Beyond the brain : how body and environment shape animal and human minds

Resource Information

The work Beyond the brain : how body and environment shape animal and human minds represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Beyond the brain : how body and environment shape animal and human minds

Title remainder

how body and environment shape animal and human minds

Statement of responsibility

Louise Barrett

Creator

• Barrett, Louise

Subject

• Brain -- Evolution
• Ecology
• Evolution (Biology)

Language

eng

Summary

• "When a chimpanzee stockpiles rocks as weapons or when a frog sends out mating calls, we might easily assume these animals know their own motivations--that they use the same psychological mechanisms that we do. But as Beyond the Brain indicates, this is a dangerous assumption because animals have different evolutionary trajectories, ecological niches, and physical attributes. How do these differences influence animal thinking and behavior? Removing our human-centered spectacles, Louise Barrett investigates the mind and brain and offers an alternative approach for understanding animal and human cognition. Drawing on examples from animal behavior, comparative psychology, robotics, artificial life, developmental psychology, and cognitive science, Barrett provides remarkable new insights into how animals and humans depend on their bodies and environment--not just their brains--to behave intelligently. Barrett begins with an overview of human cognitive adaptations and how these color our views of other species, brains, and minds. Considering when it is worth having a big brain--or indeed having a brain at all--she investigates exactly what brains are good at. Showing that the brain's evolutionary function guides action in the world, she looks at how physical structure contributes to cognitive processes, and she demonstrates how these processes employ materials and resources in specific environments. Arguing that thinking and behavior constitute a property of the whole organism, not just the brain, Beyond the Brain illustrates how the body, brain, and cognition are tied to the wider world"--
• "This book illustrates how the intelligent behaviour of animals doesn't necessarily depend on having a big brain; having the right kind of body and exploiting the right kinds of environmental resources can be equally important"--

Assigning source

• Provided by publisher
• Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

QL933

LC item number

.B27 2011

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography