Institutions and Economic Growth: The Successful Experience of Switzerland (1870-1950)

economic growth, institutions, Switzerland, small countries

Ethics, politics, and Nonsatiation in Consumption: A Synthesis

In contrast with the production of goods and services by firms, where the production costs are minimized under appropriate behavioral assumptions, consumer-producers in neoclassical theory maximize consumption expenditure, i.e., production costs of their outputs. According to Kenneth Boulding, were the impact upon the limited resources available on planet Earth taken into account, consumption expenditure should be minimized. We propose that we keep consumer theory as a reasonable description of reality.However,we should evaluate the long run consequences of such postulated behavior in a larger context,which, as a consequence of larger population with increasing per capita consumption, comprises the overburdening of natural resources. By decomposing the time horizon of cultural evolution into shorter periods of adjustment, we may then distinguish several types of institutional determination of how societies take decisions, as a group and individually. The consumer theory simply reflects the predominant ethical values, of which ideologies, political platforms, and demand patterns are shorter run adjustments.Consumption, Natural Resources, Political Process, Ethics

Building blocks of joint attention: early sensitivity to having one’s own gaze followed

Detecting when one’s own gaze has been followed is a critical component of joint attention, but little is known about its development. To address this issue, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to record infant neural responses at 6.5 and 9.5 months during observation of an adult either turning to look at the same object as the infant (congruent actor), or turning to look at a different object (incongruent actor). We also used a preferential looking paradigm to investigate whether infants would demonstrate a preference for the congruent versus incongruent actor. Greater suppression of alpha band activity in the congruent compared to incongruent condition was revealed at both ages in central and parietal regions. However, the effect of congruency on alpha suppression was stronger at 9.5 months, and only at this age did infants demonstrate a preference towards looking at the congruent actor. Together, these results suggest that although infants are sensitive to others’ gaze following from early on, important neural and behavioural developments occur between 6.5 and 9.5 months

Choosing and learning: Semiosis means choice

We examine the possibility of shifting the concept of choice to the centre of the semiotic theory of learning. Thus, we define sign process (meaning-making) through the concept of choice: semiosis is the process of making choices between simultaneously provided options. We define semiotic learning as leaving traces by choices, while these traces influence further choices. We term such traces of choices memory. Further modification of these traces (constraints) will be called habituation. Organic needs are homeostatic mechanisms coupled with choice-making. Needs and habits result in motivatedness. Semiosis as choice-making can be seen as a complementary description of the Peircean triadic model of semiosis; however, this can fit also the models of meaning-making worked out in other shools of semiotics. We also provide a sketch for a joint typology of semiosis and learning

An integrated theory of language production and comprehension

Currently, production and comprehension are regarded as quite distinct in accounts of language processing. In rejecting this dichotomy, we instead assert that producing and understanding are interwoven, and that this interweaving is what enables people to predict themselves and each other. We start by noting that production and comprehension are forms of action and action perception. We then consider the evidence for interweaving in action, action perception, and joint action, and explain such evidence in terms of prediction. Specifically, we assume that actors construct forward models of their actions before they execute those actions, and that perceivers of others' actions covertly imitate those actions, then construct forward models of those actions. We use these accounts of action, action perception, and joint action to develop accounts of production, comprehension, and interactive language. Importantly, they incorporate well-defined levels of linguistic representation (such as semantics, syntax, and phonology). We show (a) how speakers and comprehenders use covert imitation and forward modeling to make predictions at these levels of representation, (b) how they interweave production and comprehension processes, and (c) how they use these predictions to monitor the upcoming utterances. We show how these accounts explain a range of behavioral and neuroscientific data on language processing and discuss some of the implications of our proposal

Cultural diffusion in humans and other animals

This is the author's post print version of an article published in definitive form in Current Opinion in Psychology, Volume 8, April 2016, Pages 15–21.The definitive published version is available from: doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.09.002Available online 14 September 2015Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.Recent years have seen an enormous expansion and progress in studies of the cultural diffusion processes through which behaviour patterns, ideas and artifacts are transmitted within and between generations of humans and other animals. The first of two main approaches focuses on identifying, tracing and understanding cultural diffusion as it naturally occurs, an essential foundation to any science of culture. This endeavor has been enriched in recent years by sophisticated statistical methods and surprising new discoveries particularly in humans, other primates and cetaceans. This work has been complemented by a growing corpus of powerful, purpose-designed cultural diffusion experiments with captive and natural populations that have facilitated the rigorous identification and analysis of cultural diffusion in species from insects to humans.John Templeton Foundatio

A neurodevelopmental approach to the phylogeny and ontogeny of primate personality

This thesis proposes a new theory of personality in human and nonhuman primates, integrating neuroscience with ontogenetic and phylogenetic developmental perspectives. In this theoretical proposal, the most important goals for the study of personality are to understand: a) the ontogeny of personality, including the development of individual differences; b) the phylogeny of personality, including the common brain areas and functions that underlie personality ontogeny across primate species; and c) how individual differences regarding idiosyncratic aspects of individuals’ personalities reflect adaptations to the individuals’ life-histories that brought them about. Three essential premises are at the core of this theory: first premise: Personality is a dynamic structure, changing through the individual’s ontogeny; second premise: Personality organizes interactions with the external world into a complex internal model; and third premise: Personality evolved through primates’ phylogeny along with the brain structures that sustain it. At the empirical level, the hypotheses were that animals with higher cognitive abilities related with the referred brain areas, would have more diverse, flexible and complex personalities. A group of species covering the main branches of the primate phylogenetic tree were studied: a) Strepsirrhines: red-ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra) and ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), b) Haplorrhines - Platirrhines: squirrel monkeys (Saimiri boliviensis) and tufted-capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella), and c) Haplorrhines - Catarrhines: mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) and white-handed gibbons (Hilobates lar). The choice of species was limited to access availability. Data were collected via direct observation of behavior of animals from the Lagos’ Zoo, Badoca Park and Maia’s Zoo. Data were analized statistically and mathematically to obtain information on three personality aspects: 1) Diversity, 2) Flexibility, and 3) Complexity. The personality study methodology used was innovative. The data obtained are a first corroboration of the hypothesis defended. Further studies with other groups, species, and outside the context of captivity are required