Evidence from reaction times for an anticipatory process in symbolic delayed matching-to-sample

It was predicted that a delay between sample ofset and comparison onset in symbolic delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) would allow time for the anticipatory retrieval of the correct comparison so that the match/no match status of the presented comparison could be decided more swiftly. The relation between delay and reaction time (RT) was explored in participants after they had been similarly tested, as a control, on identity DMTS using the same stimuli. In most participants there was the predicted inverse relation between delay and RT in symbolic DMTS, but no such relation in identity DMTS. Subsequently an arithmetic test, designed to allow a simple calculation before or after presentation of the comparison, was used to demonstrate an analogous effect of a delay on RT

Mother nature's tolerant ways: why non-genetic inheritance has nothing to do with evolution

Recently a number of theorists have suggested that evolution can use non-genetic or environmental inheritance to pass on adaptations (e.g. Mameli, 2004). Furthermore, it has been suggested that nongenetic, or environmental factors, can play a central role in the process of evolution that is not captured by the neo-Darwinian view which places natural selection centre-stage (e.g. Odling-Smee, Laland & Feldman, 2003). In this paper we present and clarify neo-Darwinian theory and then take issue with the notions of contemporary gene-centred selection and inheritance that non-genetic inheritance theorists have used. We claim that they have misunderstood the distinction and relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic inheritance and we clarify this with a number of examples from the behavioural and biological sciences. According to this analysis there is no such thing as biologically independent nongenetic inheritance, all extrinsic inheritance is a consequence of traits and dispositions that are intrinsic to an organism and intrinsic design can only be explained through neo-Darwinism. We point to the implications this view has for current conceptions of cultural evolution

The phylogeny and ontogeny of adaptations (commentary)

Locke and Bogin rightly point to the absence of ontogeny in theories of language evolution. However, they overly rely upon ontogenetic data to isolate components of the language faculty. Only an adaptationist analysis, of the sort seen in evolutionary psychology, can carve language at its joints and lead to testable predictions about how language works

Ecological psychology, radical enactivism and behavior: an evolutionary perspective

Ecological psychology and enactivism are close relatives in that they share an interest in positioning the behaving organism as an active agent and in interpreting this with reference to ecological and evolutionary ideas. But they also differ in their uses of biology and the concept of information. I review these uses, relate them to ideas in behaviorism, and conclude that a version of enactivism, championed by Daniel Hutto and colleagues, is the more viable hypothesis. I extend this radical enactivist effort into evolutionary enactivism as an exercise in parsimonious theory building that aims to avoid essentialism

Psychology, biology and the market place: response to John Radford’s 'Psychology in its place'

This article is a response to John Radford's 'Psychology in its place'. The author argues that psychologists should pay attention to those in the human evolutionary behavioural sciences because academic psychology must be allowed to pursue scientific methods and follow particular interests as the market of ideas dictates in the interests of intellectual progress

Science in the wild

Tom Dickins looks to an island off the north Devon coast to liberate the imaginations of his students

An equitable marriage: a focal study of a barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) nest on Lundy

Adult attendance at a single barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) nest was observed and recorded during July 2010 from when the chicks were between six and eight days old. The visits to the nest made by the male and female adults were equal in their duration, rate-per-minute and number, and were close to chance in their sequencing. There was a marginal decline in these visits over a seven-day period. Equality of parental investment is discussed in the context of the reproductive strategies of swallows and future directions for research on the nesting swallows of Lundy are suggested

Conflation and refutation: Book review of T. Uller and K. N. Laland. eds. 2019. Evolutionary causation: biological and philosophical Reflections. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 352: pp. ISBN: 978‐0‐262‐03992‐5. $60.00/£50.00

Evolutionary Causation, the new edited book from Tobias Uller and Kevin Laland (Uller and Laland, 2019) should be seen as a positive contribution to those seeking an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES). The ambition for an EES has emerged most vociferously over the past 15 years, but its antecedents stretch back to the key work in the 1970s of Gould, Lewontin and their colleagues. At root arguments for an EES are arguments about how the Modern Synthesis (MS) in evolutionary biology has been found wanting. Much of this discontent has been to do with theoreticians rethinking concepts of adaptation, inheritance and development (Jablonka and Lamb, 2006; Huneman and Walsh, 2017) as well as variation and macroevolution (Pigliucci and Muller, 2010). This book continues this work, but focuses on analysis of the central concept of causation within evolution

The gradual extinction of transferred avoidance stimulus functions

We investigated the transfer of conditioned avoidance functions through equivalence relations, and the extinction of these functions, facilitated by verbal prompts. Nine participants acquired three 4-member stimulus equivalence classes using a matching-to-sample procedure. One class stimulus was paired, by classical conditioning, with an aversive tone, which was used in avoidance training of a distinct response. There were two groups: A established the equivalence classes before avoidance training and vice versa for B. During some avoidance trials, each stimulus presentation was followed by the request for a verbal estimation of the probability of the tone. The last trials, run in extinction, included a verbal prompt to corroborate the provided estimation. One participant in each group received no verbal prompts. To negate the necessary reliance on instructions-governed performance, an additional participant completed the experiment with minimal instructions. All participants who had the equivalence training prior to the conditioning showed within-class transfer of avoidance functions, in contrast to the others. All prompted participants who demonstrated transfer showed gradual response extinction, but with a differential gradient. Responding decreased more sharply to the indirectly related stimuli than to the directly paired stimuli. The clinical implications are discussed