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A groundbreaking study into the formative role of play in our lives Sergio and Vivien Pellis have synthesized three decades of empirical research to create a remarkable work, unequalled in its field. A book that will not only expand our current knowledge of play behaviour, but will inspire change and progress from the laboratory to the playground.
Studying behaviour in animals requires numerical measurement. This book provides a scientific framework for what to measure and why.
The Arashiyama group of Japanese macaques holds a distinguished place in primatology as one of the longest continuously studied non-human primate populations in the world. The resulting long-term data provide a unique resource for researchers, allowing them to move beyond cross-sectional studies to tackle larger issues involving individual, matrilineal and group histories. This book presents an overview of the scope and magnitude of research topics and management efforts that have been conducted on this population for several decades, covering not only the original troop living around Kyoto, Japan, but also the two subgroups that were translocated to Texas, USA and Montreal, Canada. The chapters encompass topics including life history, sexual, social and cultural behaviour and ecology, giving an insight into the range of current primatological research. The contributors underscore the historic value of the Arashiyama macaques and showcase new and significant research findings that highlight their continuing importance to primatology.
For readers of Inside of a Dog and The Soul of an Octopus, a fascinating, charming, and revelatory look at the science behind why animals play that shows how life—at its most fundamental level—is playful. In Kingdom of Play, critically acclaimed science writer David Toomey takes us on a fast-paced and entertaining tour of playful animals and the scientists who study them. From octopuses on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to meerkats in the Kalahari Desert to brown bears on Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, we follow adventurous researchers as they design and conduct experiments seeking answers to new, intriguing questions: When did play first appear in animals? How does play develop the brai...
Against standard approaches to evolution and ethics, this book develops the idea that moral values may find their origin in regularly recurring features in the cooperative environments of species of organisms that are social and intelligent. Across a wide range of species that are social and intelligent, possibilities arise for helping others, responding empathetically to the needs of others, and playing fairly. The book identifies these underlying environmental regularities as biological natural kinds and as natural moral values. As natural kinds, moral values help to provide more complete explanations for the selection of traits that arise in response to them. For example, helping in an aq...
This book deals with research on movement and locomotion and is designed to be a techniques book with the aim of providing methodological information about procedures, measurement and analysis. The first part of the book covers basic laboratory methodology for measurement of motor activity in a variety of animals as well as humans. The second section examines species-specific movements, including reflexes, reaching and grasping, swimming and locomotion. Both developmental and conceptual issues are included. The last part of the book provides an overview of statistical and experimental design issues to help the reader plan research projects and interpret findings.
From two experts on wild parrot cognition, a close look at the intelligence, social behavior, and conservation of these widely threatened birds. People form enduring emotional bonds with other animal species, such as dogs, cats, and horses. For the most part, these are domesticated animals, with one notable exception: many people form close and supportive relationships with parrots, even though these amusing and curious birds remain thoroughly wild creatures. What enables this unique group of animals to form social bonds with people, and what does this mean for their survival? In Thinking like a Parrot, Alan B. Bond and Judy Diamond look beyond much of the standard work on captive parrots to...
On the whim of an idea, a sophomore student, unlike any other sophomore, takes on the might of the academic world with one of the most thought provoking books written on psychology and philosophy. Play Intelligence: From IQ to PIQ challenges the very heart of our modern science with a radical, if not explosive, hypothesis that human intelligence is playing. He takes on two of the most difficult concepts in science, since we first began to think of science. What is intelligence, and why do we play as we do? With a simple toy brick, he demonstrates how play affects our brain and thought processes and how our abilities transfer from one intelligence to another. He also demonstrates how play is vital in our education and communication, for both children and adults. Like the children all around us, if we dare but play, we could face the challenges in our daily life and have fun while doing so.
Understanding Animal Welfare The essential text on understanding and improving animal welfare Understanding Animal Welfare, 2nd Edition is revised and expanded to incorporate new research and developments in animal welfare. Updated with greater accessibility in mind, the reader is guided through animal welfare in its cultural and historical context, methods of study, and applications in practice and policy. Drawing examples from farm, companion, laboratory and zoo animals, the text provides an up-to-date overview of research and its applications, while also tracing how concepts and methods have evolved over time. Readers of the second edition of Understanding Animal Welfare will also find: New developments in understanding positive animal states The importance of human actions in determining animal welfare New content on “One Welfare” How free-living wild animals are affected by human technology and climate change Originally intended for scientists and professionals, Understanding Animal Welfare has also found a home in undergraduate classrooms. It is now the essential text for students, practitioners, veterinarians, and researchers in animal welfare and related fields.
This book argues that in order for people to live well, they must develop a virtue of playfulness. Inspired by Aristotle, the book draws on work from philosophy, classics, history, biology, psychology, and media studies to understand the place of play and playfulness in a good life. Many philosophers have written about play, from Presocratics such as Heraclitus to contemporary philosophers such as Bernard Suits. Some champion play as the most crucial value in life. Others deride it and warn strongly against it. This book evaluates the research on how play and playfulness bear on living a good life and becoming a good person. Its main argument is that in order to understand play as an action,...