The Use and Non-Use of the Human Nature Concept by Evolutionary Biologists

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198823650.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Peter J. Richerson

Keyword(s):

Human Nature ◽

Early Development ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Modern Synthesis ◽

First Year ◽

Human Culture ◽

Infancy And Childhood ◽

First Year Of Life

A number of prominent modern evolutionists embraced ‘human nature’, signalling their commitment to the Modern Synthesis. Their claim is that for most of our evolutionary history, culture was of little importance, and that genes, not culture, controlled early development. More recently, cultural evolutionists have argued that culture and reason were present deep in the Homo lineage, and that the ability to learn socially develops in the first year of life. Thus, it is reasonable to think that genes and culture coevolved in the evolutionary past, and that they codevelop in infancy and childhood. Human nature theorists seek to deny this claim, while at the same time trying in various ways to make room for human culture and reason. I argue here that they are unsuccessful in their attempts.

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The Social Origins of Human Prosociality

Current Directions in Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0963721419830386 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 274-279 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Audun Dahl ◽

Celia A. Brownell

Keyword(s):

Prosocial Behavior ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Early Development ◽

Future Research ◽

First Year ◽

Social And Emotional ◽

Caregiver Behavior ◽

The Social ◽

Second Year ◽

First Year Of Life

From early in life, children help, comfort, and share with other people. Recent research has deepened scientific understanding of the development of prosociality—efforts to promote the welfare of others. In this article, we discuss two key insights about the emergence and early development of prosocial behavior, focusing on the development of helping. First, children’s motivations and capabilities for helping change in quality as well as quantity over the opening years of life. Specifically, helping begins in participatory activities without prosocial intent in the first year of life, becoming increasingly autonomous and motivated by prosocial intent over the second year. Second, helping emerges through bidirectional social interactions starting at birth: Caregivers and other individuals support the development of helping in a variety of ways, and young children play active roles that often influence caregiver behavior. The question now is not whether but how social interactions contribute to the development of prosocial behavior. Recent methodological and theoretical advances provide exciting avenues for future research on the social and emotional origins of human prosociality.

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Development of Attention Networks

The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Psychology, Vol. 1 ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199958450.013.0024 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 682-705 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

M. Rosario Rueda ◽

Michael I. Posner

Keyword(s):

Sensory Input ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Attention Training ◽

First Year ◽

External Stimulation ◽

Attention Networks ◽

Learned Behavior ◽

Infancy And Childhood ◽

First Year Of Life ◽

Selection Of

Functions of attention include achievement and maintenance of a state of alertness, selection of information from sensory input, and regulation of responses when dominant or well-learned behavior is not appropriate. These functions have been associated with activation of separate networks of brain areas. We review the developmental course of the attention networks during infancy and childhood and the neural mechanisms underlying their maturation. Alerting is active early in infancy, although the ability to endogenously maintain the level of alertness develops through late childhood. The capacity to orient attention to external stimulation is also present from quite early in life, and most aspects of orienting related to the control of disengagement and voluntary orientation improve during childhood. Executive attention starts developing by the second half of the first year of life, showing significant maturation during the preschool years. The efficiency of all three functions is subject to important individual differences, which may be partially due to variations in genes related to neurotransmitters that modulate the activation of the attention networks. Additionally, attention can be fostered by training, and attention training has the potential to benefit aspects of behavior central to education and socialization processes. Finally, we discuss changes in attention that occur late in life.

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Does climate during embryonic development influence parr growth and age of seaward migration in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)?

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences ◽

10.1139/f05-154 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 62 (11) ◽

pp. 2502-2508 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Nina Jonsson ◽

Bror Jonsson ◽

Lars Petter Hansen

Keyword(s):

Atlantic Salmon ◽

Water Temperature ◽

Early Development ◽

Salmo Salar ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

First Year ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Atlantic Salmon Salmo Salar ◽

One Year ◽

First Year Of Life

Climatic conditions experienced by Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in their early development appear to affect parr size at the end of the first growth season and age at emigration from the nursery river. North Atlantic Oscillation indices (NAOIs) correlated positively with water temperature (degree-days) and discharge in the River Imsa during winter (JanuaryApril) 19762002, indicating a significant oceanic influence on the winter conditions in the river. Specific growth rate of Atlantic salmon parr during the first year of life and the proportion of one-year-old smolts correlated positively with water temperature, flow, and NAOI during FebruaryApril during the winter of egg incubation, but only NAOI was significant when cross-correlating the two series using a time difference of 1 year. Water temperature correlated significantly with the proportion of salmon cohorts smolting and migrating to sea at age-1. Such long-term effects of climate during early development may be more important than generally recognized.

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What Infants Know and What They have to Learn about Language

European Review ◽

10.1017/s1062798708000392 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 429-444 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jacques Mehler ◽

Marina Nespor ◽

Marcela Peña

Keyword(s):

Evolutionary History ◽

Native Language ◽

Artificial Grammar ◽

First Year ◽

Natural Languages ◽

Memory Functions ◽

Distributional Properties ◽

History Of ◽

First Year Of Life ◽

Gain Access

The study of language acquisition during the first year of life is reviewed. We identified three areas that have contributed to our understanding of how the infant copes with linguistic signals to attain the most basic properties of its native language. Distributional properties present in the incoming utterances may allow infants to extract word candidates in the speech stream as shown in the impoverished conditions of artificial grammar studies. This procedure is important because it would work well for most natural languages. We also highlight another important mechanism that allows infants to induce structure from very scarce data. In fact, humans tend to project structural conjectures after being presented with only a few utterances. Finally, we illustrate constraints on processing that derive from perceptual and memory functions that arose much earlier during the evolutionary history of the species. We conclude that all of these machanisms are important for the infants to gain access to its native language.

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Social Interaction in Infancy

10.1093/oso/9780198843290.003.0002 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 27-46

Author(s):

Tobias Schuwerk ◽

Hannes Rakoczy

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Social Interaction ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Early Development ◽

First Year ◽

Cultural Experience ◽

Shared Intentionality ◽

Intentional Agents ◽

First Year Of Life

The present chapter reviews the early development of various forms of social cognition guiding social interaction in infancy. There is wide agreement that very early in the first year of life infants reveal remarkable sensitivity to social information, and engage in remarkable forms of contingent social interaction. It is equally undisputed that towards the end of the first year of life infants begin to operate with basic forms of folk psychology, understanding others and themselves as intentional agents who perceive their surroundings and act intentionally, and that from their second year on infants engage in shared intentionality with others. What is controversial, however, is whether infants already operate with fully fledged meta-representational Theory of Mind, or whether this capacity develops in more protracted ways, depending on language acquisition and cultural experience. This chapter reviews theoretical debates and empirical findings related to this controversy in detail.

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GROWTH OF THIOCYANATE SPACE IN INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.10.2.115 ◽

1952 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 115-126

Author(s):

ROBERT S. ELY ◽

WATARU W. SUTOW

Keyword(s):

Body Weight ◽

Blood Volume ◽

Body Fat ◽

Normal Subjects ◽

First Year ◽

Total Water ◽

Infancy And Childhood ◽

First Year Of Life

Thiocyanate space was determined in 108 normal subjects and blood volume in 50 of these. These values are presented with relationship to physical indices of growth. The decrease in SCN-space as per cent of body weight is shown to be primarily in the first year of life. The significance of this change is discussed with relation to total water and per cent of body fat.

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The Effects of Maturation on the Colonic Microflora in Infancy and Childhood

Gastroenterology Research and Practice ◽

10.1155/2009/752401 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 2009 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

P. Enck ◽

K. Zimmermann ◽

K. Rusch ◽

A. Schwiertz ◽

S. Klosterhalfen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

General Pattern ◽

First Year ◽

E Coli ◽

Colonic Microflora ◽

Colonic Flora ◽

Infancy And Childhood ◽

Microbiological Testing ◽

Stool Samples ◽

Monthly Changes ◽

First Year Of Life

The composition of colonic mircoflora and its changes with maturation have rarely been investigated in large samples.Methods.We used conventional microbiological testing to analyse the colonic flora (Kyberstatus, Institut forMicroecology, Herborn, Germany) of stool samples from 12 484 children with different intestinal and nonintestinal diagnoses. Stool samples were analysed for total colony forming units (CFU) (per g stool) and the abundance ofBifidobacteria, Bacteroides sp., Escherichia coli, Enterococcus sp.,andLactobacillus sp.with respect to age, gender. A subset of 1089 infants was analysed for monthly changes within the first year of life.Results.Total CFU and individual microbial species were highest during the first year of life, decreased within the first 2 years, and then stabilized for the remaining childhood. In infants, the total CFU rose until month 5, declined with weaning, and peaked at 9–10 months. Significant effects of age, but not of gender, were found inBacteroides sp.andLactobacilli.HoweverBacterioids sp.andLactobacilliincreased with age, whileEnterococciandE. colidecreased, and Bifidobacteria remained stable.Conclusion.Colonic microflora show both a bacteria-specific and general pattern of maturation which is most profound within the first year.

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The Development of Swallowing Respiratory Coordination

Perspectives on Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders (Dysphagia) ◽

10.1044/sasd18.1.19 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 19-24

Author(s):

Maggie-Lee Huckabee

Keyword(s):

Cortical Activation ◽

First Year ◽

Healthy Children ◽

Nasal Airflow ◽

Single Session ◽

Primary Finding ◽

Patterns Of Behavior ◽

Cortical Modulation ◽

First Year Of Life ◽

Swallowing Apnea

Abstract Research exists that evaluates the mechanics of swallowing respiratory coordination in healthy children and adults as well and individuals with swallowing impairment. The research program summarized in this article represents a systematic examination of swallowing respiratory coordination across the lifespan as a means of behaviorally investigating mechanisms of cortical modulation. Using time-locked recordings of submental surface electromyography, nasal airflow, and thyroid acoustics, three conditions of swallowing were evaluated in 20 adults in a single session and 10 infants in 10 sessions across the first year of life. The three swallowing conditions were selected to represent a continuum of volitional through nonvolitional swallowing control on the basis of a decreasing level of cortical activation. Our primary finding is that, across the lifespan, brainstem control strongly dictates the duration of swallowing apnea and is heavily involved in organizing the integration of swallowing and respiration, even in very early infancy. However, there is evidence that cortical modulation increases across the first 12 months of life to approximate more adult-like patterns of behavior. This modulation influences primarily conditions of volitional swallowing; sleep and naïve swallows appear to not be easily adapted by cortical regulation. Thus, it is attention, not arousal that engages cortical mechanisms.

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