Language discrimination by human newborns and by cotton-top tamarin monkeys

Humans, but no other animal, make meaningful use of spoken language. What is unclear, however, is whether this capacity depends on a unique constellation of perceptual and neurobiological mechanisms, or whether a subset of such mechanisms are shared with other organisms. To explore this problem, we conducted parallel experiments on human newborns and cotton-top tamarin monkeys to assess their ability to discriminate unfamiliar languages. Using a habituation-dishabituation procedure, we show that human newborns and tamarins can discriminate sentences from Dutch and Japanese, but not if the sentences are played backwards. Moreover, the cues for discrimination are not present in backward speech. This suggests that the human newborns' tuning to certain properties of speech relies on general processes of the primate auditory system

Concept Attribution in Nonhuman Animals: Theoretical and Methodological Problems in Ascribing Complex Mental Processes

The demise of behaviorism has made ethologists more willing to ascribe mental states to animals. However, a methodology that can avoid the charge of excessive anthropomorphism is needed. We describe a series of experiments that could help determine whether the behavior of nonhuman animals towards dead conspecifics is concept mediated. These experiments form the basis of a general point. The behavior of some animals is clearly guided by complex mental processes. The techniques developed by comparative psychologists and behavioral ecologists are able to provide us with the tools to critically evaluate hypotheses concerning the continuity between human minds and animal minds.Psycholog

Entwicklung eines Algorithmus zur elektiven OP-Einbestellung in der Klinik für Orthopädie und Rheumatologie

Die Arbeit entwickelt eine bedarfsorientierte langfristige Operationsplanung. Dabei werden die gegebenen Rahmenbedingungen der Klinik für Orthopädie und Rheumatologie in Marburg identifiziert und berücksichtigt. Erklärtes Ziel ist die Reduktion des präoperativen stationären Aufenthaltes und somit eine Verminderung der gesamten Aufenthaltsdauer. Dabei soll die Menge an Operationen pro Jahr indes unverändert bleiben. Mithilfe einer Prozessanalyse werden die gegebenen Arbeitsabläufe untersucht und mit dem eigens entwickelten Dokumentationswerkzeug (MaPDok) erfasst, sowie diskutiert. Die Rahmenbedingungen der Klinik werden als innere und äußere Bedingungen aus Sicht des Patienten identifiziert. Innere Bedingungen sind Wahloptionen für den Patienten, äußere Bedingungen sind Vorgaben, auf die der Patient keinen Einfluss hat. Aus diesen Bedingungen ergeben sich vier Merkmale, die zur Entwicklung eines Algorithmus zur OP-Einbestellung berücksichtigt werden. Es werden verschieden Algorithmen mit unterschiedlichem Komplexitätsgrad entwickelt. Um die Hypothese der Reduktion des präoperativen stationären Aufenthaltes und der gesamten Aufenthaltsdauer zu prüfen, erfolgt ein Vergleich der Algorithmen mit der Ausgangssituation durch stochastische Simulation. Bereits der einfachste Algorithmus kann eine deutliche Reduktion des präoperativen Aufenthaltes und der gesamten Aufenthaltsdauer erreichen. Algorithmen mit einem höheren Grad an Komplexität bringen keine wesentlichen Verbesserungen, sind jedoch in der Anwendung schwieriger. Der favorisierte Algorithmus kann mit oder ohne EDV Unterstützung weitgehend Interventions- und Investitionsneutral umgesetzt werden

Social Interaction Effects on Reward and Cognitive Abilities in Monkeys

When given a choice between receiving $100 in 30 days and$110 in 31 days, most people wait for the larger, more delayed reward. However, when the choice is between $100 today and$110 tomorrow, many people shift their preferences to the smaller, immediate reward despite the same difference of $10 and one day. Reward properties—such as time to receipt—play a crucial role in our processing of rewards. However, reward processing does not only occur for individual decisions but also for social interactions; we must decide to either cooperate or compete with others for rewards. Humans stand out in the animal kingdom as exceptional cooperators, both in terms of the form that cooperation assumes as well as the nature of rewards attained. Regarding form, we are unique in the stability of our reciprocal interactions and in the scale of our cooperative coalitions, entailing multiple nation states in times of war. In terms of rewards, we are of course motivated, like all other animals, by the central survival payoffs such as food and water but also by abstract entities such as money, the promise of future support, and positions of power such as a king, president, or head of an academic department. To maintain these complicated interactions and evaluate the nature of reward, we must possess a number of prerequisite cognitive abilities. Here, we view this problem through the lens of evolutionary biology, asking which aspects of our cognitive machinery, and the social interactions it supports, are uniquely human and which are shared with other primates. Though we focus on lemurs, monkeys, and apes, we acknowledge that many of the processes we document are unlikely to be restricted to the primates, and in many cases, there is already comparable evidence from other mammals and birds. We begin by reviewing a suite of cognitive mechanisms that are involved in both human and nonhuman primate reward processing. Our review is particularly focused on the subset of situations with quantifiable rewards. We then describe the kinds of social interactions that are part and parcel of primate life, especially the highly social monkeys and apes. Lastly, we merge these two sections and consider how constraints on primate cognition may limit the complexity of primate social interactions

The Ursinus Weekly, June 8, 1970

289 students graduate Ursinus today: Brooks Hays selected speaker at graduation • 1970 Honorary Degree recipients • Ursinus College class of 1970 • Focus: Bob Keehn • Departmental honorshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1162/thumbnail.jp

The Evolution of the Language Faculty: Clarifications and Implications

In this response to Pinker and Jackendoff's critique, we extend our previous framework for discussion of language evolution, clarifying certain distinctions and elaborating on a number of points. In the first half of the paper, we reiterate that profitable research into the biology and evolution of language requires fractionation of "language" into component mechanisms and interfaces, a non-trivial endeavor whose results are unlikely to map onto traditional disciplinary boundaries, Our terminological distinction between FLN and FLB is intended to help clarify misunderstandings and aid interdisciplinary rapprochement. By blurring this distinction, Pinker and Jackendoff mischaracterize our hypothesis 3 which concerns only FLN, not "language" as a whole. Many of their arguments and examples are thus irrelevant to this hypothesis. Their critique of the minimalist program is for the most part equally irrelevant, because very few of the arguments in our original paper were tied to this program; in an online appendix we detail the deep inaccuracies in their characterization of this program. Concerning evolution, we believe that Pinker and Jackendoff's emphasis on the past adaptive history of the language faculty is misplaced. Such questions are unlikely to be resolved empirically due to a lack of relevant data, and invite speculation rather than research. Preoccupation with the issue has retarded progress in the field by diverting research away from empirical questions, many of which can be addressed with comparative data. Moreover, offering an adaptive hypothesis as an alternative to our hypothesis concerning mechanisms is a logical error, as questions of function are independent of those concerning mechanism. The second half of our paper consists of a detailed response to the specific data discussed by Pinker and Jackendoff. Although many of their examples are irrelevant to our original paper and arguments, we find several areas of substantive disagreement that could be resolved by future empirical research. We conclude that progress in understanding the evolution of language will require much more empirical research, grounded in modern comparative biology, more interdisciplinary collaboration, and much less of the adaptive storytelling and phylogenetic speculation that has traditionally characterized the field.Psycholog

Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) Spontaneously Compute Addition Operations Over Large Numbers

Mathematics is a uniquely human capacity. Studies of animals and human infants reveal, however, that this capacity builds on language-independent mechanisms for quantifying small numbers (< 4) precisely and large numbers approximately. It is unclear whether animals and human infants can spontaneously tap mechanisms for quantifying large numbers to compute mathematical operations. Moreover, all available work on addition operations in non-human animals has confounded number with continuous perceptual properties (e.g. volume, contour length) that correlate with number. This study shows that rhesus monkeys spontaneously compute addition operations over large numbers, as opposed to continuous extents, and that the limit on this ability is set by the ratio difference between two numbers as opposed to their absolute difference.Psycholog