scholarly journals As We Build our World We Build our Minds:  The Causal Role of Technology in the Development and Evolution of Human Psychological Traits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matt Gers
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Psychological Development ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Novel Technologies ◽  
Concept Space

<p>Do genes or environments have more of a role to play in the development of psychological traits? The nature versus nurture debate takes many forms and recent developmental systems arguments consider the roles of developmental resources to be inextricably linked. In this thesis I show that some elements of human culture, specifically technologies, play a privileged role in psychological development. Moreover, as we invent new technologies, we change the developmental environment for the present and subsequent generations, thereby causing evolution of the mind. I begin by outlining evidence, which shows that culture, and technology in particular, cause novel psychological traits to develop. Then I explain the evolutionary dynamics by which novel technologies and traits co-elaborate each other. The brain has evolved adaptations for plasticity and responds to environmental challenges in novel ways during development. I also show that brains often integrate with the material world, incorporating symbols, technologies and other artefacts as part of distributed information processing systems. Having demonstrated that technology has a causal role to play in cognitive development and function, I then move on to explain how we can distinguish among causal roles and thereby favour some causes over others in explanations of the development of traits. Beginning with Woodward’s analysis of three dimensions of biological causation, I build a concept space and incorporate a fourth dimension of causation. This modified four-dimensional concept space of causal roles allows us to categorize and distinguish the causal role of genetic and non-genetic developmental resources. It turns out that, with respect to some questions or effects we are interested in, genes are important, and with respect to many other effects or developmental outcomes, cultural technologies are more privileged causes. I illustrate the use of this causal analysis tool by explaining the development of critical thinking skills. I conclude by arguing that the privileged role of technology in psychological development may help to explain two problems in human prehistory. First, it helps to explain why there was a lag between Homo sapiens becoming anatomically modern and only later becoming behaviourally modern, and second, it helps to explain the mysterious extinction of the Neanderthals.</p>

scholarly journals As We Build our World We Build our Minds:  The Causal Role of Technology in the Development and Evolution of Human Psychological Traits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matt Gers
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Psychological Development ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Novel Technologies ◽  
Concept Space

<p>Do genes or environments have more of a role to play in the development of psychological traits? The nature versus nurture debate takes many forms and recent developmental systems arguments consider the roles of developmental resources to be inextricably linked. In this thesis I show that some elements of human culture, specifically technologies, play a privileged role in psychological development. Moreover, as we invent new technologies, we change the developmental environment for the present and subsequent generations, thereby causing evolution of the mind. I begin by outlining evidence, which shows that culture, and technology in particular, cause novel psychological traits to develop. Then I explain the evolutionary dynamics by which novel technologies and traits co-elaborate each other. The brain has evolved adaptations for plasticity and responds to environmental challenges in novel ways during development. I also show that brains often integrate with the material world, incorporating symbols, technologies and other artefacts as part of distributed information processing systems. Having demonstrated that technology has a causal role to play in cognitive development and function, I then move on to explain how we can distinguish among causal roles and thereby favour some causes over others in explanations of the development of traits. Beginning with Woodward’s analysis of three dimensions of biological causation, I build a concept space and incorporate a fourth dimension of causation. This modified four-dimensional concept space of causal roles allows us to categorize and distinguish the causal role of genetic and non-genetic developmental resources. It turns out that, with respect to some questions or effects we are interested in, genes are important, and with respect to many other effects or developmental outcomes, cultural technologies are more privileged causes. I illustrate the use of this causal analysis tool by explaining the development of critical thinking skills. I conclude by arguing that the privileged role of technology in psychological development may help to explain two problems in human prehistory. First, it helps to explain why there was a lag between Homo sapiens becoming anatomically modern and only later becoming behaviourally modern, and second, it helps to explain the mysterious extinction of the Neanderthals.</p>

Effects of Demographic Characteristics on Trust in Driving Automation

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-612
Author(s):  
Jieun Lee ◽  
Genya Abe ◽  
Kenji Sato ◽  
Makoto Itoh ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Driving Frequency ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
Assistance Systems ◽  
And Performance

With the successful introduction of advanced driver assistance systems, vehicles with driving automation technologies have begun to be released onto the market. Because the role of human drivers during automated driving may be different from the role of drivers with assistance systems, it is important to determine how general users consider such new technologies. The current study has attempted to consider driver trust, which plays a critical role in forming users’ technology acceptance. In a driving simulator experiment, the demographic information of 56 drivers (50% female, 64% student, and 53% daily driver) was analyzed with respect to Lee and Moray’s three dimensions of trust: purpose, process, and performance. The statistical results revealed that female drivers were more likely to rate higher levels of trust than males, and non-student drivers exhibited higher levels of trust than student drivers. However, no driving frequency-related difference was observed. The driver ratings of each trust dimension were neutral to moderate, but purpose-related trust was lower than process- and performance-related trust. Additionally, student drivers exhibited a tendency to distrust automation compared to non-student drivers. The findings present a potential perspective of driver acceptability of current automated vehicles.

Meiotic CENP-C is a shepherd: bridging the space between the centromere and the kinetochore in time and space

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-261
Author(s):  
Jessica E. Fellmeth ◽  
Kim S. McKim
Keyword(s):  
Chromosome Segregation ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Early Prophase ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Kinetochore Assembly ◽  
M Phase ◽  
In Vivo Analysis ◽  
Meiosis I

Abstract While many of the proteins involved in the mitotic centromere and kinetochore are conserved in meiosis, they often gain a novel function due to the unique needs of homolog segregation during meiosis I (MI). CENP-C is a critical component of the centromere for kinetochore assembly in mitosis. Recent work, however, has highlighted the unique features of meiotic CENP-C. Centromere establishment and stability require CENP-C loading at the centromere for CENP-A function. Pre-meiotic loading of proteins necessary for homolog recombination as well as cohesion also rely on CENP-C, as do the main scaffolding components of the kinetochore. Much of this work relies on new technologies that enable in vivo analysis of meiosis like never before. Here, we strive to highlight the unique role of this highly conserved centromere protein that loads on to centromeres prior to M-phase onset, but continues to perform critical functions through chromosome segregation. CENP-C is not merely a structural link between the centromere and the kinetochore, but also a functional one joining the processes of early prophase homolog synapsis to late metaphase kinetochore assembly and signaling.

Do Writing Directions Influence How People Map Space onto Time?

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Wenxing Yang ◽  
Ying Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Temporal Cognition ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Vertical Up

Abstract. The causal role of a unidirectional orthography in shaping speakers’ mental representations of time seems to be well established by many psychological experiments. However, the question of whether bidirectional writing systems in some languages can also produce such an impact on temporal cognition remains unresolved. To address this issue, the present study focused on Japanese and Taiwanese, both of which have a similar mix of texts written horizontally from left to right (HLR) and vertically from top to bottom (VTB). Two experiments were performed which recruited Japanese and Taiwanese speakers as participants. Experiment 1 used an explicit temporal arrangement design, and Experiment 2 measured implicit space-time associations in participants along the horizontal (left/right) and the vertical (up/down) axis. Converging evidence gathered from the two experiments demonstrate that neither Japanese speakers nor Taiwanese speakers aligned their vertical representations of time with the VTB writing orientation. Along the horizontal axis, only Japanese speakers encoded elapsing time into a left-to-right linear layout, which was commensurate with the HLR writing direction. Therefore, two distinct writing orientations of a language could not bring about two coexisting mental time lines. Possible theoretical implications underlying the findings are discussed.

Gender, Technology and the New Woman

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Wånggren
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Woman ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Gender And Technology ◽  
The New Woman ◽  
Grant Allen

This book examines late nineteenth-century feminism in relation to technologies of the time, marking the crucial role of technology in social and literary struggles for equality. The New Woman, the fin de siècle cultural archetype of early feminism, became the focal figure for key nineteenth-century debates concerning issues such as gender and sexuality, evolution and degeneration, science, empire and modernity. While the New Woman is located in the debates concerning the ‘crisis in gender’ or ‘sexual anarchy’ of the time, the period also saw an upsurge of new technologies of communication, transport and medicine. This book explores the interlinking of gender and technology in writings by overlooked authors such as Grant Allen, Tom Gallon, H. G. Wells, Margaret Todd and Mathias McDonnell Bodkin. As the book demonstrates, literature of the time is inevitably caught up in a technological modernity: technologies such as the typewriter, the bicycle, and medical technologies, through literary texts come to work as freedom machines, as harbingers of female emancipation.

Parliament as the Foreign Policy Actor: the Resources of the Parliamentary Diplomacy

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 316-321
Author(s):  
Boris I. Ananyev ◽  
Daniil A. Parenkov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Security ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Conservative Approach ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Policy Actor ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Essential Idea ◽  
Per Se

The aim of the article is to show the role of parliament in the foreign policy within the framework of the conservative school of thought. The authors examine both Russian and Western traditions of conservatism and come to the conclusion that the essential idea of “the rule of the best” has turned to be one of the basic elements of the modern legislative body per se. What’s more, parliament, according to the conservative approach, tends to be the institution that represents the real spirit of the nation and national interests. Therefore the interaction of parliaments on the international arena appears to be the form of the organic communication between nations. Parliamentary diplomacy today is the tool that has the potential to address to the number of issues that are difficult to deal with within the framework of the traditional forms of IR: international security, challenges posed by new technologies, international sanctions and other.

Naval Energy Management System

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-25
Author(s):  
Laurențiu Bogdan Asalomia ◽  
Gheorghe Samoilescu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Power Systems ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Integrated Navigation ◽  
Integrated Navigation System ◽  
Efficient Management ◽  
Reduce Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Efficiency Design Index ◽  
Green Ship

AbstractThe paper analyses the role of control and monitoring of electro-energetic equipment in order to reduce operational costs, increase profits and reduce carbon emissions. The role of SCADA and EcoStruxure Power systems is presented and analysed taking into account the energy consumption and its savings. The paper presents practical and modern solutions to reduce energy consumption by up to 53%, mass by up to 47% and increase the life of the equipment by adjusting the electrical parameters. The Integrated Navigation System has allowed an automatic control and an efficient management. For ships, the implementation of an energy efficiency design index and new technologies was required for the GREEN SHIP project.

Role of Self Help Groups A Study with Specific Reference to Vellore District

GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 243-252
Author(s):  
Dr. M.A. Bilal Ahmed ◽  
Dr. S. Thameemul Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Role ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Self Help Groups

SHG is a movement which came to being in the early 1969. Prof. Muhammed Younus, a great economist of Bangladesh took initiative in setting up Self Help Groups and these SHGs were gradually spread all over the world. This social movement unites the people hailing from poor background. Those who are joining this group feel socially and economically responsible to one another. In India, there are some likeminded bodies and stakeholders of some government organizations play pivotal role towards the formation of SHG In this research article, role of SHGs in Vellore district is studies under the three dimensions of Cognitive role, leadership role and role towards entrepreneurship.

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