A model is presented to account for the natural selection of what is termed reciprocally altruistic behavior. The model shows how selection can operate against the cheater (non-reciprocator) in the system. Three instances of altruistic behavior are discussed, the evolution of which the model can explain: (1) behavior involved in cleaning symbioses; (2) warning cries in birds; and (3) human reciprocal altruism. Regarding human reciprocal altruism, it is shown that the details of the psychological system that regulates this altruism can be explained by the model. Specifically, friendship, dislike, moralistic aggression, gratitude, sympathy, trust, suspicion, trustworthiness, aspects of guilt, and some forms of dishonesty and hypocrisy can be explained as important adaptations to regulate the altruistic system. Each individual human is seen as possessing altruistic and cheating tendencies, the expression of which is sensitive to developmental variables that were selected to set the tendencies at a balance ap...

/pdf/the-evolution-of-reciprocal-altruism-36v5rn897k.pdf

The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism

Part I. Experimental Studies: 2. Experiment in psychology 3. Experiments on perceiving III Experiments on imaging 4-8. Experiments on remembering: (a) The method of description (b) The method of repeated reproduction (c) The method of picture writing (d) The method of serial reproduction (e) The method of serial reproduction picture material 9. Perceiving, recognizing, remembering 10. A theory of remembering 11. Images and their functions 12. Meaning Part II. Remembering as a Study in Social Psychology: 13. Social psychology 14. Social psychology and the matter of recall 15. Social psychology and the manner of recall 16. Conventionalism 17. The notion of a collective unconscious 18. The basis of social recall 19. A summary and some conclusions.

Remembering. A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology, Cambridge (University Press) 1964.

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

/pdf/from-neurons-to-neighborhoods-the-science-of-early-childhood-3bfl5g72ow.pdf

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development

http://eebweb.arizona.edu/Faculty/Dornhaus/courses/materials/papers/other/Zahavi%20sexual%20selection%20handicap%20model%20signal.pdf

Mate selection-A selection for a handicap

How are we able to understand and anticipate each other in everyday life, in our daily interactions? Through the use of such "folk" concepts as belief, desire, intention, and expectation, asserts Daniel Dennett in this first full-scale presentation of a theory of intentionality that he has been developing for almost twenty years. We adopt a stance, he argues, a predictive strategy of interpretation that presupposes the rationality of the people - or other entities - we are hoping to understand and predict.These principles of radical interpretation have far-reaching implications for the metaphysical and scientific status of the processes referred to by the everday terms of folk psychology and their corresponding terms in cognitive science.While Dennett's philosophical stance has been steadfast over the years, his views have undergone successive enrichments, refinements, and extensions. "The Intentional Stance" brings together both previously published and original material: four of the book's ten chapters - its first and the final three - appear here for the first time and push the theory into surprising new territory. The remaining six were published earlier in the 1980s but were not easily accessible; each is followed by a reflection - an essay reconsidering and extending the claims of the earlier work. These reflections and the new chapters represent the vanguard of Dennett's thought. They reveal fresh lines of inquiry into fundamental issues in psychology, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary theory as well as traditional issues in the philosophy of mind.Daniel C. Dennett is Distinguished Arts and Sciences Professor at Tufts University and the author of "Brainstorms" and "Elbow Room." "The Intentional Stance," along with these works, is a Bradford Book.

The Intentional Stance

Vervet monkeys give different alarm calls to different predators. Recordings of the alarms played back when predators were absent caused the monkeys to run into trees for leopard alarms, look up for eagle alarms, and look down for snake alarms. Adults call primarily to leopards, martial eagles, and pythons, but infants give leopard alarms to various mammals, eagle alarms to many birds, and snake alarms to various snakelike objects. Predator classification improves with age and experience.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/210/4471/801.full.pdf

Monkey responses to three different alarm calls: evidence of predator classification and semantic communication

Vervet monkey alarm calls: Semantic communication in a free-ranging primate

A comparative approach to vocal learning: Song development in white-crowned sparrows.

Science and birdsong: the good old days Vocal fighting and flirting: the functions of birdsong Learning to sing The diversity and plasticity of birdsong Bird calls: a cornucopia for communication Singing in the wild: the ecology of birdsong Audition: can birds hear everything they sing? Brains and birdsong How birds sing and why it matters Birdsong and evolution Performance limits on birdsong Birdsong and conservation Grey parrots: learning and using speech Singing, socializing, and the music effect

Nature's Music: The Science of Birdsong

1.

Sound transmission was measured in open fields, mixed decidous forest with and without leaves and coniferous forest in Dutchess County, New York. Attenuation of white noise and pure tones was measured between one microphone close to a loudspeaker and another microphone 100 m away, at the same height. Graphs of excess attenuation (E.A. in dB/100 m) against frequency were obtained at 0.15, 1, 2, 5, and 10 m above the ground. An analysis of variance was conducted to estimate effects of height, frequency and habitat.




2.

Height and frequency affect sound transmission more than habitat. With a sound source close to the ground (15 cm and 1 m) all frequencies were more attenuated than at greater heights. The patterns of E.A. as a function of sound frequency were basically similar in all habitats. At all source heights the lower the frequency the better the sound carried, with the exception that close to the ground, sounds below 2 kHz were excessively attenuated. Comparing open field and forest, trees improved transmission of frequencies below 3 kHz, especially close to the ground.




3.

Some general trends can be predicted for maximization of transmission distances of animal sounds in these habitats. For an animal vocalizing higher than 1 m above the ground, the lower the frequency the further the sound travels. Close to the ground, low frequencies are again preferred for maximization of transmission distances, but the frequencies must be pitched above a range of attenuated, low-pitched sounds, the limits of which vary to some extent with habitat, creating the ‘sound window’ of Morton. This ‘window’ of least-attenuated frequencies, only occurring close to the ground, tends to be pitched somewhat lower in forest than in open habitats. However, for an animal producing sounds in the habitats tested, perch height and sound frequency are more important than the habitat in determining how far the sound will carry.

Peter Marler

Papers

Monkey responses to three different alarm calls: evidence of predator classification and semantic communication

Vervet monkey alarm calls: Semantic communication in a free-ranging primate

A comparative approach to vocal learning: Song development in white-crowned sparrows.

Nature's Music: The Science of Birdsong

Sound transmission and its significance for animal vocalization