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Drawing on insights from causal theories of reference, teleosemantics, and state space semantics, a theory of naturalized mental representation. In A Mark of the Mental, Karen Neander considers the representational power of mental states—described by the cognitive scientist Zenon Pylyshyn as the “second hardest puzzle” of philosophy of mind (the first being consciousness). The puzzle at the heart of the book is sometimes called “the problem of mental content,” “Brentano's problem,” or “the problem of intentionality.” Its motivating mystery is how neurobiological states can have semantic properties such as meaning or reference. Neander proposes a naturalistic account for sen...
This book gathers cutting edge research on how transmitter interactions form the mechanistic bases for attention, learning and memory. The research provides a more accurate, though complex, picture of how the brain provides cognitive function, and offers new understanding about the mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction and novel avenues for therapeutic treatment. The contributors review their latest findings, and point out directions of advancement of the field of neurotransmitter interactions and cognitive function.
Examining the surprisingly complex perceptual abilities of so-called "simpler" animals, including jumping spiders, bees, praying mantids, butterflies, cockroaches, bladder grasshoppers, crayfish, mantis shrimps, octopuses, and toads.
This second edition presents the enormous progress made in recent years in the many subfields related to the two great questions : how does the brain work? and, How can we build intelligent machines? This second edition greatly increases the coverage of models of fundamental neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, and neural network approaches to language. (Midwest).
Several previous Advanced Study Institutes have concentrated on the techniques of light scattering, while the biological appli cations were not fully explored. Many of the techniques are now standardised and are being applied to a wide range of biologically significant problems both in vivo and in vitro. While laser light scattering methods are superior to conventional methods, there was a general reluctance among biologists to adopt them because of the complexity of the physical techniques and the accompanying mathe matical analysis. Consequently valuable opportunities for advancing the understanding of the biological problems were being missed. Advances in the design and commercial availab...
How do animals experience the world? Many animals experience a world far richer than ours, in sight, sound, and smell, and interact with each other in ways humans simply do not pick up, and which continue to surprise researchers. This book explores not only the wonder of animal senses, but how they work and how scientists go about investigating them. And, throughout, it considers how these senses came to be: the book explains that evolution is at the root of it all. Senses arose to enable animals to catch prey, to hide, and to mate more effectively, usually honed through fierce competition and arms races with predators. The result, over millions of years, is a wondrous panoply of ways of experiencing the world, against which our own senses often pale into insignificance.
The Behavior of Animals An updated view of animal behavior studies, featuring global experts The Behavior of Animals, Second Edition provides a broad overview of the current state of animal behavior studies with contributions from international experts. This edition includes new chapters on hormones and behavior, individuality, and human evolution. All chapters have been thoroughly revised and updated, and are supported by color illustrations, informative callouts, and accessible presentation of technical information. Provides an introduction to the study of animal behavior Looks at an extensive scope of topics- from perception, motivation and emotion, biological rhythms, and animal learning to animal cognition, communication, mate choice, and individuality. Explores the evolution of animal behavior including a critical evaluation of the assumption that human beings can be studied as if they were any other animal species. Students will benefit from an updated textbook in which a variety of contributors provide their expertise and global perspective in specialized areas
An expert on the brain argues that the mind is not a blank slate and that much early behavior is biologically predisposed rather than learned. Why do newborns show a preference for a face (or something that resembles a face) over a nonface-like object? Why do baby chicks prefer a moving object to an inanimate one? Neither baby human nor baby chick has had time to learn to like faces or movement. In Born Knowing, neuroscientist Giorgio Vallortigara argues that the mind is not a blank slate. Early behavior is biologically predisposed rather than learned, and this instinctive or innate behavior, Vallortigara says, is key to understanding the origins of knowledge. Drawing on research carried out...