PSAの報告

科学哲学会のニューズレターに去年参加したPSAの報告(pdfファイル)を書きましたので、ご興味のある方はどうぞ。

過去の言葉

チーム一丸となって、チャレンジャー精神で戦うだけ。（吉田義男）

ISHPSSBのプログラム

ISHPSSBのプログラムが発表された。わたしも発表しますが、もう三回目なのでもう少しうまくなりたいもの。時間があれば、プログラムをみた感想についてもアップします。

アカデミー賞を取った男優は平均的なアメリカ人より子供の数が多い

今週のScience nowで拾った話。ひとつは
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/
504/3?etoc

で、アカデミー賞を取った男優は平均的なアメリカ人より子供の数が多いそうな。

He found that male Academy winners have an average of almost four children, with Marlon Brando holding the record of 11 children. In comparison, ordinary Joes in the U.S. have just 1.2 kids on average.

この研究者はこの原因としてアカデミー賞はその男性のクオリティが高いこと示す忠実なシグナルだと言っています。

Why might male actors do so much better? Hauber speculates that the award might be an "honest signal" of quality to potential mates.

社会生物学者の無茶な仮説ktkrと思っていると案の定つっこみが。

"The concept that an academy award is 'an honest signal' is a startlingly unfounded assertion," says Mike Wade of the Indiana University, Bloomington. He notes that the "honesty" of the signal is tainted from the outset by "the immense political and social machinery mobilized by the movie studios to promote their products" and because actors often receive Oscars for "conspicuous dissembling"--that is there's an immense gulf between what they're honored for portraying on the screen and what their own lives are like.

もうひとつはチンプスやボノボの言語。

チンプスやボノボでは、身振り手振りによるコミュニケーションの方がvocal/facialなコミュニケーションよりも頻度が高い。

Of the 375 communicative signals the bonobos produced, nearly 79% were hand gestures, while 14% were facial and/or vocal signals; the chimpanzees made 383 signals, of which 56% were hand gestures, and 22% were facial and/or vocal signals. In some instances, both manual and facial and/or vocal signs were combined.

And indeed, bonobos and chimpanzees scream when alarmed, threatened, or intimidated; and both species use a silent pout-face to express an interest in food. Hand gestures, on the other hand, were almost as varied as two different human languages, with signs differing not only between the two species but also between groups of the same species.

しかも前者の方が文脈特異的ではない。これは身振り手振りのコミュニケーションの方がヒトの言語のモデルに近いかもしれないことを示唆するという。しかもこれは脳科学の研究からも支持されている。

The greater variety of hand gestures "supports the idea that language evolved from manual gestures rather than animal calls," says Michael Corballis, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. [...] The study also fits with brain research in monkeys, says Bill Hopkins, a psychobiologist at Yerkes. "Vocal calls are controlled by the more ancient limbic region of the brain, while gestures are tied to the frontal lobes." And that's why if you hear a chimpanzee make a pant-hoot, you can be sure she's excited about something. But if you see a male bonobo raise his arms overhead and clasp his fingers, you need an interpreter. (He's asking for sex.)

（なんかあまりにも下品な気がして少し削除しました。　May 28th）

脳トレは効くのか

脳トレーニングについての記事がnatureに出ていた。

記事の途中までは脳トレソフトには懐疑的なのかと思っていたが、最後の方で肯定的な結果も紹介していて、そうでもない。ひとつの理由は、脳トレソフト懐疑派の研究者が認めているように、

"I tell people to do it if it's enjoyable," agrees Salthouse. "There's little evidence that it's damaging or harmful, and we may eventually find out there are some benefits."

「たとえ役に立たなくても少なくとも害にならない」という功利的な論点だろう。