The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition
... The theoretical foundations of communication and language development in this thesis are grounded in sociocultural theory, as articulated by Lev Vygotsky (1986Vygotsky ( , 1980 and Michael Tomasello (1999Tomasello ( , 2003, alongside the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health: Children & Youth Version (ICF-CY) by the World Health Organization (2007). These frameworks are integral in exploring how social interaction and environmental and cultural contexts influence learning and communication and align well with approaches to facilitate and support communication. ...
... Tomasello's socio-pragmatic perspective on the sociocultural theory emphasizes the role of social interaction, joint attention, and shared intentionality in language development (Tomasello, 1999(Tomasello, , 2003. His research highlights that consistent language modeling, along with responsive feedback, helps children refine their understanding and use of language. ...
... Although Tomasello primarily focuses on spoken language development, he recognizes that the meanings of a range of linguistic symbols, including spoken words, manual signs and pictures, are acquired similarly. The key is that these symbols must be based on intersubjectively shared conventions with meanings agreed upon and understood by the members of the social group using them (Tomasello, 1999). For this reason, the iconicity of a symbol, that is, its resemblance to the real object it represents, plays very little role in language learning, as it is learned through social interactions in the context in which it is used (Tomasello, 2003). ...
Communication is essential for social closeness, educational success, and quality of life. For students with intellectual disability (ID), communication is often challenging due to limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior. This thesis explores turn-taking and the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in schools for students with ID. It alsoe xamines a communication partner intervention, the AKKtiv ComPal.
The participants included 33 students with ID and 30 school staff members from seven schools. Data were collected through video observations of structured (circle time) and unstructured (leisure time) group activities at three time points: pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up. Data were also collected to assess students’ communicative skills and limitations.
A cross-sectional design was used to examine classroom communication, and multiple case studies examined intervention applications and changes over time. Turn-taking and communication modes of students and staff were analyzed using a coding scheme developed for this thesis. Teachers’ use of responsive strategies was analyzed using the Responsive Augmentative and Alternative Communication Style (RAACS) scale. The frequency of their augmented input and the number of communication boards were also measured. Non-parametric statistical tests, descriptive statistics, and visual representations were used to analyze and present the findings.
Pre-intervention, staff dominated the classroom interactions, and AAC was used less during unstructured activities than in structured and pre-planned activities. Students used AAC more frequently when school staff also did so. Following the intervention, teachers (N = 4) used responsive strategies and augmented input more extensively. Students (N = 10) increased both theirnumber of turns and their use of picture-based communication.
Consistent use of communication partner strategies by school staff is critical for enhancing student communication. Regular staff training and support may be necessary to address high turnover rates among support staff and to ensure these strategies are applied consistently over time. Improved access to personalized communication systems and better integration of AAC into daily activities are recommended to support students with ID effectively.
... A menudo, la sobre-imitación suele ser considerada la clave para la transmisión de comportamientos culturalmente específicos ya que casi siempre existen otras formas de lograr un objetivo. Quien sobre-imita quiere lograr un objetivo, pero además quiere hacerlo de la forma en que nosotros hacemos las cosas, lo que proporciona un mecanismo para el tipo de cultura acumulativa que muchos investigadores consideran exclusiva de los seres humanos (Henrich, 2017;Richerson & Boyd 2005;Tomasello, 1999). La evidencia de que la motivación para imitar sirve a una función de conformidad intragrupal proviene de los descubrimientos de que no cualquier sujeto que demuestre cómo se hace una acción vale como modelo. ...
... Los simios aprenden sus comportamientos culturales de la misma forma que los seres humanos: a través de la observación cuidadosa de las acciones y de los actores. Si bien algunos piensan que los simios adquieren comportamientos culturales a través de procesos de emulación, es decir, como si realizaran una copia de baja calidad del resultado final (Tennie, Call, & Tomasello, 2006;Tomasello, 1999), la evidencia actual sugiere que los grandes simios imitan la forma de la acción de un modelo, no sólo su resultado (Whiten et al., 2009;Byrne & Russon, 1998). Los estudios de difusión son una forma en que podemos observar cómo los individuos aprenden nuevos comportamientos. ...
... Es usual interpretar el fracaso de los chimpancés de santuario para sobreimitar como evidencia de que a estos animales no les importa imitar a la perfección los comportamientos culturales y luego utilizar este fracaso para explicar la relativa falta de cultura acumulativa en las sociedades de chimpancés (ver Sterelny, 2012;Suddendorf, 2013;Tomasello, 1999Tomasello, , 2014Whiten et al., 2009). Sin embargo, es posible que los chimpancés salvajes no vean a los investigadores como miembros de su grupo, del mismo modo que los chimpancés de los zoológicos quizás no vean a los estudiantes de posgrado vestidos con batas médicas como miembros de su grupo. ...
To answer tantalizing questions such as whether animals are moral or how morality evolved, I propose starting with a somewhat less fraught question: do animals have normative cognition? Recent psychological research suggests that normative thinking, or ought-thought, begins early in human development. Recent philosophical research suggests that folk psychology is grounded in normative thought. Recent primatology research finds evidence of sophisticated cultural and social learning capacities in great apes. Drawing on these three literatures, I argue that the human variety of social cognition and moral cognition encompass the same cognitive capacities and that the nonhuman great apes may also be normative beings. To make this argument, I develop an account of animal social norms that shares key properties with Cristina Bicchieri’s account of social norms but which lowers the cognitive requirements for having a social norm. I propose a set of four early developing prerequisites implicated in social cognition that make up what I call naïve normativity: (1) the ability to identify agents, (2) sensitivity to in-group/out-group differences, (3) the capacity for social learning of group traditions, and (4) responsiveness to appropriateness. I review the ape cognition literature and present preliminary empirical evidence supporting the existence of social norms and nave normativity in great apes. While there is more empirical work to be done, I hope to have offered a framework for studying normativity in other species, and I conclude that we should be open to the possibility that normative cognition is yet another ancient cognitive endowment that is not human-unique. Originally published as: Andrews, K. (2020). Naïve Normativity: The Social Foundation of Moral Cognition. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 6(1), 36-56. https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2019.30
... In an approach commonly known as "evo-devo, " evolutionists, historians of science, paleo-anthropologists, primatologists, philosophers, and cultural developmental psychologists theorized an evolutionary approach inquiring into the intergenerational transmission and development of culture (Levins and Lowentin, 1985;Wimsatt and Griesemer, 2007;Odling-Smee and Laland, 2011;Godfrey-Smith, 2001;Tooby and Cosmides, 1992;Sterelny, 2007;Corballis, 2011;Skyrms, 2003;Shweder and LeVine, 1984;Tomasello, 1999;Ramstead et al., 2016;Stotz, 2014;Caporael et al., 2014). Rather than asking how human behavior evolved under natural selection, this approach selects features and population resources critically important to evolutionary dynamics (Godfrey-Smith, 2001). ...
... An engineering approach to evolutionary analysis advises the selection of a pattern of behavior that comprises an innovation in an ancestral environment and combines it with a successful contemporary adaptive target and performance evaluation of that behavior (Tooby and Cosmides, 1992;Ackerman et al., 2012). In this study, the innovative ancestral environment entailed moral behaviors including cooperation, harm/care, and fairness/justice moral foundations theorized as emerging in Homo sapiens, ca 200-50kya (Tomasello, 1999). A successful contemporary investigation was selected as an adaptive target in which a narrative ecological niche formed a demanding experimental task (Beck and Clarke-Stewart, 1998). ...
... In the current study, the active subject is the Kindergartner, the movie is the object of knowledge, and the real interlocutor is, of course, the mother, who occupies the apex of the triangle in referring simultaneously to her child and the characters and events of the movie. The epistemic triangle is a model based on research in child development theorizing the cultural origins of human cognition as originating in motherchild joint intentional-causal communicational representations of cultural objects and events (Tomasello, 1999). From the first days of childhood, the epistemic triangle processes are constructed through mother-child references to objects in the world. ...
This evolutionary developmental study employed an experimental recursive narrative ecological niche, comparing scaffolded mother–child (5-year-old) pairs to unassisted controls as they independently viewed and discussed a realistic fictional family video depicting a father–daughter emotional conflict over the girl’s risky behavior, which violated harm/care and fairness/justice moral foundation norms. A microgenetic analysis was conducted on a selected variant pair that demonstrated high adaptive fitness in the niche by employing developmentally advanced cooperative scaffolding tools. The conversational ecosystem phase was characterized by repeated maternal theory-oriented “why” questions and coordinated child causal responses, forming a joint epistemic investigation that facilitated the child’s moral understanding of the characters’ responsibilities and motives. The pair used quasi-justice procedures to gather evidence, judge, and construct moral attributes for the characters. Their conversational mechanism was supported by mutual mindreading, mental time travel, and empathic communications, as they interacted simultaneously with each other and the story characters. A narrative ecological scaffolding theory emerged, establishing a standard for cooperative epistemic scaffolding between the mother and the child. Future training programs should utilize the Zone of Proximal Development method to instruct similar parent–child pairs.
... In the first year of life, children are sensitive to others' intentions and goals, and differentiate between intentional and unintentional actions (Woodward, 2009). When learning their first language, children make use of shared attention with a caregiver to establish the referents of early words (Baldwin, 1995;Tomasello, 1999). Furthermore, infants in the second year of life can track which objects another person has seen before, and will show that person toys that they have not seen, or point out to them where an object was hidden (Tomasello, 1999). ...
... When learning their first language, children make use of shared attention with a caregiver to establish the referents of early words (Baldwin, 1995;Tomasello, 1999). Furthermore, infants in the second year of life can track which objects another person has seen before, and will show that person toys that they have not seen, or point out to them where an object was hidden (Tomasello, 1999). ...
Introduction
The role of language in false belief reasoning has been much debated for twenty-five years or more, especially the relative contributions of general language development, complement syntax, vocabulary, and executive function. However, the empirical studies so far have fallen short, in that they generally have too few participants for adequate statistical modeling; they do not include control variables; or they are cross-sectional rather than longitudinal, making inferences about causal direction much more tenuous.
Methods
The present study considers the role of these different variables in the development of false belief reasoning over several months of testing, with 258 children aged three to five years. The children are also from under-resourced communities, broadening the populations that generally contribute such data.
Results
A cross-sectional and a longitudinal regression analysis reveals the contribution of each variable to the children’s success on the false belief measures. Finally, a structural equation model tests the relative contribution of the different potential factors over time, how they interact, and change. The model is an excellent fit to the data. Inhibitory control, complement comprehension and vocabulary all have effects on false belief reasoning at the first time point (T1). However, at T3, the major proximal contribution is the child’s comprehension of complements, though the longitudinal pathways of vocabulary and inhibitory control also pave the way.
Discussion
Our data confirm the specific contribution of complement syntax but also makes clear, as do training studies, that a certain amount of preparedness in vocabulary and in executive function skills is also necessary.
... Sin embargo, a pesar de estas ventajas, solo nuestra especie, entre las actualmente vivas, ha logrado desarrollar un sistema de transmisión cultural realmente acumulativo y dotado de un gran valor adaptativo (Tomasello 1999;Richerson y Boyd 2005). ¿Cuál es el motivo por el cual las otras especies de primates, como por ejemplo nuestros parientes más cercanos los chimpancés, poseen una cultura bastante rudimentaria y no han sido capaces de evolucionar hacia formas culturales más complejas? ...
... Para Tomasello (1999Tomasello ( , 2014 la transformación del aprendizaje social hominino en un sistema cultural acumulativo como el humano exigió un cambio cualitativo en la capacidad de imitación de nuestros antepasados. Este cambio requirió a su vez, como paso previo, el desarrollo de una capacidad para elaborar «una teoría de la mente», que les permitiese percibir a sus compañeros como seres intencionales dotados de una mente similar a la suya. ...
Desde la publicación de El error de Descartes, la influencia de Damásio no ha hecho otra cosa que crecer. A partir de una revisión de sus tesis acerca del papel de los sentimientos, nos proponemos contribuir a la construcción de las cadenas causales que median entre las emociones y los sentimientos, de una parte, y la acumulación de las representaciones y prácticas culturales, de otra. Para ello, subrayamos la importancia de la aparición en nuestro linaje de las primeras formas de enseñanza y lo que ello revela acerca de nuestra asimétrica percepción del mundo y sus consecuencias cognitivas y prácticas.
... CE Shannon, 'Mathematical Theory of Communication' (1948) 27 The Bell System Technical Journal 379. 13 As the article will argue below, it is not just lawyers but a broad variety of experts engaging with the legal system at different stages of the transmission who constitute the 'agents'. A sole emphasis on lawyers as the 'masters' of the code by Pistor seems a bit exaggerated. ...
... My primary frame of exploration will be a theory that goes back to the origins of modern computation as we know it today -Claude E. Shannon's Pistor's claim that legal coding is controlled by the 'masters' of the code. 13 By these means, studying law through Shannon's lens contributes to a broader agent-based critique of the legal system, indicating that is it not in fact law as such that 'codes' , but the agents within the legal system doing the encoding and decoding. 14 Three, Shannon's conceptualisation of 'noise' can be compared to silences, or vagueness or plasticity, within the legal system -features that make it 'cognitively open' in terms of systems theory. ...
This paper is an inquiry into the informational nature of legal systems to arrive at a new understanding of law-society interactions. Katharina Pistor in her book Code of Capital reveals how the legal 'coding' of 'capital' has deepened wealth inequality but does not offer an in-depth exploration or definition of 'legal coding'. In her critical response to 'legal singularity' as a proposed solution for making law more inclusive and accessible, Jennifer Cobbe calls for a closer look at the structural role law plays in society and how it has come to exclude, marginalise and reinforce power gaps. The paper aims to link Pistor's project with Cobbe's critical questions by exploring 'law as code' and modelling juridical communication and information flows in a legal system. For this purpose, I use two external frames-Claude Shannon's information theory and Niklas Luhmann's systems theory-to explore ways in which the legal system is exclusive, reflexive, and adaptive in the ways it interacts with society. An attempt to model information flows within (using Shannon) and beyond (using Luhmann) the boundaries of law reveals the influence of experts, their identities, and their lived experiences on both the translation and transmission of legal information. The paper is hopefully a starting point for more cross-disciplinary conversations aimed at addressing the structural issues with the way law shifts and reinforces power.
... Linguísticos e cognitivos, esses construtos gerais são, em parte, estruturados a priori por conta de sua natureza convencionalizada, relacionada à esquematização de experiências (TOMASELLO, 2019;HANKS, 2008); e, em parte, eles estruturam as experiências humanas compartilhadas e (re)construídas pelos indivíduos em interação. Configuram-se, pois, como "esquemas de conhecimento" que guiam e estruturam o uso da linguagem (CIENKI, 2007, p. 173) e enquadram ou emolduram nossas experiências psicossociais; são, dessa forma, projetivos e generalizantes. ...
... 3 Uma tese importante derivada da inflexão discursiva e sociocognitiva dos estudos que se desenvolvem na esteira da TMC é a de que, não redutível ao âmbito do linguístico ou ao estilístico, e nem confinada às nossas estruturas cerebrais, a metáfora integra nosso sistema conceptual por ser uma propriedade simbólica humana, largamente dependente dos processos de significação verbais e não verbais e das experiências da vida em sociedade -portanto, da linguagem. Nesses exemplos de possibilidades de perscrutação da cognição social no terreno da Linguística, assinala-se o caráter intersubjetivo e perspectivado da mente humana, ancorado na sociogênese da linguagem e de outros processos cognitivos (VYGOTSKY, 1930(VYGOTSKY, /1978TOMASELLO, 2019). ...
Este texto apresenta reflexões resultantes do projeto em desenvolvimento intitulado “O papel das metáforas e dos frames na ancoragem da referência discursiva - a conceptualização das afasias e da Doença de Alzheimer” – FAPESP processo 2020/00405-4. O enfoque deste artigo, cujos pressupostos teórico-metodológicos se filiam a perspectivas pós-lakoffianas de estudo da metáfora em uso (como Cameron, 2008; Charteris-Black, 2004; Kövecses, 2005; Vereza, 2007; Silva, 2015; Semino et al., 2016) está em dois dos três objetivos do estudo: (i) analisar, por meio de expressões referenciais metafóricas, a conceptualização da afasia e da Doença de Alzheimer por leigos, indivíduos diagnosticados e especialistas (médicos e terapeutas); e (ii) identificar tendências de conceptualização dessas condições clínicas quanto aos principais frames epistêmicos que procuram explicá-las, e suas virtuais variações, mudanças ou inter-relações. A partir da construção de um corpus em português brasileiro de expressões referenciais metafóricas extraído de dados linguístico-interacionais autênticos de trabalhos acadêmicos de pesquisadores da área de Neurolinguística do Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem, Universidade Estadual de Campinas), bem como de acervos do grupo de pesquisa COGITES (Cognição, Interação e Significação), foram analisadas ocorrências metafóricas em situações de uso e determinadas esferas discursivas (como entrevistas semidirigidas com especialistas e familiares, conversações com indivíduos afásicos e com diagnóstico de doença de Alzheimer, discussões diagnósticas). Com as análises empreendidas até o momento, foi possível observar semelhanças e diferenças na conceptualização da afasia e da Doença de Alzheimer por diferentes atores sociais, bem como de indivíduos diagnosticados. Em geral, a metáfora atua como agente de conhecimento e poderoso recurso linguístico-cognitivo de conceptualização da doença, como já assinalado por muitos autores. Neste estudo, ela indica determinadas tendências de (re)construção de sentidos associados às duas realidades nosológicas como uma (nova) experiência a ser ainda compreendida e emoldurada em termos epistêmicos e sociocognitivos, com impactos e desafios de diversas ordens.
... In human cognition, this encoding process frequently involves organizing the observed behavior into symbolic or conceptual schemas, often referred to as "templates." These templates allow for efficient memory storage and retrieval, enabling the learner to reconstruct the observed behavior in different contexts.This theoretical perspective underscores the interplay between cognitive processes and behavioral modeling, emphasizing the importance of retention as a bridge between observation and action [2][3][4][5]. ...
This work introduces a novel Retention Layer mechanism for Transformer based architectures, addressing their inherent lack of intrinsic retention capabilities. Unlike human cognition, which can encode and dynamically recall symbolic templates, Generative Pretrained Transformers rely solely on fixed pretrained weights and ephemeral context windows, limiting their adaptability. The proposed Retention Layer incorporates a persistent memory module capable of real time data population, dynamic recall, and guided output generation. This enhancement allows models to store, update, and reuse observed patterns across sessions, enabling incremental learning and bridging the gap between static pretraining and dynamic, context sensitive adaptation. The Retention Layer design parallels social learning processes, encompassing attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation stages. Technically, it integrates a memory attention mechanism and episodic buffers to manage memory scalability, mitigate overfitting, and ensure efficient recall. Applications span adaptive personal assistants, real time fraud detection, autonomous robotics, content moderation, and healthcare diagnostics. In each domain, the retention mechanism enables systems to learn incrementally, personalize outputs, and respond to evolving real world challenges effectively. By emulating key aspects of human learning, this retention enhanced architecture fosters a more fluid and responsive AI paradigm, paving the way for dynamic, session aware models that extend the capabilities of traditional Transformers into domains requiring continual adaptation.
... Despite these deliberate choices, much of language transmission remains unintentional, shaped by the socio-cultural and cognitive processes that underpin daily communication (Tomasello, 1999). Words, narratives, and discourses reflect the emotions, values, and beliefs intrinsic to the community's identity. ...
This study explores the intersection of language, identity, and transgenerational change within the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities, a transhumant pastoral tribe in Jammu and Kashmir. The study examines how linguistic practices reflect and influence the socio-cultural cognition of three generational cohorts—elders (F1), middle-aged adults (F2), and youth (F3)—amidst systemic pressures of assimilation and modernization. The study identifies distinct linguistic patterns tied to migration, education, and folk culture using qualitative data from focus group discussions and ethnographic observations. The findings reveal that F1 prioritizes terms associated with nostalgia and collective belonging, F2 expresses ambivalence amidst socio-political transitions, and F3 demonstrates a forward-looking identity that seeks to integrate tradition with modernity. This dynamic interplay underscores language as a medium for cultural continuity and adaptation. The study contributes to sociolinguistics and cultural cognitive science by illustrating how language serves as both a repository of cultural memory and a tool for negotiating identity in the face of systemic change.
... [34, p. 260]. Finally, tertiary intersubjectivity (from 4 years), when infants become aware of others as mental agents (not only bodily agents, as in the previous phase) with their own thoughts and beliefs that may also differ from theirs and from reality [35]. The ability to integrate different perspectives is grounded on "the ability to freely oscillate between an ego-centric, embodied perspective on the one hand, and an allocentric or decentered perspective on the other, without thereby losing one's bodily center of self-awareness." ...
Through this contribution, I aim to show how phenomenology and hermeneutics can enrich the understanding and development of clinical encounters conceived in terms of intersubjectivity, and how it may be problematic to decipher this intersubjectivity in the context of the prescription of drugs. In order to achieve these goals, this chapter is split into three main sections. In the first section, I will introduce the theoretical framework of this work, briefly reconstructing the history of phenomenology and its recent adjustments to cognitive science and to neuroscience. I will also clarify some key concepts at the heart of the phenomenological enterprise. In the second sect. I will address the issue of the clinical encounter in terms of intersubjectivity, and in the last section, I will discuss how the prescription of drugs may impact the intersubjective encounter.
... They do offer, however, only weakly articulated constructivist components (see Haidle 2012 for full overview). One exception is the work of Tomasello (1999a;1999b;1995). While his line of research does combine acute attention to ontogeny and the role of the environment in shaping cognition, the specific importance of objects is rarely considered. ...
Artefacts are the primary resources of archaeological research, and they provide us with evidence about the evolution of hominin sensory-motor and cognitive capacities. Extended childhood is an evolutionary hallmark of Homo sapiens and developmental psychology provides rich insights on how specifically human cognition emerges from infancy to adulthood. Yet, attempts to analyse the cognitive abilities of past children as reflected in their tool behaviour are rare. At the same time, novel theoretical and methodological approaches have boosted the visibility of prehistoric children suggesting that their situated exposure to specific materials and technologies in part conditions their cognitive ontogeny. Applying the cognigram approach to ethnographic observations and museum objects from the Wodaabe of West Africa, we reconstruct a setting of situated learning through developing peripheral participation across different-age learners and teachers. Based on a bow-arrow-quiver set made for playing it is possible to identify different learning processes and aims as well as changing roles within a community of practice of Wodaabe bowyers. Against this background, we discuss the role of play in innovation and, taking our argument into prehistory, we note how the initial emergence of play objects correlates with periods of innovation.
... If, as some argue, what makes us truly human is the ability to create and transmit stories through which we elaborate and realise new visions of the world (Bruner 1991;Damasio 1999;Tomasello 1999), it is precisely these that we should look at. Not only the best known and celebrated ones, but also the hidden ones, the heritage of less numerous and little-known communities. ...
... On the other hand, however, certain cognitive processes are uniquely human. Tomasello (1999) explains the uniquely human forms of social learning by stressing the importance of sociality for human infants, which is the vital need to be cared for by others during the relatively prolonged immaturity period compared to non-human animals. This immaturity results in an increased period of adult-child social interaction. ...
The aims of the current study are twofold. The main aim of the study was to examine the relationships between parenting styles, scaffolding behaviours and parenting by lying practices, the last two of which were operationalised as epistemic and interpersonal aspects of parenting, respectively. Since there was no measurement tool to assess parental scaffolding functions, the second purpose of the study was to develop a quantitative measurement tool to assess parental scaffolding practices. The current research consisted of two studies. In Study 1, parents with preschoolers (N = 258) were recruited to determine the factor structure of the Parental Scaffolding within Cultural Learning Scale (PSCL). In Study 2, the relationships between epistemic and interpersonal aspects of parenting were investigated through the PSCL and the Instrumental Lie-telling Scale in a second independent sample (N = 153). Furthermore, the associations between parenting styles and these two aspects were examined through the Parent Attitude Scale. According to the study findings, a statistically valid and reliable measurement tool to assess parental scaffolding
ii
practices was contributed to the related literature. In addition, it was displayed that the relationships of different parenting styles with parental scaffolding and lie-telling behaviours show a variety. For example, while authoritative and overprotective parenting practices were related to the task persistence scaffolds, authoritarian and overprotective parenting styles were found to be related to higher use of threat lies. In conclusion, these results pointed out the important associations between different parenting factors that were thought to contribute to children’s social learning.
... It has been proposed that this dependence leads to models of self that are strongly shaped by the need to predict the minds of others with whom the developing individual interacts. These reciprocal relationships may be the basis for the kind of joint attention and joint intentionality emphasized by Tomasello and others as a basis for uniquely human social cognition [29]. ...
We propose the creation of a systematic effort to identify and replicate key findings in neuropsychology and allied fields related to understanding human values. Our aim is to ensure that research underpinning the value alignment problem of artificial intelligence has been sufficiently validated to play a role in the design of AI systems.
... The anthropological argument Without education, the transmission of culture, cultural techniques and the associated attitudes, values and ways of life is not possible. If there was no education, there would be no human culture, no 'cultural evolution' (Tomasello, 1999) and no society. We are necessarily dependent on education because ourculture and lifestyle is not passed on through heritage. ...
I will take up the foundations of the human science tradition and general pedagogy and focus on phenomenology, Bildung and education. In doing so, I systematically differentiate between education and Bildung i.e. between education and learning and relate them under conditions of a pedagogical difference (2). I first argue from a cultural-theoretical perspective, which determines education as a transmission of culture, cultural techniques and values (3). On the level of personal or existential experience, i.e. in the first-person perspective, educational practices are experienced as impositions - from both sides (4). With the phenomenological perspective on the first-person-perspective, it is possible to describe the experience of imposition positively, as a lived space of education (4.1). In a second part, I switch to a theory of Bildung, which I again focus on from a phenomenological perspective (5). Using real-life examples, I try to clarify the experience of Bildung and the event of Bildung (5.1). Finally, I return to the relation to education and differentiate between a broad concept of education as the life teaching (6.1) and a narrow concept of education as showing the world (6.2). I will put forward six theses corresponding to the six sections of my presentation and explain them in the course of my argumentation. I will do this from a praxeological and phenomenological perspective, which focuses on subjective, existential experiences, especially negative experiences, in education and Bildung (cf Brinkmann 2024). In phenomenology, negativity is not something bad, evil or something to be avoided or rejected – it is highly productive as I will show in experiences of educating as well as learning i.e. Bildung.
... As emphasized by Tomasello and his colleagues (also Tomasello 1999;Tomasello et al. 2005), the human abilities to imitate and teach/learn are central prerequisites for the transmission of cultural practices between individuals, and they function as the key mechanisms in Tomasello's ratchet model. However, the transmission of technological skills between individuals (vertically, obliquely or horizontally in ontogenetic terms) does not in itself account for the biologically odd phenomenon that human beings have continued to come up with new and more potent ways of manipulating the world to their advantage (or, occasionally, ruin). ...
... One solution is to strike a balance that acknowledges the joint influence of both biology and culture in shaping our emotions and, generally, human nature. Although there are some theorists from different disciplines who already endorse some version of this open conciliatory approach such as Tomasello (2009), Donald (1993, and Hrdy (2009), many theorists see with suspicion the methodologies and findings of sociocultural or evolutionary research programs. This has produced some restricted anthropological research programs that would benefit from a more conciliatory stance. ...
My objective in this paper is to demonstrate how conceptual analysis, with a little help from empirical evidence, can help us to coordinate the efforts of the two chief schools of anthropological thought, evolutionary anthropology and sociocultural anthropology, to understand human nature. The marked differences between these two branches of anthropology (especially in their sophisticated forms) tend to block cooperation, impede the consideration of each other’s arguments, and stall the progress of anthropological science. Conceptual analysis is a basic philosophical tool that can help us resolve the differences between the two anthropological paradigms. Coordinating these branches of anthropology would facilitate a deeper understanding of human nature. In doing so, it can also help us resolve some of the theoretical and practical problems that anthropological science faces.
... En ese marco, los debates en torno al innatismo se han llevado (y siguen haciéndolo) gran parte de la atención: ¿es el lenguaje un dispositivo innato que me permite adquirir una o más lenguas a partir de mecanismos específicos de dominio o, en cambio, los humanos contamos con un dispositivo de aprendizaje de dominio general que permite adquirir una lengua y también otros conocimientos mediante los mismos mecanismos? (Bickerton 2014, Piattelli-Palmarini & Berwick 2013, Tomassello 1999). En caso de haber algo innato, ¿qué sería eso? ¿sólo un sistema de reglas o también ciertas unidades como los conceptos podrían ser innatos? ...
... According to Bogin et al (2016:61), 'this extreme human capacity for facultative adjustment in the social structuring of resource flows, shaped by both local ecological realities and cultural norms, is integral to what we see as unique about the inherently biocultural nature of the human breeding system'. Socioculturally constructed belief systems and their associated systems of conventions and practices interact with the behavioural systems of humans (Tomasello 1999) as a 'hyper-social' animal species, accumulating their changes. ...
With a variety of conceptual intersections such as those of natural persons (ie people in their natural state), individual development, and socialisation, scholars have utilised examples of child-rearing practices in hunter-gatherer societies as a proxy for better understanding human origins in the dual sense of society and the individual. Significant diversity in child-rearing practices have been documented in a wide variety of hunter-gatherer populations. In particular, a range of forms of early childhood attachment has provoked active debates about humans’ original parenting practices and what might be considered natural for human child-rearing practices. No society represents living fossils of our ancestors nor can be seen as a singular representative for all human child-rearing practices in the past and present. Nevertheless, much can be learned about possible child-rearing practices in human history through the careful consideration of ethnographic data from modern foraging societies. Taking up the author’s studies of gymnastic behaviours (a series of behaviours displayed by caregivers such as holding infants on their laps early and often, holding them in a standing position, or moving them up and down) among San groups, this paper reconsiders the attachment relationships as a more dynamic system involving many people, based on intimate responsiveness. Gymnastic behaviours are performed by various caregivers, not only the mother, among San groups. Gymnastic behaviours thereby situate infants within a network of relationships with those around them long before they begin to use cognitive tools such as language to understand and engage in social situations. Flexibility and plasticity, which characterise child-rearing in hunter-gatherer societies, may also underlie parenting in other past and present societies. While most child-rearing practices, including gymnastic behaviours, might have left no archaeological trace, better understanding regarding who engages, and how, in a wide range of child-rearing practices in the present provides valuable insights for interpreting the archaeological record. The analysis of gymnastic behaviours among groups of the San indicates that rather than a singular focus on mother–infant relationships, non-maternal or allo-maternal care of infants might better reflect the flexibility and plasticity of child-rearing practices in human societies.
... Theory of Mind (ToM) studies how agents form and use beliefs to reason in dynamic environments (Premack and Woodruff, 1978). Originally developed to describe human interactions (Preston and De Waal, 2002;Tomasello, 2009) as well as toddlers' psychological development (Wimmer and Perner, 1983;Baron-Cohen et al., 1985), ToM has been quickly adopted by other fields, including artificial intelligence (McCarthy, 1979;Scassellati, 2002), bayesian inference (Baker et al., 2011) and machine learning (Rabinowitz et al., 2018). In machine learning, ToM has both descriptive and pre-* First author. ...
... These dynamics are essential for human advancement, facilitating learning, innovation, and adjustment in everchanging environments (Cohen, 2018). A prime example of human cognitive dynamics is well exemplified by our ability to adapt our viewpoints based on environmental explorations (Tomasello, 2009;Donald, 1993). As illustrated in Figure 1, there has been a progressive shift in our understanding of the universe, evolving from geocentric to I discover the relation between the luminosity and the period of Cepheid variables, crucial to measure cosmic distances. ...
... In terms of gene-culture coevolution theory, culture played a major role in the evolution of human cognition (Tomasello 1999;Gintis 2007Gintis , 2011). An important implication of this is that beliefs influence adaptive strategies (Henrich and McElreath 2007:557-58). ...
... The potential bidirectional association between language and prosociality pertains to our understanding of human cognition. According to the social-cognitive approach (SCA), children's cognitive development, and particularly in the domain of their ability to understand social interactions and mental states, is crucial for the development of both language and prosocial behavior in early to middle childhood (Dunn, 1993;Gopnik & Wellman, 1992;Hughes & Leekam, 2004;Poulin-Dubois & Yott, 2018;Tomasello, 2009;Tomasello & Carpenter, 2007). According to SCA, as children develop ToM and other social competencies, they also become more adept at interpreting and responding to social cues of others around them, thereby enhancing their capacity This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. ...
... The cumulative evolution of this niche is much researched, yet explained differently. Some argue that complex technologies developed through generational social learning or non-social technical reasoning-without involvement of explicit causal understanding [1][2][3]. Others maintain that non-social technical reasoning is key to the understanding of technical systems and how to improve upon them [4][5][6][7], and that causal cognition is necessary for cumulative technological development [7][8][9][10][11]. The different positions have recently been explored through different versions of a microsociety abstracted-wheel experiment [3,6] (Fig 1). ...
Micro-society experimental setups are increasingly used to infer aspects of human behavioural evolution. A key part of human society today is our dependence on, and use of, technology–whether simple (such as a knife) or complex (such as the technology that underpins AI). Previously, two groups of researchers used an abstracted-wheel experiment to explore the evolution of human technical behaviour, reaching fundamentally different outcomes. Whereas one group saw their results as indicating social learning only (void of causal understanding), the other inferred non-social technical reasoning as part of human technical behaviour. Here we report on the third generation of the micro-society abstracted-wheel experiment. We argue that causal reasoning is inseparable from both social learning and technical reasoning, and that these traits probably co-evolved into the current human socio-technical niche. Based on our outcomes, we present a critical assessment of what this experiment may (or may not) reveal about the evolution of human technical behaviour. We show that the abstracted-wheel experiment reflects behavioural output only, instead of testing for cognition. It is therefore limited in its ability to inform on aspects of human cognitive evolution, but it can provide useful insights into the interrelatedness of social learning, technical reasoning, and causal reasoning. Such a co-evolutionary insight has the potential to inform on aspects of human socio-technical evolution throughout the Pleistocene.
... Convergent Goal -Emulation: Through imitation and mental simulation, the agent aligns its behaviors with others, improving social understanding and cooperation while facilitating deeper learning through observation, simulation, and practice [75]. ...
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes deeply integrated into critical infrastructures and everyday life, ensuring its safe deployment is one of humanity's most urgent challenges. Current AI models prioritize task optimization over safety, leading to risks of unintended harm. These risks are difficult to address due to the competing interests of governments, businesses, and advocacy groups, all of which have different priorities in the AI race. Current alignment methods, such as reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), focus on extrinsic behaviors without instilling a genuine understanding of human values. These models are vulnerable to manipulation and lack the social intelligence necessary to infer the mental states and intentions of others, raising concerns about their ability to safely and responsibly make important decisions in complex and novel situations. Furthermore, the divergence between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations in AI introduces the risk of deceptive or harmful behaviors, particularly as systems become more autonomous and intelligent. We propose a novel human-inspired approach which aims to address these various concerns and help align competing objectives.
... Non-creative, routine, communication will often be shaped by existing constructions and their coverage (Goldberg 2019). At the same time, it is important to remember that we are the symbolic species (Deacon 1997;Tomasello 1999) and that meaning can often be created dynamically (Casasanto & Lupyan 2015) and creatively. Given the right poetic context, a seemingly contradictory sentence such as (2a) can receive an interpretation: ...
Creativity is a design feature of human language. This paper presents a cognitive
model of verbal creativity that draws on insights from the psychological research into creativity—particularly Glăveanu’s 5A model that distinguishes five crucial perspectives on a creative act (actors, audience, artefacts, actions and affordances). The paper will outline a linguistic version of this model that adopts Construction Grammar as its theoretical foundation. The resulting “5C model of constructional creativity” argues that the central elements of linguistic creativity are constructors, co-constructors, constructs, constructional blending and the constructional network.
... Understanding of gaze direction as a tool for social interaction is thought to play an important role in the development of the theory of mind: the ability to understand others' mental states, emotions, and intentions (Baron-Cohen, 1995). Reports of developmental studies have described how even newborn babies follow gaze direction (Farroni et al., 2004) and how infants around 9-12 months of age show joint attention, which is the sharing of attention or interest with others (Tomasello, 1999). These findings suggest that the ability to be interested in a specific location or object beyond the direction of gaze is acquired during earlier developmental stages. ...
We examined the properties in orienting visual attention that are triggered by social cues (eye gaze or pointing finger) and nonsocial cues (an arrow). Particularly, we investigated whether the mental state of others would be modulated by any social cue. We presented an occluder between the cue and target to manipulate the mental state of an agent in cues (i.e., whether the agent is aware of the target). For Experiment 1, the reaction time (RT) to detect the target was prolonged when the target side was occluded only in the gaze‐cue condition, but not for the arrow or the pointing finger. For Experiment 2, the RT of a discrimination task, which demanded greater cognitive demand, was not prolonged for any cue type. These results suggest that the mental state attribution for the agency of the cue, which is affected by an occluder, is specific to the gaze cue, and suggest that it is under top‐down control that requires cognitive resources.
It is necessary to acquire the viewpoints of others and relate them to one's own ideas through interaction in cooperative situations. This study examined the effects of speech from a joint attention perspective (guided and tracked) on problem solving in three fifth-grade classes for learning formulas for finding the area of a figure, as speech that attempts to acquire another person's viewpoint. In order to clarify the effects of interactions that only cooperative learning situations can provide, which are not present in individual learning situations, this study analyzed the speech of the participants by distinguishing between their own speech and that of their partners. The results showed that the partner's tracking of the event that the actor had guided facilitated post-task problem solving. Furthermore, it was shown that the influence of such speech occurs in the problem of understanding formulas.
Established in the early 1980s, Word Grammar is the first theory of grammar that was cast in the terms of cognitive linguistics. This book surveys the groundbreaking contribution of WG to a number of disciplines both within and outside of linguistics. It illustrates the benefits of thinking beyond traditional phrase-structural notions of syntax, and beyond encapsulated theories of cognition, by exploring how key problems in theoretical linguistics and historical linguistics can be approached from alternative perspectives. It provides examples of how theoretical linguistic notions and constructs of WG can be applied to bilingual language use, as well as a variety of typologically different languages including English, Chinese, German and Swedish. It also explores the relationship between language and social cognition and dependency distance as a universal measure of syntactic complexity. It is essential reading for linguists seeking creative ideas on how to advance explanations of language, language variation and change.
The primary aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the daily lives and experiences of children and adolescents in contemporary hunter-gatherer societies. The study focuses on cultural and demographic factors that influence children’s experiences and examines general characteristics of childhood among forager communities. A secondary aim of the paper is to discuss, when possible, links between hunter-gatherer children’s lives and the archaeological record. This review focuses on the Aka and other Congo Basin hunter-gatherer because of the extensive amount of recent research on childhood in these groups, but also includes comparisons with foragers in other natural and social settings.
The study analyses multiple features of childcare and children’s experiences, such as infant care, physical and emotional intimacy, play, co-sleeping and social learning. Hunter-gatherer societies have relatively unique cultural practices common to many groups living in diverse natural environments and which seem to have been conserved over time and space (Hewlett BS et al 2024). The archaeological record may have limited physical artefacts associated with children, but their lived experiences and activities can still manifest as discernible archaeological signatures.
The examination of childhood in hunter-gatherer societies yields valuable insights into the breadth of human experiences and the impact of cultural practices on and by children. Understanding the cultural diversity, life experiences, and behavioural patterns of contemporary hunter-gatherer children holds promise for enriching our understanding and interpretation of children in prehistoric archaeological contexts. The findings demonstrate that children played an active and influential role within their communities, engaging in, learning from, and contributing to cultural practices and archaeological signatures.
The following article is an introduction to the handbook “Intangible Cultural Practices as Global Strategies for the Future”. 20 years after the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The book takes stock. It is divided into five sections dealing with the following topics: (1) Living heritage as an initiator of change; (2) Colonialism, minorities, inequalities and the struggle for human rights; (3) Identity formation, participation and conflicts; (4) Living culture in aesthetic encounters; (5) Challenging issues, future developments and new fields of research. With the help of numerous interdisciplinary and international contributions, the following are examined: (1) intangible and tangible heritage; (2) the selection of practices of intangible cultural heritage; (3) the body and performativity; (4) the mimetic production of intangible cultural practices; (4) community and participation; (5) sustainable development; (6) education for sustainable development, global citizenship and peace; (7) digitalization. The aim of these analyses is to take stock and work out which developments are desirable and possible in the future in order to live as non-violently and sustainably as possible.
Similarity is a core notion that is used in psychology and two branches of linguistics: theoretical and computational. The similarity datasets that come from the two fields differ in design: psychological datasets are focused around a certain topic such as fruit names, while linguistic datasets contain words from various categories. The later makes humans assign low similarity scores to the words that have nothing in common and to the words that have contrast in meaning, making similarity scores ambiguous. In this work we discuss the similarity collection procedure for a multi-category dataset that avoids score ambiguity and suggest changes to the evaluation procedure to reflect the insights of psychological literature for word, phrase and sentence similarity. We suggest to ask humans to provide a list of commonalities and differences instead of numerical similarity scores and employ the structure of human judgements beyond pairwise similarity for model evaluation. We believe that the proposed approach will give rise to datasets that test meaning representation models more thoroughly with respect to the human treatment of similarity.
Humans use signs, e.g., sentences in a spoken language, for communication and thought. Hence, symbol systems like language are crucial for our communication with other agents and adaptation to our real-world environment. The symbol systems we use in our human society adaptively and dynamically change over time. In the context of artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive systems, the symbol grounding problem has been regarded as one of the central problems related to {\it symbols}. However, the symbol grounding problem was originally posed to connect symbolic AI and sensorimotor information and did not consider many interdisciplinary phenomena in human communication and dynamic symbol systems in our society, which semiotics considered. In this paper, we focus on the symbol emergence problem, addressing not only cognitive dynamics but also the dynamics of symbol systems in society, rather than the symbol grounding problem. We first introduce the notion of a symbol in semiotics from the humanities, to leave the very narrow idea of symbols in symbolic AI. Furthermore, over the years, it became more and more clear that symbol emergence has to be regarded as a multifaceted problem. Therefore, secondly, we review the history of the symbol emergence problem in different fields, including both biological and artificial systems, showing their mutual relations. We summarize the discussion and provide an integrative viewpoint and comprehensive overview of symbol emergence in cognitive systems. Additionally, we describe the challenges facing the creation of cognitive systems that can be part of symbol emergence systems.
That narrative approach to the nature of the self and personal identity captures the insight that the experiences of a person are not independent, discrete mental episodes but can only exist as part of linking holistic structure. The narrative of oneself that one gradually constructs, in conjunction with others, provides that linking structure. Marya Schechtman (The Constitution of Selves. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1996) places a reality constraint on self-narratives: they cannot be radically out of touch with reality. We cannot always just accept the content of a person’s self-narrative. But I resist Schechtman’s approach of distinguishing between reasonable and unreasonable self-narratives, except there can be extreme cases where we scarcely can accept there is a self. I wish to preserve the hope that a narrative conception of the self can contribute to our understanding of personal identity through time. But my approach is not to focus on the content of the self-narrative but rather on the object that is the self-narrative. Tracing that object through time determines personal identity.
Scientists, either working alone or in groups, require rich cognitive, social, cultural, and material environments to accomplish their epistemic aims. There is research in the cognitive sciences that examines intelligent behavior as a function of the environment (“environmental perspectives”), which can be used to examine how scientists integrate “cognitive-cultural” resources as they create environments for problem-solving. In this paper, I advance the position that an expanded framework of distributed cognition can provide conceptual, analytical, and methodological tools to investigate how scientists enhance natural cognitive capacities by creating specific kinds of environments to address their epistemic goals. In a case study of a pioneering neuroengineering lab seeking to understand learning in living networks of neurons, I examine how the researchers integrated conceptual, methodological, and material resources from engineering, neuroscience, and computational science to create different kinds of distributed problem-solving environments that enhanced their natural cognitive capacities, for instance, for reasoning, visualization, abstraction, imagination, and memory, to attain their epistemic aims.
This Element introduces Afro-Brazilian religions and underscores the necessity for an expanded methodological framework to encompass these traditions in the philosophy of religion. It emphasizes the importance of incorporating overlooked sources like mythic narratives and ethnographies while acknowledging the pivotal role of material culture in cognitive processes. Furthermore, it advocates for adopting an embodiment paradigm to facilitate the development of a philosophy of religious practice. The Element illustrates this approach by examining phenomena often neglected in philosophical discussions on religion, such as sacrifice and spirit possession, and delves into the ontological commitments and implications of these practices. It also stresses the significance of employing thick descriptions and embracing interdisciplinary dialogue to cultivate a globally inclusive philosophy of religion, capable of engaging with phenomena frequently sidelined within the mainstream.
Fernanda Liberali's chapter, *Curriculum De-encapsulation as a Decolonial Instrument to Develop Good Living in Brazil*, explores how decolonial perspectives can challenge traditional educational practices and promote equitable societal transformations. Drawing on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and frameworks like Santos' "ecology of knowledges" and Mbembe's "necropolitics," the chapter presents action research projects that integrate university, school, and community partnerships. These initiatives aim to dismantle oppressive values, foster critical dialogue, and empower participants as co-creators of societal dynamics.
Liberali highlights the potential of education to support the "good living perspective," which emphasizes fairness, independence, and ecological and social balance. By employing creative and insurgent methods, such as poetry slams, the projects demonstrate how participants can address shared challenges and develop a sense of agency. This approach underscores the role of education in cultivating transformative practices that align with ethical and moral imperatives for societal change.
This chapter brings together what the culturalization of the planet and the geologization of culture mean for societies and for us as individuals. In view of the diverse debates, only building blocks can be provided here, which will not be enough to produce a conceptually inhabitable building. Hence, the controversial discussion about scales is combined with concepts of world citizenship in the Anthropocene. I have then formulated the guiding question as a cosmopolitan-informed question of world ecology: How can intensively networked cultures peacefully coexist on a planet that is heavily influenced by humans but limited in size, without all having to become indistinguishable? Using Southeast Asia as an example, I finally show what a “provincialization” and a localization of the Anthropocene could look like on site.
Self-regulation is the ability to self-manage attention and thinking, behaviors, emotional reactions and social interactions in the context of stressors, distractions or competing demands (Howard et al., 2020). It is one of the most significant predictors of young children’s positive adaptation to educational environments outside the home (McClelland et al., 2019). Despite its significance, research on families’ and educators’ understanding of self-regulation and its role in transition processes to school is scarce.
This presentation will share findings from a study that investigated how families and early childhood educators understand self-regulation and describe child dispositions that support a positive transition to preschool. The qualitative research examined the perspectives of six educators and ten parents/guardians from an early childhood school (preschool to Year 2) in the Australian Capital Territory using a combination of individual interviews and focus groups. Thematic analysis using Shanker’s (2012) five domains of self-regulation was undertaken. Our findings revealed common thematic threads in families’ and educators’ understandings of self-regulation, with references to biological, emotional and social regulation most commonly present in their discourses. Self-regulation skills across the five domains were seen as critical in preparing children for a positive transition to the preschool environment. While participants saw environmental stressors as affordances to teach self-regulation, they acknowledged that these have to be moderated and carefully scaffolded in order to be productive. Finally, parents and educators identified the importance of play as a vehicle that supports self-regulation development in children.
In early childhood education and care (ECEC), children do not participate in the same way and to the same extent in various kinds of interactions. One of the challenges for educators is to succeed in involving every child in the proposed activities, thereby enabling them to benefit from these experiences for language acquisition. The present exploratory study was conducted through video recordings of educator-child interactions in French ECEC contexts. The analysis focused on sequences where one or more children either withdrew or stayed in the background of the ongoing activities. The sequences were categorised according to the type of activity, the educators’ language strategies, and their outcomes in terms of the children’s participation. By focusing on the role and impact of language practices, our discussion re-examines the notion of involvement/engagement, its achievements in ECEC, and the effects of the educators’ moves on child involvement.
This chapter explores the multifaceted role of the co-trainer in psychotherapy training, emphasizing the importance of relational dynamics and attachment theory. The co-trainer acts as an experiential and didactic mediator, guiding students through the complexities of personal and professional growth. By fostering a secure and open group environment, the co-trainer facilitates the development of emotional honesty, empathy, and professional competence. The chapter underscores the importance of metacognitive awareness and the integration of various therapeutic approaches. Additionally, it highlights the co-trainer’s role in navigating interpersonal motivational systems, such as attachment, sexuality, and competition, to enhance the learning experience. This comprehensive approach aims to cultivate well-rounded therapists who are adept at both technical skills and personal reflection.
Background Following preterm birth, breast milk feeding is recommended because it confers broad health benefits to preterm infants. Breast milk has been suggested to promote secure attachment in infancy, but this is uncertain. Elucidating the relationship between breast milk intake and infant attachment is crucial for supporting parents of preterm infants to make feeding choices and providing accurate counselling when breast milk is not available. We aimed to investigate if breast milk exposure during neonatal care associates with attachment outcomes derived from infants’ responses to the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) at nine months of age. Methods We studied 77 preterm (< 33 weeks’ gestation) and 71 term infants. Preterm infant feeding data were collected from birth until hospital discharge. Infant responses to the SFP were videocoded at nine months corrected age. Infants’ distress, fretfulness, attentiveness to caregivers and attachment classification were compared between preterm infants who received exclusive breast milk for ≥ 75% of inpatient days, those who received exclusive breast milk for < 75% of inpatient days, and term infants. Milk intake thresholds were chosen based on our previous work demonstrating positive associations between breast milk intake and MRI markers of brain maturation. Results There were no significant differences in infant distress, fretfulness, attentiveness to caregivers (p-values > 0.19), or in the odds of secure versus insecure attachment classification (relative risk ratio = 0.57–0.89, p-values = 1.00) between preterm infants with high or low breast milk exposure, or term comparators. Conclusions Attachment outcomes at nine months were similar between term and preterm infants, and breast milk exposure did not associate with attachment in the preterm group. Although breast milk feeding has clear benefits, these findings may alleviate some of the pressures experienced by parents who are unable to provide breast milk for infants cared for in the neonatal unit.
It is generally accepted that human culture is cumulative, with current theories describing how humans uniquely accumulate “improvements” over time. These spread through populations ‘ratcheting’ them into greater levels of cultural complexity. However, such theories of cumulative cultural evolution have sparked debate and pose theoretical and ethical problems. As a growing number of species demonstrate cumulative cultural abilities, new questions must be asked about what makes human culture so uniquely rich.
Symbolism permeates every facet of culture, and we cannot understand cumulative culture without first explaining the rise of “symbolic behaviour” and language. However, current paleoanthropological thinking questions a simple ‘symbolic revolution’, pointing instead to a mosaic evolution of behaviours across time and regions.
This paper will offer a new theoretical perspective based on the semiotic theories of Charles Sanders Peirce and the posthuman, material physics of Karen Barad. This approach returns to the entangled agency of the universe and demonstrates how matter and meaning are entangled in biological forms.
Far from symbolic behaviour being unique to humans, it is universal to biological life, seen in the semiotic meaning-making (semiosis) and biological plasticity of organisms as they make decisions in intricately complex environments. This relationship between an unknowable universe and the interpretations of organisms, suggests a form of evolution simultaneously driven by agency and natural selection - epigenetically and genetically influenced through agentiality, fallibility, and happenstance.
Using a case study of Oldowan tools, this paper suggests that language and culture are common among life on Earth, and through the communal negotiation of reality, human language and culture emerged alongside deeply felt emotional, social, and biological connections to one another.
This paper provides a philosophical discussion of the notion of causality in co-evolutionary contexts pertaining to biology, psychology and the behavioral sciences and the social and cultural sciences. While Ernst Mayr classically distinguishes between proximate and ultimate causes in evolution, this neat distinction has become the focus of much debate in light of some recent developments in the domain of theoretical biology such as epigenetics, evo-devo, and niche construction theory. The paper examines how the functioning or causal processes is depicted in these milieus as well as a number of psychological and sociocultural contexts with a view on the philosophical implications for our understanding of the logic of the sciences and our ontological framework of the metaphysics of the world. I argue that the epistemic consequence of the very variegated way in which complex networks of causal channels interact in real biological and cultural systems should give us alarm against monocausal schemas. There is also a major ontological implication to my discussion and it points out to the irreducible plurality of the world outside.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.