Simpler for evolution: Secondary representation in apes, children, and ancestors

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Suddendorf

Great apes show behavioral evidence for secondary representation similar to that of children of about two years of age. However, there is no convincing evidence for metarepresentation in apes. A good evolutionary interpretation should be parsimonious and must bring developmental and comparative data in accord. I propose a model based on the work of Perner (1991) and close by pointing out a logical flaw in Heyes's second proposed experiment.

Author(s):  
THOMA SUDDENDORF ◽  
ANDREW WHITEN

The imaginative powers of humans obviously exceed those of other species; however these characteristics and knowledge did not spring from nowhere. Instead they evolved on the shoulders of the distinctive psychology of man’s pre-human ancestors. This chapter defines the key characteristics of the ancestral foundations of man and describes the evidence in great ape behaviour for two aspects of imagination. The first level of imagination is inventiveness. Inventiveness is the capacity to generate novel and diverse behavioural responses to any given environmental circumstance. In the experimental studies presented in this chapter wherein chimpanzees are tasked to solve particular problems, it was found that great apes such as gorillas, orang-utans, and chimpanzees display imaginative skills compared to other primates. The second aspect of imagination refers to the capacity to operate mentally in a ‘pretend’ world. This second level of imagination is higher than inventiveness as it requires holding mind distinctions between the hypothetical and real world. Although the experimental studies generated intriguing results, these results are limited, and while the pretence in apes should be observable, it is dominated by the manifestation of a more general capacity for secondary representation.


Paleobiology ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (02) ◽  
pp. 146-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Oliver

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic coral Order Scleractinia has been suggested to have originated or evolved (1) by direct descent from the Paleozoic Order Rugosa or (2) by the development of a skeleton in members of one of the anemone groups that probably have existed throughout Phanerozoic time. In spite of much work on the subject, advocates of the direct descent hypothesis have failed to find convincing evidence of this relationship. Critical points are:(1) Rugosan septal insertion is serial; Scleractinian insertion is cyclic; no intermediate stages have been demonstrated. Apparent intermediates are Scleractinia having bilateral cyclic insertion or teratological Rugosa.(2) There is convincing evidence that the skeletons of many Rugosa were calcitic and none are known to be or to have been aragonitic. In contrast, the skeletons of all living Scleractinia are aragonitic and there is evidence that fossil Scleractinia were aragonitic also. The mineralogic difference is almost certainly due to intrinsic biologic factors.(3) No early Triassic corals of either group are known. This fact is not compelling (by itself) but is important in connection with points 1 and 2, because, given direct descent, both changes took place during this only stage in the history of the two groups in which there are no known corals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dayan

Abstract Bayesian decision theory provides a simple formal elucidation of some of the ways that representation and representational abstraction are involved with, and exploit, both prediction and its rather distant cousin, predictive coding. Both model-free and model-based methods are involved.


Author(s):  
J. M. Barrett ◽  
P. M. Heidger

Microbodies have received extensive morphological and cytochemical investigation since they were first described by Rhodin in 1954. To our knowledge, however, all investigations of microbodies and cytoplasmic bodies of rat renal proximal tubule cells have employed immersion fixation. Tisher, et al. have shown convincing evidence of fine structural alteration of microbodies in rhesus monkey kidney following immersion fixation; these alterations were not encountered when in vivo intravascular perfusion was employed. In view of these studies, and the fact that techniques for perfusion fixation have been established specifically for the rat kidney by Maunsbach, it seemed desirable to employ perfusion fixation to study the fine structure and distribution of microbodies and cytoplasmic bodies within the rat renal proximal tubule.


Author(s):  
D.F. Bowling

High school cosmetology students study the methods and effects of various human hair treatments, including permanents, straightening, conditioning, coloring and cutting. Although they are provided with textbook examples of overtreatment and numerous hair disorders and diseases, a view of an individual hair at the high resolution offered by an SEM provides convincing evidence of the hair‘s altered structure. Magnifications up to 2000X provide dramatic differences in perspective. A good quality classroom optical microscope can be very informative at lower resolutions.Students in a cosmetology class are initially split into two groups. One group is taught basic controls on the SEM (focus, magnification, brightness, contrast, specimen X, Y, and Z axis movements). A healthy, untreated piece of hair is initially examined on the SEM The second group cements a piece of their own hair on a stub. The samples are dryed quickly using heat or vacuum while the groups trade places and activities.


2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (S2) ◽  
pp. 578-579
Author(s):  
David W. Knowles ◽  
Sophie A. Lelièvre ◽  
Carlos Ortiz de Solόrzano ◽  
Stephen J. Lockett ◽  
Mina J. Bissell ◽  
...  

The extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a critical role in directing cell behaviour and morphogenesis by regulating gene expression and nuclear organization. Using non-malignant (S1) human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs), it was previously shown that ECM-induced morphogenesis is accompanied by the redistribution of nuclear mitotic apparatus (NuMA) protein from a diffuse pattern in proliferating cells, to a multi-focal pattern as HMECs growth arrested and completed morphogenesis . A process taking 10 to 14 days.To further investigate the link between NuMA distribution and the growth stage of HMECs, we have investigated the distribution of NuMA in non-malignant S1 cells and their malignant, T4, counter-part using a novel model-based image analysis technique. This technique, based on a multi-scale Gaussian blur analysis (Figure 1), quantifies the size of punctate features in an image. Cells were cultured in the presence and absence of a reconstituted basement membrane (rBM) and imaged in 3D using confocal microscopy, for fluorescently labeled monoclonal antibodies to NuMA (fαNuMA) and fluorescently labeled total DNA.


Author(s):  
Charles Bouveyron ◽  
Gilles Celeux ◽  
T. Brendan Murphy ◽  
Adrian E. Raftery

Author(s):  
Jonathan Jacky ◽  
Margus Veanes ◽  
Colin Campbell ◽  
Wolfram Schulte
Keyword(s):  

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 162-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen B. Lucas ◽  
Norman C. Gysbers ◽  
Keith L. Buescher ◽  
P. Paul Heppner

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