1,273 research outputs found
Human Communication Systems Evolve by Cultural Selection
Human communication systems, such as language, evolve culturally; their
components undergo reproduction and variation. However, a role for selection in
cultural evolutionary dynamics is less clear. Often neutral evolution (also
known as 'drift') models, are used to explain the evolution of human
communication systems, and cultural evolution more generally. Under this
account, cultural change is unbiased: for instance, vocabulary, baby names and
pottery designs have been found to spread through random copying.
While drift is the null hypothesis for models of cultural evolution it does
not always adequately explain empirical results. Alternative models include
cultural selection, which assumes variant adoption is biased. Theoretical
models of human communication argue that during conversation interlocutors are
biased to adopt the same labels and other aspects of linguistic representation
(including prosody and syntax). This basic alignment mechanism has been
extended by computer simulation to account for the emergence of linguistic
conventions. When agents are biased to match the linguistic behavior of their
interlocutor, a single variant can propagate across an entire population of
interacting computer agents. This behavior-matching account operates at the
level of the individual. We call it the Conformity-biased model. Under a
different selection account, called content-biased selection, functional
selection or replicator selection, variant adoption depends upon the intrinsic
value of the particular variant (e.g., ease of learning or use). This second
alternative account operates at the level of the cultural variant. Following
Boyd and Richerson we call it the Content-biased model. The present paper tests
the drift model and the two biased selection models' ability to explain the
spread of communicative signal variants in an experimental micro-society
Categorisation as Topographic Mapping between Uncorrelated Spaces
Abstract. In this paper, I propose a neurophysiologically plausible account for the evolution of arbitrary, categorical mental relationships. Topographic, or structure-preserving, mappings are widespread within animal brains. If they can be shown to generate behaviours in simulation, it is plausible that they are responsible for them in vivo. One behaviour has puzzled philosophers, psychologists and linguists alike: the categorical nature of language and its arbitrary associations between categories of form and meaning. I show here that arbitrary categorical relationships can arise when a topographic mapping is developed between continuous, but uncorrelated activation spaces. This is shown first by simulation, then identified in humans with synaesthesia. The independence of form and meaning as sensory or conceptual spaces automatically results in a categorial structure being imposed on each, as our brains attempt to link the spaces with topographic maps. This result suggests a neurophysiologically plausible explanation of categorisation in language
Community and Clinical Epidemiology of Borderline Personality Disorder
Several studies of the prevalence of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in community and clinical settings have been carried out to date. Although results vary according to sampling method and assessment method, median point prevalence of BPD is roughly 1%, with higher or lower rates in certain community subpopulations. In clinical settings, BPD prevalence is around 10-12% in outpatient psychiatric clinics and 20-22% among inpatient clinics. Further research is needed to identify the prevalence and correlates of BPD in other clinical settings (e.g., primary care) and to investigate the impact of demographic variables on BPD prevalence
Charge-coupled devices with fast timing for astrophysics and space physics research
A charge coupled device is under development with fast timing capability (15 millisecond full frame readout, 30 microsecond resolution for measuring the time of individual pixel hits). The fast timing CCD will be used in conjunction with a CsI microfiber array or segmented scintillator matrix detector to detect x rays and gamma rays with submillimeter position resolution. The initial application will be in conjunction with a coded aperture hard x ray/gamma ray astronomy instrument. We describe the concept and the readout architecture of the device
Low-grade pelvic masses with spindle cell and fibroblastic proliferation: a case report
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens
Balloon-borne coded aperture telescope for arc-minute angular resolution at hard x-ray energies
We are working on the development of a new balloon-borne telescope, MARGIE (minute-of-arc resolution gamma ray imaging experiment). It will be a coded aperture telescope designed to image hard x-rays (in various configurations) over the 20 - 600 keV range with an angular resolution approaching one arc minute. MARGIE will use one (or both) of two different detection plane technologies, each of which is capable of providing event locations with sub-mm accuracies. One such technology involves the use of cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) strip detectors. We have successfully completed a series of laboratory measurements using a prototype CZT detector with 375 micron pitch. Spatial location accuracies of better than 375 microns have been demonstrated. A second type of detection plane would be based on CsI microfiber arrays coupled to a large area silicon CCD readout array. This approach would provide spatial resolutions comparable to that of the CZT prototype. In one possible configuration, the coded mask would be 0.5 mm thick tungsten, with 0.5 mm pixels at a distance of 1.5 m from the central detector giving an angular resolution of 1 arc-minute and a fully coded field of view of 12 degrees. We review the capabilities of the MARGIE telescope and report on the status of our development efforts and our plans for a first balloon flight
How Sales Taxes Affect Customer and Firm Behavior: The Role of Search on the Internet
When a multichannel retailer opens its first retail store in a state, the firm is obligated to collect sales taxes on all Internet and catalog orders shipped to that state. This article assesses how opening a store affects Internet and catalog demand. The authors analyze purchase behavior among customers who live far from the retail store but must now pay sales taxes on catalog and Internet purchases. A comparable group of customers in a neighboring state serves as a control. The results show that Internet sales decrease significantly, but catalog sales are unaffected. Further investigation indicates that the difference in these outcomes is partly attributable to the ease with which customers can search for lower prices at competing retailers. The authors extend the analysis to a panel of multichannel firms and show that retailers that earn a large proportion of their revenue from direct channels avoid opening a first store in high-tax states. They conclude that current U.S. sales taxes laws have significant effects on both customer and firm behavior
Applying the cultural ratchet to a social artefact: The cumulative cultural evolution of a language game
Material artefacts evolve by cumulative cultural evolution (CCE), the accumulation of adaptive modifications over time. We present a large-scale experiment investigating the CCE of a social artefact in transmission chains, each containing 8 adult human participants (N = 408). The social artefact is what Wittgenstein calls a 'language game', the subset of language used to perform a particular activity; in the present study the language game is to communicate a route on a map. Two social learning conditions were compared: Observational Learning and Social Coordinative Learning. Participants tried to accurately communicate a route on a map to the next person in their transmission chain. Over the experimental generations the routes were reproduced with progressively higher accuracy in both conditions, demonstrating the CCE of the language game. The rate of CCE was comparable across conditions, but route reproduction accuracy was consistently higher in the Social Coordination condition compared to the Observation condition. In both conditions performance improved due to the accumulation of adaptive patterns of verbal route descriptions, and the progressive elimination of non-adaptive patterns. Whereas change in the content of the language game was similar across conditions, change to the communication process differed between the Observation and Social Coordination conditions. In conclusion, like material artefacts, social artefacts, in our case the language game, evolve by cumulative cultural evolution
The Benefits and Challenges of Preconsent in a Multisite, Pediatric Sickle Cell Intervention Trial
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133619/1/pbc26013.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133619/2/pbc26013_am.pd
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