Wallace Craig

Bio: Wallace Craig is an academic researcher from University of Maine. The author has contributed to research in topics: Instinct & Pewee. The author has an hindex of 10, co-authored 20 publications receiving 1132 citations.

Appetites and aversions as constituents of instincts.

Abstract: The overt behavior of adult animals occurs largely in rather definite chains and cycles, and it has been held that these are merely chain reflexes. Many years of study of the behavior of animals-studies especially of the blond ring-dove (Turtur risorius) and other pigeons-have convinced me that instinctive behavior does not consist of mere chain reflexes; it involves other factors which it is the purpose of this article to describe. I do not deny that innate chain reflexes constitute a considerable part of the instinctive equipment of doves. Indeed, I think it probable that some of the dove's instincts include an element which is even a tropism as described by Loeb. But with few if any exceptions among the instincts of doves, this reflex action constitufes only a part of each instinct in which it is present. E1ach instinct involves an element of appetite, or aversion, or both. An appetite (or appetence, if this term may be used with purely behavioristic meaning), so far as externally observable, is a state of agitation which continues so long as a certain stimulus, which may be called the appeted stimulus, is absent. When the appeted stimulus is at length received it stimulates a consummatory reaction, after which the appetitive behavior ceases and is succeeced by a state of relative rest. An aversion (example 7, p. Ioo) is a state of agitation which continues so long as a certain stimulus, referred to as the disturbing stimulus, is present; but which ceases, being replaced by a state of relative rest, when that stimulus has ceased to act on the sense-organs. The state of agitation, in either appetite or aversion, is exhibited externally by increased muscular tension; by static and

Appetites and Aversions as Constituents of Instincts.

Abstract: The overt behavior of adult animals occurs largely in rather definite chains and cycles, and it has been held that these are merely chain reflexes. Many years of study of the behavior of animals-studies especially of the blond ring-dove (Turtur risorius) and other pigeons-have convinced me that instinctive behavior does not consist of mere chain reflexes; it involves other factors which it is the purpose of this article to describe. I do not deny that innate chain reflexes constitute a considerable part of the instinctive equipment of doves. Indeed, I think it probable that some of the dove's instincts include an element which is even a tropism as described by Loeb. But with few if any exceptions among the instincts of doves, this reflex action constitufes only a part of each instinct in which it is present. E1ach instinct involves an element of appetite, or aversion, or both. An appetite (or appetence, if this term may be used with purely behavioristic meaning), so far as externally observable, is a state of agitation which continues so long as a certain stimulus, which may be called the appeted stimulus, is absent. When the appeted stimulus is at length received it stimulates a consummatory reaction, after which the appetitive behavior ceases and is succeeced by a state of relative rest. An aversion (example 7, p. Ioo) is a state of agitation which continues so long as a certain stimulus, referred to as the disturbing stimulus, is present; but which ceases, being replaced by a state of relative rest, when that stimulus has ceased to act on the sense-organs. The state of agitation, in either appetite or aversion, is exhibited externally by increased muscular tension; by static and

The Voices of Pigeons Regarded as a Means of Social Control

Abstract: Darwin's theory of sexual selection is the most important theory ever invented to account for the songs of birds. The idea of sexual selection has been enlarged somewhat by Groos and Haecker and others, and it is held, in one form or another, by almost all writers who are really acquainted with the habits of birds. But even those who accept the theory must feel that it is far from sufficient to account for the facts; and those who oppose it have never attempted to set up any positive explanation in place of it. Thus there is a pretty general feeling that something more is needed to account for the development of bird songs. The writer has been studying this question for some years, with the privilege of using the large collection of living pigeons kept by Professor Whitman.' I hope to bring out within a year or so a book on the subject, but it seems best to give this brief preliminary statement at the present time. The great fact to be brought out is, that the utility of the voice in birds (pigeons) is of very much wider scope than has ever been suspected. The voice is a means of social control: that is to say, the voice is a means of influencing the behavior of individuals so as to bring them into co-operation, one with another. Naturalists have taken for granted that, to account for the social activities of animals and for their working together in harmony, it is sufficient to show that each individual

Why Do Animals Fight

Abstract: THE fact that all animals fight has attained immense importance in our day, because it is used as an argument in favor of the doctrine that men also should fight one another, that warfare ought not to be abolished. This doctrine I shall speak of for convenience as militarism; which is far preferable to calling it Nietzscheism or Treitschkeism or Prussianism, for all such names are invidious and more or less unjust. Militarists are at work in everynation, and in every nation they emphasize what they call the "biological" argument for war. They paint lurid pictures of "nature red in tooth and claw," dwelling on the many instances of rapacity, cruelty and destruction which undoubtedly occur in nature. They claim that theirs is a true picture of the life of animals, and also of the natural life of man. Their argument looks plausible, and it furnishes entertaining reading for the populace. But I believe it to be fallacious, partly because it exaggerates the cruel facts in nature, but far more because it misinterprets their meaning. The attempts to refute the biological argument for war, so far as I have seen them, have been inadequate, some of them even absurd. Some pacifists have claimed that "No animal fights its own kind." Now, if the word pacifist means a person who longs to see war abolished, and who is willing to labor to the very best of his ability toward that end, I am myself a pacifist. But I believe that the cause of truth is more fundamental than the cause of any one man's theory as to how-to make peace. Let us tell the truth, regardless of consequences. And the essential truth in this matter is that every animal fights its own kind. If we wish to discover any biological support for a policy of pacification, we must not seek to do it by asking "Do animals fight?" That question is not worth investigation,

Dissociation of reward anticipation and outcome with event-related fMRI

Abstract: Reward processing involves both appetitive and consummatory phases. We sought to examine whether reward anticipation vs outcomes would recruit different regions of ventral forebrain circuitry using event-related fMRI. Nine healthy volunteers participated in a monetary incentive delays task in which they either responded to a cued target for monetary reward, responded to a cued target for no reward, or did not respond to a cued target during scanning. Multiple regression analyses indicated that while anticipation of reward vs non-reward activated foci in the ventral striatum, reward vs non-reward outcomes activated foci in the ventromedial frontal cortex. These findings suggest that reward anticipation and outcomes may differentially recruit distinct regions that lie along the trajectory of ascending dopamine projections.

Der Kumpan in der Umwelt des Vogels

Abstract: VI. Der Kindkumpan. Mit etwas mehr Berechtigung ~ls wir in dem vorigen Kapitel das Bild, das die Leistungen des Elternvogels in der Umwelt des Jungvogels malen, als ,,Elternkumpan\" bezeichnet haben, obwohl wir ihn in manchen F~llen, gem~g seiner einzelnen Funktionskreise, in einen Ftihrer-, einen Fatter-, einen W~rmekumpan usw. h~tten zerreigen m~issen, wollen wir nun umgekehrt unter ,Kindkumpan\" das Bild bezeichnen, welches die den Pflegetrieben der Elterntiere entgegef~stehenden Gegenleistungen der Jungtiere in der Umwelt dieser Eltern entwerfen. Mit etwas mehr Berechtigung deshalb, well der Altvogel meist zu der vergegenst~ndlichenden Reizzusammenfassung natarlicherweise eher imstande ist, als der oft ant sehr niederer Entwicklungsstufe ins Leben tretende Jungvogel.