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Abstract. Modern semiotics is a branch of logics that formally defines symbol-based communication. In recent years, the semiotic classification of signs has been invoked to support the notion that symbols are uniquely human. Here we show that alarm-calls such as those used by African vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops), logically satisfy the semiotic definition of symbol. We also show that the acquisition of vocal symbols in vervet monkeys can be successfully simulated by a computer program based on minimal semiotic and neurobiological constraints. The simulations indicate that learning depends on the tutor-predator ratio, and that apprenticegenerated auditory mistakes in vocal symbol interpretation have little effect on the learning rates of apprentices (up to 80% of mistakes are tolerated). In contrast, just 10% of apprentice-generated visual mistakes in predator identification will prevent any vocal symbol to be correctly associated with a predator call in a stable manner.Tutor unreliability was also deleterious to vocal symbol learning: a mere 5% of "lying" tutors were able to completely disrupt symbol learning, invariably leading to the acquisition of incorrect associations by apprentices.Our investigation corroborates the existence of vocal symbols in a non-human species, and indicates that symbolic competence emerges spontaneously from classical associative learning mechanisms when the conditioned stimuli are self-generated, arbitrary and socially efficacious. We propose that more exclusive properties of human language, such as syntax, may derive from the evolution of higher-order domains for neural association, more removed from both the sensory input and the motor output, able to support the gradual complexification of grammatical categories into syntax.

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Abstract. In this paper, we describe a digital scenario where we simulated the emergence of self-organized symbol-based communication among artificial creatures inhabiting a virtual world of unpredictable predatory events. In our experiment, creatures are autonomous agents that learn symbolic relations in an unsupervised manner, with no explicit feedback, and are able to engage in dynamical and autonomous communicative interactions with other creatures, even simultaneously. In order to synthesize a behavioral ecology and infer the minimum organizational constraints for the design of our creatures, we examined the well-studied case of communication in vervet monkeys. Our results show that the creatures, assuming the role of sign users and learners, behave collectively as a complex adaptive system, where self-organized communicative interactions play a major role in the emergence of symbol-based communication. We also strive in this paper for a careful use of the theoretical concepts involved, including the concepts of symbol and emergence, and we make use of a multi-level model for explaining the emergence of symbols in semiotic systems as a basis for the interpretation of inter-level relationships in the semiotic processes we are studying.

Aprendizagem Baseada em Problemas (PBL-Problem-Based Learning) é um método de ensino ativo, centrado no aluno, que se apresenta como uma abordagem adequada ao ensino de engenharia, devido ao processo de auto-aprendizagem, ao desenvolvimento de habilidades sociais e à resolução de problemas da vida real. Este artigo descreve a aplicação do PBL em um componente curricular integrado de programação de computadores, reunindo os componentes de estrutura de dados, programação orientada a objetos e matemática discreta. As opiniões dos professores e de alunos sobre os processos de ensino e aprendizagem foram coletadas com o objetivo de avaliar o componente curricular integrado e os resultados de aprendizagem. Tais resultados indicam que o método PBL pode ser aplicado com sucesso para o ensino e a aprendizagem em um componente integrado de programação de computadores.

Ecology plays a central role in biology and deserves special attention in scientific education. Nonetheless, the teaching and learning of ecology face a number of difficulties. In order to tackle these difficulties, electronic games have recently been used to mediate ecology learning. This paper presents an electronic game that fulfills these gaps in order to make the students’ work with ecological concepts more concrete, active, and systematic. The paper presents the computational model of the ecological system included in the game, based on a real ecological case, a sand dune ecosystem located in the semiarid Caatinga biome, namely, the sand dunes of the middle São Francisco River, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. It includes various ecological relationships between endemic lizards and the physical environment, preys, predators, cospecifics, and plants. The engine of the game simulates the physical conditions of the ecosystem (dune topography and climate conditions with their circadian and circannual cycles), its biota (plant species and animal species), and ecological relationships (predator-prey encounters, cospecific relationships). We also present results from one classroom study of a teaching sequence structured around Calangos, which showed positive outcomes regarding high school students’ understanding of thermal regulation in ectothermic animals.

Abstract. This is a project on Artificial Life where we simulate an ecosystem that allows cooperative interaction between agents, including intra-specific predatorwarning communication in a virtual environment of predatory events. We propose, based on Peircean semiotics and informed by neuroethological constraints, an experiment to simulate the emergence of symbolic communication among artificial creatures. Here we describe the simulation environment and the creatures' control architectures, and briefly present obtained results.

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