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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Zoology & animal sciences > Animal behaviour
Proceedings of a conference of experts on cocaine addiction, this early volume documents the devastating effects of crack, then a new cocaine preparation, and its extraordinary addicting properties. The Bahamian experience with crack provided an early warning about the extreme personal and social dangers of this drug .
Emotion pervades human life in general, and human communication in particular, and this sets information technology a challenge. Traditionally, IT has focused on allowing people to accomplish practical tasks efficiently, setting emotion to one side. That was acceptable when technology was a small part of life, but as technology and life become increasingly interwoven we can no longer ask people to suspend their emotional nature and habits when they interact with technology. The European Commission funded a series of related research projects on emotion and computing, culminating in the HUMAINE project which brought together leading academic researchers from the many related disciplines. This book grew out of that project, and its chapters are arranged according to its working areas: theories and models; signals to signs; data and databases; emotion in interaction; emotion in cognition and action; persuasion and communication; usability; and ethics and good practice. The fundamental aim of the book is to offer researchers an overview of the related areas, sufficient for them to do credible work on affective or emotion-oriented computing. The book serves as an academically sound introduction to the range of disciplines involved - technical, empirical and conceptual - and will be of value to researchers in the areas of artificial intelligence, psychology, cognition and user-machine interaction.
The topic of animal motivation deals with how and why animals engage in particular activities: what mechanisms inside the animal generate behaviour, how stimuli from the external environment in fluence these mechanisms, and how this behaviour is beneficial to the animal. The topic is thus central both to academic studies in psychology and zoology and to applied matters in domestic species. Motivation has not been an area of great emphasis in the past 10-15 years but there is now a growing realization that it should receive greater attention. Drawing on concepts and observations from a number of areas, this book provides an overview of the motiva tional processes which determine the choices, timing, and sequencing which are characteristic of animal behaviour. Data and theory from ethology, psychology, and evolutionary biology are synthesized into a contemporary framework for analysing such central features of behaviour as persistence in activities and goal orientation. Principles of motivational analysis are discussed and illustrated with specific case studies. The successive chapters deal with ethological, phy siological, and ecological approaches involving experimental work on a diversity of vertebrate and invertebrate species. Ethological topics include the interaction of external stimuli and internal states, mechanisms of choice, quantitative models of motivation, conflict between tendencies for different activities, and behavioural homeos tasis. The review of physiological research focuses on hunger, the activating roles of nerves and hormones, and the examination of animals with small nervous systems."
If the reader will excuse a brief anecdote from my own intellectual history, I would like to use it as an introduction to this book. In 1957, I was a sophomore at an undergraduate liberal arts college major ing in medieval history. This was the year that we were receiving our first introduction to courses in philosophy, and I took to this study with a passion. In pursuing philosophy, I discovered the area called "philosophical psychology," which was a Thomistic category of inquiry. For me, "philosophical psychology" meant a more intimate study of the soul (psyche), and I immediately concluded that psychology as a discipline must be about this pursuit. This philosophical interest led me to enroll in my first introductory psychology course. Our text for this course was the first edition of Ernest Hilgaard's Introduction to Psychology. My reasons for entering this course were anticipated in the introductory chapter of Hilgaard's book, where the discipline and its boundaries were discussed, and this introduction was to disabuse me of my original intention for enrolling in the course. I was to learn that, in the 20th century, people who called themselves psychologists were no longer interested in perennial philosophical questions about the human psyche or person. In fact, these philosophical questions were considered to be obscurantist and passe. Psychology was now the "scientific" study of human behavior. This definition of psychology by Hilgaard was by no means idiosyncratic to this introductory textbook."
How does behaviour develop in humans and animals? What are the causal mechanisms governing this behaviour? These important questions are addressed in this book, first published in 1994. All the significant conceptual and empirical advances in this study of behavioural development are discussed in this volume by a wide range of scientists from different disciplines. A special feature of the approach taken here is that learning, as studied by experimental psychologists, is considered to be one process contributing to the development of the individual from conception to death. The development of the brain is also discussed in relation to behavioural processes. The book is dedicated to Jaap Kruijit, whose pioneering approach to the study of causal mechanisms of behavioural development has inspired many workers in this field. It will be an invaluable resource for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers in animal behaviour, psychology, and neuroscience.
In the past twenty years there have been many new developments in the study of animal behaviour: for example, more sophisticated methods of neurophysiology; more precise techniques for assessing hormonal levels; more accurate methods for studying animals in the wild; and, on the functional side, the growth of behavioural ecology with its use of optimality theory and game theory. In addition, there has been a burgeoning number of studies on a wide range of species. The study of aggression has benefited greatly from these develop ments; this is reflected in the appearance of a number of specialized texts, both on behavioural ecology and on physiology and genetics. However, these books have often been collections of papers by spe cialists for specialists. No one book brings together for the non specialist all the diverse aspects of aggression, including behavioural ecology, genetics, development, evolution and neurophysiology. Neither has there been a comparative survey dealing with all these aspects. Therefore one of our aims in writing this book was to fill in these gaps. Another of our aims was to put aggression into context with respect to other aspects of an animal's lifestyle and in particular to other ways in which animals deal with conflicts of interest. Aggressive behaviour does not occur in a biological vacuum. It both influences and is influenced by the animal's ecological and social environment, so we consider both the complex antecedent conditions in which aggressive behaviour occurs, and its ramifying consequences in the ecosystem."
Each of the three great schools of developmental psy- chology represented in this vo1ume--psychoana1ytic, cogni- tive-developmental, and Vygotskian--diverges in important ways. But more recent changes in each discipline have led to new possibilities for theoretical integrations. Each ori- entation has begun to focus upon the problem of "meaning construction", that is, how a person's subjectivity and con- sciousness is created through his interaction with signifi- cant others. Each discipline also discovered that as it switched to meaning and interpretation as the foci of their work, they had to reformulate and, in some cases, reject po- sitions taken by their founding figures. The papers in this volume attempt to describe the newest developments in each of these fields and to foster a theoretical dialogue around the concept of the self. The papers in this book emerged out of discussions at a Conference on the Self, sponsored by the Center for Psychosocial Studies in Chicago. For the psychoanalytic and cognitive-developmental ap- proaches, we can observe a transition from what we call the bio10gism of both traditional Freudian and Piagetian memta- psychologies to a more "communicative-interactionist" point of view. Psychoanalysts have focused on the subjective expe- rience of their patients as constituting a reality in its own right, and therefore have always focused upon problems of communication and interpretation. But Freud's emphasis on bio-sexua1 development led him to create a metapsycho1ogy in which the basic organizing principle is that of drive re- duction.
There are more than 6000 species belonging to twenty-seven orders in the Class Mammalia. Comparative studies of this diverse and magnificent array of extant species provide valuable opportunities to formulate and test hypotheses concerning the evolution of reproduction. This is the first book to explore, in depth and breadth, the complex interrelationships that exist between patterns of mating behaviour and the evolution of mammalian reproductive anatomy and physiology. It focuses upon the role that copulatory and post-copulatory sexual selection have played during the evolution of the monotremes, marsupials and placental mammals, and examines the effects of sperm competition and cryptic female choice upon coevolution of the genitalia in the two sexes. In addition, due weight is also given to discussions of the modes of life of mammals, and to the roles played by natural selection and phylogeny in determining their reproductive traits.
In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the understanding of communication between animals and this is perhaps especially true of bio-acoustics. In the last 35 years a completely new branch of bio acoustics, involving ultrasounds, has been made possible by technical developments that now allow these inaudible sounds to be detected and studied. This subject has a personal fascination for the authors, perhaps because of the novelty of 'listening in' to these previously unknown sig nals, perhaps because of the wide variety of ways in which different animals use them. Many studies of different aspects of animal ultrasound have now been published and a review of them all seems to be timely. Ultrasound is is biologically arbitrary; other animals defined in human terms and may produce similar signals at lower frequencies for similar purposes. This book attempts to be comprehensive but the limits of the subject are rather difficult to define. It should be read in conjunction with other books on audible bio-acoustics. Each chapter has been written and may be read as a separate entity, although there is considerable cross-referencing. Chapters 1 and 2 form a common introduction and may help in understanding the later sections. The Appendix is not essential but is included for those who may be interested in the quanti tative aspects of the echo-location phenomena described in Chapters 3 and 8.
It was once taken for granted that peer-assisted groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous had no real value in recovery from addiction. More recently, evidence-based medicine is recognizing a spiritual component in healing especially when it comes to addiction. The newest edition of Recent Developments in Alcoholism reflects this change by focusing on the 12-step model of recovery as well as mindfulness meditation and other spiritually oriented activity. More than thirty contributors bring together historical background, research findings, and clinical wisdom to analyze the compatibility of professional treatment and nonprofessional support, day-to-day concepts of relapse prevention, the value of community building in recovery, and much more. Among the topics covered: (1) How and why 12-step groups work. (2) The impact of the spiritual on mainstream treatment. (3) The impact of AA on other nonprofessional recovery programs. (4) AA outcomes for special populations. (5) Facilitating involvement in 12-step programs. (6) Methods for measuring religiousness and spirituality in alcohol research. Whether one is referring clients to 12-step programs or seeking to better understand the process, this is a unique resource for clinicians and social workers. Developmental psychologists, too, will find Volume 18 Research on Alcoholics Anonymous and Spirituality in Addiction Recovery a worthy successor to the series.
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, La-Baume-les-Aix (Aix-en-Provence), France, June 27-July 7, 1985
Originally published in 1986, this book is concerned with the ways in which seabirds function as predators in the marine environment; in particular about how they find and catch food and how much of it they consume. It reviews both the feeding ecology of seabirds (including adaptations for flight and diving) and also most of the leading field studies (in polar, temperate and tropical regions) that have quantitatively examined the interactions of seabird communities with their prey.
Measuring Behaviour is the established go-to text for anyone interested in scientific methods for studying the behaviour of animals or humans. It is widely used by students, teachers and researchers in a variety of fields, including biology, psychology, the social sciences and medicine. This new fourth edition has been completely rewritten and reorganised to reflect major developments in how behavioural studies are conducted. It includes new sections on the replication crisis, covering Open Science initiatives such as preregistration, as well as fully up-to-date information on the use of remote sensors, big data and artificial intelligence in capturing and analysing behaviour. The sections on the analysis and interpretation of data have been rewritten to align with current practices, with advice on avoiding common pitfalls. Although fully revised and revamped, this new edition retains the simplicity, clarity and conciseness that have made Measuring Behaviour a classic since the first edition appeared more than 30 years ago.
Socially maintained behavioural traditions in non-human species hold great interest for biologists, anthropologists and psychologists. This book treats traditions in non-human species as biological phenomena that are amenable to the comparative methods of inquiry used in contemporary biology. Chapters in the first section define behavioural traditions, and indicate how they can arise in non-human species, how widespread they may be, how they may be recognized and how we can study them. The second part summarizes cutting-edge research programmes seeking to identify traditions in diverse taxa in contributions from leading researchers in this area. The book ends with a comparison and evaluation of the alternative theoretical formulations and their applications presented in the book, and lays out recommendations for future research building on the most promising evidence and lines of thinking. The Biology of Traditions will be essential reading for students and researchers in the fields of anthropology, biology and psychology.
Language is just one particularly highly developed form of primate communication. Recent years have seen increased attention to other forms: studies of animals in the wild, efforts to teach sign language to apes. This volume reflects perspectives from a variety of disciplines on the nature and function of primate signalling systems. Monkeys and apes, like people, live in a world in which they are constantly receiving and transmitting information. How can we interpret the ways in which they process it without imposing our own language-based categorizations? The problem is partly scientific, partly conceptual: that is, partly concerned with what language is. The authors' findings and insights will be of interest to a broad group of primatologists, linguists, psychologists, anthropologists and philosophers.
"The Behavior Guide to African Mammals" is as different from a conventional field guide as motion pictures are from a snapshot. Whether we are able to look at them face to face, on television, or in the hundreds of illustrations provided here by Daniel Otte, this guide allows us to understand what animals do and what their behavior means. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork and on the research of many other scientists, Richard Despard Estes describes and explains the behavior of four major groups of mammals. Estes' remarkably informative guide is as up-to-date for the zoologist as it is accessible for the interested onlooker.
A critical companion of zoosemiotics is the first attempt to systematise the study of animal communication and signification through its most important and/or problematic terms and concepts, and its most representative scholars. It is a companion, in that it attempts to cover the entire range of key terms in the field, and it's critical, in that it aims not only to describe, but also to discuss, problematise and, in some cases, resolve, these terms.
Understanding how memories are induced and maintained is one of the major outstanding questions in modern neuroscience. This is difficult to address in the mammalian brain due to its enormous complexity, and invertebrates offer major advantages for learning and memory studies because of their relative simplicity. Many important discoveries made in invertebrates have been found to be generally applicable to higher organisms, and the overarching theme of the proposed will be to integrate information from different levels of neural organization to help generate a complete account of learning and memory. Edited by two leaders in the field, "Invertebrate Learning and
Memory "will offer a current and comprehensive review, with
chapters authored by experts in each topic. The volume will take a
multidisciplinary approach, exploring behavioral, cellular,
genetic, molecular, and computational investigations of memory.
Coverage will include comparative cognition at the behavioral and
mechanistic level, developments in concepts and methodologies that
will underlie future advancements, and mechanistic examples from
the most important vertebrate systems (nematodes, molluscs, and
insects). Neuroscience researchers and graduate students with an
interest in the neural control of cognitive behavior will benefit,
as will as will those in the field of invertebrate learning.
In 1971 I published a review of ichnology other concentrating only on traces made (Houston AAPG: SEPM Trace Fossil Field by a certain group of organisms, regardless Trip Guidebook) that I thought could be of their setting. Nevertheless, needless re dundancy has hopefully been eliminated. expanded rather easily into a worthwhile Some of the chapters are more special book on the subject. I probed that possi ized than others (because of the nature of bility for a while, thinking that I would particular topics); hence, these may be write the book myself. As I began to out somewhat less familiar or "comprehensible" line the chapters in more detail, however, than others-depending upon the reader's it soon became apparent that my personal own interests and background. Other dif knowledge of too many facets of ichnology ferences in the scope and content of vari scraped bottom all too soon. I quickly de ous chapters stem from the simple fact cided that a better book could be produced that a considerably greater backlog of pre by soliciting specific contributions from vious work is available in certain facets of other workers who, collectively, had first ichnology than in others. But we hope hand experience with virtually every aspect that all of the chapters will prove to be use of the field. That became the actual plan, ful to anyone wishing to delve 'into them. the result of which is this book."
The primary goal of this volume is to advance the conceptual unification of primatology and the other evolutionary sciences by addressing the evolution of behavioral flexibility in the Primate Order. One of the first lessons learned in introductory statistics is that events in the world vary. However, some species exhibit a greater range of phenotypic plasticity, including behavioral flexibility, than others. Primates are among those taxa advanced to display an uncommon degree of behavioral diversity. The proposed volume would explore the behavioral ecology and evolution of behavioral flexibility in primates in relation to the optimization of survival, (inclusive) reproductive success, and phenotypic influence. Behavioral Flexibility in Primates: Causes and Consequences proposes that genetic conflicts of interest are ubiquitous in primates who may employ force, coercion, persuasion, persistence, scrambles, cooperation, exploitation, manipulation, social parasitism, dispersal or spite to resolve or manage them. Where one individual or group imposes severe costs to inclusive fitness or to the phenotype upon another individual, the latter may adopt a counterstrategy in an attempt to minimize its own costs. Counterstrategies may, in turn, impose costs upon the original actor(s), and so on, possibly yielding an evolutionary "chase" ("interlocus contest evolution"). The evolution of phenotypic plasticity in primates may often pertain to attempts to mitigate genetic conflicts of interest, and classic work in behavioral ecology leads to the conclusion that for females ("energy-maximizers"), conflict will pertain primarily to competition for food (that can be converted to offspring) while, for males ("time-minimizers"), conflict will pertain primarily to competition for mates. These related and novel perspectives are developed in this new volume.
Basic Issues in Rehabilitation of the Brain Damaged Definitions Because of the vagueness surrounding the term brain damage, it is nec essary at the outset to define the population to which this book may have some application. Although it is usual to speak of the brain damaged patient in a general way, the conditions referred to cover a variety of specific disorders. In this book we will be discussing only individuals who become brain-damaged as adults. We will be ad dressing ourselves specifically to adults who have sustained demon strable, structural brain damage. Those conditions in which brain dys function is a possible etiological agent, such as a number of functional psychiatric disorders, will not be considered. Thus the entire topic of mental retardation and early life brain damage will not be treated here, nor the many problems associated with minimal brain damage syn dromes in school age children. Modern psychiatric thinking has tended to blur the distinction between the so-called functional and organic disorders (d. Shagass, Gershon, & Friedhoff, 1977), but we would ad here to the view that the patient with structural brain damage contin ues to present relatively unique assessment and treatment problems. Furthermore, the emphasis of this book will be placed on individ uals with nonprogressive, chronic brain damage."
Over the last several decades, the remarkable success of science and medical technology has allowed many children with chronic illness and handicapping conditions to live longer and healthier lives. But this suc cess is not without toll. The human cost of chronic illness or a handicap ping condition can be enormous for the child and the family. For the family, there is often the stressful daily burden of care, fatigue, marital stress, low family morale, financial burdens, and reduced career mobili ty. For the child, there are often arduous and painful treatment regimes, frequent school absences, low energy periods, and uncertainties with respect to future education and vocation. The course of many diseases is unpredictable, and the very fact of chronicity implies ongoing coping problems for the family and the child. The impact of a chronic illness or handicapping condition on a family system is usually more disintegrative than integrative, disrupting the lives of all family members and exacerbating the developmental risks to the child. It is not surprising that a recent comprehensive study for establish ing public policies for children with chronic illness at Vanderbilt Univer sity has called attention to these factors and produced, as a primary recommendation, increased attention to the psychological impact of dis ease on the family and the child. In this context there is an important need for adequate assessment of psychological and behavioral problems in these children to plan for appropriate services."
In order to communicate, animals send and receive signals that are subject to their particular anatomical, psychological, and environmental constraints. This SHAR volume discusses both the production and perception of acoustic signals. Chapters address the information that animals communicate, how the communication is developed and learned, and how communication systems have adapted and evolved within species. The book will give examples from a variety of species. |
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