Collaborative and competitive motivations uniquely impact infants' racial categorization

Human history has been plagued by violent inter-group conflicts. Such conflicts are arguably grounded on group biases – particularly, a tendency to favor “ingroups” over “outgroups” – manifested in adults, children, and infants. A question these findings prompt is what motivates social categorization? Here it is shown that priming 14-month-old infants (N?=?144) with collaborative or competitive interactions affects their capacity to form racial categories, and that this effect varies according to the gender of the exemplars being categorized. Specifically, whereas racial categorization of women was facilitated by collaboration, racial categorization of men was facilitated by competition. The presence of these differential effects in infancy is consistent with the idea that social categorization is driven by fundamental functions of group relations.     

The Role of Intuitive Ontologies in Scientific Understanding – the Case of Human Evolution

Psychological evidence suggests that laypeople understand the world around them in terms of intuitive ontologies which describe broad categories of objects in the world, such as ‘person’, ‘artefact’ and ‘animal’. However, because intuitive ontologies are the result of natural selection, they only need to be adaptive; this does not guarantee that the knowledge they provide is a genuine reflection of causal mechanisms in the world. As a result, science has parted ways with intuitive ontologies. Nevertheless, since the brain is evolved to understand objects in the world according to these categories, we can expect that they continue to play a role in scientific understanding. Taking the case of human evolution, we explore relationships between intuitive ontological and scientific understanding. We show that intuitive ontologies not only shape intuitions on human evolution, but also guide the direction and topics of interest in its research programmes. Elucidating the relationships between intuitive ontologies and science may help us gain a clearer insight into scientific understanding.     

Can Evolution Explain Insanity?

I distinguish three evolutionary explanations of mental illness: first, breakdowns in evolved computational systems; second, evolved systems performing their evolutionary function in a novel environment; third, evolved personality structures. I concentrate on the second and third explanations, as these are distinctive of an evolutionary psychopathology, with progressively less credulity in the light of the empirical evidence. General morals are drawn for evolutionary psychiatry.     

Darwinian Ethics and Error

Suppose that the human tendency to think of certain actions andomissions as morally required – a notion that surely lies at the heart of moral discourse – is a trait that has been naturallyselected for. Many have thought that from this premise we canjustify or vindicate moral concepts. I argue that this is mistaken, and defend Michael Ruse's view that the moreplausible implication is an error theory – the idea thatmorality is an illusion foisted upon us by evolution. Thenaturalistic fallacy is a red herring in this debate,since there is really nothing that counts as a fallacy at all. If morality is an illusion, it appears to followthat we should, upon discovering this, abolish moraldiscourse on pain of irrationality. I argue that thisconclusion is too hasty, and that we may be able usefullyto employ a moral discourse, warts and all, withoutbelieving in it.     

Modelling the evolution of genomes with integrated external and internal functions

The genomes that organisms transmit between generations contain information about different kinds of functions. The genome with the "best" mix and number of genes for these functions is the one that natural selection favours. Here I introduce a new way to model simple organisms with genes for external and internal functions, and use it to study the evolution of genome size. The external functions are exemplified by resource use and the internal functions by mutation control (repair). It is shown that even with a suitable proportion of genes for mutation control, the genomes in the organisms do not forever incorporate genes that increase resource use. Instead they evolve towards an optimal genome of limited size. The optimal proportion of genes for mutation control is shown to have an upper limit given by the ease with which transmission accuracy is improved by adding extra genes for this purpose to the genome. The model illustrates how natural selection on genomes integrates systems for the transmission of genetic information with systems relating to the external adaptation of the organism. It also opens up for other, more detailed theoretical investigations of genome functions.     

Experimental mood manipulation does not induce change in preference for natural landscapes

According to evolutionary theory, emotions are psychological mechanisms that have evolved to enhance fitness in specific situations by motivating appropriate (adaptive) behavior. Taking this perspective, a previous study examined the relationship between mood and preference for natural environments. It reported that participants’ anxiety level was associated with a preference for landscapes offering what Appleton called "refuge," while participants’ anger and cheerfulness were both associated with a preference for landscapes offering what Appleton called "prospect." We attempted to replicate these results and to improve on the study by experimentally manipulating mood. Using a between-subjects design, 80 participants were instructed to self-induce one of four moods: anger, sadness, anxiety, or joy. After the mood induction, they viewed fourteen landscape photographs and recorded the seven most preferred. It was hypothesized that subjects experiencing anger or joy would prefer landscapes rich in "prospect" features, whereas participants experiencing sadness or anxiety would prefer landscapes rich in "refuge" features. In contrast to the previous study, the predictions were not supported: artificially induced moods may not provide ecological validity as a test of the "mood as motivator" model; alternatively, the first study may have reported an alpha error. To see whether the model has practical value, we recommend a study of landscape preference using participants with clinically significant levels of mood dysphoria. Bernadette Klopp received her B.A. (Honours) in Psychology from the University of Queensland. Her areas of research interest focus on environment and aesthetics, environmental psychology, and the evolution of art as a form of social communication. Bernadette is currently employed by the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service of Queensland, but she hopes to pursue further graduate study. Linda Mealey, Ph.D., is just finishing a three-year stint as Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychology, University of Queensland, before returning to her Associate Professor position at the College of St. Benedict in central Minnesota. She is Vice-President/President-Elect of the International Society for Human Ethology, a Councilor of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, and a member of the editorial board of Politics and the Life Sciences.     

Structures and functions of adventitious roots in species of the genus Philodendron Schott (Araceae)

We discuss here the anatomical variations of the arrangements and compositions of stele types observed in different roots types in four populations of the three species of Philodendron as probable adaptations to their habitats. Terrestrial individuals of P. corcovadense have cylindrical steles while rupicolous individuals have lobate steles with dispersed internal cortical parenchyma. The Philodendron species sampled showed polyarch structures. The crampon roots of P. oblongum and anchor roots of P. cordatum show medullated protosteles, with the former species having a reduced pith with sclerified parenchyma cells while the latter has a wide pith and parenchyma cells with only slightly thickened walls. The feeder roots of P. cordatum also show a medullated protostele—although a central vessel is present until approximately 60 cm from the apex that later disappears, forming a parenchymatous pith. We conclude that the different root types reflect adaptations of the subgenera Philodendron and Meconostigma to their different habits and habitats, such as in P. corcovadense, where the roots of rupicolous individuals have lobate steles while the roots of the terrestrial plants have cylindrical steles.     

Evolutionary ethics,Darwinian ethics and ethical naturalism

The relevance of evolutionary theory to ethics goes back to Darwin but until recently discussion employed evolutionary theory to justify ethical, social and political positions. Recently, evolutionary theory has been used to explain the existence of moral systems and moral propensities and, thereby, to provide a naturalistic basis for ethics. I argue that this approach has advanced our understanding of the basis of moral systems and moral propensities but does not as yet adequately incorporate the role of cognition in its account. Cognition has the effect of decoupling to some extent — though, of course, far from fully — human moral systems from their evolutionary origins. In an adequate account, evolutionary theory will play a crucial role but so also will our evolved cognitive abilities.     

Prosocial primates: selfish and unselfish motivations

Non-human primates are marked by well-developed prosocial and cooperative tendencies as reflected in the way they support each other in fights, hunt together, share food and console victims of aggression. The proximate motivation behind such behaviour is not to be confused with the ultimate reasons for its evolution. Even if a behaviour is ultimately self-serving, the motivation behind it may be genuinely unselfish. A sharp distinction needs to be drawn, therefore, between (i) altruistic and cooperative behaviour with knowable benefits to the actor, which may lead actors aware of these benefits to seek them by acting cooperatively or altruistically and (ii) altruistic behaviour that offers the actor no knowable rewards. The latter is the case if return benefits occur too unpredictably, too distantly in time or are of an indirect nature, such as increased inclusive fitness. The second category of behaviour can be explained only by assuming an altruistic impulse, which—as in humans—may be born from empathy with the recipient''s need, pain or distress. Empathy, a proximate mechanism for prosocial behaviour that makes one individual share another''s emotional state, is biased the way one would predict from evolutionary theories of cooperation (i.e. by kinship, social closeness and reciprocation). There is increasing evidence in non-human primates (and other mammals) for this proximate mechanism as well as for the unselfish, spontaneous nature of the resulting prosocial tendencies. This paper further reviews observational and experimental evidence for the reciprocity mechanisms that underlie cooperation among non-relatives, for inequity aversion as a constraint on cooperation and on the way defection is dealt with.     

Evolutionary Psychology – Towards a More Integrative Model

Aspects of the history of behavioural science are reviewed, pointing to its fragmented and faction-ridden nature. The emergence of evolutionary psychology (EP) is viewed in this context. With the help of a dual-layered model of behavioural control, the case is made for a more integrative perspective towards EP. The model's application to both behaviour and complex human information processing is described. Similarities in their control are noted. It is suggested that one layer of control (‘on-line’) corresponds to the encapsulated modules of EP whereas the off-line controls provide the plasticity and flexibility suggested by its critics.     

Innateness and the Sciences

The concept of innateness is a part of folk wisdom but is also used by biologists and cognitive scientists. This concept has a legitimate role to play in science only if the colloquial usage relates to a coherent body of evidence. We examine many different candidates for the post of scientific successor of the folk concept of innateness. We argue that none of these candidates is entirely satisfactory. Some of the candidates are more interesting and useful than others, but the interesting candidates are not equivalent to each other and the empirical and evidential relations between them are far from clear. Researchers have treated the various scientific notions that capture some aspect of the folk concept of innateness as equivalent to each other or at least as tracking properties that are strongly correlated with each other. But whether these correlations exist is an empirical issue. This empirical issue has not been thoroughly investigated because in the attempt to create a bridge between the folk view and their theories, researchers have often assumed that the properties must somehow cluster. Rather than making further attempts to import the folk concept of innateness into the sciences, efforts should now be made to focus on the empirical questions raised by the debates and pave the way to a better way of studying the development of living organisms. Such empirical questions must be answered before it can be decided whether a good scientific successor – in the form of a concept that refers to a collection of biologically significant properties that tend to co-occur – can be identified or whether the concept of innateness deserves no place in science.     

Naturalizing cruelty

Cruelty is widely regarded to be a uniquely human trait. This follows from a standard definition of cruelty as involving the deliberate infliction of suffering together with the empirical claim that humans are unique in their ability to attribute suffering (or any mental state) to other creatures. In this paper I argue that this definition is not optimum for the purposes of scientific inquiry. I suggest that its intuitive appeal stems from our abhorrence of cruelty, and our corresponding desire to define cruelty in such a way that it is almost always morally wrong. Scientifically speaking this is an arbitrary condition that inhibits our attempt to study cruelty as a natural phenomenon. I propose a fully naturalized definition of cruelty, one that considerably expands the range of creatures and behaviors that may be conceived as cruel.     

Psychiatry and Military Conscription in Brazil: The Search for Opportunity and Institutionalized Therapy

Since the fall of the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1984, a number of structural and ideological changes associated with demilitarization and democracy have changed the face of psychiatric theory and practice. Around the country, pockets of innovative, politically sensitive and Marxist-inspired community-based forms of "psi" practice are developing. This emergent psi movement is making a range of positive contributions to the lives of average citizens, including those of poor disenfranchized youth. This paper, however, explores one particular dimension of the work of psi practitioners that has proven antithetical to the psi community's current politicized community-based aims. Based on qualitative and quantitative longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with therapists and young men in Pelotas, this paper analyzes how certain kinds of psi interventions being carried out in schools for a subset of lower-class young men during their early teen years are encouraging some youth to seek military training as a life option. Although these young men initially had quite captivating, engaged and politicized-if also conflicting-interactions with therapists, their eventual disillusionment with their therapeutic and scholastic experiences resulted in high levels of social alienation and de-politicization. In these young men's search for what can best be described as formulaic solutions to troubling psychological experiences associated with a tumultuous institutionalized transition to adulthood, military training came to represent a form of self-cultivation and self-therapy. Several youth also hoped military training would enable them to actively disengage with local political processes and find shelter from troubling social inequities and injustice. The paper ends by reviewing the implications of these results for the future of psi knowledge and practice in Brazil.     

The evolutionary roots of creativity: mechanisms and motivations

We consider the evolution of cognition and the emergence of creative behaviour, in relation to vocal communication. We address two key questions: (i) what cognitive and/or social mechanisms have evolved that afford aspects of creativity?; (ii) has natural and/or sexual selection favoured human behaviours considered ‘creative’? This entails analysis of ‘creativity’, an imprecise construct: comparable properties in non-humans differ in magnitude and teleology from generally agreed human creativity. We then address two apparent problems: (i) the difference between merely novel productions and ‘creative’ ones; (ii) the emergence of creative behaviour in spite of high cost: does it fit the idea that females choose a male who succeeds in spite of a handicap (costly ornament); or that creative males capable of producing a large and complex song repertoire grew up under favourable conditions; or a demonstration of generally beneficial heightened reasoning capacity; or an opportunity to continually reinforce social bonding through changing communication tropes; or something else? We illustrate and support our argument by reference to whale and bird song; these independently evolved biological signal mechanisms objectively share surface properties with human behaviours generally called ‘creative’. Studying them may elucidate mechanisms underlying human creativity; we outline a research programme to do so.     

Unfinished Stories on Viral Quasispecies and Darwinian Views of Evolution

Experimental evidence that RNA virus populations consist of distributions of mutant genomes, termed quasispecies, was first published 31 years ago. This work provided the earliest experimental support for a theory to explain a system that replicated with limited fidelity and to understand the self-organization and adaptability of early life forms on Earth. High mutation rates and quasispecies dynamics of RNA viruses are intimately related to both viral disease and antiviral treatment strategies. Moreover, the quasispecies concept is being applied to other biological systems such as cancer research in which cellular mutant spectra can be also detected. This review addresses some of the unanswered questions regarding viral and theoretical quasispecies concepts as well as more practical aspects concerning resistance to antiviral treatments and pathogenesis.     

A historical perspective on the collaboration between psychoanalysis and neuroscience

The aim of this article is to present and discuss the connections between psychoanalysis and neuroscience from a historical viewpoint. We start by examining how Sigmund Freud can be viewed as a pioneer in the interaction between these two fields. Freud was himself a neurologist and had maintained an interest in biology as he developed the key concepts of psychoanalysis. His ideas regarding psychosomatics are described. We will also explore how the concept of drive is essential to the connection between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Then, we describe several key actors and historical events and characters at the interface of these two fields, namely Sándor Radó Lawrence S. Kubie and Mc Culloch, the debates that took place during the Macy conferences, as well as the positions of Jacques Lacan, George L. Engel, and Eric Kandel. Finally, we present a synthesis of the main fields in which the connections between psychoanalysis and neuroscience are already fruitful, and those where they should be developed: the classification of mental diseases, the link between the scientific and psychic dimensions, therapeutics, the organization of the body, intersubjectivity, the subjective division and ambivalence, as well as transferential effects like such as the placebo and nocebo effects. In the conclusion, we advocate several strategic alliances and underscore the complementarity between rigorous scientific experimentation and the individualized psychoanalytic approach.     

Radiation and adaptation, evolutionary biology and semantics

Radiations can be either adaptive or non-adaptive, resulting in a variety of niches occupied by sympatric species, or in hardly any niche differentiation and species showing largely mosaic distribution patterns. The terms are useful despite the fact that intermediate situations occur.     

Interplay of Darwinian and frequency-dependent selection in the host-associated microbial populations

In order to analyze the microevolutionary processes in host-associated microorganisms, we simulated the dynamics of rhizobia populations composed of a parental strain and its mutants possessing the altered fitness within "plant-soil" system. The population dynamics was presented as a series of cycles (each one involves "soil-->rhizosphere-->nodules-->soil" succession) described using recurrent equations. For representing the selection and mutation pressures, we used a universal approach based on calculating the shifts in the genetic ratios of competing bacterial genotypes within the particular habitats and across several habitats. Analysis of the model demonstrated that a balanced polymorphism may be established in rhizobia population: mutants with an improved fitness do not supplant completely the parental strain while mutants with a decreased fitness may be maintained stably. This polymorphism is caused by a rescue of low-fitted genotypes via negative frequency-dependent selection (FDS) that is implemented during inoculation of nodules and balances the Darwinian selection that occurs during multiplication or extinction of bacteria at different habitats. The most diverse populations are formed if the rhizobia are equally successful in soil and nodules, while a marked preference for any of these habitats results in the decrease of diversity. Our simulation suggests that FDS can maintain the mutualistic rhizobia-legume interactions under the stress conditions deleterious for surviving the bacterial strains capable for intensive N2 fixation. Genetic consequences of releasing the modified rhizobia strains may be addressed using the presented model.     

Negotiating multiple motivations in the science and practice of ecological restoration

Summary In a recent piece in EMR, Burbidge et al. discussed some major impediments to linking research and practice in ecological restoration and management. They identified a lack of collaboration between research and practice, poor communication, inappropriate funding and political timelines, change inertia and a lack of capacity as major barriers to improving restoration praxis. They suggest capacity building, communication, collaboration and involving key stakeholders through an iterative cycle of research to management will improve the translation of research into practice (Ecological Management and Restoration 12, 2011, 54). While we agree with the barriers and recommendations identified, they did not consider how the multifaceted motivations embodied in the practice and social context of restoration shape the research–practice nexus. Given the diversity of actors involved in conservation activities, and the focus on conservation on private land and landscape‐scale connectivity in government policy, this is a significant oversight. We suggest it is vital to draw attention to these multifaceted motivations when discussing implementation challenges. This piece draws on our collective insights from three doctoral research projects examining the science, practice and social dimensions of ecological restoration and management in Australia. Our intention is to outline some of the social and contextual influences shaping restoration practice to demonstrate the importance of dialogue between researchers, practitioners and landholders around the goals and expectations of restoration and management interventions. We suggest this is an important aspect of improving the conversation between the actors involved in restoration research, policy and practice.