Emergence of amae crying in early infancy as a possible social communication tool between infants and mothers

Amae is defined as “wishing to be loved (Scheidlinger (1999). The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 27(1), p. 91)”. Amae crying is known as crying of infants when seeking intimate emotional communication with caregivers. The objective of this study was to delineate when and how amae crying emerges in early infancy. Crying episodes of four infants were observed bimonthly, in the natural context of their homes, from birth to 6 months of age, for approximately 60 min per session. Crying episodes (total = 275) as determined by two coders were analyzed with respect to several behavioral measures. Results indicated that amae crying emerged at the age of 2 months, and consistently accounted for 30–40% of the total crying episodes after the ages of 3 months. Amae crying could be accurately identified when infants were not in acute discomfort and had already got the attention of their mothers. At such times, infants did not shed tears, cried with a fussy voice, and frequently looked at their mothers. Mothers responded to amae crying more promptly than they did to other types of crying behaviors. It is concluded that 3 months of age, when infants probably begin to use crying as a social communication tool is a major turning point for crying behavior from the perspective of its biological and social roles. It is suggested that amae crying might play an important role in strengthening and encouraging mother–infant interactions.     

Taste perceptual circuit for the generation of autonomous responses in virtual creatures

BraLearning is one of the most complex cognitive processes that living beings have. This process is distributed within the brain and each independent cognitive function contributes to a small or large extent to it. Particularly, affective learning is a process that allows us to identify stimuli in the environment and discriminate them based on our tastes or preferences. Within this work we will address a type of affective evaluation generated by the perceptual circuit of taste that allows us to determine flavors from the environment and how this information becomes part of the perceptual affective evaluation. We will start this work by identifying other computational works that address affective processes oriented to taste or that involve some other affective evaluation. Subsequently, we analyze of neuroscientific information that allows us to build an informal model of the perceptual circuit of taste. Finally, we propose a cognitive architecture for the generation of autonomous responses oriented to taste in virtual creatures and we will demonstrate its functionality through an implementation of this model in some case studies through distributed modules and discuss the results obtained.     

Emergence in physics

In this paper we intend to examine whether there are examples for emergence to be found in physics. The answer depends on the concept of emergence one invokes. We distinguish two such concepts, those of Broad and Kim. We will argue that it is unlikely that there will be examples with respect to the former because it runs counter to an explanatory strategy that is both well entrenched in physical practice and to a certain degree flexible. On the other hand we will argue that all those physical systems that provide an example for supervenience are at the same time examples for emergence - at least if one defines emergence the way Kim does.     

A bioinspired model of short-term satiety of hunger influenced by food properties in virtual creatures

The behavior of the human is continually changed as a consequence of various drives which human is predisposed also of your survival instinct. Among the basic drives of the human, there are the physiological needs and is precisely the hunger that motivates the food intake to get the energy that the body requires via food. The regulation of hunger allows to stop the food intake by means of the homeostatic and hedonic control which are influenced by the food properties. The process that consists of ending the food intake is known as short-term satiety and is important because it limits the amount of food intake; Otherwise, an over-consumed affect the organism functioning negatively. In this paper, we propose a conceptual model for the generation of short-term satiety behaviors based on neuroscientific evidence for virtual creatures. The conceptual model proposed is implemented in a distributed system-a virtual creature endowed with this implementation is placed in a virtual environment to analyze its behavior. The analysis shows how the virtual creature modifies its hunger level (behavior) based on food’s properties. The results show the execution of the process when the creature interacts with the environment.     

Emergence of Life

Discussions of the origin of life usually assume that there is a specific event, however improbable, by which dead matter became a living entity. Naturalistic accounts, although in seeming opposition to theistic explanations of the apparent design of even the simplest cells, often share the assumption that there is a specific line to be crossed. If the problem is recast as one of a process of emergence of biochemistry from protobiochemistry, which in turn emerged from the organic chemistry and geochemistry of primitive earth, the resources of the new sciences of complex systems dynamics can provide a more robust conceptual framework within which to explore the possible pathways of chemical complexification leading to life. In such a view the emergence of life is the result of deep natural laws (the outlines of which we are only beginning to perceive) and reflects a degree of holism in those systems that led to life. Further, there is the possibility of developing a more general theory of biology and of natural organization from such an approach. The emergence of life may thus be seen as an instance of the broader innate creativity of nature and consistent with a possible natural teleology.     

Rapid communication: Sex differences in artificial grammar learning: evidence for different strategies in men and women

In this article we report an experiment that investigated differences in classification performance of women and men in artificial grammar learning (AGL). Women's and men's responses correspond to a large extent. Consistent differences, however, were found in a variable that codes overlaps between training and test items in terms of string fragments. The results are best explained by the assumption that women and men apply different cognitive strategies at test.     

The Emergence of Thought

A phenomenon “emerges” when a concept is instantiated for the first time: hence emergence is relative to a set of concepts. Propositional thought and language emerge together. It is proposed that the degree of complexity of an object language relative to a given metalanguage can be gauged by the number of ways it can be translated into that metalanguage: in analogy with other forms of measurement, the more ways the object language can be translated into the metalanguage, the less powerful the conceptual resources of the object language. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Making Sense of Emergence

Philosophical Studies -     

The Emergence of Creativity

Creativity is one of the central dimensions of human achievement and social development and has always fascinated scientists and non-scientists alike. But what is the essential nature of creativity? And what is the role of consciousness in the emergence of creativity? If it is true that it has been explored in many aspects in the cognitive and neurobiological field, it is also true that the lore chest—from which the conscious mind through unconscious mechanisms extracts the rough material that is then brought to the surface—has been less investigated. The purpose of this article is to give an account of how the multiplicity of levels of awareness is made possible by a spontaneous order that has nothing to do with a monolithic view of creativity.     

A Defense of Emergence

I defend a physicalistic version of ontological emergence; qualia emerge from the brain, but are physical properties nevertheless. First, I address the following questions: what are the central tenets of physicalistic ontological emergentism; what are the relationships between these tenets; what is the relationship between physicalistic ontological emergentism and non-reductive physicalism; and can there even be a physicalistic version of ontological emergentism? This discussion is merely an attempt to clarify exactly what a physicalistic version of ontological emergentism must claim, and to show that the view is at least coherent. I then defend the view from objections, for example, Kim’s (Philos Stud 95:3–36, 1999) attempt to apply a version of his exclusion argument to ontological emergentism. I conclude by offering a positive argument for the view: given certain empirical evidence concerning the organization of the brain, physicalism might have to endorse ontological emergentism to avoid epiphenomenalism.     

The Emergence of Sex

Biological traits, the foci of natural selection, are by definition emergent from the genes, proteins, and other “nothing-buts” that constitute them. Moreover, and with the exception of recently emergent “spandrels,” each can be accorded a teleological dimension—each is “for” some purpose conducive to an organism's continuation. Sex, which is “for” the generation of recombinant genomes, may be one of the most ancient and ubiquitous traits in biology. In the course of its evolution, many additional traits, such as gender and nurture, have emerged. Patterns of sexual exchange are the basis for patterns of biological evolution and are central to the process of eukaryotic speciation. Human sexuality is central to our selves.     

The Emergence of Counseling in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has endured a turbulent history, including a decadelong civil war and the devastation of Ebola virus disease. Despite the psychological consequences of such events, only limited therapeutic services are available. The authors review mental health services in Sierra Leone and document the emergence of counseling as a profession in the face of challenges. They conclude by highlighting the multiple contributions that professional counselors can make to address critical mental health needs in Sierra Leone.