Books on the topic 'Ontogenetic development'

The textbook covers the relevant issues of our times: the essence of life, theories and hypotheses of the origin of life and man. For millennia, people interested in the question: where did we come from? The guide presents the views, ideas, hypotheses of philosophers, anthropologists, biologists and other specialists on the specifics of human evolution. Special attention is paid to the ontogenetic relationship of language, thought and consciousness, as well as phylogenetic stages of language development. Addressed to teachers, students of Humanities universities, focused on independent work and advanced study courses "Social anthropology", "Anthropology and life safety", as well as teachers of biology and ecology.

When acknowledging that the mind is embodied, cognitive development and evolution must determine how the body and environment shape the mind. Evolution has evolved structures and computational mechanisms in the body, and the brain that predispose ontogenetic development. Starting with conception, brain, body, and mind co-develop, and shape each other. An infant first develops rudimentary bodily representation and control capabilities, and concurrently uses them to abstract from and generalize over the gathered sensorimotor experiences to develop conceptual understandings and language. Evolution, on the other hand, works on a different time scale. Evolutionary pressures towards survival-suitable cell and bodily structures have dominated much of evolutionary progression. Benefits due to social interactions and coordinated cooperation have led to the evolution of the human brain, enabling the development of human minds. Some details on genetics and on evolutionary computation shed further light on how evolution must have brought about human minds. Thereby, the evolution of suitable bodily structures, of brain modularizations, developmental pathways, adaptive behavioral capabilities, and predispositions for social interactions constitute critical components. Subsequent chapters focus on the computational mechanisms behind embodied cognitive development.

The importance of larval dispersal in the deep ocean is generally acknowledged in studies of genetic connectivity, conservation, and population ecology, but our understanding of the underlying reproductive, developmental, and oceanographic processes remains rudimentary. Recent efforts at modeling deep-sea dispersal have generally taken the form of sensitivity analyses, because biological parameters for the models are lacking. In this review, what is known about the evolution of biological parameters that may influence dispersal times, depth distributions, and trajectories, including modes of development, vertical ontogenetic migration, are examined, as well as the ecological release from predators enabling slower developmental rates and longer dispersal times. Phylogenetic constraints are important in many groups, yet there are modifications in larval form, developmental mode, egg flotation, parental investment, and reproductive timing that appear to be unique to the deep sea and that influence dispersal. For instance, larval duration in certain taxa is longer in the deep-water species than in many shallow-water relatives.

Studies of regional and chronological variation in skeletal markers of physical activity in past hunter-gatherer populations typically focus on adults, however, patterns of bone strength develop predominantly during childhood and adolescence. Ethnographic studies suggest that differences in environment and subsistence strategy would have brought about variation in how children grew up to be productive foragers capable of procuring food for themselves and others. Different foraging activities require varying degrees of physical strength and skills development. These factors would have influenced the age at which individuals began to participate in different foraging activities and lead to regional and chronological differences in the ontogeny of limb robusticity. This process is culturally-mediated in terms of the degree to which children are ‘trained’ in subsistence activities. Consequently, this study compares ontogenetic patterns in the development of bone strength with the aim of reconstructing physical activity patterns among the children of two Holocene hunter-gatherer populations.

Why do humans produce emotional tears? We propose that the answer to this question can be found in the interindividual functions of emotional crying. The basic assumption is that emotional tears represent a means of communication, which has evolved from distress or separation calls displayed by other animals as well. The reactions of others are the crucial factor that pushed forward the evolution of this phylogenetically new behavior. We substantiate this claim by discussing the ontogenetic development of crying, which sets the stage for explaining the ways this signal could have evolved. We further evaluate the signal value of tears in the context of the events and emotional states that precede or accompany crying, as well as of the consequences of crying for the crying individual. This allows us to conclude that tears predominantly represent a signal of helplessness and prosocial intentions.

This chapter analyzes the two taxa of the Upper Pleistocene: Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. The first one is explored starting with the Feldhofer discovery and the early interpretations of that specimen. The next issue is the evolutionary model of the Neanderthals and their geographic range. The ensuing questions are the Neanderthal morphology, its ontogenetic development, and the relationship between its traits and its adaptive strategy. The morphological differences between Neanderthals and modern humans make it difficult to understand the relationships between the two taxa, which will be settled in Chapter 11 by means of molecular methods. But the present chapter already deals with the origin of modern humans by considering the coalescence of mitochondrial DNA and other factors facilitated by molecular genetics, in order to characterize the origin of our species. Finally, there is consideration of the fossil and archaeological evidence concerning the earliest modern humans from South African sediments.

The understanding of arthropod phylogeny and evolution in the past three decades has undergone major changes. These have arisen from new sources of data applicable across several fields of study. Developments within ontogenetic studies not only in regard to gross patterns of embryology but also regarding a revolution in the application of development genetics continue to generate remarkable insights into crustaceomorph evolution. Phylogeny techniques of analysis and new sources of data derived from molecular sequencing have forced consideration of new hypotheses concerning the interrelationships of all the pancrustaceans, both crustaceomorphs and Hexapoda. Furthermore, it is not uncommon that this multiplicity of sources for new data from opposing research teams can result in different hypotheses for phylogenetic relationships. This situation should not be treated as a defect, or an impediment, but rather as a source for multiple alternative hypotheses—the bases for further data gathering and analyses. Also, one should never view consideration of fossils as a vexing source of noise. Here, too, consideration of multiple hypotheses has proven useful. Often, fossils can produce deeper understanding of the paleodiversity of body plans. Nevertheless, some fossil groups still remain as enigmas, such as Thylacocephala. But even fossils incompletely understood can help fill in gaps in knowledge of paleobiodiversity that can prove useful, for example, in analyzing the the origin and early evolution of Hexapoda. Old ideas about pancrustacean evolution have served the field well, but results derived from all data inputs should be embraced.

For more than 2000 years Greek philosophers have thought about the puzzling introspectively assessed dichotomy between our physical bodies and our seemingly non-physical minds. How is it that we can think highly abstract thoughts, seemingly fully detached from actual, physical reality? Despite the obvious interactions between mind and body (we get tired, we are hungry, we stay up late despite being tired, etc.), until today it remains puzzling how our mind controls our body, and vice versa, how our body shapes our mind. Despite a big movement towards embodied cognitive science over the last 20 years or so, introductory books with a functional and computational perspective on how human thought and language capabilities may actually have come about – and are coming about over and over again – are missing. This book fills that gap. Starting with a historical background on traditional cognitive science and resulting fundamental challenges that have not been resolved, embodied cognitive science is introduced and its implications for how human minds have come and continue to come into being are detailed. In particular, the book shows that evolution has produced biological bodies that provide “morphologically intelligent” structures, which foster the development of suitable behavioral and cognitive capabilities. While these capabilities can be modified and optimized given positive and negative reward as feedback, to reach abstract cognitive capabilities, evolution has furthermore produced particular anticipatory control-oriented mechanisms, which cause the development of particular types of predictive encodings, modularizations, and abstractions. Coupled with an embodied motivational system, versatile, goal-directed, self-motivated behavior, learning becomes possible. These lines of thought are introduced and detailed from interdisciplinary, evolutionary, ontogenetic, reinforcement learning, and anticipatory predictive encoding perspectives in the first part of the book. A short excursus then provides an introduction to neuroscience, including general knowledge about brain anatomy, and basic neural and brain functionality, as well as the main research methodologies. With reference to this knowledge, the subsequent chapters then focus on how the human brain manages to develop abstract thought and language. Sensory systems, motor systems, and their predictive, control-oriented interactions are detailed from a functional and computational perspective. Bayesian information processing is introduced along these lines as are generative models. Moreover, it is shown how particular modularizations can develop. When control and attention come into play, these structures develop also dependent on the available motor capabilities. Vice versa, the development of more versatile motor capabilities depends on structural development. Event-oriented abstractions enable conceptualizations and behavioral compositions, paving the path towards abstract thought and language. Also evolutionary drives towards social interactions play a crucial role. Based on the developing sensorimotor- and socially-grounded structures, the human mind becomes language ready. The development of language in each human child then further facilitates the self-motivated generation of abstract, compositional, highly flexible thought about the present, past, and future, as well as about others. In conclusion, the book gives an overview over how the human mind comes into being – sketching out a developmental pathway towards the mastery of abstract and reflective thought, while detailing the critical body and neural functionalities, and computational mechanisms, which enable this development.

This chapter aims to provide a large overview of research focusing on the development of modality and mood during first language acquisition. This overview synthesizes results concerning both early and later phases of development, within and across a large number of languages, and including some more peripheral categories, such as evidentials and tense–aspect markings. Results recurrently show the earlier acquisition of agent-oriented modality as compared to epistemic modality. However, cross-linguistic variation has raised some questions about this acquisition sequence, suggesting that language-specific properties may partially impact timing during acquisition. In addition, findings about later phases show a long developmental process whereby children gradually come to master complex semantic and pragmatic modal distinctions. The discussion highlights the contribution of these conclusions to current theoretical debates, such as the role of input factors and the relation between language and cognition during ontogenesis.

Sociologists, psychologists, and others in the social sciences generally agree that the nature of adulthood is different now from what it was 50 years ago. There is much less agreement, however, on what these changes mean for the psychological experience of emerging adults. There has been extensive discussion and debate in the academic literature and popular press about whether there have been generational changes in how young people view themselves and their place in society. This chapter explores the debate over the self-focused nature of emerging adulthood from a generational perspective, focusing on the construct of narcissism. The authors review past and current conceptualizations and measurements of narcissism, summarize the ongoing debate about the nature of young people today, discuss narcissism from a lifespan developmental perspective, and offer suggestions for future research. Throughout, the authors emphasize the historical context of narcissism and societal beliefs about young people more broadly and stress that a generational perspective must be considered alongside a developmental perspective (i.e., individual ontogenetic change) to provide a more nuanced understanding of emerging adulthood.

Historical knowledge as well as contemporary research point out how narratives are essential in human life, culture, and society. The same holds for the formation and maintenance of religious worlds. Narratives of many kinds play fundamental roles in religion and (other) social constructions and, accordingly, narratives are crucial in individual self-understanding and social integration. The human imagination and the capacities for meaning-making depend on the use of narrative. Narratives also have fundamental epistemic functions in the production of knowledge and the origins of narrative, phylogenesis, and ontogenesis are interrelated. Humanity has grown with language and narrative, both of which seem to be the prerequisites for the development of intelligence as it found in modern humans. The chapter also examines the special features of religious narrative as they create, express, and maintain religious worlds.

The monograph reflects the problems of Russian psycholinguistics from the moment of its inception in Russia to the present day and presents its main directions that are currently developing. In addition, theoretical developments and practical results obtained in the framework of different directions and research centers are described in a concise form. The task of the book is to reflect, as far as it is possible in one edition, firstly, the history of the formation of Russian psycholinguistics; secondly, its methodology and developed methods; thirdly, the results obtained in different research centers and directions in different regions of Russia; fourthly, to outline the main directions of the further development of Russian psycholinguistics. There is no doubt that in the theoretical, methodological and applied aspects, the main problems and the results of their development by Russian psycholinguistics have no analogues in world linguistics and psycholinguistics, or are represented by completely original concepts and methods. We have tried to show this uniqueness of the problematics and the methodological equipment of Russian psycholinguistics in this book. The main role in the formation of Russian psycholinguistics was played by the Moscow psycholinguistic school of A.A. Leontyev. It still defines the main directions of Russian psycholinguistics. Russian psycholinguistics (the theory of speech activity - TSA) is based on the achievements of Russian psychology: a cultural-historical approach to the analysis of mental phenomena L.S. Vygotsky and the system-activity approach of A.N. Leontyev. Moscow is the most "psycholinguistic region" of Russia - INL RAS, Moscow State University, Moscow State Linguistic University, RUDN, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Sechenov University, Moscow State University and other Moscow universities. Saint Petersburg psycholinguists have significant achievements, especially in the study of neurolinguistic problems, ontolinguistics. The most important feature of Russian psycholinguistics is the widespread development of psycholinguistics in the regions, the emergence of recognized psycholinguistic research centers - St. Petersburg, Tver, Saratov, Perm, Ufa, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Kursk, Chelyabinsk; psycholinguistics is represented in Cherepovets, Ivanovo, Volgograd, Vyatka, Kaluga, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Abakan, Maikop, Barnaul, Ulan-Ude, Yakutsk, Syktyvkar, Armavir and other cities; in Belarus - Minsk, in Ukraine - Lvov, Chernivtsi, Kharkov, in the DPR - Donetsk, in Kazakhstan - Alma-Ata, Chimkent. Our researchers work in Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, China, France, Switzerland. There are Russian psycholinguists in Canada, USA, Israel, Austria and a number of other countries. All scientists from these regions and countries have contributed to the development of Russian psycholinguistics, to the development of psycholinguistic theory and methods of psycholinguistic research. Their participation has not been forgotten. We tried to present the main Russian psycholinguists in the Appendix - in the sections "Scientometrics", "Monographs and Manuals" and "Dissertations", even if there is no information about them in the Electronic Library and RSCI. The principles of including scientists in the scientometric list are presented in the Appendix. Our analysis of the content of the resulting monograph on psycholinguistic research in Russia allows us to draw preliminary conclusions about some of the distinctive features of Russian psycholinguistics: 1. cultural-historical approach to the analysis of mental phenomena of L.S.Vygotsky and the system-activity approach of A.N. Leontiev as methodological basis of Russian psycholinguistics; 2. theoretical nature of psycholinguistic research as a characteristic feature of Russian psycholinguistics. Our psycholinguistics has always built a general theory of the generation and perception of speech, mental vocabulary, linked specific research with the problems of ontogenesis, the relationship between language and thinking; 3. psycholinguistic studies of speech communication as an important subject of psycholinguistics; 4. attention to the psycholinguistic analysis of the text and the development of methods for such analysis; 5. active research into the ontogenesis of linguistic ability; 6. investigation of linguistic consciousness as one of the important subjects of psycholinguistics; 7. understanding the need to create associative dictionaries of different types as the most important practical task of psycholinguistics; 8. widespread use of psycholinguistic methods for applied purposes, active development of applied psycholinguistics. The review of the main directions of development of Russian psycholinguistics, carried out in this monograph, clearly shows that the direction associated with the study of linguistic consciousness is currently being most intensively developed in modern Russian psycholinguistics. As the practice of many years of psycholinguistic research in our country shows, the subject of study of psycholinguists is precisely linguistic consciousness - this is a part of human consciousness that is responsible for generating, understanding speech and keeping language in consciousness. Associative experiments are the core of most psycholinguistic techniques and are important both theoretically and practically. The following main areas of practical application of the results of associative experiments can be outlined. 1. Education. Associative experiments are the basis for constructing Mind Maps, one of the most promising tools for systematizing knowledge, assessing the quality, volume and nature of declarative knowledge (and using special techniques and skills). Methods based on smart maps are already widely used in teaching foreign languages, fast and deep immersion in various subject areas. 2. Information search, search optimization. The results of associative experiments can significantly improve the quality of information retrieval, its efficiency, as well as adaptability for a specific person (social group). When promoting sites (promoting them in search results), an associative experiment allows you to increase and improve the quality of the audience reached. 3. Translation studies, translation automation. An associative experiment can significantly improve the quality of translation, take into account intercultural and other social characteristics of native speakers. 4. Computational linguistics and automatic word processing. The results of associative experiments make it possible to reveal the features of a person's linguistic consciousness and contribute to the development of automatic text processing systems in a wide range of applications of natural language interfaces of computer programs and robotic solutions. 5. Advertising. The use of data on associations for specific words, slogans and texts allows you to predict and improve advertising texts. 6. Social relationships. The analysis of texts using the data of associative experiments makes it possible to assess the tonality of messages (negative / positive moods, aggression and other characteristics) based on user comments on the Internet and social networks, in the press in various projections (by individuals, events, organizations, etc.) from various social angles, to diagnose the formation of extremist ideas. 7. Content control and protection of personal data. Associative experiments improve the quality of content detection and filtering by identifying associative fields in areas subject to age restrictions, personal information, tobacco and alcohol advertising, incitement to ethnic hatred, etc. 8. Gender and individual differences. The data of associative experiments can be used to compare the reactions (and, in general, other features of thinking) between men and women, different social and age groups, representatives of different regions. The directions for the further development of Russian psycholinguistics from the standpoint of the current state of psycholinguistic science in the country are seen by us, first of all:  in the development of research in various areas of linguistic consciousness, which will contribute to the development of an important concept of speech as a verbal model of non-linguistic consciousness, in which knowledge revealed by social practice and assigned by each member of society during its inculturation is consolidated for society and on its behalf;  in the expansion of the problematics, which is formed under the influence of the growing intercultural communication in the world community, which inevitably involves the speech behavior of natural and artificial bilinguals in the new object area of psycholinguistics;  in using the capabilities of national linguistic corpora in the interests of researchers studying the functioning of non-linguistic and linguistic consciousness in speech processes;  in expanding research on the semantic perception of multimodal texts, the scope of which has greatly expanded in connection with the spread of the Internet as a means of communication in the life of modern society;  in the inclusion of the problems of professional communication and professional activity in the object area of psycholinguistics in connection with the introduction of information technologies into public practice, entailing the emergence of new professions and new features of the professional ethos;  in the further development of the theory of the mental lexicon (identifying the role of different types of knowledge in its formation and functioning, the role of the word as a unit of the mental lexicon in the formation of the image of the world, as well as the role of the natural / internal metalanguage and its specificity in speech activity);  in the broad development of associative lexicography, which will meet the most diverse needs of society and cognitive sciences. The development of associative lexicography may lead to the emergence of such disciplines as associative typology, associative variantology, associative axiology;  in expanding the spheres of applied use of psycholinguistics in social sciences, sociology, semasiology, lexicography, in the study of the brain, linguodidactics, medicine, etc. This book is a kind of summarizing result of the development of Russian psycholinguistics today. Each section provides a bibliography of studies on the relevant issue. The Appendix contains the scientometrics of leading Russian psycholinguists, basic monographs, psycholinguistic textbooks and dissertations defended in psycholinguistics. The content of the publications presented here is convincing evidence of the relevance of psycholinguistic topics and the effectiveness of the development of psycholinguistic problems in Russia.