Can the Archaeology of Manual Specialization Tell Us Anything About Language Evolution? A Survey of the State of Play

In this review and position paper we explore the neural substrates for manual specialization and their possible connection with language and speech. We focus on two contrasting hypotheses of the origins of language and manual specialization: the language-first scenario and the tool-use-first scenario. Each one makes specific predictions about hand-use in non-human primates, as well as about the necessity of an association between speech adaptations and population-level right-handedness in the archaeological and fossil records. The concept of handedness is reformulated for archaeologists in terms of manual role specialization, using Guiard's model asymmetric bimanual coordination. This focuses our attention on skilled bimanual tasks in which both upper limbs play complementary roles. We review work eliciting non-human primate hand preferences in co-ordinated bimanual tasks, and relevant archaeological data for estimating the presence or absence of a population-level bias to the right hand as the manipulator in extinct hominin species and in the early prehistory of our own species

Sea otters make a splash

California sea otters have been pounding mussels on shoreline boulders for more than 10 years, and this behaviour leaves long-term traces. Using methods from ecology and archaeology, we showed that it is possible to recognize the damaged rocks and broken mussel shells created by sea otters

Effects of Handedness and Viewpoint on the Imitation of Origami-Making

The evolutionary origins of the human bias for 85% right-handedness are obscure. The Apprenticeship Complexity Theory states that the increasing difficulty of acquiring stone tool-making and other manual skills in the Pleistocene favoured learners whose hand preference matched that of their teachers. Furthermore, learning from a viewing position opposite, rather than beside, the demonstrator might be harder because it requires more mental transformation. We varied handedness and viewpoint in a bimanual learning task. Thirty-two participants reproduced folding asymmetric origami figures as demonstrated by a videotaped teacher in four conditions (left-handed teacher opposite the learner, left-handed beside, right-handed opposite, or right-handed beside). Learning performance was measured by time to complete each figure, number of video pauses and rewinds, and similarity of copies to the target shape. There was no effect of handedness or viewpoint on imitation learning. However, participants preferred to produce figures with the same asymmetry as demonstrated, indicating they imitate the teacher's hand preference. We speculate that learning by imitation involves internalising motor representations and that, to facilitate learning by imitation, many motor actions can be flexibly executed using the demonstrated hand configuration. We conclude that matching hand preferences evolved due to socially learning moderately complex bimanual skills

Modulation of behavioural laterality in wild New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides): Vocalization, age and function (advance online)

The New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) is known for displaying a unique set of tool-related behaviours, with the bird’s bill acting as an individually consistently lateralized effector. However, we still fail to understand how such laterality develops, is modulated or even if its expression is consistent across other behavioural categories. Creating the first ethogram for this species allowed us to examine laterality and vocalisations in a population of wild, free-flying New Caledonian crows using detailed analyses of close-up video footage. We revealed the existence of an overall strong left-sided bias during object manipulation only and which was driven by the adult crows of our focal population, the stabilization of individual preferences occurring during the birds’ juvenile years. Individually, at least one crow showed consistent side biases to the right and left within different behavioural categories. Our findings highlight previously unknown variability in behavioural laterality in this species, thus advocating for further investigation. Specifically, we argue that a better understanding of the New Caledonian crow's biology and ecology is required if one wishes to pursue the promising comparative road that laterality could be connected to the evolution of tool-making

Grottes, abris, et cours d’eau souterrains : Sites d’importance rituelle dans les Highlands de Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée

Aufgrund der besonderen Karstbedingungen in diesem Land, das von riesigen Kalksteinmassiven und starken Regenfällen dominiert wird, ist das Hochland im Inneren von Papua-Neuguinea reich an Höhlen, Felsunterständen und unterirdischen Entwässerungssystemen, die mehrere Wasserlöcher oder Schlucklöcher verbinden. Auf dem Gebiet der Stämme der Mbowamb und Tuman in der Nähe von Mt. Hagen haben viele dieser Stätten eine rituelle und mythologische Bedeutung. Diese Stätten können auch prähistorisches Potential haben, wie viele andere Stätten in Neuguinea. Unsere jüngsten speläologischen Untersuchungen sowie unsere seit den 1970er Jahren gesammelten anthropologischen Daten zu den mündlichen Überlieferungen in Bezug auf diese Orte könnten als Grundlage für zukünftige Forschungen dienen

¿Cómo se pueden aprender contenidos gramaticales para ELE a distancia? Reflexión en torno a una experiencia de aprendizaje

Aprender gramática del español —o de cualquier otra lengua—, desentrañar la teoría,analizar una emisión verbal a partir de ella, reconocer los fenómenos descriptos,todo eso puede constituir un verdadero desafío. Sin embargo, existe otro tal vezmayor: aprender gramática a distancia, y no solo para que un estudiante que yahabla español conozca más sobre el sistema de su lengua, sino cuando se trata decapacitar a usuarios que serán formados para enseñar contenidos gramaticales aestudiantes no hispanohablantes, esto es, gramática para profesores de ELE.El presente escrito es el relato de una experiencia de aprendizaje en la carrerade posgrado Especialización en la Enseñanza del Español para Extranjeros(a distancia), dictada por la Universidad del Salvador, de la que egresé en2016. Específicamente, deseo centrarme en una parte del trayecto: el cursadode la asignatura Lengua Española: Contenidos Gramaticales para ELE con laintención de comentar la forma en que el curso está organizado y, paralelamente,realizar algunas reflexiones vinculadas con la forma en que se construyenen este caso los dos «pilares» en que se asienta —de acuerdo con loexpuesto por Padula Perkins (2002) — la educación a distancia: la elaboraciónde los materiales y la labor tutorial

Explicitación de pronombres sujeto en primera persona en el género “carta de lector”: propuesta de enseñanza para ELE

De acuerdo con distintos estándares o niveles establecidos por diferentes instituciones, los estudiantes avanzados de ELE deben ser capaces de interpretar y de producir textos argumentativos complejos. Esto requiere, entre otras cuestiones, el abordaje de un fenómeno que no suele destacarse en propuestas didácticas o en manuales de enseñanza: la explicitación de pronombres personales sujeto en primera persona en textos argumentativos. Es por ello que, en este trabajo, se explicitan algunos de los casos más comunes del empleo de dichos pronombres sujeto en un género argumentativo en particular con el propósito de ofrecer actividades diseñadas desde un enfoque comunicativo que colaboren con el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa de estudiantes de español

Inferring common cognitive mechanisms from brain blood-flow lateralization data: a new methodology for fTCD analysis

Current neuroimaging techniques with high spatial resolution constrain participant motion so that many natural tasks cannot be carried out. The aim of this paper is to show how a time-locked correlation-analysis of cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) lateralization data, obtained with functional TransCranial Doppler (fTCD) ultrasound, can be used to infer cerebral activation patterns across tasks. In a first experiment we demonstrate that the proposed analysis method results in data that are comparable with the standard Lateralization Index (LI) for within-task comparisons of CBFV patterns, recorded during cued word generation (CWG) at two difficulty levels. In the main experiment we demonstrate that the proposed analysis method shows correlated blood-flow patterns for two different cognitive tasks that are known to draw on common brain areas, CWG, and Music Synthesis. We show that CBFV patterns for Music and CWG are correlated only for participants with prior musical training. CBFV patterns for tasks that draw on distinct brain areas, the Tower of London and CWG, are not correlated. The proposed methodology extends conventional fTCD analysis by including temporal information in the analysis of cerebral blood-flow patterns to provide a robust, non-invasive method to infer whether common brain areas are used in different cognitive tasks. It complements conventional high resolution imaging techniques

Explicitación de pronombres sujeto en primera persona en el género “carta de lector”: propuesta de enseñanza para ELE

De acuerdo con distintos estándares o niveles establecidos por diferentes instituciones, los estudiantes avanzados de ELE deben ser capaces de interpretar y de producir textos argumentativos complejos. Esto requiere, entre otras cuestiones, el abordaje de un fenómeno que no suele destacarse en propuestas didácticas o en manuales de enseñanza: la explicitación de pronombres personales sujeto en primera persona en textos argumentativos. Es por ello que, en este trabajo, se explicitan algunos de los casos más comunes del empleo de dichos pronombres sujeto en un género argumentativo en particular con el propósito de ofrecer actividades diseñadas desde un enfoque comunicativo que colaboren con el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa de estudiantes de español