli; one paired with an electro-tactile shock (CS+) and one presented alone (CS−). Before extinction, half the participants were instructed that no more shocks would be presented. Fear conditioning, indexed by larger electrodermal responses to, and blink startle modulation during the CS+, occurred during acquisition in all groups. Resistance to extinction of fear learning was found only in the racial out-group, no instruction condition. Fear conditioned to a racial out-group face was reduced following verbal instructions, contrary to predictions for the nature of prepared fear learning.
... More speciWcally, the need for a large brain, required to deal with the demands of the increasing size and complexity of human societies (cf., Dunbar, 1998), caused selective pressure for an extended juvenile period. Furthermore, the variability of human environments also necessitated developmental plasticity and the ability to deal with novel situations (Bjorklund & Rosenberg, 2005;Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2005;Geary, 2005). ...
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We describe an integrated theory of individual differences that traces the behavioral development of life history from genes to brain to reproductive strategy. We provide evidence that a single common factor, the K-Factor, underpins a variety of life-history parameters, including an assortment of sexual, reproductive, parental, familial, and social behaviors. We explore the psychometrics and behavioral genetics of the K-Factor and offer a speculative account of the proximate mediation of this adaptive patterning of behavior as instantiated in well-established functions of specific areas of the human brain, including the frontal lobes, amygdala, and hippocampus. We then apply Life History Theory to predict patterns of development within the brain that are paedomorphic (i.e., development begins later, proceeds at a slower rate, and has an earlier cessation) and peramorphic (i.e., development begins early, proceeds at a faster rate, and has a later cessation).
... Genetic diversification of offspring represents a bet-hedging strategy that evolved as an adaptation to unpredictable environmental contingencies and when environmental cues that might otherwise selectively trigger developmentally plastic changes are of limited reliability or validity (Figueredo, Hammond, and McKiernan 2006;West-Eberhard 2003). Although sexual recombination is a common means of genetic diversification, the evolution of sexual reproduction has been called one of the great mysteries of evolutionary biology (Hamilton, Axelrod, and Tenese 1990). ...
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Genetic diversification of offspring represents a bet-hedging strategy that evolved as an adaptation to unpredictable environments. The benefits of sexual reproduction come with severe costs. For example, each offspring only carries half of each parent's genetic makeup through direct descent. The lower the reproductive rate, the more substantial the cost when considering the proportion of genes represented in subsequent generations. Positive assortative mating represents a conservative bet-hedging strategy that offsets some of these costs and preserves coadapted genomes in stable and predictable environments, whereas negative assortative mating serves the inverse function of genetic diversification in unstable and unpredictable environments.
... The fact that most behaviors are partially genetic and partially environmental is a well-established principle in behavioral biology -a principle demonstrated across a wide array of species and behaviors (West-Eberhard, 2003;Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006). In humans, most scientifically studied behaviors constitute a complex mixture of ''nature'' and ''nurture''. ...
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Programmatic social interventions attempt to produce appropriate social-norm-guided behavior in an open environment. A marriage of applicable psychological theory, appropriate program evaluation theory, and outcome of evaluations of specific social interventions assures the acquisition of cumulative theory and the production of successful social interventions--the marriage permits us to advance knowledge by making use of both success and failures. We briefly review well-established principles within the field of program evaluation, well-established processes involved in changing social norms and social-norm adherence, the outcome of several program evaluations focusing on smoking prevention, pro-environmental behavior, and rape prevention and, using the principle of learning from our failures, examine why these programs often do not perform as expected. Finally, we discuss the promise of learning from our collective experiences to develop a cumulative science of program evaluation and to improve the performance of extant and future interventions.
... Brunswik's model has had a significant impact on studies of human cognitive behaviour (e.g. Figueredo et al, 2006), as well as on spoken language (e.g. Scherer, 2003). ...
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Attempting to understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying spoken language processing, whether it is viewed as behaviour exhibited by human beings or as a faculty simulated by machines, is one of the greatest scientific challenges of our age. Despite tremendous achievements over the past 50 or so years, there is still a long way to go before we reach a comprehensive explanation of human spoken language behaviour and can create a technology with performance approaching or exceeding that of a human being. It is argued that progress is hampered by the fragmentation of the field across many different disciplines, coupled with a failure to create an integrated view of the fundamental mechanisms that underpin one organism’s ability to communicate with another. This paper weaves together accounts from a wide variety of different disciplines concerned with the behaviour of living systems – many of them outside the normal realms of spoken language – and compiles them into a new model: PRESENCE (PREdictive SENsorimotor Control and Emulation). It is hoped that the results of this research will provide a sufficient glimpse into the future to give breath to a new generation of research into spoken language processing by mind or machine.
... When an environmental parameter is static for many generations, natural selection may favor canalized development of a specific phenotype, which is optimally adapted (within constraints) to the recurring parameter values. When environments are variable, however, different phenotypes may be optimal in different environmental states, favoring the evolution of plasticity (Dall, Giraldeau, Ollson, McNamara, & Stephens, 2005;Figueredo, Hammond, & McKiernan, 2006;Schlichting & Pigliucci, 1998). Adaptive plasticity may entail using experiences from previous life stages to "forecast" future states of the environment in order to develop adaptively matching phenotypes. ...
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This article discusses 3 ways in which adaptive developmental mechanisms may produce maladaptive outcomes. First, natural selection may favor risky strategies that enhance fitness on average but which have detrimental consequences for a subset of individuals. Second, mismatch may result when organisms experience environmental change during ontogeny, for instance, because they move from one environment to another. Third, organisms may learn about their environment in order to develop an appropriate phenotype; when cues indicate the environmental state probabilistically, as opposed to deterministically, sampling processes may produce mismatch. For each source of maladaptation, we present a selection of the relevant empirical research and illustrate how models from evolutionary biology can be used to make predictions about maladaptation. We also discuss what data can be collected to test these models in humans. Our goal is to show that evolutionary approaches not only yield insights into adaptive outcomes but can also illuminate the conditions leading to maladaptation. This perspective provides additional nuance to the dialectic between the developmental psychopathology model and evolutionary developmental psychology.
... Phenotypic plasticity is ubiquitous in nature [1][2][3][4], and theoretical models provide an understanding of when plasticity should evolve [5,[7][8][9][10]25]. However, as developmental system theorists have noted, adaptationist models rarely consider ontogeny as a constructive process in which phenotypes incrementally develop ( [14,15]; but see [2,3]). ...
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Development is typically a constructive process, in which phenotypes incrementally adapt to local ecologies. Here, we present a novel model in which natural selection shapes developmental systems based on the evolutionary ecology, and these systems adaptively guide phenotypic development. We assume that phenotypic construction is incremental and trades off with sampling cues to the environmental state. We computed the optimal developmental programmes across a range of evolutionary ecological conditions. Using these programmes, we simulated distributions of mature phenotypes. Our results show that organisms sample the environment most extensively when cues are moderately, not highly, informative. When the developmental programme relies heavily on sampling, individuals transition from sampling to specialization at different times in ontogeny, depending on the consistency of their sampled cue set; this finding suggests that stochastic sampling may result in individual differences in plasticity itself. In addition, we find that different selection pressures may favour similar developmental mechanisms, and that organisms may incorrectly calibrate development despite stable ontogenetic environments. We hope our model will stimulate adaptationist research on the constructive processes guiding development.
Article
Much of evolutionary psychology has focused on species-typical behavior or sex differences. However, recent attention has turned to considering the role of individual differences in shaping human behavior, in particular in the realm of sexual strategies. While some research still focused broadly on sex differences, there is a growing body of work that examines within-sex differences in sexual strategies. This work includes genetic and environmental influences on individual differences factors including flexible responses to ecological contingencies such as sex ratio and mortality rates. These within-sex individual differences can be divided into directly selected individual differences in mating strategies (genetically influenced biases toward developing longer-term or shorter-term mating relationships), indirectly selected individual differences in mating strategies (variations in mating strategy that might be influenced developmentally by individual differences in strategically relevant traits), indirectly selected individual differences in mating strategies that are influenced developmentally by external environmental contingencies (which could include environmental unpredictability or resource scarcity), and combinations of all three acting concurrently in one individual. This chapter will examine all three options and some of the evidence collected to date on their role.
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The interface of sexual behavior and evolutionary psychology is a rapidly growing domain, rich in psychological theories and data as well as controversies and applications. With nearly eighty chapters by leading researchers from around the world, and combining theoretical and empirical perspectives, The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology is the most comprehensive and up-to-date reference work in the field. Providing a broad yet in-depth overview of the various evolutionary principles that influence all types of sexual behaviors, the handbook takes an inclusive approach that draws on a number of disciplines and covers nonhuman and human psychology. It is an essential resource for both established researchers and students in psychology, biology, anthropology, medicine, and criminology, among other fields. Volume 1: Foundations of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology addresses foundational theories and methodological approaches.
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A significant open issue in the field of comparative psychology is the apparent inability to reconcile the existence of ‘little g’ (general intelligence) common factor variance among cognitive performance data involving individuals within species, with the existence of higher-level ‘Big G’ factor variance among species-level cognitive aggregates. Here, using a cognitive individual differences dataset of three Lemur species (grey mouse lemur; Microcebus murinus, ruffed lemur, Varecia variegata, and ring-tailed lemur, Lemur catta), we replicate a previously published solution to this problem. This is based on the hypothesis that there does exist g or g-like variance that is predictive of species differences, but that many of the measures employed in cross-species cognition tests impose floor or ceiling effects on one or more of the species being compared. These will obscure the alignment between g and G when individuals of multiple species are compared. An iterative latent variable moderation model is used, whereby sequentially removing subtests based on lowest coefficient of variance (CV) increases the degree to which g-loadings moderate the species differences among the remaining subtest pool. The correlation between moderator effect magnitude and rising CV across twelve iterations (from fourteen to three subtests) ranges from .710 to .854 based on which pairs of species are being compared. This result is consistent with the expectation that across species, g is highly predictive of species differences (and thus, g and G are one and the same), although significant ‘modular’ differences doubtlessly also exist. Predictions stemming from these observations are outlined using simulations. Finally, the implication of these findings for constructing trans-species valid measures of g and ‘IQ’ for use in future research (such as trans-species GWAS) is discussed.
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Human cognition is a complex process of processing information. It is highly influenced by different factors, such as general concepts, individual characteristics, etc. This chapter deals with the topic of cognition of spatial information. Evolution of cognition is described and evaluated in it. The adaptive function of cognition is discussed in the context of ecological psychology. The current approaches to cognition problems are introduced, and the basic terms and concepts are explained. The ratio of cultural influence is compared with the influence of personality traits and the developmental stage of the individual. The aim of the chapter is to outline possible difficulties of designing a universal ontology describing geographic space on an interregional and global scale.
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Penke et al. (this issue) have written a provocative paper on the evolutionary genetics of personality, ascribing the maintenance of genetic variation in personality to balancing selection and in cognitive abilities to a balance between mutation pressure and directional selection. Some of the theory and evidence presented appear supportive, but both the theoretical predictions and the supporting empirical evidence remain tentative. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Copping, Campbell, and Muncer (2014) have recently published an article critical of the psychometric approach to the assessment of life history (LH) strategy. Their purported goal was testing for the convergent validation and examining the psychometric structure of the High-K Strategy Scale (HKSS). As much of the literature on the psychometrics of human LH during the past decade or so has emanated from our research laboratory and those of close collaborators, we have prepared this detailed response. Our response is organized into four main sections: (1) A review of psychometric methods for the assessment of human LH strategy, expounding upon the essence of our approach; (2) our theoretical/conceptual concerns regarding the critique, addressing the broader issues raised by the critique regarding the latent and hierarchical structure of LH strategy; (3) our statistical/methodological concerns regarding the critique, examining the validity and persuasiveness of the empirical case made specifically against the HKSS; and (4) our recommendations for future research that we think might be helpful in closing the gap between the psychometric and biometric approaches to measurement in this area. Clearly stating our theoretical positions, describing our existing body of work, and acknowledging their limitations should assist future researchers in planning and implementing more informed and prudent empirical research that will synthesize the psychometric approach to the assessment of LH strategy with complementary methods.
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Multiple selective pressures maintain and increase heritable behavioral variability among individuals across both developmental and evolutionary time: (1) directional social selection favors convergent traits, promoting mutually beneficial cooperative interactions; (2) disruptive social selection favors divergent traits, providing release from within-species competition; (3) genetic diversification responds adaptively to the stochastic (random) characteristics of environmental hazards such as uncontrollable morbidity (disease) and mortality (death); (4) developmental plasticity epigenetically directs development adaptively along different alternative pathways, modifying permanent and stable behavioral dispositions to suit long-term contingencies of survival and reproduction; and (5) behavioral flexibility deploys rapid and reversible short-term adaptive behavioral responses to transient situations.
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This chapter discusses the multiple and complementary levels of analysis in which the biology of personality can be described, namely, descriptive, behavioral-genetic, neuroanatomical, neurochemical, situational, and behavioral-ecological. Each of these levels of analysis can be thought of as members of a constitutive hierarchy, and none of them individually presents a complete picture of the biology of personality. It is the goal of the chapter to provide a multilayered perspective by presenting a theoretically coherent and consilient vertical integration of these various levels, linking proximate with ultimate levels of causation. Using a multilayered analytic approach to such a hierarchy maximizes the Shannon–Weaver information available to theorists in the construction of predictive models. Because of Shannon and Weaver’s explicit dislike of semantics in their definition of information, this formulation is the most useful for a consilient approach because it can be applied across hierarchial levels of organization.
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The ability to adjust developmental trajectories based on experience is widespread in nature, including in humans. This plasticity is often adaptive, tailoring individuals to their local environment. However, it is less clear why some individuals are more sensitive to environmental influences than others. Explanations include differences in genes and differences in prior experiences. In this article, we present a novel hypothesis in the latter category. In some developmental domains, individuals must learn about the state of their environment before adapting accordingly. Because sampling environmental cues is a stochastic process, some individuals may receive a homogeneous sample, resulting in a confident estimate about the state of the world-these individuals specialize early. Other individuals may receive a heterogeneous, uninformative set of cues-those individuals will keep sampling. As a consequence, individual variation in plasticity may result from different degrees of confidence about the state of the environment. After developing the hypothesis, we conclude by discussing three empirical predictions. © The Author(s) 2011.
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In this paper we aim to explain how the notion of abduction may be relevant in describing some crucial aspects related to the notion of affordance, which was originally introduced by the ecological psychologist James J. Gibson. The thesis we develop in this paper is that an affordance can be considered an abductive anchor. Hopefully, the notion of abduction will clear up some ambiguities and misconceptions still present in current debate. Going beyond a merely sentential conception, we will argue that the role played by abduction is two fold. First of all, it is decisive in leading us to a better definition of affordance. Secondly, abduction turns out to be a valuable candidate in clarifying the various issues related to affordance detection.
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This chapter reviews the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence that individual variation in personality and behavior is shaped by a combination of: frequency-dependent niche-splitting, developmental plasticity, genetic diversification, directional social selection, and behavioral flexibility. It argues that extant theory and data are inconsistent with the aim of assigning the evolution of individual differences to any one selective pressure to the exclusion of all others. Instead, the ecological conditions intrinsic to the social circumstances of many species, including humans, favor a combination of these shaping pressures. Thus, the only single superordinate category that includes most of theseconvergent and divergent selective pressures is social selection.
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Genetic influences on personality differences are ubiquitous, but their nature is not well understood. A theoretical framework might help, and can be provided by evolutionary genetics. We assess three evolutionary genetic mechanisms that could explain genetic variance in personality differences: selective neutrality, mutation-selection balance, and balancing selection. Based on evolutionary genetic theory and empirical results from behaviour genetics and personality psychology, we conclude that selective neutrality is largely irrelevant, that mutation-selection balance seems best at explaining genetic variance in intelligence, and that balancing selection by environmental heterogeneity seems best at explaining genetic variance in personality traits. We propose a general model of heritable personality differences that conceptualises intelligence as fitness components and personality traits as individual reaction norms of genotypes across environments, with different fitness consequences in different environmental niches. We also discuss the place of mental health in the model. This evolutionary genetic framework highlights the role of gene-environment interactions in the study of personality, yields new insight into the person-situation-debate and the structure of personality, and has practical implications for both quantitative and molecular genetic studies of personality. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Maps are usually better abstractions of reality than other media and allow easier perception of included spatial information. This fact makes maps convenient for several specialised societal purposes, including emergency management and transportation, among others. It is very important to understand the processes of reading and understanding map representations during a variety of situations. There are significant differences in map use by various users. Differences can be caused by variations in cartographic method or lack of time. Therefore, specific situations need specific map representations. This article addresses the problem of testing the practice of reading and understanding maps. The evaluation emphasises the externality of the testing process, meaning that results cannot be based only on subjective opinions of tested participants. Results of the testing will be used for construction of suitable maps for various situations as well as the development of a software tool that will enable creation of standardised testing sets. Additionally, standardised research methodology will be developed to enhance exploration of cognitive map reading processes. Results are validated by statistical analysis tools using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Fundamentally, this work provides insights into the processes of perception by different groups of users, allowing increased map information transmission efficiency, especially important during crisis situations.
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As evidenced by the contributions of the other authors in this volume, spoken language technology (SLT) has made great strides over the past 20 or so years. The introduction of data-driven machine-learning approaches to building statistical models for automatic speech recognition (ASR), unit selection inventories for text-to-speech synthesis (TTS) or interaction strategies for spoken language dialogue systems (SLDS) has given rise to a steady year-on-year improvement in system capabilities. Such continued incremental progress has also been underpinned by a regime of public benchmark testing sponsored by national funding agencies, such as DARPA, coupled with an ongoing increase in available computer power.
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A secondary analysis was performed on preliminary data from an ongoing cross-cultural study on assortative pairing. Independently sampled pairs of opposite-sex romantic partners and of same-sex friends rated themselves and each other on Life History (LH) strategy and mate value. Data were collected in local bars, clubs, coffeehouses, and other public places from three different cultures: Tucson, Arizona; Hermosillo, Sonora; and San José, Costa Rica. The present analysis found that slow LH individuals assortatively pair with both sexual and social partners more strongly than fast LH individuals. We interpret this phenomenon as representing (1) an adaptation for preserving coadapted genomes in slow LH strategists to maintain high copying fidelity genetic replication while producing a lower number of offspring in stable, predictable, and controllable environments and (2) a bet-hedging adaptation in fast LH strategists, favoring the genetic diversification of a higher number of offspring in unstable, unpredictable, and uncontrollable environments.
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Evolutionäre Herangehensweisen hatten in der Persönlichkeitspsychologie nicht den gleichen Erfolg wie in anderen Bereichen der Psychologie. In dieser Dissertation werden zwei alternative evolutionäre Herangehensweisen an die Persönlichkeitspsychologie diskutiert und angewendet. Die evolutionsgenetische Herangehensweise fragt, warum genetische Varianz in Persönlichkeitsunterschieden existiert. Im ersten Teil dieser Dissertation werden verschiedene evolutionsgenetische Mechanismen, die genetische Varianz erklären können, verglichen. Auf Grundlage evolutionsgenetischer Theorie und empirischen Befunden aus der Verhaltensgenetik und Persönlichkeitspsychologie wird geschlussfolgert, dass ein Mutations-Selektions-Gleichgewicht genetische Varianz in Intelligenz gut erklären kann, während ausgleichende Selektion durch Umweltheterogenität die plausibelste Erklärung für genetische Unterschiede in Persönlichkeitseigenschaften ist. Komplementär zur evolutionsgenetischen Herangehensweise beginnt die „Life History“-Herangehensweise damit, wie Menschen ihre Ressourcen in evolutionär relevante Lebensbereiche investieren. Im zweiten Teil der Dissertationsschrift wird diese Herangehensweise am Beispiel von Investitionsunterschieden in Langzeit- versus Kurzzeit-Paarungstaktiken (wie im Konstrukt der Soziosexualität abgebildet) erläutert. Zwei neue Maße zur Erfassung von Soziosexualitätskomponenten werden vorgestellt. Während das revidierte Soziosexuelle Orientierungsinventar (SOI-R) ein Fragebogen zur Erfassung der Facetten „Verhalten“, „Einstellung“ und „Begehren“ ist, wurde mit dem Single-Attribute Impliziten Assoziationstest (SA-IAT) eine neue Methode zur indirekten Erfassung impliziter Soziosexualität entwickelt. Beide Maße zeigten konkurrente Validität in Onlinestudien, aber nur der SOI-R erwies sich als prädiktiv für Paarungstaktiken, einschließlich beobachtetem Flirtverhalten sowie der Zahl der Sexualpartner und Veränderungen im Beziehungsstatus innerhalb der nächsten 12 Monate.
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The study of scientific discovery—where do new ideas come from?—has long been denigrated by philosophers as irrelevant to analyzing the growth of scientific knowledge. In particular, little is known about how cognitive theories are discovered, and neither the classical accounts of discovery as either probabilistic induction (e.g., H. Reichenbach, 1938) or lucky guesses (e.g., K. Popper, 1959), nor the stock anecdotes about sudden "eureka" moments deepen the insight into discovery. A heuristics approach is taken in this review, where heuristics are understood as strategies of discovery less general than a supposed unique logic discovery but more general than lucky guesses. This article deals with how scientists' tools shape theories of mind, in particular with how methods of statistical inference have turned into metaphors of mind. The tools-to-theories heuristic explains the emergence of a broad range of cognitive theories, from the cognitive revolution of the 1960s up to the present, and it can be used to detect both limitations and new lines of development in current cognitive theories that investigate the mind as an "intuitive statistician." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Generalizability Theory (GT) provides a flexible, practical framework for examining the dependability of behavioral measurements. GT extends classical theory by (a) estimating the magnitude of multiple sources of measurement error, (b) modeling the use of a measurement for both norm-referenced and domain-referenced decisions, (c) providing reliability ( generalizability) coefficients tailored to the proposed uses of the measurement, and (d) isolating major sources of error so that a cost-efficient measurement design can be built. Unfortunately, GT has not been readily accessible to psychological researchers. G theory's inaccessibility may explain why classical theory remains the preferred method for estimating reliability. The purpose of this article is to present GT and its wide applicability to a broad audience. Our intent is to demystify GT and provide a useful tool to psychological researchers and test developers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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A review of the literature indicates that linear models are frequently used in situations in which decisions are made on the basis of multiple codable inputs. These models are sometimes used (a) normatively to aid the decision maker, (b) as a contrast with the decision maker in the clinical vs statistical controversy, (c) to represent the decision maker "paramorphically" and (d) to "bootstrap" the decision maker by replacing him with his representation. Examination of the contexts in which linear models have been successfully employed indicates that the contexts have the following structural characteristics in common: each input variable has a conditionally monotone relationship with the output; there is error of measurement; and deviations from optimal weighting do not make much practical difference. These characteristics ensure the success of linear models, which are so appropriate in such contexts that random linear models (i.e., models whose weights are randomly chosen except for sign) may perform quite well. 4 examples involving the prediction of such codable output variables as GPA and psychiatric diagnosis are analyzed in detail. In all 4 examples, random linear models yield predictions that are superior to those of human judges. (52 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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That all events are equally associable and obey common laws is a central assumption of general process learning theory. A continuum of preparedness is defined which holds that organisms are prepared to associate certain events, unprepared for some, and contraprepared for others. A review of data from the traditional learning paradigms shows that the assumption of equivalent associability is false. Examples from experiments in classical conditioning, instrumental training, discrimination training, and avoidance training support the assumption. Language acquisition and the functional autonomy of motives are also viewed using the preparedness continuum. It is speculated that the laws of learning themselves may vary with the preparedness of the organism for the association and that different physiological and cognitive mechanisms may covary with the dimension. (2 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Contemporary mate preferences can provide important clues to human reproductive history. Little is known about which characteristics people value in potential mates. Five predictions were made about sex differences in human mate preferences based on evolutionary conceptions of parental investment, sexual selection, human reproductive capacity, and sexual asymmetries regarding certainty of paternity versus maternity. The predictions centered on how each sex valued earning capacity, ambition— industriousness, youth, physical attractiveness, and chastity. Predictions were tested in data from 37 samples drawn from 33 countries located on six continents and five islands (total N = 10,047). For 27 countries, demographic data on actual age at marriage provided a validity check on questionnaire data. Females were found to value cues to resource acquisition in potential mates more highly than males. Characteristics signaling reproductive capacity were valued more by males than by females. These sex differences may reflect different evolutionary selection pressures on human males and females; they provide powerful cross-cultural evidence of current sex differences in reproductive strategies. Discussion focuses on proximate mechanisms underlying mate preferences, consequences for human intrasexual competition, and the limitations of this study.
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Many now consider “instinct” and “learning” opposite poles of a unidimensional continuum. An alternative model with two independently varying parameters predicts different selective pressures. Behavioral adaptation matches the organism's utilizations of stimuli and responses to their ecological validities: the mean validity over evolutionary time specifies the optimal initial potency of the prepared association; the variance specifies the optimal prepared plasticity.
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Generalizability (G) theory is a statistical theory for evaluating the dependability (reliability) of behavioral measurements. G theory estimates multiple sources of measurement error and permits decision makers to design a measurement procedure that minimizes error.
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In order to successfully engage in social exchange--cooperation between two or more individuals for mutual benefit--humans must be able to solve a number of complex computational problems, and do so with special efficiency. Following Marr (1982), Cosmides (1985) and Cosmides and Tooby (1989) used evolutionary principles to develop a computational theory of these adaptive problems. Specific hypotheses concerning the structure of the algorithms that govern how humans reason about social exchange were derived from this computational theory. This article presents a series of experiments designed to test these hypotheses, using the Wason selection task, a test of logical reasoning. Part I reports experiments testing social exchange theory against the availability theories of reasoning; Part II reports experiments testing it against Cheng and Holyoak's (1985) permission schema theory. The experimental design included eight critical tests designed to choose between social exchange theory and these other two families of theories; the results of all eight tests support social exchange theory. The hypothesis that the human mind includes cognitive processes specialized for reasoning about social exchange predicts the content effects found in these experiments, and parsimoniously explains those that have already been reported in the literature. The implications of this line of research for a modular view of human reasoning are discussed, as well as the utility of evolutionary biology in the development of computational theories.
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Presented a dual-process theory of response plasticity to repeated stimulation. 2 hypothetical processes, 1 decremental (habituation) and 1 incremental (sensitization), are assumed to develop independently in the CNS and interact to yield the final behavioral outcome. Behavioral experiments are presented, using both the hindlimb flexion reflex of acute spinal cat and the acoustic startle response of intact rat, which are consistent with this theory. Neurophysiological experiments indicate that the 2 processes have separate and distinct neuronal substrates. The dual-process theory and other current theories of response habituation are evaluated in terms of these and other recent findings. (6 p. ref.)
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Recent habituation literature is reviewed with emphasis on neuro-physiological studies. The hindlimb flexion reflex of the acute spinal cat is used as a model system for analysis of the neuronal mechanisms involved in habituation and sensitization (i.e., dishabituation). Habituation of this response is demonstrated to follow the same 9 parametric relations for stimulus and training variables characteristic of behavioral response habituation in the intact organism. Habituation and sensitization appear to be central neural processes and probably do not involve presynaptic or postsynaptic inhibition. It is suggested that they may result from the interaction of neural processes resembling "polysynaptic low-frequency depression," and "facilitatory afterdischarge." "Membrane desensitization" may play a role in long-lasting habituation. (6 p. ref.)
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Recent studies such as that by the 1st author and colleagues (1983) indicate that the cellular mechanism underlying classical conditioning of the mollusc Aplysia's siphon withdrawal reflex is an extension of the mechanism underlying sensitization. This finding suggests that the mechanisms of yet higher forms of learning may similarly be based on the mechanisms of these simple forms of learning. This hypothesis is illustrated by showing how several higher-order features of classical conditioning, including generalization, extinction, 2nd-order conditioning, blocking, and the effect of contingency, can be accounted for by combinations of the cellular processes that underlie habituation, sensitization, and classical conditioning in Aplysia. (64 ref)
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This study compared the accuracy of an actuarial procedure for the prediction of community violence by patients with mental illness with the accuracy of clinicians' ratings of concern about patients' violence. Data came from a study in which patients were followed in the community for 6 months after having been seen in a psychiatric emergency room. Accuracy of actuarial prediction was estimated retrospectively, with a statistical correction for capitalization on chance. Actuarial prediction had lower rates of false-positive and false-negative errors than clinical prediction. The seriousness of the violence correctly identified by the actuarial predictor (the true positives) was similar to the seriousness identified by clinicians. Actuarial predictions based only on patients' histories of violence were more accurate than clinical predictions, as were actuarial predictions that did not use information about histories.
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Long-term habituation to a novel environment is one of the most elementary forms of nonassociative learning. Here we studied the effect of pre- or posttraining intrahippocampal administration of drugs acting on specific molecular targets on the retention of habituation to a 5-min exposure to an open field measured 24 h later. We also determined whether the exposure to a novel environment resulted in the activation of the same intracellular signaling cascades previously shown to be activated during hippocampal-dependent associative learning. The immediate posttraining bilateral infusion of CNQX (1 microg/side), an AMPA/kainate glutamate receptor antagonist, or of muscimol (0.03 microg/side), a GABA(A) receptor agonist, into the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus impaired long-term memory of habituation. The NMDA receptor antagonist AP5 (5 microg/side) impaired habituation when infused 15 min before, but not when infused immediately after, the 5-min training session. In addition, KN-62 (3.6 ng/side), an inhibitor of calcium calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), was amnesic when infused 15 min before or immediately and 3 h after training. In contrast, the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) inhibitor Rp-cAMPS, the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MAPKK) inhibitor PD098059, and the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin, at doses that fully block memory formation of inhibitory avoidance learning, did not affect habituation to a novel environment. The detection of spatial novelty is associated with a sequential activation of PKA, ERKs (p44 and p42 MAPKs) and CaMKII and the phosphorylation of c-AMP responsive element-binding protein (CREB) in the hippocampus. These findings suggest that memory formation of spatial habituation depends on the functional integrity of NMDA and AMPA/kainate receptors and CaMKII activity in the CA1 region of the hippocampus and that the detection of spatial novelty is accompanied by the activation of at least three different hippocampal protein kinase signaling cascades.
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The rat insular cortex (IC) subserves the memory of conditioned taste aversion (CTA), in which a taste is associated with malaise. When the conditioned taste is unfamiliar, formation of long-term CTA memory depends on muscarinic and β-adrenergic receptors, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and protein synthesis. We show that extinction of CTA memory is also dependent on protein synthesis and β-adrenergic receptors in the IC, but independent of muscarinic receptors and MAPK. This resembles the molecular signature of the formation of long-term memory of CTA to a familiar taste. Thus, memory extinction shares molecular mechanisms with learning, but the mechanisms of learning anew differ from those of learning the new.
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Egon Brunswik is one of the most brilliant, creative and least understood and appreciated psychologists/philosophers of the 20th century. This book presents a collection of Brunswik’s most important papers together with interpretive comments by prominent scholars who explain the intent and development of his thought. This collection and the accompanying diverse examples of the application of his ideas will encourage a deeper understanding of Brunswik in the 21st century than was the case in the 20th century. The 21st century already shows signs of acceptance of Brunswikian thought with the appearance of psychologists with a different focus; emulation of physical science is of less importance, and positive contributions toward understanding behavior outside the laboratory without abandoning rigor are claiming more notice. As a result, Brunswik’s theoretical and methodological views are already gaining the attention denied them in the 20th century. The plan of this book is to provide, for the first time, in one place the articles that show the origins of his thought, with all their imaginative and creative spirit, as well as thoughtful, scholarly interpretations of the development, meaning and application of his ideas to modern psychology. Thus, his views will become more understandable and more widely disseminated, as well as advanced through the fresh meaning given to them by the psychologists of the 21st century.
Chapter
Egon Brunswik is one of the most brilliant, creative and least understood and appreciated psychologists/philosophers of the 20th century. This book presents a collection of Brunswik’s most important papers together with interpretive comments by prominent scholars who explain the intent and development of his thought. This collection and the accompanying diverse examples of the application of his ideas will encourage a deeper understanding of Brunswik in the 21st century than was the case in the 20th century. The 21st century already shows signs of acceptance of Brunswikian thought with the appearance of psychologists with a different focus; emulation of physical science is of less importance, and positive contributions toward understanding behavior outside the laboratory without abandoning rigor are claiming more notice. As a result, Brunswik’s theoretical and methodological views are already gaining the attention denied them in the 20th century. The plan of this book is to provide, for the first time, in one place the articles that show the origins of his thought, with all their imaginative and creative spirit, as well as thoughtful, scholarly interpretations of the development, meaning and application of his ideas to modern psychology. Thus, his views will become more understandable and more widely disseminated, as well as advanced through the fresh meaning given to them by the psychologists of the 21st century.
Article
This chapter introduces social judgment theory (SJT). It focuses upon the conceptual structure of the framework and traces its development from the roots in Brunswik's probabilistic functionalism to its present form. SJT is a general framework for the study of human judgment. It is a metatheory which gives direction to research on judgment. SJT is the result of a systematic application of Brunswik's probabilistic functionalism to the problem of human judgment in social situations. Brunswik's theory of perception is also called “cue theory.”According to such a theory, a person does not have access to any direct information about the objects in the environment. Instead, perception is seen as an indirect process, mediated by a set of proximal cues. In accordance with this view, SJT defines judgment as a process which involves the integration of information from a set of cues into a judgment about some distal state of affairs. The lens model illustrates an important methodological principle in SJT: the Principle of Parallel Concepts. This principle states that the cognitive system and the task system must be described in terms of the same kinds of concepts.
Article
Introduction: the limits of fossil evidence 1. Taxonomy and the reconstruction of evolution 2. What is intelligence and what is it for? 3. How animals learn 4. Why animals learn better in social groups 5. Imitative behaviour in animals 6. Understanding how things work 7. Understanding minds: doing and seeing, knowing and thinking 8. What use is a theory of mind? 9. Planning and thinking ahead 10. Apes and language 11. Food for thought 12. Machiavellian intelligence 13. Testing the theories 14. Taking stock
Article
The Hamilton and Zuk model predicts that genes for resistance to various pathogens may be continuously heritable due to selection disequilibria caused by coadaptional cycles of hosts and pathogens. The model further suggests that the expression of male secondary ornaments is condition-dependent and that only individuals with superior genetic disease resistance and vigour can fully express exaggerated secondary ornaments. Female choice is therefore expected to discriminate among males on the basis of secondary sexual characters in order to pass on genes for disease resistance that improve fitness in the offspring. In wild ring-necked pheasants, Phasianus colchzcus, of the Revinge area in southern Sweden, females prefer to mate with long-spurred males and data on reproductive success indicate that they may improve their chicks* survival rate by doing so. Male spur length is positively correlated with age, body size and viability. MHC genotyping for both class I and class II B of pheasant males trapped in the study area identified eight MHC haplotypes and a total of 17 different MHC genotypes. Multivariate analyses revealed that MHC genotype is significantly associated with variation in both male spur length and male viability. These data indicate that polymorphic genes with a central role in immune recognition can be associated with viability and the expression of a condition-dependent intersexually selected male trait, thus supporting essential parts of the Hamilton and Zuk model.
Article
The environment of an organism has the character of a complex causal texture in which certain objects may function as the local representatives of others, either by providing means-objects to the others, or by serving as cues for the others (since they are causally related to them). The simplest paradigm involving such local representation is one in which an organism is presented with a single behavior-object lying between the organism's need-goal side and its reception-reaction side, which functions either as means-object for reaching the goal or as a source of cues. Often more than one means-object is involved from several aspects (i.e. discriminanda, manipulanda, or utilitanda). And, with primitive organisms, there are often no distinctive intervening means-objects. Moreover, the causal couplings between goal and means, or between means and cue, are usually equivocal, so that the organism is forced to form hypotheses as to what goal the given means-object will most probably lead to, etc. This leads to a classification of means-objects into four types: good, ambivalent, indifferent, bad; and a classification of cues into reliable, ambiguous, non-significant, and misleading. Therefore the organism must develop cue systems which are both inclusive and finely discriminated. Such a process involves all phases of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
The first part of this book has appeared previously (see Neyman, Jerzy. (Ed.) Berkeley symposium on mathematical statistics and probability. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949). Part II branches out from 2 of the model experiments in Part I "… in which the level of complexity has reached the criterion of functionality, expanding their basic principles over other areas of perception." The topic of perceptual constancies is expanded (3 chaps.) and their relation to thinking investigated. Other topics include: social perception, a fully representative design with textural ecology, probabilistic cue learning, clinical applications, and theoretical considerations. 211-item bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
What is the nature of human thought? A long dominant view holds that the mind is a general problem-solving device that approaches all questions in much the same way. Chomsky's theory of language, which revolutionised linguistics, challenged this claim, contending that children are primed to acquire some skills, like language, in a manner largely independent of their ability to solve other sorts of apparently similar mental problems. In recent years researchers in anthropology, psychology, linguistic and neuroscience have examined whether other mental skills are similarly independent. Many have concluded that much of human thought is 'domain-specific'. Thus, the mind is better viewed as a collection of cognitive abilities specialised to handle specific tasks than a general problem solver. This volume introduces a general audience to a domain-specificity perspective, by compiling a collection of essays exploring how several of these cognitive abilities are organised.
Article
This monograph is an expansion of lectures given in the years 1947-1950 to graduate colloquia at the universities of Chicago, Iowa, and Wisconsin, and of a lecture series delivered to staff and trainees at the Veterans Administration Mental Hygiene Clinic at Ft. Snelling, Minnesota. Perhaps a general remark in clarification of my own position is in order. Students in my class in clinical psychology have often reacted to the lectures on this topic as to a protective technique, complaining that I was biased either for or against statistics (or the clinician), depending mainly on where the student himself stood! This I have, of course, found very reassuring. One clinical student suggested that I tally the pro-con ratio for the list of honorific and derogatory adjectives in Chapter 1 (page 4), and the reader will discover that this unedited sample of my verbal behavior puts my bias squarely at the midline. The style and sequence of the paper reflect my own ambivalence and real puzzlement, and I have deliberately left the document in this discursive form to retain the flavor of the mental conflict that besets most of us who do clinical work but try to be scientists. I have read and heard too many rapid-fire, once-over-lightly "resolutions" of this controversy to aim at contributing another such. The thing is just not that simple. I was therefore not surprised to discover that the same sections which one reader finds obvious and over-elaborated, another singles out as especially useful for his particular difficulties. My thesis in a nutshell: "There is no convincing reason to assume that explicitly formalized mathematical rules and the clinician's creativity are equally suited for any given kind of task, or that their comparative effectiveness is the same for different tasks. Current clinical practice should be much more critically examined with this in mind than it has been." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
"Judgment Analysis" provides [a] theoretical and methodological summary of judgment analysis that integrates a diverse range of issues, guiding principles, and applications. Key features concern capturing, comparing, and aggregating judgment policies. The book is a training guide for new researchers and postgraduate students and a handbook for more experienced researchers and consultants. Key features: [includes] a complete methodological guide to the conduct of "Judgment Analysis" studies; traces the history of the Judgment Analysis paradigm from E. Brunswik to present day professionals [and] reviews areas of application for Judgment Analysis including medical, social policy, education, clinical, and consumer management. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Previous research shows that when participants are given information that allows them to compare task properties with properties of their cognitive system (cognitive feedback) they reach higher levels of achievement in multiple-cue probability learning (MCPL) tasks than when they are shown the correct answer after each trial (outcome feedback). It was hypothesized that this finding was in part due to the use of neutral task content in nearly all previous research, for neutral content fails to provide information about task properties in the outcome feedback condition. A study was conducted to compare the level of achievement reached with cognitive and outcome feedback under three conditions which varied the congruence between task properties implied by task content and actual task properties. The study supported the above hypothesis. When task content provided no task information, the level of achievement with cognitive feedback was higher than that reached with outcome feedback, even with perfect task predictability. When the task information provided by task content was congruent with actual task properties, however, the level of achievement with outcome feedback was as high as that with cognitive feedback. And when the task information provided by task content was incongruent with actual task properties, the level of achievement with cognitive feedback was as low as that with outcome feedback. Two additional experiments suggest that the effectiveness of cognitive feedback depends on contextual task properties, such as the number of blocks of trials and the credibility of the feedback. The results indicate that the relative effectiveness of outcome and cognitive feedback depends on formal, substantive, and contextual task properties.
Article
Describes the accepted psychological research paradigm and discusses its inherent limitations. The author outlines an alternative paradigm that is adequate to the task of understanding organism–environment relationships. This alternative paradigm is formulated in terms of E. Brunswik's (1952) lens model. The author then develops some theoretical implications of the lens model. These include the importance of situational sampling, the nature and focus of analytic statistical procedures, and the characteristics of a molar functional approach as contrasted with those of a molecular reductionistic one. The author discusses the essentials of representative design and suggests the conception of construct validity as developed in psychometric theory as a general scheme adequate to guide theory construction. (62 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Presentation of a loud conspecific distress cry markedly suppressed drinking in thirsty mice. Short-term and long-term habituation to three distress cries were evidenced by a gradual and persistent reduction in the capacity of distress cries to suppress drinking. When cerebral protein synthesis inhibition was initiated by anisomycin before or immediately after habituation training, long-term habituation was impaired; the results could not be explained by conditioned gustatory aversion or by other effects of drug treatment on drinking. These findings suggest that cerebral protein synthesis is required for the development of long-term habituation.
Article
Professionals are frequently consulted to diagnose and predict human behavior; optimal treatment and planning often hinge on the consultant's judgmental accuracy. The consultant may rely on one of two contrasting approaches to decision-making--the clinical and actuarial methods. Research comparing these two approaches shows the actuarial method to be superior. Factors underlying the greater accuracy of actuarial methods, sources of resistance to the scientific findings, and the benefits of increased reliance on actuarial approaches are discussed.
Article
The effects of 6 environmental variables upon selection of an oviposition container by colonized Aedes Triseriatus were analyzed by means of a series of overlapping factorial tests. Statistically significant and consistent preferences were demonstrated for containers with horizontal openings, rough-textured and dark-colored walls, and dark backgrounds. Water of high optical density and the presence of organic decay products were also shown to be powerful oviposition stimulants. These factors and the significant interactions that occurred among them are discussed in relation to the behavior and ecological requirements of the mosquito in nature.
Article
Although the nonassociative form of learning, habituation, is often described as the simplest form of learning, remarkably little is known about the cellular processes underlying its behavioral expression. Here, we review research on habituation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans that addresses habituation at behavioral, neural circuit, and genetic levels. This work highlights the need to understand the dynamics of a behavior before attempting to determine its underlying mechanism. In many cases knowing the characteristics of a behavior can direct or guide a search for underlying cellular mechanisms. We have highlighted the importance of interstimulus interval (ISI) in both short- and long-term habituation and suggested that different cellular mechanisms might underlie habituation at different ISIs. Like other organisms, C. elegans shows both accumulation of habituation with repeated training blocks and long-term retention of spaced or distributed training, but not for massed training. Exposure to heat shock during the interblock intervals eliminates the long-term memory for habituation but not the accumulation of short-term habituation over blocks of training. Analyses using laser ablation of identified neurons, and of identified mutants have shown that there are multiple sites of plasticity for the response and that glutamate plays a role in long-term retention of habituation training.
Article
In regulating the internal homeostatic environment mammals, by necessity, employ behavioral strategies that differ from the tactics used in coping with contingencies in the external environment. When an animal consumes a meal, the palatability of that meal is automatically adjusted in accordance with the ultimate internal effects of that meal. If the meal causes toxicosis, the animal acquires an aversion for the taste of the meal; conversely, if recuperation follows ingestion of the meal, the taste of that meal is enhanced. Unlike the learning that occurs when externally referred visual and auditory signals are followed by punishment in the form of peripheral pain or reward in the form of food in the mouth, conditioning to the homeostatic effects of food can occur in a single trial and rarely requires more than three to five trials, even though the ultimate effects of the meal are delayed for hours. Paradoxically, the animal need not be aware of the ultimate internal effect in the same sense that it is aware of external contingencies. For example, an aversion can be acquired even if the animal is unconscious when the agent of illness is administered. Thus, the way in which food-effects are stored in memory may be fundamentally different from the way in which memories of specific time-space strategies devised for external contingencies are stored. This separation of function is indicated by limbic lesions which disrupt conditioning to a buzzer that is followed by shock and facilitate conditioning to a taste that is followed by illness. Operationally speaking, one can describe both aversion conditioning and buzzer-shock conditioning in the space-time associationistic terms of classical conditioning. However, psychologically speaking, one must realize that in aversion conditioning the animal does not act as if it were acquiring an "if-then" strategy. It acts as if a hedonic shift, or a change in the incentive value of the flavor were taking place. Such hedonic shifts are critical in regulation of the internal milieu. When an animal is in need of calories, food tends to be more palatable; as the caloric deficit is restored, food becomes less palatable. If the animal's body temperature is below optimum, a warm stimulus applied to the skin is pleasant. When body temperature is too high, the converse is true. In this way, homeostatic states monitored by internal receptors produce changes in the incentive values of external stimuli sensed by the peripheral receptors, and guide feeding behavior. In mammals at least, the gustatory system, which provides sensory control of feeding, sends fibers to the nucleus solitarius. This brainstem relay station also receives fibers from the viscera and the internal monitors of the area postrema. Ascending fibers bifurcate at the level of the pons and project toward the feeding areas of the hypothalamus and the cortex. The olfactory system which primarily projects to the limbic system does not play a primary role in adjusting food incentives. Rather, it plays a secondary role in the activation of feeding, as do other external sensory systems. This specialized conditioning mechanism, which specifically adjusts gustatory hedonic values through delayed visceral feedback, is widespread among animals, including man and rat. These two species are remarkably similar in their thresholds and preferences for gustatory stimuli. The behavioral similarities are based on the animals' having similar gustatory systems, similar convergence of gustatory and internal afferents to the nucleus solitarius, and similar midbrain regulatory mechanisms. Thus, it is not surprising that the feeding of obese rats with internal hypothalamic damage resembles the feeding of obese human beings insensitive to the internal signs of this caloric state. Obviously, man has a highly specialized form of symbolic communication and the rat does not, yet man's cognitive specialization does not prevent him from developing aversions to food consumed before illness even when he knows that his illness was not caused by food.