Adaptive Memory: Remembering With a Stone-Age Brain

ABSTRACT— If memory evolved, sculpted by the processes of natural selection, then its operating characteristics likely bear the "footprints" of ancestral selection pressures. Psychologists rarely consider this possibility and generally ignore functional questions in their attempt to understand how human memory works. We propose that memory evolved to enhance reproductive fitness and, accordingly, its systems are tuned to retain information that is fitness-relevant. We present evidence consistent with this proposal, namely that processing information for its survival relevance leads to superior long-term retention—better, in fact, than most known memory-enhancement techniques. Even if one remains skeptical about evolutionary analyses, adopting a functional perspective can lead to the generation of new research ideas.     

CHANCE AND NECESSITY IN ARTHUR PEACOCKE'S SCIENTIFIC WORK

Arthur Peacocke was one of the most important scholars to contribute to the modern dialogue on science and religion, and for this he is remembered in the science‐religion community. Many people, however, are unaware of his exceptional career as a biochemist prior to his decision to pursue a life working as a clergyman in the Church of England. His contributions to studies of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) structure, effects of radiation damage on DNA, and on the interactions of DNA and proteins are among the most important in the field at the time and have had a lasting scientific impact that is still felt today. Peacocke's arguments with Jacques Monod over stochastic (chance) and deterministic (necessity) processes driving evolution became important independently for both the science and the religion communities and appear to have contributed significantly to his decision to become involved in science‐religion dialogue rather than continuing his work exclusively in the field of science. Nevertheless, although Peacocke took on an active church life and ceased his experimental work, he never left science but continued to read the scientific literature and published a scientific review on different approaches in defining DNA structure as recently as 2005.     

关于进化论的生命科学质疑

现代科学远未弄清楚生命是什么,所以,肯定生命是偶然生成的观点是不符合时代的科学精神的。遗传变异不能产生新的物种,也没有证据表明基因突变导致生物进化产生了新物种。按照小群突变的新达尔文主义来推断人类进化,既缺乏事实根据,也有悖于逻辑推理。     

进化动机影响社会认知的一般特点及过程

进化动机影响社会认知的研究关注社会认知的起源、机能及影响。进化动机影响社会认知的一般特点有(1)特殊性, 如成功地解决求偶问题的机制不能用来解决身体危险有关的问题, (2)灵活性, 如不同类别的环境线索自动地激活与线索类别有关的社会信息。借用传统的社会认知研究方法, 研究者发现特定的线索会启动相应的进化动机(如面孔吸引力启动人们的求偶动机), 进化动机激活后就能引导人们加工有利于这种动机(或目标)实现的信息(如性别相关的风险信息等)。未来的进化动机影响社会认知的研究可以结合积极心理学(positive psychology)与具身认知(embodied cognition)的理论假设, 以产生更有价值的研究成果。     

ANIMALIA,HOMO, AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Abstract. I selectively and critically review the state of knowledge about human evolution and the place of humans vis‐à‐vis living apes, with emphasis on bipedal posture and locomotion, expansion of the brain and associated cognitive capacities, speech, tool behavior, culture, and society. I end with a personal perspective on God and Heaven.     

A CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF EVOLUTION AND PARTICIPATION

Recent controversies surrounding the discernment of design in the natural world are an indication of a pervasive disquiet among believers. Can God as creator/sustainer of creation be reconcilable with the belief that God's work is indiscernible behind secondary evolutionary causes? Christian piety requires that the order experienced in the natural world be evidence of God's love and existence. Theistic evolutionary models rarely examine this matter, assuming that God is indiscernible in the processes and order of the world because only secondary causes can be examined. This leaves antievolutionary perspectives to interpret and address the problem of seeing God in the world. I examine these issues in order to gain more credibility for the religious longing to discern God in nature while at the same time affirming the indubitable truth of an evolutionary history. I argue that God's trinitarian nature, hiddenness, and incarnation give us reason to believe that God's presence in the natural world will be discernible, but only within the natural processes, and thereby only in an obscured fashion. I also argue that newer understandings of evolutionary mechanisms are more consistent with theological appropriation than are strictly Darwinian ones.     

The ultimate challenge: prove B. F. Skinner wrong

For much of his career, B. F. Skinner displayed the optimism that is often attributed to behaviorists. With time, however, he became less and less sanguine about the power of behavior science to solve the major problems facing humanity. Near the end of his life he concluded that a fair consideration of principles revealed by the scientific analysis of behavior leads to pessimism about our species. In this article I discuss the case for Skinner's pessimism and suggest that the ultimate challenge for behavior analysts today is to prove Skinner wrong.     

Probability and Evolution. Why the Probability Argument of Creationists is Wrong

Summary  Evolution is a time process. It proceeds in steps of definite length. The probability of each step is relatively high, so self organization of complex systems will be possible in finite time. Prerequisite for such a process is a selection rule, which certainly exists in evolution. Therefore, it would be wrong to calculate the probability of the formation of a complex system solely on the basis of the number of its components and as a momentary event.     

New Developments in Understanding Emotional Facial Signals in Chimpanzees

ABSTRACT— There has been little research over the past few decades focusing on similarities and differences in the form and function of emotional signals in nonhuman primates, or whether these communication systems are homologous with those of humans. This is, in part, due to the fact that detailed and objective measurement tools to answer such questions have not been systematically developed for nonhuman primate research. Despite this, emotion research in humans has benefited for over 30 years from an objective, anatomically based facial-measurement tool: the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). In collaboration with other researchers, we have now developed a similar system for chimpanzees (ChimpFACS) and, in the process, have made exciting new discoveries regarding chimpanzees' perception and categorization of emotional facial expressions and similarities in the facial anatomy of chimpanzees and humans, and we have identified homologous facial movements in the two species. Investigating similarities and differences in primate emotional communication systems is essential if we are to understand unique evolutionary specializations among different species.     

Against Anthropocentrism: A Jobian Appeal to Science on Theology's Behalf

Abstract : The author asks how science can affect the work of the theologian and uses the experience of Job in the “wild” as pointing toward a new seeing. From science's study of temporality the theologian may learn (1) that humans belong with the (other) creatures, against anthropocentrism, (2) that the traditional distinction between creation and preservation inadequately recognizes God's continuing creative work, and (3) that Christian soteriology needs to address the “groaning” (Romans 8) of the whole creation. While science may help the theologian see thus newly, theology needs to retain its own integrity, as represented by the distinction between creation and fall.