Postnatal neural ontogeny: Environment‐dependent and/or environment‐expectant?

Bekoff, Marc; Fox, Michael W.

doi:10.1002/dev.420050406

Cited by 36 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Avery and Frantz [19] noted that fetal organs may differ in growth or development rates and have retardation or acceleration in either. Since myelinization depends on exercise [20], appropriate early stimulation may increase the rate of its development, and this seems to be confirmed by various recent authors [9,16,[21][22][23][24].…”

Section: Possible Explanation Of the Findingssupporting

confidence: 57%

Five early milestones in premature infants

Sugar

1977

Child Psych Hum Dev

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The onset of five early milestones was studied in premature and full-term infants. The milestones are: recognition of mother's voice and face, 3-month smile, following through 180 degrees, and two hand-eye coordination. It was hypothesized that premature infants would show delay in acquiring milestones related to time separated from mother. Compared to full-term infants, the prematures had a significant difference in the means only for the onset of smiling, and no effect related to maternal separation.

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Section: Possible Explanation Of the Findingssupporting

confidence: 57%

Five early milestones in premature infants

Sugar

1977

Child Psych Hum Dev

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“…Many examples of learning, it appears, are closely tailored to the nature of the specific environments in which the learners live. In the terminology of Bekoff & Fox (1972), development is both environment-dependent and environment-expectant, since it expects the particular environment on which it depends. Understanding learning, therefore, requires description and analysis of the environment that is learned about; it requires an ecological approach to the study of learning as adaptation.…”

Section: Theoretical Implications Of the Biological Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting approaches to a theory of learning

Johnston

1981

Behav Brain Sci

398

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The general process view of learning, which guided research into learning for the first half of this century, has come under attack in recent years from several quarters. One form of criticism has come from proponents of the so-called biological boundaries approach to learning. These theorists have presented a variety of data showing that supposedly general laws of learning may in fact be limited in their applicability to different species and learning tasks, and they argue that the limitations are drawn by the nature of each species, adaptation to the particular requirements of its natural environment. The biological boundaries approach has served an important critical function in the move away from general process learning theory, but it is limited in its ability to provide an alternative to the general process approach. In particular, the biological boundaries approach lacks generality, it is in some respects subservient to the general process tradition, and its ecological content is in too many cases limited to ex post facto adaptive explanations of learning skills. A contrasting, ecological approach to learning, which can provide a true alternative to general process theory, is presented. The ecological approach begins by providing an ecological task description for naturally occurring instances of learning; this step answers the question: What does this animal learn to do? The next step is an analysis of the means by which learning occurs in the course of development, answering the question : How does the animal learn to do this? On the basis of such analyses, local principles of adaptation are formulated to account for the learning abilities of individual species. More global principles are sought by generalization among these local principles and may form the basis for a general ecological theory of learning.

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“…Barnett (1970) and increased muscle tone. There is much evidence that the use of various organs (e.g., the eyes) is essential for structural maturation and the development of functional integrity (see Bekoff and Fox, 1972), and Brownlee's physiological explanation for the function of play appears to be valid. Whether or not there is a "play drive," as he also suggested, is disputable (see below).…”

Section: The Functions and Consequences Of Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Learning and expression of certain social gestures and postures during play in young animals may serve subsequently to inhibit aggression and thus make possible the formation of stable group hierarchies (Jay, 1965). Harlow (1971) Extensive data collected in this laboratory provide evidence that the more social Canidae (e.g., beagles and wolves) engage in more, playful interactions earlier in life than the more solitary species such as the red fox and coyote (Fox and Clark, 1971;Bekoff, 1972 (Burrows, 1968;Rue, 1969;Fox, 1972), and it is possible that this early ontogeny of aggressive behavior (observed both in captivity and in the wild) is responsible for later dispersal and a virtual absence of group coordinated behavior (e.g., hunting) as adults (e.g., Burrows, 1968;Hinde, 1971a;Fox, 1972).…”

Section: The Functions and Consequences Of Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Social Interaction, Play, and Metacommunication in Mammals: An Ethological Perspective

Bekoff¹

1972

The Quarterly Review of Biology

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250

130

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Analysis of the dynamics of the ontogeny of social interaction is of critical importance in order that behavioral development may be comprehended in its own right, and the relationship between infant and adult behavior understood. In this review, general concepts of behavioral development in mammals are discussed and analyzed, and the many variables that are involved are considered. When it is impossible to control or observe the social interaction of the developing organism in its natural environment, captive subjects should be used. There is increasing evidence that results obtained with the latter are related to social organization observed in the wild. Play behavior is operationally defined on the basis of a comprehensive review of the literature and of personal observations of the social development of canids. The essential "'need" for social interaction during infant life is discussed, as is the phenomenon of behavioral neoteny. The concept of metacommunication, and its relationship to social development are analyzed, and the role of ritualization in the evolution of metacommunicative signals is considered. GENERAL CONCEPTS OF BEHAVIORAL ONTOGENY

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Postnatal neural ontogeny: Environment‐dependent and/or environment‐expectant?

Cited by 36 publications

References 63 publications

Five early milestones in premature infants

Five early milestones in premature infants

Contrasting approaches to a theory of learning

The Development of Social Interaction, Play, and Metacommunication in Mammals: An Ethological Perspective

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