How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development—in the womb and in the first months and years—have reached the popular media....
The effects of the Head Start classroom experience on some aspects of child development: A summary report of national evaluations, 1966–1969.
This report summarizes the findings of previous technical reports on the immediate changes in child development associated with Head Start and presents a statement of the extent to which these changes have been enhanced or attenuated by different program experiences for different children. Background information presented includes an overview of...
An integrative model of the neural systems supporting the comprehension of observed emotional behavior
Understanding others’ emotions requires both the identification of overt behaviors (“smiling”) and the attribution of behaviors to a cause (“friendly disposition”). Previous research suggests that whereas emotion identification depends on a cortical mirror system that enables the embodiment of observed motor behavior within one's own motor system, causal attribution for emotion depends on a separate cortical mentalizing...
Individual differences in Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS) primary emotional traits and depressive tendencies
Background The present study investigated individual differences in the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS), representing measures of primary emotional systems, and depressive tendencies in two independent samples. Methods In order to be able to find support for a continuum model with respect to the relation of strength in the cross-species...
The emergence of primary anoetic consciousness in episodic memory
Based on an interdisciplinary perspective, we discuss how primary-process, anoetic forms of consciousness emerge into higher forms of awareness such as knowledge-based episodic knowing and self-aware forms of higher-order consciousness like autonoetic awareness. Anoetic consciousness is defined as the rudimentary state of affective, homeostatic, and sensory-perceptual mental experiences. It can...
Synthetic Ethology and the Evolution of Cooperative Communication
Synthetic ethology is proposed as a means of conducting controlled experiments investigating the mechanisms and evolution of communication. After a discussion of the goals and methods of synthetic ethology, two series of experiments are described based on at least 5000 breeding cycles. The first demonstrates the evolution of cooperative communication...
The janus-faced nature of comparative psychology – strength or weakness?
What is the nature of comparative psychology and how does or should it relate to evolutionary psychology? This is a time of reassessment of both fields and this article reviews the history of comparative psychology and its relationships with evolutionary psychology, ethology, and other approaches to behavior from the perspective...
A cybernetic perspective on food protection in rats: Simple rules can generate complex and adaptable behaviour
Many types of animal behaviour, especially seemingly complex social interactions, have been attributed to the existence of complex cognitive mechanisms. Indeed, as specific behaviours are analysed in greater and greater detail, the increasing number of minor variations observed seem to necessitate the operation of increasingly powerful computational devices. An alternate...
Psychopathic personality factor ìFearless dominanceî is related to low self-reported stress-levels, fewer psychiatric symptoms, and more adaptive stress coping in psychiatric disorders
The aim of this cross-sectional study was to test the idea that the psychopathic trait "Fearless dominance " (FD) may be associated with reduced psychological stress symptoms and better stress coping strategies in psychiatric patients, whereas the factor "Self-centered impulsivity " (SCI) may be associated with more stress and maladaptive...
A Behavioral Biology for the Future
Some comments are appended to Patrick Bateson's reflections on the future of behavioral biology that were triggered by remembering the contributions of G¸nter Tembrock to ethology. While the suggestions made are valid and insightful, a few specific areas where exciting research possibilities may reside are added including those involving communication...
The neurobiology of RAGE and anger & psychiatric implications with a focus on depression
There has been a perennial debate about whether aggression is learned or innate. The power of extreme arguments in this area has diminished as all are beginning to recognize that both evolution and learning contribute much to our tendency to be aggressive in various distinct ways, including impulsive anger, premeditated...
Perspectives – Minimizing Observer Bias in Behavioral Studies: A Review and Recommendations
Since the 1970s, texts on research methods in animal behavior advocate that researchers minimize potential observer bias in their studies. One way to minimize possible bias is to record or score behavioral data blind to treatment, group, or individual. Another way to reduce bias is for researchers to analyze subsets...
Heightened intensity: Reflecting on player experiences in Wayfinder Live
Location-based games use smartphones and other location-aware devices to incorporate their players' actions in everyday, physical spaces - the streets and public spaces of the city - into the virtual world of the game. Scholars and designers of these games often claim that they reconfigure their players' relationship with the...
Expanding the magic circle-gamification as a marketplace icon
This article explores the gamification trend sweeping the globe promising increased engagement and motivation, in practically any industry, context and culture, based on a stratagem of "game design elements in non-game contexts, " which is its most quoted definition [Deterding, Sebastian, Miguel Sicart, Lennart Nacke, Kenton O'Hara, and Dan Dixon....
Group selection and the group mind in science
This plausible group-selection model should aid the conceptual integration of the natural and social sciences, but testing in vertebrates is needed. The history of the vehicles-of-selection debate is compared with the controversy over the readmission of innate behavior and genetics to a respectable position in behavioral study. In the spirit...
Differential ultrasonic indices of separation distress in the presence and absence of maternal cues in infant rats bred for high and low positive social affect
Objective Preclinical models of human mood disorders commonly focus on the study of negative affectivity, without comparably stressing the role of positive affects and their ability to promote resilient coping styles. We evaluated the role of background constitutional affect of rats by studying the separation and reunion responses of infants...
When does the ritual of mythic symbolic type start and when does it end?
Mythic symbolic type is a unique cultural structure that permits no exit to the one who has lost his "self " to it. The semi-commune Little Home housed a community of mythic symbolic types which engendered a ritual of their own in which the men trapped within the type moved...
Social Interactions Between 24-Month-Old Children and Their Older Sibling with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Characteristics and Association with Social-Communicative Development
This study compared sibling interactions between 24-month-old children and their older sibling with ASD (high-risk; n = 24) with 24-month-old children and their typically developing older sibling (low-risk; n = 32). First, high-risk sibling pairs showed lower levels of positive behaviour and younger siblings of children with ASD imitated their...
BDNF expression increases without changes in play behavior following concussion in juvenile rats (Rattus Norvegicus)
Purpose: Young children have a high risk of concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Children often appear healthy soon after mTBI, but some have pervasive cognitive and/or motor impairments. Understanding underlying mechanisms recruited after concussion may help for return to play protocols and mitigating what might be lifelong impairments....
Translingual Play that Promotes Cultural Connections, Invention, and Regulation: A LatCrit Perspective
Using Latino critical race theory as a lens, this qualitative study explored ways in which young children's translanguaging practices informed the design of culturally relevant sociodramatic spaces in a bilingual early childhood classroom located along the Texas/Mexico border in South Texas. The authors identified aspects of language development that were...
