Missing Shades of Grue

Evolutionary Psychology Under Fire

Recently the doubts and questions plaguing the theory of evolutionary psychology have boiled up to the mainstream press. Christie Nicholson reports. (Scientific American Podcast)

tags: evolutionary-psychology, grue

Learning is social, computational, supported by neural systems linking people

Education is on the cusp of a transformation because of recent scientific findings in neuroscience, psychology, and machine learning that are converging to create foundations for a new science of learning.

tags: learning, development, social, grue, ttl

The Domestication of the Savage Mind

James Flynn is best known for having discovered a stubborn fact. In a series of papers culminating in the classic 1987 article ?Massive IQ Gains in 14 Nations: What IQ Tests Really Measure,? he established that in every country where consistent IQ tests have been given to large numbers of people over time, scores have been rising as far back as the records go, in some cases to the early 20th century. What Is Intelligence? is Flynn?s attempt to explain this phenomenon, now known as the Flynn effect. (American Scientist)

tags: intelligence, grue, Flynn-effect

• in every country where consistent IQ tests have been given to large numbers of people over time, scores have been rising as far back as the records go, in some cases to the early 20th century.
• He claims the Flynn effect is a consequence of changes in the way people live and the skills they cultivate?changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution.
• schooling should increase IQ scores.
• gains on IQ tests should vary depending on the content of the tests, being highest on those that rely most on mastering abstract taxonomies and solving problems on the spot.
• Learning better or faster depends on what?s being learned, on what?s already known, on how people try to learn, on how (or whether) others teach them, and so forth.

HOW DID HUMANS COME DOWN FROM THE TREES AND WHY DID NO ONE FOLLOW? By Vanessa Woods & Brian Hare

Edge: OUT OF OUR MINDS:

tags: primates, human-nature, grue

• Bonobos share more DNA (98.7 percent) with us than they do with gorillas
• A theory of mind allows for complex social behaviors, such as military strategies, and the formation of institutions, such as governments.
• The chimps didn't discriminate; they made the begging gesture at people who obviously couldn't see them just as often as they begged from people who were looking straight at them.
• when she knows the partition is blocking your view of her, she walks low and fast behind it and swipes the banana off the tray.
• Low-ranking chimpanzees will always go for the food that's hidden from a dominant chimpanzee's view, because they know the dominant has not seen it. If you suddenly look up, a chimpanzee will follow your gaze, wondering what you've seen. If you delay giving chimpanzees food, either by teasing them or accidentally dropping it, they know when you're being intentionally mean, and they act more frustrated than they do when you're just being clumsy.
• does this mean that chimpanzees have the same theory of mind that we do?
• human children under the age of two can use your pointing to find food. Even if you just look at the correct cup, children will follow your gaze and use it to gain information about what you know. They understand that you're trying to help them by communicating the location of the hidden goodie.
• something that evolved
  • Could be learned early. How young were the chimps? It might be that human children are brought up from the beginning with learning opportunities for communicative gestures, but chimps don't have that advantage. Need to look aqt chimpls brought up as humans and humans brought up as chimps. - post by rgarns
• If you pointed in the right direction
  • Notice dogs get communicative estures. Perhaps it has to do with being social in a special way. Suggests something genetic. - post by rgarns
• Instead of getting a jump start with the most intelligent hominids surviving to produce the next generation, as is often suggested, it may have been the more sociable hominids ? because they were better at solving problems together ? who achieved a higher level of fitness and allowed selection to favor more sophisticated problem-solving over time. Humans got their smarts only because we got friendlier first.
• a dominant female
  • How much does this have to do with one's place in the hierarchy. Dominant chimps don't cooperate well; subordinate chimps cooperate well with other subordinates? - post by rgarns
• a lack of tolerance is one of the main constraints
  • Could also be that foresight in humans creates possibilities for considering how cooperation now (even with someone you don't lke or know well) will pay off later - post by rgarns
• we became very tolerant, and this allowed us to cooperate in entirely new ways. Without this heightened tolerance, we would not be the species we are today.

Brains, Computers, and Minds

Harvard Mind/Brain/Behavior - 2009 Distinguished Lecture Series with Professor Daniel Dennett (video)

tags: brains, minds, ai, computers, Dennett, grue, cogsci

The Criminal Mind

BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes

tags: neuroethics, mind, grue, cogsci

Personal Robotics Group

- We are developing a team of 4 small mobile humanoid robots that possess a novel combination of mobility, moderate dexterity, and human-centric communication and interaction abilities. Our collaborators include Xitome Design and UMASS Amherst. We refer to this class of robots as "MDS" for Mobile/Dexterous/Social.

tags: robots, AI, CDC, grue

Percontations: Explaining and Appraising Moral Intuition

Percontations: Explaining and Appraising Moral Intuition (Bloggingheads.tv)

tags: percontations, intuitions, moral-intuitions, grue

Evolutionary origins of the nervous system

THE HUMAN BRAIN is a true marvel of nature. This jelly-like 1.5kg mass inside our skulls, containing hundreds of billions of cells which between them form something like a quadrillion connections, is responsible for our every action, emotion and thought. How did this remarkable and extraordinarily complex structure evolve?

tags: evolution, brain, neurophilosophy, grue, cogsci