Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA09680 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 18 May 2000 16:57:38 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D31CEB1B4@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Why are human brains bigger? Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 16:55:40 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
There was a recent programme on Channel 4 called 'Phantoms in the Brain'
where this was explicitly explained and demonstrated, with a patient having
the condition. He could register the movement of an object on screen,
either up, down or to the right, but was not aware of what the object was,
and this was defined as blind sight, in the programme- if it's wrong, them
I'm wrong.
Of course we don't know for certain that reptiles aren't perceiving things
to some extent, but I have seen it demonstrated where animals of various
kinds exhibit standards behaviours when confronted with obvious fakes- e.g.
reptiles responses to fake flies, fish responses to fake fish, and I
remember once seeing a demonstration of the territoriality of Robins, when
males would attack things not even very bird-like in shape that had a
prominent red area about the same siz at that of the Robin's red breast.
Now, in order to behave in such ways surely implies a lack of perceptual
depth in recognising more than a few simple features of prey or rivals, and
yet these kinds of animals survive.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Robin Faichney
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2000 1:30 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: RE: Why are human brains bigger?
>
> On Thu, 18 May 2000, Vincent Campbell wrote:
> >Reptiles have blind sight, in that they see movement but aren't 'aware'
> of
> >seeing anything- some people after accidents have the same phenomena-
> they
> >can see movement but can't tell you anything about what's causing the
> >movement.
>
> Sorry, Vincent, but that's not blind sight, which is where someone claims
> not to have seen anything, but nevertheless they act as if they did.
> Movement doesn't come into it. And it's a very difficult issue in other
> species -- or anyone we can't communicate with -- because then we only
> have their actions to go on. How do you know what a reptile's actually
> aware of??
>
> >Distinct groups of animals do exhibit distinct behaviours, such as birds
> >that live or near railway stations, or near major roads, seem to have
> their
> >'flight' responses tuned far lower than birds in the countryside when
> they
> >encounter people, or loud noises, or big things rushing at them very
> fast.
> >Does this constitute culture?
>
> For me, and I can't see this as controversial, that depends entirely on
> whether it's learned from conspecifics (ie imitated) or from individual
> experience. Or, I suppose, it could be genetic too, if these are distinct
> populations. Or maybe it's a combination of these! But I'd guess it's
> probably down to individual experience, so not cultural.
>
> --
> Robin Faichney
>
> ==============================================================This was
> distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 18 2000 - 16:58:03 BST