Secular IQ Increases by Epigenesis? The Hypothesis of Cognitive Genotype Optimization

2011 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred F. Greiffenstein

The short timescale of massive secular IQ gains (“Flynn Effect”) is inconsistent with positive selection of a recent gene mutation, but other genetic mechanisms are possible. Principles of evolutionary psychology, combined with secular trends, suggest an epigenetic explanation: the Cognitive Genome Optimization Hypothesis. Per life-history theory, favorable secular trends may change the phenotypic expression of the genotype which controls the neurophysiology of problem solving. The hypothesis posits two intermediate steps between reliable nutrition (the starting point) and higher IQs (ending point): (1) Earlier cognitive maturation and (2) further calibration of cognitive function by reliable social resources (cultural complexity, mandatory education). Unlike earlier generations, more resources can be deployed to cognitive maturation than to physical survival, and more time is available to calibrate cognitive processing into the upper end of the trait value range for intelligence. The secular trend of earlier puberty timing is critical: data show an association between puberty and higher IQ.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-95
Author(s):  
Juha Lång ◽  
Hana Vrzakova ◽  
Lauri Mehtätalo

  One of the main rules of subtitling states that subtitles should be formatted and timed so that viewers have enough time to read and understand the text but also to follow the picture. In this paper we examine the factors that influence the time viewers spend looking at subtitles. We concentrate on the lexical and structural properties of subtitles. The participant group (N = 14) watched a television documentary with Russian narration and Finnish subtitles (the participants’ native language), while their eye movements were tracked. Using a linear mixed-effects model, we identified significant effects of subtitle duration and character count on the time participants spent looking at the subtitles. The model also revealed significant inter-individual differences, despite the fact that the participant group was seemingly homogeneous. The findings underline the complexity of subtitled audiovisual material as a stimulus of cognitive processing. We provide a starting point for more comprehensive modelling of the factors involved in gaze behaviour when watching subtitled content. Lay summary Subtitles have become a popular method for watching foreign series and films even in countries that have traditionally used dubbing in this regard. Because subtitles are visible to the viewer a short, limited time, they should be composed so that they are easy to read, and that the viewer has time to also follow the image. Nevertheless, the factors that have impact the time it takes to read a subtitle is not very well known. We wanted to find out what makes people who are watching subtitled television shows spend more time gazing at the subtitles? To answer this question, we recorded the eye movements of 14 participants when they were watching a short, subtitled television documentary. We created a statistical model of the gaze behavior from the eye movement data and found that both the length of the subtitle and the time the subtitle is visible are separate contributing factors. We also discovered large differences between individual viewers. Our conclusion is that people process subtitled content in very different ways, but there are some common tendencies. Our model can be seen as solid starting point for comprehensive modelling of gaze behavior of people watching subtitled audiovisual material.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-12
Author(s):  
Максим Нагоркин ◽  
Maksim Nagorkin ◽  
Владимир Федоров ◽  
Vladimir Fedorov ◽  
Игорь Пыриков ◽  
...  

On the basis of the probability theory approach to the formation of surface roughness parameters in machinery during machining there is offered an algorithmic solution of an urgent problem of the regulations of roughness parameters for machinery functional surfaces in technological documentation. The algorithmic solutions for the following parameter versions are developed (RSS 2.309-73): the highest value; the smallest value; a value range; a rated value with ultimate deviations; an indication of two and more parameters. The theoretical investigation results may serve as a starting point for the further development of theory and practice for the technological support of roughness parameters in machinery functional surfaces with the required reliability. Foe a wide actual realization of investigation results the solution of a number of problems is needed: 1) the development of standards or guide information on the regulations in technological documentation of required technological values of roughness parameters; 2) the further development of investigations in the field of technological support reliability of quality parame-ters (including roughness) of blank surfaces in the course of machining in technologically flexible systems.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
pp. 72-83
Author(s):  
Volkmar Engerer

Denne artikel er et forsøg på at knytte den traditionelle tekstbaserede humanistiske læring på universitetet til informationshåndterende aktiviteter som fx litteratursøgning. Der tages udgangspunkt i en kognitiv-kon­struk­tivistisk læringsforståelse under decideret henvisning til dens individuel-kognitive og gruppemæssig-sociale elementer. Både selve tekstforståelsen og dynamikken mellem forståelsesbaserede og teksthåndterende aktiviteter konciperes cyklisk. Tekstforståelse som læringsaktivitet består i cykliske skift mellem en individuel, kognitiv bearbejdelse af stoffet og en kommunikativ afprøvning af den opnåede viden i den lærende gruppe. Overgangen mellem forståelsesorienteret læring og tekstsøgning er ligesom cyklisk struktureret, da informationssøgningsaktiviteter både tager afsæt fra og peger hen imod en fordybet tekstforståelse, idet al meningsfuld håndtering af information, udvidelse eller vinkling baserer sig på en forudgående forståelse af udgangstekster. Samtidig leder alle informationssøgningsaktiviteter hen til en ny forståelse, hvor udvidelsen/vinklingen intellektuelt forarbejdes i en ny runde af forstående læsning. Hovedsigtet med denne artikel er at pege på dynamikken i en iterativ universitetspædagogisk læringsmodel, hvor tekstforståelse og ‑håndtering skifter med hinanden i en, for den lærende, meningsfyldt sekvens. Dette har bl.a. den pædagogiske konsekvens, at man allerede i undervisningen bør tilstræbe ikke at begrænse læring til tekstforstående aktiviteter alene, men at placere dem i undervisningen på en didaktisk vis i en frugtbar læringsmæssig sammenhæng med informationshåndterende aktiviteter.  This article is an attempt to link traditional text-based and humanistic learning at a higher educational level to information managing activities such as information search. The starting point is a cognitive-constructivist understanding of learning, with an emphasis on its individual-cognitive and group-based social elements. How students understand a text and the dynamics of understanding and text managing activities are modeled cyclically. Text understanding as the basic learning activity consists of cyclic shifts between an individual, cognitive processing of the material and a communicative testing of the achieved knowledge in the learning community. The transitions between understanding-oriented learning and text search are structured cyclically as well, since information search activities are both based on and point to a deepened text understanding: Meaningful management of information rests on a previous understanding of texts; at the same time, information seeking activities lead to a new understanding, where the elaborated text collection is intellectually processed in a new round of reading. This paper discusses the results of a study which was able to identify the dynamics for an iterative pedagogical learning model typical of higher education, where the learning individual’s text understanding and text management alternate in a meaningful sequence. This supports pedagogical theories that suggest teaching should not focus on text understanding activities alone, but combine such understanding with information management activities.


2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Vaughn Becker ◽  
Douglas T. Kenrick

AbstractProximate selfish goals reflect the machinations of more fundamental goals such as self-protection and reproduction. Evolutionary life history theory allows us to make predictions about which goals are prioritized over others, which stimuli release which goals, and how the stages of cognitive processing are selectively influenced to better achieve the aims of those goals.


Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 160
Author(s):  
Valeria V. Isaeva ◽  
Nickolay V. Kasyanov

In this review, we consider transformations of axial symmetry in metazoan evolution and development, the genetic basis, and phenotypic expressions of different axial body plans. In addition to the main symmetry types in metazoan body plans, such as rotation (radial symmetry), reflection (mirror and glide reflection symmetry), and translation (metamerism), many biological objects show scale (fractal) symmetry as well as some symmetry-type combinations. Some genetic mechanisms of axial pattern establishment, creating a coordinate system of a metazoan body plan, bilaterian segmentation, and left–right symmetry/asymmetry, are analysed. Data on the crucial contribution of coupled functions of the Wnt, BMP, Notch, and Hedgehog signaling pathways (all pathways are designated according to the abbreviated or full names of genes or their protein products; for details, see below) and the axial Hox-code in the formation and maintenance of metazoan body plans are necessary for an understanding of the evolutionary diversification and phenotypic expression of various types of axial symmetry. The lost body plans of some extinct Ediacaran and early Cambrian metazoans are also considered in comparison with axial body plans and posterior growth in living animals.


2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 873-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Ratcliff ◽  
Gail McKoon

The diffusion decision model allows detailed explanations of behavior in two-choice discrimination tasks. In this article, the model is reviewed to show how it translates behavioral data—accuracy, mean response times, and response time distributions—into components of cognitive processing. Three experiments are used to illustrate experimental manipulations of three components: stimulus difficulty affects the quality of information on which a decision is based; instructions emphasizing either speed or accuracy affect the criterial amounts of information that a subject requires before initiating a response; and the relative proportions of the two stimuli affect biases in drift rate and starting point. The experiments also illustrate the strong constraints that ensure the model is empirically testable and potentially falsifiable. The broad range of applications of the model is also reviewed, including research in the domains of aging and neurophysiology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 461-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jannice Friedman

Flowering plants exhibit two principal life-history strategies: annuality (living and reproducing in one year) and perenniality (living more than one year). The advantages of either strategy depend on the relative benefits of immediate reproduction balanced against survivorship and future reproduction. This trade-off means that life-history strategies are associated with particular environments, with annuals being found more often in unpredictable habitats. Annuality and perenniality are the outcome of developmental genetic programs responding to their environment, with perennials being distinguished by their delayed competence to flower and reversion to growth after flowering. Evolutionary transitions between these strategies are frequent and have consequences for mating systems and genome evolution, with perennials being more likely to outcross with higher inbreeding depression and lower rates of molecular evolution. Integrating expectations from life-history theory with knowledge of the developmental genetics of flowering and seasonality is required to understand the mechanisms involved in the evolution of annual and perennial life histories.


1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 637-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Farrell Martin ◽  
James A. Thomson

People can update their spatial relationships relative to the environment while walking without vision. The hypothesis that such updating is automatic was tested in a locomotor task in which the subjects were asked to refrain from updating their positions. Subjects walked without vision to one of four previously seen targets via a second location. In one condition—the updating condition—the subjects were asked to walk to the real position of the target relative to the second location; in another—the ignoring condition—they were asked to imagine that they had not moved from the starting point and to walk from the second location as if walking to the target from the initial location. When the subjects were asked to start walking to the target as soon as it was named by the experimenter, they performed better in the updating condition than in the ignoring condition. When the subjects were allowed more time to respond, the difference in performance between these two conditions disappeared. The results suggest that the subjects automatically updated their positions as they moved, but that, given enough time, they could override this updating retrospectively using more deliberate cognitive processing.


Author(s):  
Janos J. Sarbo ◽  
Jozsef I. Farkas ◽  
Auke J.J. van Breeman

By taking as a starting point for our research the function of language to generate meaning, we endeavor in this chapter to derive a grammar of natural language from the more general Peircean theory of cognition. After a short analysis of cognitive activity, we introduce a model for sign (re)cognition and analyze it from a logical and semiotic perspective. Next, the model is instantiated for language signs from a syntactical point of view. The proposed representation is called natural insofar as it respects the steps the brain/mind is going through when it is engaged in cognitive processing. A promise of this approach lies in its potential for generating information by the computer, which the human user may directly recognize as knowledge in a natural, hence economic way.


1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Bialystok

This paper describes a cognitive framework for explaining the acquisition and use of a second language. The framework is based on the identification of two cognitive processing components, called analysis of knowledge and control of processing, that jointly function to develop proficiency in the language. The framework is explained briefly and then applied to five issues in second language acquisition: the similarity of first and second language learning, the starting point for second language acquisition, consciousness, variability, and instruction.


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