No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Development and Evolution
... In 1896, a prominent child psychologist, James Mark Baldwin, published a two-part manuscript in The American Naturalist in which he discussed the role of learning in the evolutionary process. Specifically, he advanced two theses (Baldwin 1896(Baldwin , 1902. The first was that learning, or phenotypic plasticity more generally, could provide rapid, adaptive responses to environmental change, potentially facilitating the persistence of populations until natural selection could improve the adaptive (genetic) match to the novel environmental conditions. ...
... This first component of this argument, often referred to as the Baldwin Effect following Simpson (1953), suggests that plasticity, which is the ability of a single genotype to produce more than one phenotype, could rescue populations from extinction that might otherwise result from rapid environmental change. Baldwin referred to this as Organic Selection, which he described as ''The process of individual accommodation considered as keeping organisms alive, and so, by also securing the accumulation of variations, determining evolution in subsequent generations'' (Baldwin 1902). This ability is today called phenotypic accommodation, a term that encompasses the ability of organisms to respond plastically to either environmental or genetic challenges during development (e.g., West-Eberhard 2003). ...
... Baldwin's second and more nuanced argument, that plasticity could also influence the subsequent evolution of populations, is less often attributed to him (but see West-Eberhard 2003;Crispo 2007). Rephrased in modern terms, he argued that following initial phenotypic accommodation to an environmental challenge, selection acting on the novel range of expressed phenotypes could alter the direction of evolutionary change (Baldwin 1896(Baldwin , 1902. Although difficult to test, this possibility is now generally appreciated as a likely outcome of induced plasticity that exposes previously cryptic underlying genetic variation to selection (e.g., Price et al. 2003;Le Rouzic and Carlborg 2008;Schlichting 2008;Pfennig et al. 2010). ...
At the end of the 19th century, the suggestion was made by several scientists, including J. M. Baldwin, that behavioral responses to environmental change could both rescue populations from extinction (Baldwin Effect) and influence the course of subsequent evolution. Here we provide the historical and theoretical background for this argument and offer evidence of the importance of these ideas for understanding how animals (and other organisms that exhibit behavior) will respond to the rapid environmental changes caused by human activity. We offer examples from long-term research on the evolution of behavioral and other phenotypes in the adaptive radiation of the threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a radiation in which it is possible to infer ancestral patterns of behavioral plasticity relative to the post-glacial freshwater radiation in northwestern North America, and to use patterns of parallelism and contemporary evolution to understand adaptive causes of responses to environmental modification. Our work offers insights into the complexity of cognitive responses to environmental change, and into the importance of examining multiple aspects of the phenotype simultaneously, if we are to understand how behavioral shifts contribute to the persistence of populations and to subsequent evolution. We conclude by discussing the origins of apparent novelties induced by environmental shifts, and the importance of accounting for geographic variation within species if we are to accurately anticipate the effects of anthropogenic environmental modification on the persistence and evolution of animals.
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.
... Moving to the upper right of the network, we find a small cluster of five people: Princeton University for a professorship in 1893. He founded laboratories at Toronto and Princeton but his own research focused mainly on mental development and its connection with evolution (Baldwin, 1895(Baldwin, , 1899(Baldwin, , 1902. Baldwin was a founding member of the AΨA in 1892, and its sixth president in 1897. ...
... Monographs and Psychological Index. He also compiled a massive three-volume Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology (Baldwin, 1901(Baldwin, -1902 (Sokal, 1997). At this point, Baldwin was at the very top of his profession, having been selected to preside over the 1913 International Congress of Psychology, which was to have been the first time the U.S. hosted the quadrennial event. ...
There are many different ways to assess the significance of historical figures. Often we look at the influence of their writings, or at the important offices they held with disciplinary institutions such as universities, journals, and scholarly societies. In this study, however, we took a novel approach: we took the complete memberships, ca. 1900, of four organizations-the American Psychological Association, the Western Philosophical Association, the American Philosophical Association, and the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology-and visualized them as a network. We then identified individuals who "bridged" between two or more of these groups and considered what might be termed their "centrality" to the psychological-philosophical community of their time. First, we examined these figures qualitatively, briefly describing their lives and careers. Then we approached the problem mathematically, considering several alternative technical realizations of "centrality" and then explaining our reasons for choosing eigenvector centrality as the best for our purposes. We found a great deal of overlap among the results of the qualitative and quantitative approaches, but also some telling differences. J. Mark Baldwin, Edward Buchner, Christine Ladd Franklin, and Frank Thilly consistently emerged as highly central figures. Some more marginal figures such as Max Meyer, and Frederick J. E. Woodbridge, Edward A. Pace, Edward H. Griffin played interesting roles as well.
... The modern synthesis put genes at the center of the biological discourse, while most of the varieties of the extended synthesis return the focus to the organism and its activities. So historical theorists like James Mark Baldwin (1896aBaldwin ( , 1896bBaldwin ( , 1902Baldwin ( , 1906 who were once written out of the discourse are now being returned to it. But that's not an end-state; it's not a correction. ...
In this article, the author offers his reflections on being elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association as an historian of psychology. The author didn't start out as an historian. His bachelor and doctorate are both in psychology. But he did also certainly choose to leave psychology, then to return with a different perspective. So this election feels like an affirmation of that decision, and an endorsement of the scholarship that resulted: his service to science by other means, after he was himself "revised and resubmitted." Nearly two decades after his original departure from experimental psychology, the author has decided that "science" is the set of tested- and defended boundaries of what we think we know, which move as they're renegotiated. In other words, science is the shared collection and discussion of what has been accepted to be the case (as well as the process of careful revision). But it's also then the history of science that provides evidence to answer the philosophical "demarcation problem," not science itself. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
... In this scenario, the maladaptive phenotype is pushed farther away from the population's optimum, and increases the intensity of selection on the population (Ghalambor et al. 2015). Due to its inherent responsiveness to the environment (Foster 2013;Snell-Rood 2013), an animal's behavior is often the first phenotype to respond to rapid environmental change and is therefore considered to be highly plastic (Baldwin 1902;Sih et al. 2010;Wong and Candolin 2015). Therefore, it is important to ask how selection might act on plastic behavioral responses if biologists are to understand how prey cope with invasive predators. ...
Invasive predators often impose devastating selection pressures on native prey species. However, their effects can be regionally dependent and influenced by the local ecological conditions of their invaded habitats. Evolved behavioral phenotypes are important mechanisms by which prey adapt to the presence of novel predators. Here, we asked how behavior and behavioral plasticity of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations have evolved following the introduction of the invasive predator, northern pike (Esox lucius). We examined the behavior of F1 offspring generated from three pike-free and three pike-invaded populations and measured how stickleback activity and plant use behaviors, and their plasticity, have evolved following pike introduction. To evaluate plasticity, we exposed juvenile stickleback to predator cues during their first year of development and then evaluated how this repeated exposure influenced behavioral responses to an artificial predation event. We found no overarching effect of pike in either evolved behaviors or behavioral plasticity, and no evidence for the presence of developmental plasticity. Furthermore, we found that depending on the phenotype, pike-invaded stickleback populations have either more or less among-population variation than pike-free populations. Our results suggest that evolution in response to invasive predators may be hidden by local adaptation when enough populations are studied.
... Yet, the complexity of inputs to behavior may also contribute to its alleged special nature. For well over a century, its flexibility and environmental sensitivity have been invoked to support a special role in evolution, for example by biasing the direction of evolutionary responses (Baldwin 1902), exposing new variation to the action of selection (Wcislo 1989), acting as a pacemaker that regulates the rate of diversification (Mayr 1963), disproportionately leading genetic evolution (West-Eberhard 2003;Zuk et al. 2014;Robinson and Barron 2017) or inhibiting evolution (Huey et al. 2003;Price et al. 2003). Unusual roles for plasticity and behavior have also been invoked to argue for reformulating the fundamental structure of evolutionary theory as we know it, an assertion that has provoked scepticism and contentious debate (Laland et al. 2014). ...
Behavior is rapidly flexible and highly context-dependent, which poses obvious challenges to researchers attempting to dissect its causes. However, over a century of unresolved debate has also focused on whether the very flexibility and context-dependence of behavior lends it a unique role in the evolutionary origins and patterns of diversity in the Animal Kingdom. Here, we propose that both challenges can benefit from studying how indirect genetic effects (IGEs: the effects of genes expressed in one individual on traits in another individual) shape behavioral phenotypes. We provide a sketch of the theoretical framework that grounds IGEs in behavioral ecology research and focus on recent advances made from studies of IGEs in areas of behavioral ecology such as sexual selection, sexual conflict, social dominance, and parent-offspring interactions. There is mounting evidence that IGEs have important influences on behavioral phenotypes associated with these processes, such as sexual signals and preferences and behaviors which function to manipulate interacting partners. IGEs can also influence both responses to selection and selection itself, and considering IGEs refines evolutionary predictions and provides new perspectives on the origins of seemingly perplexing behavioral traits. A key unresolved question, but one that has dominated the behavioral sciences for over a century, is whether behavior is more likely than other types of traits to contribute to evolutionary change and diversification. We advocate taking advantage of an IGE approach to outline falsifiable hypotheses and a general methodology to rigorously test this frequently proposed, yet still contentious, special role of behavior in evolution. ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved.
... Drugim re?ima, faza "ortoplazije" podrazumevala bi usmereni uticaj "organske selekcije" na evoluciju populacije. Za potpunije razumevanje Boldvinovog efekta neophodno je upoznati se i sa terminom "akomodacija" koji je Boldvin koristio kako bi istakao nenasledne promene fenotipa koje su uzrokovane promenom sredine koje jedinkama donose odre?enu adaptivnu korist ( Baldwin 1902). Danas se u ovom kontekstu naj?e??e koristi pojam "fenotipska akomodacija" koji ima ne?to ?ire zna?enje i opisuje adaptivno prilago?avanje, bez geneti?ke promene, koje nastaje tokom procesa razvi?a kao odgovor na izmenjene geneti?ke ili sredinske uslove (West-Eberhard ?005). ...
Penotypic plasticity, a universal feature of all organisms, represents genotypes’ ability to produce alternative phenotypes in different environmental conditions. In insects, this phenomenon represents an important mechanism of phenotypic variation and it is fundamental for the establishment of different evolutionary trajectories of their populations causing adaptive divergence and consequential interpopulation reproductive isolation. Phenotypic plasticity is of particular importance during the process of ecological speciation, when ecologically based divergent selection between environments reduces gene flow among populations. Using the benefits of laboratory evolution, this study investigates life history traits, their trade-offs and plasticity patterns, population dynamics and selection patterns, as well as changes in reproductive behaviour, in two sets of laboratory populations of a phytophagous insect, Acanthoscelides obtectus, evolved on different host plants (white beans, Phaseolus
vulgaris and chickpeas, Cicer arietinum). Populations selected on different plant hosts demonstrate distinct life history strategies and plasticity levels of life history and behavioural traits. Generally, populations selected on beans demonstrate prominent ability to plastically respond to host plant variation compared to chickpea selected populations. Selection regimes demonstrate moderate level of reproductive isolation emphasizing the importance of divergent selection in the first phases of the speciation.
... It is instructive to compare the process of genetic assimilation as it has occurred in the He stocks with the "organic selection" of Baldwin (1902) and Lloyd Morgan (1900). They argued that if an animal subjected to any environmental stimulus is able to respond to it in an adaptive manner, the animal and the population of which it is a member will be able to continue existing in the region where the environmental stimulus operates, until such time as a chance mutation produces a phenotypic effect which mimics the adaptive response. ...
... Phenotypic plasticity has often been cited as a factor retarding the rate of evolution (Wright, 1931;Stearns, 1980;Meyer, 1987;Sultan, 1987). However, there has also been a long history of considering plasticity as a diversifying factor in evolution (Baldwin, 1902;Wright, 1931;Schmalhausen, 1949;Waddington, 1942Waddington, , 1975Stearns, 1989;West-Eberhard, 1989;Meyer, 1990; Wimberger, in press). Meyer (1987) hypothesized that due to the greater amounts of change induced in his experiments than in those of Witte (1984) on Haplochromis squamipinnis, that African cichlids may be less plastic than American cichlids and that the greater amount ofplasticity in American cichlids has retarded diversification in the neotropics. ...
I examined plasticity of jaw and skull morphology induced by feeding different diets in two species of the neotropical cichlid genus Geophagus. The two species possess different modes of development, which affect the size at which young begin feeding. I hypothesized that the difference in size at first feeding could lead to a difference in the amount of change inducible in the two species. The young of the substrate-spawning species, G. brasiliensis, which begin feeding at a smaller size, were predicted to be more plastic than those of the mouthbrooding species, G. steindachneri. The two diets used to induce differences were brine shrimp nauplii and chironomid larvae. Numerous measures of the jaw and skull differed significantly between groups fed the two diets but the amount of plasticity induced was small and would not present a problem for taxonomists. Contrary to my prediction, both the magnitude and pattern of plasticity induced in the two species was similar. Thus, mode of parental care and the size at which young begin feeding do not affect the degree of plasticity. Fish fed brine shrimp nauplii were longer in oral jaw region, but were shorter and shallower in the area behind the oral jaws. An additional group of G. brasiliensis was fed flake food to compare the results of this study to other studies. The differences in measures between fish fed brine shrimp diets and flake food diets were greater than those between fish fed brine shrimp and chironomid larvae. A possible role of plasticity for enhancing rather than retarding morphological evolution is discussed.
... However, a long-standing theory in evolutionary biology is that morphological changes might often be preceded by a change in behaviour. When an organism starts doing something new (e.g. using a new habitat, exploiting novel prey), selection pressures on correlated traits change, leading to evolutionary adaptation (Baldwin, 1902;Mayr, 1958Mayr, , 1982Wcislo, 1989;West-Eberhard, 2003;Corning, 2014;Lister, 2014). This initial behavioural plasticity can itself evolve via genetic accommodation (West-Eberhard, 2003). ...
Background: Prey often make behavioural and morphological adaptations to avoid predation, and these alternative defence mechanisms may either compensate for, or reinforce, one another.
Objective: We examined correlations between anti-predator behaviour and morphology in threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in four environments distinguished by their predation histories: marine/anadromous populations co-existing with native predatory fish (representative of the ancestral environment), and three freshwater environments with native, introduced, and no predatory fish, respectively. To determine whether morphological and behavioural defences reinforce one another (trait co-specialization) or whether they represent alternative strategies for defence (trait compensation), we related morphology of laboratory-reared stickleback to the intensity of their responses to a simulated predator attack, which had previously been assessed (Wund et al., 2015).
Methods: Eight aspects of stickleback morphology were measured, all of which loaded heavily and positively on a single principal component that accounted for 61.3% of the variation in traits. Pearson correlation was used to determine whether PC1 was associated with the intensity of anti-predator response.
Results: A weak negative correlation was observed between anti-predator behaviour and morphology overall. However, considering each predation environment separately revealed that populations from marine and freshwater environments containing native predatory fish displayed trait co-specialization (positive correlation) between armour and behaviour, while those from environments with recently introduced predatory trout displayed trait compensation (negative correlation). No correlation was observed in populations lacking these predators. Not all populations within the ‘introduced predatory fish’ category showed the same pattern of relationship, however, indicating that additional factors mediate the co-evolutionary dynamics of anti-predator behaviour and morphology. Results were similar whether we considered size-standardized or unstandardized morphological traits.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that over the long term, the two types of defence co-evolve to reinforce one another, but within the first few decades of exposure to predatory fish, anti-predator behaviour compensates for diminished morphological defences.
... In the past century, phenotypic plasticity was largely considered a barrier to speciation: if there is no need for genetic change to adapt to the environment (masking the genotype for negative selection), then the process of adaptive genetic divergence will be hindered [2,3]. However, the potential role of adaptive plasticity in promoting speciation has been suggested in some cases where it can contribute to niche diversification and further evolutionary change [1,[4][5][6]. Phenotypic and genetic accommodation, the Baldwin effect, and the Waddington's genetic assimilation have been proposed to explain environmental-induced changes fixed in the genome and susceptible to promote a speciation process [7,8]. ...
Background
Phenotypic plasticity, as a phenotypic response induced by the environment, has been proposed as a key factor in the evolutionary history of corals. A significant number of octocoral species show high phenotypic variation, exhibiting a strong overlap in intra- and inter-specific morphologic variation. This is the case of the gorgonian octocoral Antillogorgia bipinnata (Verrill 1864), which shows three polyphyletic morphotypes along a bathymetric gradient. This research tested the phenotypic plasticity of modular traits in A. bipinnata with a reciprocal transplant experiment involving 256 explants from two morphotypes in two locations and at two depths. Vertical and horizontal length and number of new branches were compared 13 weeks following transplant. The data were analysed with a linear mixed-effects model and a graphic approach by reaction norms. ResultsAt the end of the experiment, 91.8% of explants survived. Lower vertical and horizontal growth rates and lower branch promotion were found for deep environments compared to shallow environments. The overall variation behaved similarly to the performance of native transplants. In particular, promotion of new branches showed variance mainly due to a phenotypic plastic effect. Conclusions
Globally, environmental and genotypic effects explain the variation of the assessed traits. Survival rates besides plastic responses suggest an intermediate scenario between adaptive plasticity and local adaptation that may drive a potential process of adaptive divergence along depth cline in A. bipinnata.
... The conceptual framework underlying emerging models of brain evolution and normal development provides a powerful framework for understanding aspects of disease pathogenesis. This framework is consistent with the pioneering efforts of investigators such as Darwin (1872), Baldwin (1902), Bowlby (1969Bowlby ( , 1973, Waddington (1977), Ekman (1980), and Fiske and Haslam (1997), who have applied evolutionary and developmental principles to the study of normal variation and/or psychopathology. This model's appeal is that it provides a multidisciplinary framework to view a range of pathological behaviors and related normal behaviors-from genes and environmental stressors to theories concerning the active ingredients in cognitive therapies and the neurobiological substrates they effect. ...
This chapter considers Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) from developmental and evolutionary perspectives. It begins with a definition of obsessions and compulsions and a description of this diagnostic category. The chapter then examines several normal epochs of development that are characterized by obsessive-compulsive behaviors that resemble those encountered in OCD. It focuses on the phenomenology and natural history of OCD, and reviews the available genetic, epigenetic, neuropsychological, neurochemical, neuroendocrine, and neuroimaging data that bear on OCD and related normal phenotypes. The chapter further presents number of theoretical models of pathogenesis and the treatments they have engendered. It offers an integrative model that emphasizes evolutionary and developmental perspectives and describes its potential utility in providing a coherent, multidisciplinary framework for future work in this area.
... Indeed, for over a century, researchers have hypothesized that environmentally induced phenotypic change might facilitate genetic evolution and thereby fuel the origins of new, ecologically relevant traits (Baldwin, 1902;Schmalhausen, 1949Schmalhausen, [1986; Waddington, 1953;West-Eberhard, 2003). Although various mechanisms have been proposed (dubbed the 'Baldwin effect,' 'genetic assimilation,' 'stabilizing selection,' and 'genetic accommodation'), all such mechanisms assume that: (1) environmentally induced phenotypes evolve first; and (2) selection favors those phenotypes (whether induced or not) that are the most adaptive (West-Eberhard, 2003). ...
Ecological evolutionary developmental biology explores how interactions between an organism and its environment influence development, and how this environmentally responsive development, in turn, impacts ecology and evolution. This article describes the recent research aimed at evaluating the role of environmentally initiated phenotypic change in evolutionary innovation and diversification and also the efforts aimed at understanding if environmentally induced responses can be inherited and thereby mediate evolutionary change. Generally, an understanding of the interconnectedness between ecology and development offers fresh perspectives on how the environment not only selects among diverse phenotypes, but how it also creates those phenotypes in the first place.
... 2010, Thibert-Plante and Hendry 2011, Moczek et al. 2011). West-Eberhard has been one of the strongest advocates of this model, a theory initiated by the long-standing idea of phenotypic accommodation first suggested by Baldwin (1902). Phenotypic accommodation is a novel plastic adjustment that an organism can develop within a generation (Hirasaki et al. 2004). ...
... Variations on means of evolutionary change need mentioning. Baldwin (1902Baldwin ( ,1906 established the principle of organic selec tion, whereby adaptive changes during individual's develop ment which were due to their individual qualities or traits would result in their greater likelihood in surviving, thus reproducing, and thereby reproducing the characteristics of the individuals concerned until natural selection did the job in the 'normal' way. Thus, rather than selection being carried out only by 'nature', it could involve 'nurture'. ...
Once a patient and a doctor enter into a relationship, the doctor must do everything in his/her power to put the patient first and do his/her very best for the patient. Patients’ rights are at the very center of medical and surgical practice.
In this chapter, patients’ rights are discussed under the following headings: right to the best treatment available, right to be told the truth, right to know all the facts about the medical problem, right to participate in making the decision about treatment, right to consent for every procedure, right to confidentiality and privacy, right to complain, right to know who the treating team is, right to have dignity preserved, right to have education about his/her problem, right to not be abandoned, and the right to refuse treatment.
The rights and duties of the families of patients are also discussed.
... Selon Baldwin (1902 ; 1906 ), Piaget (1936 1937 ; 1950 ; 1967), Varela (1979 ; 1989), plus récemment Salvador (1993 ; 1997a ; 1997b ; 1998 ; 2005) ou encore Engel et collaborateurs (1993 ; 1997 ; 2001a ; 2001b), le système cognitif, comme tous les systèmes physiques et biologiques, fonctionnerait suivant des réactions circulaires (RC), par des processus d'accrochages et de synchronisations entre oscillateurs. L'hypothèse de l'accrochage des systèmes sensoriels se traduit par une assimilation réciproque de ces différents systèmes (Salvador, 1997a et b) et des différentes populations neuronales qui leur sont associées (Engel et collaborateurs, 1993 ; 1997 ; 2001a ; 2001b) audition) dont une seule est nécessaire pour réaliser la tâche, et d'autre part un indiçage visuel accessoire très rapide (16 ms). ...
ABSTRACT. Integrated perception, sensory systems in interaction: the ear is deaf
what the eye does not see. The case of secondary stimulus in a vision - hearing
task and the hypothesis of sensory systems hitching. Following a brief review of
previous works about crossmodal effects, this work aims to show an effect of a
secondary visual stimulus in a detection task of sound’s source. In two experiments
we successively presented two stimuli to the participants: one very fast secondary
visual stimulus (cue) and a bip-sound (target). The results of the first experiment (exp.
1.) advance an automatic effect of crossmodal integration of different sensory
information for one visual cue of 16 ms and an ISI of 100 ms. Furthermore, a second
experiment (exp. 2.), with visual cue of 16 ms and an ISI of 0 ms, was able to
reproduce this first results. In a global way, the congruent and incongruent
crossmodal’s effects (vision – hearing) remains in the course of the chronological
progress of each experiment, what gives evidence of the robustness of this effect. For
the two experiments, the incongruent crossmodal relation (vision – hearing) favours
perceptive errors, respectively 2,38 % of responses for exp.1. and 2,06 % of responses
for exp. 2. These results seems to show an automatic and uncontrollable integration of crossmodal information (vision - hearing) in very low levels. Our results are discussed
according to the hypothesis of the automatic dynamics sensory systems hitching.
RESUME. Après une brève revue de question sur les différents effets intermodaux
présentés dans la littérature, ce travail a pour but de mettre en avant l’effet d’un
stimulus visuel accessoire dans une tâche de détection d’une source sonore. Deux
expériences avec indiçage visuel accessoire très rapide et détection de cibles sonores
ont été proposées aux participants. Les résultats de la première expérience (exp. 1)
mettent en avant un effet d’intégration automatique d’informations intermodales pour
un indiçage visuel accessoire de 16 ms et un ISI de 100 ms. De plus, la deuxième
expérience, (exp. 2.) avec un indiçage visuel accessoire de 16 ms et un ISI de 0 ms, a
pu reproduire les premiers résultats obtenus. De manière globale, les effets de
congruence et d’incongruence intermodaux en vision - audition se maintiennent au fil
du déroulement temporel des deux expériences, ce qui témoigne de la robustesse de
ces effets. Pour les deux expériences, les erreurs perceptives se répartissent sur la
relation vision – audition incongruente, respectivement 2,38% des réponses des
participants pour l’exp.1 et 2,06% pour l’exp. 2. Les résultats que nous avons obtenus
vont dans le sens d’une intégration automatique et irrépressible des informations
intermodales (vision – audition) à de très bas niveaux. Nous discutons nos résultats au
regard de l’hypothèse de la dynamique d’accrochage automatique des systèmes
sensoriels.
Mots clés : interactions intermodales ; vision - audition ; stimulus accessoire ;
accrochage des systèmes sensoriels
... Character displacement may often proceed through an initial phase in which trait divergence is environmentally induced to a later phase in which divergence becomes genetically differentiated in different populations and species (Pfennig and Pfennig, 2012a). Evolutionary biologists have long recognized that an originally inducible phenotype can lose environmental sensitivity over evolutionary time and eventually become "fixed" or produced constitutively through "genetic assimilation", for example depending on environmental frequency and plasticity costs (Baldwin, 1896;Morgan, 1896;Baldwin, 1902;Waddington, 1953Waddington, , 1957Pigliucci and Murren, 2003;West-Eberhard, 2003;Lande, 2009;Moczek et al., 2011). ...
Identifying the causes of diversification is central to evolutionary biology. The ecological theory of adaptive diversi-fication holds that the evolution of phenotypic differences between populations and species-and the formation of new spe-cies-stems from divergent natural selection, often arising from competitive interactions. Although increasing evidence suggests that phenotypic plasticity can facilitate this process, it is not generally appreciated that competitively mediated selection often also provides ideal conditions for phenotypic plasticity to evolve in the first place. Here, we discuss how competition plays at least two key roles in adaptive diversification depending on its pattern. First, heterogenous competition initially generates heterogeneity in resource use that favors adaptive plasticity in the form of "inducible competitors". Second, once such competitively induced plas-ticity evolves, its capacity to rapidly generate phenotypic variation and expose phenotypes to alternate selective regimes allows populations to respond readily to selection favoring diversification, as may occur when competition generates steady diversifying selection that permanently drives the evolutionary divergence of populations that use different resources. Thus, competition plays two important roles in adaptive diversification-one well-known and the other only now emerging-mediated through its effect on the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.
... Thus, the biological capacities underpinning the acquisition of memes could themselves be subject to Organic Selection, facilitating the acquisition of those adaptive social memes by later generations. In Development and Evolution, Baldwin (1902) writes that Social Heredity: "keeps certain variations alive, thus sets the direction of ontogenetic accommodation thereby influences the direction of the available congenital variations of the next generation, and so determines phylogenetic evolution" (p. 103). ...
At the end of the nineteenth century, James Mark Baldwin was amongst America's foremost psychologists and his ideas concerning the interactions between development and evolution were widely discussed. Richards’ [Richards (1987). Darwin and the emergence of evolutionary theories of mind and behavior. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press] eloquent and sympathetic account of Baldwin's career devotes little space to the final period of Baldwin's life—from 1909 until his death in 1934—when professional scandal forced his relocation to Paris. Although Baldwin conducted no further empirical research in this period and his theories began to be displaced by the rediscovery of Mendelian inheritance, he continued to discuss the links between ontogenesis and phylogenesis with notable thinkers in the French-speaking world, including Pierre Janet. Piaget, who attended Janet's lectures during his two-year stay in Paris immediately after World War I, was also exposed to Baldwin's ideas. Looking back many years later, Piaget denied that Baldwin's theorizing had a deep influence on his own thinking. Nonetheless, Piaget's emphasis on ever more elaborate stages of cognitive development echoes important themes in Baldwin's work. Despite this, Piaget certainly did not assimilate Baldwin's important ideas about the transmission of culture—what Baldwin called “Social Heredity”. Piaget's neglect of this strand in Baldwin's conception of development has had major consequences for the study of cognition. Here we discuss the contemporary re-awakening of interest in Baldwin's ideas among biologists and suggest that it is time for developmental psychology to reconsider the centrality of cultural learning in early cognitive development.
... la gamme des phénotypes produits) de la plasticité phénotypique (c.-à-d. le "Baldwin effect"; Baldwin 1896Baldwin , 1902Crispo 2007). D'autre part, comme elle permet de compenser les effets de la variation génétique par une réponse plastique adaptative, certains gènes vont être soumis à une pression de sélection relâchée, favorisant l'accumulation de variation génétique non exprimée (Sangster et al. 2004;Lahti et al. 2009; Van Dyken and Wade 2010). ...
Ant colonies occasionally produce individuals called intercastes. These are morphologically highly variable, but always intermediate between queens and workers. Because of their rarity, intercastes have been little studied. However, they may be involved in the evolution of novel castes through the reorganization of ancestral phenotypes (i.e. developmental recombination). In order to evaluate this hypothesis, we investigated the validity of three corollaries of this evolutionary model in the ant Mystrium rogeri: (i) intercastes must be produce by the reorganization of queen and workers characters following new genetic or environmental input; (ii) they are likely to be functional because they recombine behaviors that have already been tested by selection in queens and workers, unlike a random mutational process that mainly produces deleterious variants; (iii) some intercaste phenotypes may resemble those of new castes suspected to have evolved by this way. In agreement with the phenotypic reorganization hypothesis, our morphometric analyses suggest that intercastes are generated by intermediate levels of environmental factors inducing differential responses among modules. Behavioral records showed that intercastes perform the same tasks than queens and workers and therefore they are not associated with aberrant and costly behaviors. Nevertheless, they are more involved in agonistic interactions than queens and workers and thus may cause significant costs at the colonial level. Behavioral tests showed that some intercastes may attract males, mate, and lay diploid eggs, thereby demonstrating their high reproductive potential. Consequently, new selective pressures on the reproductive strategy may result in the selection of these intercastes and then the fixation of a new canalized phenotype by genetic accommodation of change. This process may explain the multiple evolutions of new reproductive castes (e.g. ergatoid queens). Overall, results presented in this work support the hypothesis that intercastes may be at the origin of the evolution of novel castes by developmental recombination.
... Once it evolves, however, plasticity can subsequently be reduced or even lost evolutionarily, and this loss can have profound evolutionary consequences. Indeed, for more than a century various researchers have hypothesized that the gain and subsequent loss of plasticity can facilitate genetic evolution and thereby fuel the origins of new, ecologically relevant traits (Baldwin, 1902;Schmalhausen, 1949Schmalhausen, [1986; Waddington, 1953;West-Eberhard, 2003). According to one widely cited model for how this process might unfold (West-Eberhard, 2003), when selection acts on quantitative genetic variation regulating the expression of an initially environmentally induced trait, it can promote the evolution of either increased or decreased plasticity through the process known as 'genetic accommodation' (Fig. 1). ...
Background:
Most, if not all, organisms possess the ability to alter their phenotype in direct response to changes in their environment, a phenomenon known as phenotypic plasticity. Selection can break this environmental sensitivity, however, and cause a formerly environmentally induced trait to evolve to become fixed through a process called genetic assimilation. Essentially, genetic assimilation can be viewed as the evolution of environmental robustness in what was formerly an environmentally sensitive trait. Because genetic assimilation has long been suggested to play a key role in the origins of phenotypic novelty and possibly even new species, identifying and characterizing the proximate mechanisms that underlie genetic assimilation may advance our basic understanding of how novel traits and species evolve.
Scope:
This review begins by discussing how the evolution of phenotypic plasticity, followed by genetic assimilation, might promote the origins of new traits and possibly fuel speciation and adaptive radiation. The evidence implicating genetic assimilation in evolutionary innovation and diversification is then briefly considered. Next, the potential causes of phenotypic plasticity generally and genetic assimilation specifically are examined at the genetic, molecular and physiological levels and approaches that can improve our understanding of these mechanisms are described. The review concludes by outlining major challenges for future work.
Conclusions:
Identifying and characterizing the proximate mechanisms involved in phenotypic plasticity and genetic assimilation promises to help advance our basic understanding of evolutionary innovation and diversification.
... The basic idea behind plastic rescue is that individuals evaluate altered conditions and adjust their phenotypes appropriately, which might then increase mean population fitness and thereby enhance persistence and colonization of new environments. This phenomenon has been called the "Baldwin Effect" (Simpson 1953;Price et al. 2003;Ghalambor et al. 2007;Crispo 2007) following its exposition by Baldwin (1896Baldwin ( , 1902. Baldwin further suggested that, once adaptive plasticity occurred, genetic change would be expected in the direction of the plastic response. ...
Ecology and evolution have long been recognized as reciprocally influencing each other, with recent research emphasizing how such interactions can occur even on very short (contemporary) time scales. Given that these interactions are mediated by organismal phenotypes, they can be variously shaped by genetic variation, phenotypic plasticity, or both. I here address 8 key questions relevant to the role of plasticity in eco-evolutionary dynamics. Focusing on empirical evidence, especially from natural populations, I offer the following conclusions. 1) Plasticity is-not surprisingly-sometimes adaptive, sometimes maladaptive, and sometimes neutral. 2) Plasticity has costs and limits but these constraints are highly variable, often weak, and hard to detect. 3) Variable environments favor the evolution of increased trait plasticity, which can then buffer fitness/performance (i.e., tolerance). 4) Plasticity sometimes aids colonization of new environments (Baldwin Effect) and responses to in situ environmental change. However, plastic responses are not always necessary or sufficient in these contexts. 5) Plasticity will sometimes promote and sometimes constrain genetic evolution. 6) Plasticity will sometimes help and sometimes hinder ecological speciation but, at present, empirical tests are limited. 7) Plasticity can show considerable evolutionary change in contemporary time, although the rates of this reaction norm evolution are highly variable among taxa and traits. 8) Plasticity appears to have considerable influences on ecological dynamics at the community and ecosystem levels, although many more studies are needed. In summary, plasticity needs to be an integral part of any conceptual framework and empirical investigation of eco-evolutionary dynamics.
© The American Genetic Association 2015. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
... Integration of the concept of phenotypic plasticity into our understanding of the evolutionary process has been slow in coming, and appreciation of the role of plasticity in evolution has shifted more than once over the last 100 years. Early proponents of the idea that plastic organismal responses to the environment could themselves evolve, and indeed could guide evolutionary change, were eloquent in their arguments (for example, Weismann, 1894;Morgan, 1896;Baldwin, 1902). Nevertheless, this viewpoint fell out of favor as some of the most remarkable evolutionary biologists of the last century attempted to reconcile classical and population genetics with evolutionary theory (Wcislo, 1989;Schlichting and Pigliucci, 1998;West-Eberhard, 2003). ...
Phenotypic plasticity can influence evolutionary change in a lineage, ranging from facilitation of population persistence in a novel environment to directing the patterns of evolutionary change. As the specific nature of plasticity can impact evolutionary consequences, it is essential to consider how plasticity is manifested if we are to understand the contribution of plasticity to phenotypic evolution. Most morphological traits are developmentally plastic, irreversible, and generally considered to be costly, at least when the resultant phenotype is mis-matched to the environment. At the other extreme, behavioral phenotypes are typically activational (modifiable on very short time scales), and not immediately costly as they are produced by constitutive neural networks. Although patterns of morphological and behavioral plasticity are often compared, patterns of plasticity of life history phenotypes are rarely considered. Here we review patterns of plasticity in these trait categories within and among populations, comprising the adaptive radiation of the threespine stickleback fish Gasterosteus aculeatus. We immediately found it necessary to consider the possibility of iterated development, the concept that behavioral and life history trajectories can be repeatedly reset on activational (usually behavior) or developmental (usually life history) time frames, offering fine tuning of the response to environmental context. Morphology in stickleback is primarily reset only in that developmental trajectories can be altered as environments change over the course of development. As anticipated, the boundaries between the trait categories are not clear and are likely to be linked by shared, underlying physiological and genetic systems.Heredity advance online publication, 5 August 2015; doi:10.1038/hdy.2015.66.
... B 282: 20151019 and often functional adjustment of parts of an organism during development that typically does not involve genetic mutation [27]. It has long been argued that phenotypic accommodation could promote genetic accommodation if environmentally induced phenotypes are subsequently stabilized and fine-tuned across generations by selection of standing genetic variation, previously cryptic genetic variation or newly arising mutations [27,47,50,51]. From this viewpoint, developmental processes play a critical role in determining which genetic variants will produce selectable phenotypic differences, and which will not. ...
Scientific activities take place within the structured sets of ideas and assumptions that define a field and its practices. The conceptual framework of evolutionary biology emerged with the Modern Synthesis in the early twentieth century and has since expanded into a highly successful research program to explore the processes of diversification and adaptation. Nonetheless, the ability of that framework satisfactorily to accommodate the rapid advances in developmental biology, genomics and ecology has been questioned. We review some of these arguments, focusing on literatures (evo-devo, developmental plasticity, inclusive inheritance and niche construction) whose implications for evolution can be interpreted in two ways-one that preserves the internal structure of contemporary evolutionary theory and one that points towards an alternative conceptual framework. The latter, which we label the 'extended evolutionary synthesis' (EES), retains the fundaments of evolutionary theory, but differs in its emphasis on the role of constructive processes in development and evolution, and reciprocal portrayals of causation. In the EES, developmental processes, operating through developmental bias, inclusive inheritance and niche construction, share responsibility for the direction and rate of evolution, the origin of character variation and organism-environment complementarity. We spell out the structure, core assumptions and novel predictions of the EES, and show how it can be deployed to stimulate and advance research in those fields that study or use evolutionary biology.
© 2015 The Author(s).
Human-mediated environmental challenges are severely impacting local and global levels of biodiversity. Phenotypic plasticity can play a major role in aiding population persistence because plasticity can buffer populations from novel challenges. Given this role, it is possible for the degree of plasticity to evolve rapidly as it may place phenotypes near, but not exactly on, an adaptive peak for the new environment. Here, we asked if behavioral plasticity evolves following the introduction of a novel predator. We measured behavioral responses of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations, with and without the introduced apex predator northern pike (Esox lucius), to three different chemical odors, (1) conspecific alarm odors, (2) digested odors, and (3) pheromones of northern pike (pike odor). We demonstrated that stickleback from pike-invaded populations do not respond to any of the treatments in our study, while stickleback from pike-free populations behaviorally respond to the presence of alarm odors but not digested or pike-specific pheromones. Our results provide evidence that the behavioral plasticity of stickleback populations can rapidly evolve to the presence of northern pike, and more importantly, that this response is consistent across multiple populations.
Under the assumption that anticipatory models are required for anticipatory behavior, an important question arises about the different manners in which organisms acquire anticipatory models. This article aims to articulate four different non-exhaustive ways that anticipatory models might possibly be acquired over both phylogenetic and ontogenetic timescales and explore the relationships among them. To articulate these different model-acquisition mechanisms, four schematics will be introduced, each of which represents a particular acquisition structure that can be used for the purposes of comparison, analysis, and hypothesis formulation. By bringing to the fore the differences and similarities between each of the four ways that anticipatory models are acquired, a more complete picture of both anticipatory behavior and its pervasive role in biological self-maintenance can be offered. In doing so, this article helps not only to shed light on how anticipatory behavior might arise in the wide range of organisms that it has been observed in but also to throw into relief the subtle and often still overlooked causal interplay between ontogenetic and phylogenetic plasticity.
Natural selection is the populational process whereby, for instance, the relative number of a variant better suited to a given environment’s attributes increases over generations. In other words, a population’s makeup is altered, over generations, to suit the requirements of a particular environment. Niche construction is the process whereby an environment’s attributes can be stably modified by organisms, over generations, to suit requirements of those organisms. Should the latter process, when it occurs, be considered as significant for the complementary fit between organism and environment as the former? According to mainstream evolutionary theory, random genetic mutation is the only source of novel, unlearned, trans-generationally persistent behavior. A growing number of biologists and philosophers of science, however, maintain that organisms are capable of generating such behavior, in response to, for instance, trans-generationally persistent environmental change, by way of phenotype-mediated, developmentally plastic mechanisms that do not require mutation. Should mechanisms of this sort be more generally recognized as the source of the selectable variation that selection operates on? Niche construction theory answers “yes” to both these questions, and the result is a debate over the comprehensiveness of mainstream evolutionary theory.
Evolution of adaptive phenotypic flexibility requires a system that can dynamically restore and update a functional phenotype in response to environmental change. The architecture of such a system evolves under the conflicting demands of versatility and robustness, and resolution of these demands should be particularly evident in organisms that require external inputs for reiterative trait production within a generation, such as in metabolic networks that underlie yearly acquisition of diet-dependent coloration in birds. Here we show that a key structural feature of carotenoid networks – redundancy of biochemical pathways – enables these networks to translate variable environmental inputs into consistent phenotypic outcomes. We closely followed life-long changes in structure and utilization of metabolic networks in a large cohort of free-living birds and found that greater individual experience with dietary change between molts leads to wider occupancy of the metabolic network and progressive accumulation of redundant pathways in a functionally active network. This generated a regime of emergent buffering whereby greater dietary experience was mechanistically linked to greater robustness of resulting traits and an increasing ability to retain and implement previous adaptive solutions. Thus, experience-related buffering links evolvability and robustness in carotenoid-metabolizing networks and we argue that this mechanistic principle facilitates the evolution of phenotypic flexibility. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Trabajo colaborativo para crear los manuales del Participante y del Instructor del la Estrategia “Aprendizaje Colaborativo” para el Modelo Educativo de la Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila. Comité de Capacitación: Edith Morales Valdes, Ruby Ocampo Angarita, Juana María Martínez Cárdenas, Víctor Suárez Valencia, Gloria Isabel Torres Fuentes, María Elena Villarreal Hernández, Sara Margarita Yañez Flores
Intraspecific phenotypic diversity is the raw material for evolution, so understanding its origin and maintenance is critically important for conservation of biodiversity. Intraspecific diversity in a trait or a suite of traits can result from genetic diversity and/or phenotypic plasticity. The two are, however, not independent as plasticity has been shown to evolve. In this study, we evaluated the importance of phenotypic plasticity in generating morphological diversity in populations of small benthic Arctic charr in Iceland, using a rearing experiment with contrasting modes of feeding. We also examined the association between phenotypic plasticity in offspring groups generated by the contrasting feeding modes and important ecological variables characterising the natural habitats of the respective populations. Although the level of plasticity could not be related to any of the ecological measurements, clear differences in morphological reaction norms among populations suggest that plasticity is an important aspect of morphological diversity of the charr. It is not clear whether that plasticity is adaptive, but it is notable that reaction norms in all populations have similar reaction to the treatments.
Selected Contributors from the U.S.The Playground MovementThe Children's BureauSnapshots of Selected European ContributorsReferences
Comparative psychology emerged as part of the "new psychology" that took hold in the United States around 1900. Many of the issues that have occupied comparative psychologists throughout the 20th century were developed as research problems during this period. In some respects, comparative psychology was then an integral and widely respected part of psychology at large; in others, it was already marginalized. Issues emerging during this critical period set the program for the upcoming century and included those of methodology in the conduct of experiments and conceptual issues related to evolution, development, intelligence, and higher processes.
Basilio, L. R. M., Roazzi, A., & Nascimento, A. M. (2016). Natureza, desenvolvimento e possibilidades de transformação do Self e do autoconceito: Refletindo sobre o papel das interações sociais para estruturação e dinâmica transformacional. Amazônica, 16(1), 250-269. https://goo.gl/4WjNde
Resumo: Neste trabalho serão enfocados aspectos referentes à natureza, desenvolvimento e possibilidades de transformação do Self e do autoconceito, durante todo o curso da vida. Teorias e pesquisas que analisam estes construtos auxiliam a compreensão sobre elementos presentes na constituição; fatores que influenciam a gênese; a interrelação constitutiva Self e autoconceito; a organização complexa, multimodal e hierárquica; a função de ambos para a cognição humana e, especialmente, o papel das interações sociais para estruturação e dinâmica transformacional. O objetivo é que, além de esboçar um panorama geral destes conceitos relevantes para a psicologia, o presente trabalho possa contribuir para o debate sobre as delimitações conceituais e influências recíprocas do Self e do autoconceito, evidenciando-os como campos ainda profícuos para futuras investigações.
Palavras-chave: Self; Autoconceito; Desenvolvimento e possibilidades de transformação do Self e do autoconceito.
Abstract: In this paper we will deal with aspects concerning the nature, development and transformation possibilities of Self and Self-concept, throughout the course of life. Theories and research that analyse these constructs help the understanding of the elements present in the constitution - factors influencing the genesis; the constitutive interrelation Self and Self-concept; the complex, multimodal and hierarchical organization; the function both to human cognition and, especially, the role of social interactions for the structure and transformational dynamics. It is expected that in addition to sketch an overview of these concepts relevant to psychology, this study may contribute to the debate on the conceptual delimitations and reciprocal influences of the Self and Self-concept, showing them as still fruitful areas for future research.
Keywords: Self; Self-concept; Development and transformation possibilities of Self and Self-concept.
Organisms may respond to changing environments through phenotypic plasticity or adaptive evolution. These two processes are not mutually exclusive and may either dampen or strengthen each other's effects, depending on the genetic correlation between trait values and the slopes of their norms of reaction.
To examine the effect of adaptation to heat stress on the plasticity of heat tolerance, we hybridized populations of the crustacean Tigriopus californicus that show divergent phenotypes for heat tolerance. We then selected for increased heat tolerance in hybrids and measured heat tolerance and the phenotypic plasticity of heat tolerance in both selected lines and unselected controls.
To test whether the changes in phenotypic plasticity were associated with changes in the plasticity of gene expression, we also sequenced transcriptomes of selected and unselected lines, both under heat shock and at ambient temperatures.
We observed increased heat tolerance in selected lines, but also lower phenotypic and transcriptional plasticity in response to heat stress. The plastic response to heat stress was highly enriched for hydrolytic and catalytic activities, suggesting a prominent role for degradation of misfolded proteins.
Our findings have important implications for biological responses to climate change: if adaptation to environmental stress reduces plasticity, then plasticity and adaptive evolution will make overlapping, rather than additive contributions to buffering populations from environmental change.
Ethologists have focused on behavior that is characteristic of the species and adapted to its biological requirements. They have attempted to integrate the four separate problems identified by Tinbergen, namely those to do with current processes, current utility, evolution and development. Studies of development have brought ethologists together with those working in many other fields of biology, psychology, psychiatry, and epigenetics. In doing so, issues such as unitary innateness, nature versus nurture, and heritability have proved to be misleading. Attention is now focused on how an individual develops and the interplay between the processes generating the robust features of an individual's behavior and the many processes involved in plasticity. Individuals make choices and control their environment. Their adaptability is crucial. All these activities have an impact on the evolution of their descendants.
Keywords:
adaptability;
current utility;
epigenetics;
ethology;
evolution;
innateness;
nature/nurture;
plasticity;
robustness
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1831/20160403
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a critical evaluation of the concept of social competence. On the basis of a discussion of literature dealing with theory, models, and assessment of social competence as well as empirical research with regard to social competence, it is argued that the terminology used and the interpretation of the empirical findings do not characterize the development of children but rather the environment in which they must function socially. Hence, many of the abilities that have been assessed and that are thought to involve “social skills” merely reflect children’s abilities to conform to the demands and expectations of the social environment. Consequently, the development of socially desirable behavior has been studied, not the development of social competence. To understand the latter development, a dynamic interactional model of development (i.e., an activity-levels model of development) will be presented. The interaction between the needs of the organism, the expectations and demands of the developing child and those of the social environment are presented. On the basis of this model, empirical data will be discussed and reinterpreted.
In this chapter a frontal attack on classical semiotic approaches is formulated. Contemporary semiotics can be defined as a speculative and descriptive discourse based on a tradition of argumentation and intuitive evidence. It relies only indirectly on experimentation through the occasional use of meta-analysis to support its arguments. This semiotic endeavor is called “semiotics as utopia”. Part of this approach is its fundamental trust in ultimate or optimal rationality. In this chapter a plea is given for rethinking rationality along evolutionary lines. This seems to be a relatively recent epistemological endeavor. Herbert Simon coined the term “bounded rationality” in the mid-1950s. This notion of bounded rationality is used to formulate what I call “bounded semiotics”. This should be concerned with the adaptive shortcuts, which evolved with respect to efficient (that is, fast and accurate) sorting out of relevant information and adaptive decision-making, rather than with the complex logical architectures, which purport to theorize (i.e., make intelligibly visible) an assumed universal semiotic competence. Examples of shortcuts are a) innate releasing mechanisms, b) imitation or copying, c) stereotyping and d) emotions. The notion of “boundedness” can also be applied to organizational theory, resulting in what I like to call “bounded organizations”.
The “Baldwin Effect,” named after the turn-of-the-twentieth-century American psychologist James Mark Baldwin, has experienced a revival over the last few decades, driven primarily by some cognitive scientists who think it might be able to solve problems related to the evolution of consciousness. Baldwin’s own interests when he developed the theory, which he called “organic selection,” were somewhat different from those of modern cognitivists, and his social context was enormously different. This chapter aims to recover the social challenges of Baldwin’s time and explore how they might have been related to his proposal. Chief among these challenges was the widespread perception in the United States that the massive immigrant slums in New York and other cities posed a kind of existential threat to the American way of life. This perception, in turn, led to a number of radical and disturbing eugenic proposals for meeting the “immigrant problem.” It is suggested here that, although Baldwin did not address the immigrant issue directly, it was in his mind as he developed his theory of “organic selection,” and also that it offered a way out of the crisis that many Americans thought they then faced.
In recent years, a cognitive-developmental approach to psychology has grown out of the work of Dewey, Baldwin, Piaget, Mead, and Kohlberg. Despite difficulties of both a theoretical and an empirical nature, this approach has matured to a point where it rivals psychoanalytic theory in scope. Although it is a general psychology of development, recent post-Piagetian work has permitted the emergence of a specific theory of adolescent phenomena.
The purpose of this chapter is to focus upon the concept of development as a product of a complex interaction between the biological organism and the (social) environment. First, the contributions of the biological organism in the regulation of human activity will be discussed, followed by a theoretical reflection on the origins of action. It will be argued that human activity is based on the relationship between the needs, desires, and duties of individuals and the people, objects, and events thought to be capable of satisfying those needs. If human action is regarded as the interplay between an active biological organism and an active social environment, then development should be conceived as a product of multi-activity-level interactions. A schematic presentation of such an interaction will be presented. Finally, attention will be directed to the development of the self-system as an illustration of such a developmental product.
The “meme” concept is usually attributed to Dawkins. It does, however, have a much longer history, predating the acceptance of the “gene” concept in early twentieth century biology. This chapter traces the history of the “meme” meme and explores the role of intentionality
—or its exclusion—in the analogies drawn between biological and cultural evolution. There are three main problems with the “meme” meme in its current forms: a taken-for-granted gene-centric view of evolution; a disembodied notion of culture as the transmission of unit “ideas”; and the misleading promise of connecting biology and culture that is based on yet another taken-for-granted assumption: that biological and cultural evolution are ultimately two quite separate realms.
Caracterul sistemic al entităților presupune că acestea sînt formate din elemente discrete, a căror conjuncție generează structuri, funcții, forțe și roluri ierarhizate. Observarea și cercetarea entităților presupune la un moment dat segregarea lor în relație cu anumite seturi de criterii, înțelegerea entităților urmînd cuprinderii acestora în integralitate și în deplina lor conexiune cu mediul a cărui componentă, produs și factor sînt.
Avînd rostul profund de a aduce ființa umană în starea de cunoaștere și înțelegere a Universului, știința (inclusiv metodologia care inventează și reglementează căi și instrumentarul care face operațional întregul demers) urmează acest model al diviziunii specializate. Plecînd de la starea inițială de nediferențiere, știința își dezvoltă observațiile pînă la identificarea și descrierea realității și a componentelor ei specializate, în conformitate cu modalitățile de orînduire și de funcționare a lor, acomodîndu-și mijloacele de investigare la particularitățile genetice, structurale și funcționale ale respectivelor aspecte.
Împlinirea și evoluția științei sînt consecvente înglobării acestui nivel, depășirii celui interdisciplinar, și decurg din conjugarea cunoștințelor, metodelor și instrumentelor ei, spre a reflecta realitatea în deplinătatea și integritatea acesteia. Acest rezultat necesită periodica regîndire și reactualizare a organismului științei.
Speculation about the importance of experience before birth dates to the origins of science itself. The belief that knowledge, habits, and personality traits could be imparted to the unborn child through experiences of the mother was widespread in classical and medieval society. Aristotle himself speculated on the importance of prenatal life:
As soon then as the offspring of all animals are born, especially those born imperfect, they are in the habit of sleeping, because they continue sleeping also within the mother when they first acquire sensation…. But nevertheless they are found to wake even in the womb (this is clear in dissections and ovipara), and then they immediately fall into a sleep again. This is why after birth also they spend most of their time in sleep. (De generatione animalium, p. 321)
The systemic character of entities implies their being formed of discrete elements whose conjunction generates hierarchical structures, functions, forces, and roles. While the observation and study of entities entails their segregation with respect to certain sets of criteria, their understanding follows from their thorough comprehension, in plenary connection with the environment of which they are component, product, and factor.
Having the profound role of bringing the human being in the state of knowing and understanding the Universe, science (including the methodology that invents and governs paths, and the apparatus that makes the entire endeavour operational) follows this model of specialized division. Starting from the initial common state, science develops its observations by identifying and describing the reality and its specialized components, in accordance with how they are structured and function, constantly tailoring its means of investigations to the genetic, structural, and functional peculiarities of those aspects.
The completion and evolution of science are consequent to the assimilation of this approach beyond the interdisciplinary level, and arise from the conjunction of scientific knowledge, methods, and instruments, aimed at reflecting reality in its entirety and integrality. This outcome requires a recurrent reconsideration and revision of the organism of science.
In the end, all genetic epistemologies fall into three main categories: naturalistic, culturalistic and logistic. In this paper I will take one example for each: James for the naturalistic approach, Ernest Cassirer for culturalism and Piaget for logicism. The main feature of logicism would be, in this view, its attempt at blending in the appropriate proportions, the biological and the sociological components of knowledge into a terminal product that would be so abstract as to depend on logics only in the final analysis. Originally, this paper was aimed at comparing Piaget’s genetic epistemology to evolutionary epistemologies that somehow set the pace for Piaget: James’s, Dewey’s and the Chicago School (especially Mead), Cassirer’s and above all Baldwin’s. I would have liked to add to the above list of names a few German ones such as Wundt, Simmel, Sigwert and British ones such as Hobhouse. These additions would have made the picture more complete and more complex. In fact, too complex a picture for the present, hence, my more limited scope.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.