Rudy Garns - Bookmarks

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Evolutionary Psychology and the Public Media: Rekindling the Romance

David Sloan Wilson

Tags: evolutionary-psychology on 2009-06-25 -All Annotations (12) -About

Sociobiology is the study of social behavior from an evolutionary perspective.
Evolutionary psychology is the study of psychology from an evolutionary perspective.
Everything that evolves requires two explanations, one based on survival and reproduction (ultimate causation) and one based on the mechanisms that cause individuals to behave in a mechanistic sense (proximate causation).
To proceed with their agenda, evolutionary psychologists needed to identify the actual proximate mechanisms that evolved by genetic evolution to motivate human behavior.
the mind as a collection of hundreds of special-purpose modules that evolved to solve specific problems in the EEA
EEA was limited to the range of environments occupied by humans during their evolution as a species
universal human nature
dismissed open-ended, domain-general psychological processes as a theoretical impossibility
nothing to say about culture as an open-ended evolutionary process
prestige bias
conformity bias
Strong reciprocity

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The Never-Ending Misconceptions About Evolutionary Psychology.

The anti-EP dragon is slain repeatedly and yet it always resurfaces, emboldened by its blind and prideful ignorance of the facts. Unfortunately, it would take several posts for me to provide a point-by-point retort to the endless number of falsehoods that appear in her article. Instead, I will focus on a few key ones that were central to her critique. (Psychology Today)

Tags: evolutionary-psychology on 2009-06-25 -All Annotations (1) -About

more fromwww.psychologytoday.com

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Can We Blame Our Bad Behavior on Stone-Age Genes? | Newsweek Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com

Tags: evolutionary-psychology on 2009-06-22 and saved by 5 people -All Annotations (5) -About

more fromwww.newsweek.com

Back in the late Pleistocene epoch 100,000 years ago, the 2000 book contended, men who carried rape genes had a reproductive and evolutionary edge over men who did not: they sired children not only with willing mates, but also with unwilling ones, allowing them to leave more offspring (also carrying rape genes) who were similarly more likely to survive and reproduce, unto the nth generation.
behaviors that conferred a fitness advantage during the era when modern humans were evolving are the result of hundreds of genetically based cognitive "modules" preprogrammed in the brain. Since they are genetic, these modules and the behaviors they encode are heritable—passed down to future generations—and, together, constitute a universal human nature that describes how people think, feel and act
Hill then ran the numbers on the reproductive costs and benefits of rape. It wasn't even close: the cost exceeds the benefit by a factor of 10. "That makes the likelihood that rape is an evolved adaptation extremely low," says Hill.
Anthropological studies such as Hill's on the Ache, shooting down the programmed-to-rape idea, have been accumulating. And brain scientists have pointed out that there is no evidence our gray matter is organized the way evo psych claims, with hundreds of specialized, preprogrammed modules.

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Brain Cells for Socializing

Allman was searching for a peculiar kind of brain cell that he suspects is a key to how the African elephant—like a human being—manages to stay attuned to the ever-shifting nuances of social interplay. These spindle-shaped brain cells, called von Economo neurons—named for the man who first described them—are found only in human beings, great apes and a handful of other notably gregarious creatures. Allman, 66, compares the brains of people and other animals to gain insight into the evolution of human behavior.

Tags: brains, social-neuroscience, grue, cogsci on 2009-05-31 -All Annotations (1) -About

more fromwww.smithsonianmag.com

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Interpreting hybrid images

How the brain interprets complex visual scenes is an enduring mystery for researchers. This process occurs extremely rapidly - the "meaning" of a scene is interpreted within 1/20th of a second, and, even though the information processed by the brain may be incomplete, the interpretation is usually correct.

Occasionally, however, visual stimuli are open to interpretation. This is the case with ambiguous figures - images which can be interpreted in more than one way. When an ambiguous image is viewed, a single image impinges upon the retina, but higher order processing in the visual cortex leads to a number of different interpretations of that image. (Neurophilosophy)

Tags: vision, brain, grue, hybrid-images, cogsci on 2009-05-01 and saved by 2 people -All Annotations (3) -About

more fromscienceblogs.com

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End the University as We Know It

Tags: academia, university, curriculum on 2009-04-27 -All Annotations (5) -About

more fromwww.nytimes.com

Unfortunately this mass-production university model has led to separation where there ought to be collaboration and to ever-increasing specialization.
Restructure the curriculum, beginning with graduate programs and proceeding as quickly as possible to undergraduate programs. The division-of-labor model of separate departments is obsolete and must be replaced with a curriculum structured like a web or complex adaptive network. Responsible teaching and scholarship must become cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural.
Abolish permanent departments, even for undergraduate education, and create problem-focused programs. These constantly evolving programs would have sunset clauses, and every seven years each one should be evaluated and either abolished, continued or significantly changed.
Increase collaboration among institutions. All institutions do not need to do all things and technology makes it possible for schools to form partnerships to share students and faculty. Institutions will be able to expand while contracting.
For many years, I have taught undergraduate courses in which students do not write traditional papers but develop analytic treatments in formats from hypertext and Web sites to films and video games. Graduate students should likewise be encouraged to produce “theses” in alternative formats.

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Brain Enhancement

How should we deal with cognitive-enhancing drugs?

Tags: neuroethics, enhancement, grue, cogsci on 2009-04-14 and saved by 5 people -All Annotations (10) -About

more fromwww.stanfordalumni.org

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Found: the brain’s centre of wisdom

SCIENTISTS have identified the seat of human wisdom by pinpointing parts of the brain that guide us when we face difficult moral dilemmas. (Times Online)

Tags: wisdom, brain, neuroethics, morality, grue, cogsci, aapt on 2009-04-05 and saved by 3 people -All Annotations (3) -About

more fromwww.timesonline.co.uk

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Phasic Firing Of Dopamine Neurons Is Key To Brain's Prediction Of Rewards

Researchers are one step closer to understanding the neurobiology that allows people to successfully learn motivated behaviors by associating environmental cues with rewarding outcomes

Tags: dopamine, reward, brain, cogsci on 2009-04-05 and saved by 2 people -All Annotations (4) -About

more fromwww.sciencedaily.com

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Feeling our way to right and wrong

Whatever role one believes emotions should play in moral judgment, new research demonstrates that the influence of these low-level passions is profound. In fact, a study published in Science earlier this month suggests that many moral judgments are mediated by the same emotional mechanism that is activated by rotten leftovers and dirty socks. (Olivia Scheck)

Tags: neuroethics, ethics, disgust, aapt, grue, cogsci, emotion on 2009-03-23 -All Annotations (2) -About

more fromwww.3quarksdaily.com

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Unconscious decisions

Benjamin Libet’s experimental finding that decisions had in effect already been made before the conscious mind became aware of making them is both famous and controversial; now new research (published in a ‘Brief Communication’ in Nature Neuroscience by Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass, Hans-Jochen Heinze and John-Dylan Haynes) goes beyond it. Whereas the delay between decision and awareness detected by Libet lasted 500 milliseconds, the new research seems to show that decisions can be predicted up to ten seconds before the deciders are aware of having made up their minds. (Conscious Entities)

Tags: freewill, Libet, consciousness, neuroethics, cogsci on 2009-03-17 -All Annotations (5) -About

more fromwww.consciousentities.com

Whereas the delay between decision and awareness detected by Libet lasted 500 milliseconds, the new research seems to show that decisions can be predicted up to ten seconds before the deciders are aware of having made up their minds.
In the SMA the researchers found activity which predicted the decision some five seconds before the moment of conscious awareness, but it was elsewhere that the earliest signs appeared - in the frontopolar cortex and the precuneus. Here the subject’s decision could be seen as much as seven seconds ahead of time: allowing for the delay in the fMRI response, this tots up to a real figure of ten seconds.
The researchers suggest the results do three things: they show that the delay is not confined to areas which are closely associated with motor activity, but begins in ‘higher’ areas; they demonstrate clearly that the activity relates to identifiable decisions, not just general preparation; and they rule out one of the main lines of attack on Libet’s findings, namely that the small delay observed is a result of mistiming, error, or misunderstanding of the chronology.
further research into decisions made in more real-life circumstances
I think making a decision and becoming aware of having made that decision are two different things, and I have no deep problem with the idea that they may occur at different times. The delay between decision and awareness does not mean the decision wasn’t ours, any more than the short delay before we hear our own voice means we didn’t intend what we said.

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Benjamin Libet - Libet's short delay.

The experiments carried out by Benjamin Libet into the timing of conscious awareness (briefly described here ) have provoked, and go on provoking, a vast amount of discussion. His own theory of consciousness as a kind of field has received somewhat less attention; and the strange brain-cutting experiment he proposed to test it seems likely to remain unperformed for the foreseeable future. A large number of papers and discussions have been published: in 2004, Libet finally summarised his own account in the book 'Mind Time'. (consciousentities.com)

Tags: freewill, Libet, consciousness, mind, neuroethics, cogsci on 2009-03-17 and saved by 2 people -All Annotations (14) -About

more fromwww.consciousentities.com

whatever the voltage or frequency of the
pulses, the stimulus had to persist for about 500 milliseconds before the
subject became consciously aware of it.
But we also respond to
events, and here a delay is highly relevant and noticeable.
our unconscious responses are far quicker than
our conscious ones
Libet's hypothesis was that conscious awareness is
subjectively referred backwards in time. We consciously perceive the
stimulus as occuring at the same
moment it registers unconsciously, even though it doesn't in fact enter our awareness
until it has persisted for half a second. Subjectively we backdate it to match
the EP at the beginning rather than the end of the 500
millisecond span.
Perhaps the
sensations actually enter conscious awareness immediately, and the
half-second delay merely allows time for them to become reportable, or
fixed in short term memory? Perhaps we are merely dealing with the
difference between being aware of the stimulus, and being aware that we
are aware of it? Libet contends that awareness and memory, especially
declarative, explicit memory, are different and independent
phenomena.
the perceived time at
which we make a decision must also be subjectively referred back by 500
milliseconds. Unlikely as it seems, and contrary to our own impression, we
must have made our decisions slightly before we actually become aware of
them.
This 'Readiness Potential' or
RP appeared about 800 milliseconds in advance of the act, and seemed to be
a clear indication that the intention to act had formed.
the RP appeared some 500 milliseconds before the reported
awareness of a decision to move
free will was a delusion
Although the subject's decision to move occurred too early for it
to have been initiated by conscious thought, there was still - just - a
window of opportunity in which conscious awareness might conceivably veto
the move.
Is the RP really a signal
that a decision has been made?
Might not the RP merely signal a
quickening of attention, rather than a moment of decision?
isn't it possible that we need a certain amount of
time just in order to report the awareness to
ourselves?
his proposed CMF is an emergent phenomenon: something that arises from
the combination of active neurons but amounts to something distinctively
more than, and different from, the sum of brain activity.

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Adult stem cell lies - everything old is new again

It's come time to lie about science again - this time about the reality of embryonic stem cell pluripotency - and some of the old lies are coming back out of the storage shed. For instance, Andrew Breitbart on Real Time last night, and in a video from (liar for Jesus) Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, I've heard about how adult stem cells have cured or treated 72 diseases. Oh and embryonic stem cells, they've cured none. It's been a while since we've seen this adult stem cell nonsense. (denialism blog)

Tags: stem-cells, grue on 2009-03-16 -All Annotations (3) -About

more fromscienceblogs.com

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Different neuron networks control fear of different threats

If you wanted to turn a rat into a fearless critter, unfazed by cats or bigger rats, the best way would be to neutralise a small pair of tiny structures in its brain called the dorsal premammillary nuclei, orPMD. According to new research by Simone Motta at the University of Sao Paolo, these small regions, nestled within a rat's hypothalamus, control its defensive instincts to both predators and other rats. (Not Exactly Rocket Science)

Tags: fear, brains, cogsci, amygdala on 2009-03-10 -All Annotations (2) -About

more fromscienceblogs.com

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Babies and Morality

humans evolved a powerful set of moral instincts - a set of instincts that far exceed those of our primate relatives - because we depend on others to help us rear our helpless infants (The Frontal Cortex)

Tags: morality, human-development, neuroethics, cogsci on 2009-03-03 -All Annotations (1) -About

more fromscienceblogs.com

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Last-Minute Changes

Tags: human-evolution on 2009-02-17 and saved by 3 people -All Annotations (3) -About

more fromonline.wsj.com

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Joe the Plumber by Samuel Wurzelbacher & Thomas Tabback

Ultimately, I was able to sympathize with Wurzelbacher just a little bit because of the apparent way the Obama and McCain campaigns used and abused his name and the symbolism it afforded them to reach out to key voting demographics. But, my limited support for Wurzelbacher is trumped by how aghast I am at this book’s publication. If Joe the Plumber is indeed the future face of America, than echoing Wurzelbacher, God help us all.

Tags: review, politics on 2009-02-16 -All Annotations (8) -About

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“Freedom Isn’t Free! It Costs At Least $24.95”
Wurzelbacher was just your average middle-class Ohio plumber who, in the words of Dennis Leary, probably liked “football and porno and books about war.”
makes zeros into heroes
At least Wurzelbacher can be comforted by the notion that he is not the only unscrupulous person or publisher in America to abuse his or her status for material gain – this is a path that has been well-established in the US.
“an American folk hero and the ultimate icon of the working class.” Woody Guthrie is probably rolling in his grave.
he has a very specific, very narrow point of view of American politics that can only be shared by one demographic at the intersections of race (Caucasian), gender (male) and location (Midwest).
“God is in jeopardy of being ousted from the United States of America, if He doesn’t decide to leave us beforehand. Okay, maybe it’s just the Christian God, but how in the world does a country of nearly 80% Christians allow that to happen?”
If Joe the Plumber is indeed the future face of America, than echoing Wurzelbacher, God help us all.

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The insula - the brain’s cigarette addiction centre

Tags: insula, neuroanatomy, neuropolitics, brains on 2009-02-08 -All Annotations (1) -About

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Where is my mind?

There is a gap between the mind and the world, and (as far as anybody knows) you need to posit internal representations if you are to have a hope of getting across it. Mind the gap. You’ll regret it if you don’t. (Jerry Fodor review of Clark)

Tags: mind, extended-mind, clark, fodor, cogsci on 2009-02-06 and saved by 2 people -All Annotations (7) -About

more fromwww.lrb.co.uk

Is what my robot does when it ‘decides’ to change course a sort of thing which if it had happened inside the robot, ‘I would have had no hesitation in accepting as part of [a] cognitive process?’
But how am I to understand the hypothesis that it would (or wouldn’t) have changed course if it had collided with the couch in my head?
His real argument is that, barring a principled reason for distinguishing between what Otto keeps in his notebook and what Inga keeps in her head, there’s a slippery slope from the one to the other.
The mark of the mental is its intensionality (with an ‘s’); that’s to say that mental states have content; they are typically about things.
What I should have said isn’t that only what’s literally and unmetaphorically mental has content, but that if something literally and unmetaphorically has content, then either it is mental (part of a mind) or the content is ‘derived’ from something that is mental. ‘Underived’ content (to borrow John Searle’s term) is the mark of the mental; underived content is what minds and only minds have.
Externalism needs internalism; but not vice versa. External representation is a side-show; internal representation is ineliminably the main event.
your internal model of the world contains stuff that the world itself does not; this happens not just when your beliefs are false but also when they are hypothetical (‘if there are clouds, there will be rain’ can be true even if there aren’t any clouds); or when they are modal (‘it might rain’ can be true even if it doesn’t rain); or when they are in the past or future tense (‘it used to rain here a lot’ can be true even if it doesn’t rain here anymore).

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Boy or girl? What determines the sex of your child?

Tags: biology, genetics, sex on 2009-02-01 -All Annotations (2) -About

more fromblogs.psychologytoday.com

Rudy Garns's Bookmarks

Evolutionary Psychology and the Public Media: Rekindling the Romance

The Never-Ending Misconceptions About Evolutionary Psychology.

Can We Blame Our Bad Behavior on Stone-Age Genes? | Newsweek Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com

Brain Cells for Socializing

Interpreting hybrid images

End the University as We Know It

Brain Enhancement

Found: the brain’s centre of wisdom

Phasic Firing Of Dopamine Neurons Is Key To Brain's Prediction Of Rewards

Feeling our way to right and wrong

Unconscious decisions

Benjamin Libet - Libet's short delay.

Adult stem cell lies - everything old is new again

Different neuron networks control fear of different threats

Babies and Morality

Last-Minute Changes

Joe the Plumber by Samuel Wurzelbacher & Thomas Tabback

The insula - the brain’s cigarette addiction centre

Where is my mind?

Boy or girl? What determines the sex of your child?

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