the evolving mind

I can understand how school performance could influence how a child feels about him or herself. Children spend a great deal of time in school — it’s a huge part of their lives. They are graded on every test, every paper, every class, every semester. Grades are how we measure them. And grades only mean something in the context of their peers. Is one child ahead of or behind the others? When children perform poorly it seems natural they may feel “lesser.” Couple that with the reality of the kudos, acclaim and smiles the high-performers get, while the low-performers get fewer, none, or worse . . . .

I can similarly understand how obese children would stand out among their peers, and not in a good way. The result may be fewer perceptions and feelings of being wanted and accepted. Of course, all children and their circumstances are different. No two children respond in the same way.

While I can understand how there could be relationships between the above variables, I realize I could be wrong. Until we find a way to measure and test, it’s just conjecture. While the article, School Performance And Body Weight Affects Kids’ Self-esteem, Study Shows provided some evidence for what seems to be sensible connections between the variables, I hesitate to declare, “That seals it!”

Here’s what the researchers did -

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: education, personality

Animal, vegetable, mineral, or soybean derivative (e.g. tofu)? Answer below the fold.

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: microscope, puzzle

I suspected it was happening. Many a times I’ve stood in my backyard and thought to myself, “I smell evolution.” Is it really the case? According to recent research, it’s happening here in my own lower, somewhat flaccid member-state of the Bible Belt.

What’s happening? Native U.S. Lizards Are Adapting To Escape Attacks By Fire Ants.

In particular -

Penn State Assistant Professor of Biology Tracy Langkilde has shown that native fence lizards in the southeastern United States are adapting to potentially fatal invasive fire-ant attacks by developing behaviors that enable them to escape from the ants, as well as by developing longer hind legs, which can increase the effectiveness of this behavior.

Holy crap. We have fence-lizards in our very yard. I should get a camera and document this alleged EVOLUTION in action. But wait – the lizard legs in my piece of turf don’t look longer, they just look as they are. Hmm. Seems I can’t see evolution. How do I really know it’s happening? Learn me some science? Do I have to?

Okay, I’ll try a little learnin’. Here goes –

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: biology, culture

Some people believe that a scientific understanding “unweave[s] the rainbow.” I disagree. First, our brains are multi-faceted. Because we exercise one facility doesn’t mean others will naturally atrophy. Second, a scientific understanding can add a depth to experience. As in the case of viewing the African iris above. That I understand the color pattern is caused by parts of the flower reflecting different wavelengths of light doesn’t drain from the beauty. For me, it adds extra layers of delight and wonder.

Technorati Links: biology, nature, science

Although our culture values equality and a system of government that aspires to treat all of its citizens equally, it is probably not true that any child could grow up to become president. Some children, suitably educated and interested, might have the wrong stuff. Genetically speaking.

Of course, with behavior and achievement genes rarely put up an outright barricade. Instead, one might say they set the slope of the rode ahead. While some individuals–thanks to their genetic makeup–can just about roll to their desired end, others must struggle mightily up a grade that may, in some cases, be insurmountable.

Am I speaking here of innate intellectual ability and subsequent achievement? Actually not. Some might call it social intelligence, but I’m not sure what to call it. Not yet.

For some time we’ve known that personality attributes have a strong genetic component. In the article beneath the title, Genetics Of Popularity: Genetic Influence In Social Networks Identified, I figured I’d discover one tied to popularity. But it seems more complicated than that –

While it might be expected that genes affect personality, these findings go further, and illustrate a genetic influence on the structure and formation of an individual’s social group.

Hmm. Social behavior that can be chalked up to something other than personality attributes? But personality and social behavior are so intertwined . . . how is that?

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: genetics, politics, sociology

Honey, I shrunk my readers!

You are smaller than small. Where are you? Answer below the fold.

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: microscope, puzzle

“Despite his paralyzed right arm, Faben learned to perform spectacular bipedal charging displays; when Figan displayed at rival males, Faben almost always joined in to help his brother. Indeed, it was Faben who helped Figan to attain the alpha position.”
- Jane Goodall (17)

Then Samuel called upon the LORD, and that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the LORD and of Samuel. (1 Samuel 12:18)

Chimpanzees are social animals: they can work together and form alliances to advance their causes, whether that cause is hunting a colubus monkey for meat or acquiring/defending status within the troop.

Within a chimpanzee society, the alpha will frequently charge at subordinates, frightening them. From something of a functionalist perspective, the purpose of the threat display is “to maintain or challenge the existing social order.” (18) Beta/subordinate chimps, as in the case of Faben above, will often join their ally in a charge. Why? To help the alpha maintain his position. And to help their own position, for they are associated with the alpha. Furthermore, whenever one primate frightens another, he can gain an upper hand. Other chimps may become classically conditioned, to a degree, to respond to the solo’s charge when it has been successfully paired in the past with the alpha’s.

Among human’s, there is great value in having friends in high places: a big friend, a big brother, a bigger father–one that can trump your opposition’s friend, brother or father. To give heft to your threat and aid in you in your causes.

In many a Bible verse you will find a human beta calling upon their great, invisible alpha for assistance in their own, or in a mutual, cause. God is a friend in a high place; he is the absolute biggest entity one can form an alliance with. Okay, he may not exist, but do those who oppose you know and trust that?

Consider these Bible verses and my analysis of them:

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: primates, religion, status

Why do some fish, such as the above French grunts, swim in schools? I imagine it has something to do with safety from predators. More eyes to spot an approaching barracuda. I have also heard/read that when in a school, individual fish can better evade predators. While a solitary fish can be zeroed in on, many fish fleeing at once creates confusion. A school seems to be a single entity, but just when you close in to bite, it breaks apart. And reforms.

What is the purpose of schooling for humans? We send our kids to school for roughly two decades. Two decades. Why all that time and effort? Is the purpose of all that schooling to prepare them for the workforce? To educate and enlighten them, thus make them better citizens? To equip them with the skills needed to function in society? To keep them busy and out of trouble during the day?

My answer: Z) All of the above. And more.

Technorati Links: fish, snorkeling

Decades ago Noam Chomsky championed the theory of nativism — that the ability to acquire language is innate, thanks to the human brain’s unique endowment with a universal grammar. Our social environment, meanwhile, provides little more than exposure to the particular language we’ll learn. Recent research provides a new reason to question the theory, if not doubt.

Language in humans has evolved culturally rather than genetically, according to a study by UCL (University College London) and US researchers. By modelling the ways in which genes for language might have evolved alongside language itself, the study showed that genetic adaptation to language would be highly unlikely, as cultural conventions change much more rapidly than genes. Thus, the biological machinery upon which human language is built appears to predate the emergence of language.

Notice the appropriately tentative wording in the above: might have evolved . . . appears to . . . The title, however, is balls-to-the-wall: Language Driven By Culture, Not Biology, Study Shows.

Is language driven by culture? Did it evolve culturally? Those are important, complex questions. And they are questions that certainly will not be resolved via one “modelling” study.

In term of this which came first and drove the other, how was culture the chicken and language-ability the egg? The authors use this analogy:

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: culture, evolution, psychology

What is it? Answer below the fold.

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: microscope, puzzle