Kevin N. Laland's Books

Niche Construction

The Neglected Process in Evolution (MPB-37)

By: F. John Odling-Smee,Kevin N. Lala,Marcus Feldman

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Niche Construction

The Neglected Process in Evolution (MPB-37)

By: F. John Odling-Smee,Kevin N. Lala,Marcus Feldman

The seemingly innocent observation that the activities of organisms bring about changes in environments is so obvious that it seems an unlikely focus for a new line of thinking about evolution. Yet niche construction--as this process of organism-driven environmental modification is known--has hidden complexities. By transforming biotic and abiotic sources of natural selection in external environments, niche construction generates feedback in evolution on a scale hitherto underestimated--and in a manner that transforms the evolutionary dynamic. It also plays a critical role in ecology, supporting ecosystem engineering and influencing the flow of energy and nutrients through ecosystems. Despite this, niche construction has been given short shrift in theoretical biology, in part because it cannot be fully understood within the framework of standard evolutionary theory. Wedding evolution and ecology, this book extends evolutionary theory by formally including niche construction and ecological inheritance as additional evolutionary processes. The authors support their historic move with empirical data, theoretical population genetics, and conceptual models. They also describe new research methods capable of testing the theory. They demonstrate how their theory can resolve long-standing problems in ecology, particularly by advancing the sorely needed synthesis of ecology and evolution, and how it offers an evolutionary basis for the human sciences. Already hailed as a pioneering work by some of the world's most influential biologists, this is a rare, potentially field-changing contribution to the biological sciences.

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Page Count

489

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400847265

ISBN 13

9781400847266

Sense and Nonsense

Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour

By: Kevin N. Laland,Gillian R. Brown

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Sense and Nonsense

Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour

By: Kevin N. Laland,Gillian R. Brown

This book asks whether evolution can help us to understand human behaviour and explores diverse evolutionary methods and arguments. It provides a short, readable introduction to the science behind the works of Dawkins, Dennett, Wilson and Pinker. It is widely used in undergraduate courses around the world.

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Page Count

284

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199586969

ISBN 13

9780199586967

Reality Unedited

The Naturalistic Perspective

By: Kevin R. Nelson

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Reality Unedited

The Naturalistic Perspective

By: Kevin R. Nelson

Our species has coexisted in the world in a healthy and balanced way for 97% of its existence. It was only after our ancestors emerged from life in nature as hunter-gatherers that this all began to change. By the beginning of civilization some 6,000 years ago, these changes rigidified and became destructive on a large scale. They have accumulated to such an extent that our species now faces extinction or a dismal future of ever-worsening ecocide. Meaninglessness and confusion have become rampant in our postmodern era. The human psyche has become utterly fragmented and rendered a stranger to reality, other people, and itself. As dispiriting as this all seems, the path forward has always been available to us if we can overcome the ignorance that prevents us from taking it. We must reject the values of civilization and return to the naturalistic perspective of our ancestors where our values, thinking, feeling, and actions are once again based on how nature and reality truly function. While this approach should be evident, we have until now been too terrified, bewildered, or arrogant to adopt it. To help us succeed, Reality Unedited provides a simple model of reality that serves as a foundation for establishing truth claims in the public sphere. Then we can finally take the actions necessary so our species, and all life on the planet, cannot only survive, but thrive.

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Page Count

264

Publisher

Gatekeeper Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1662915772

ISBN 13

9781662915772

Social Learning

An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models

By: William Hoppitt,Kevin N. Lala

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Social Learning

An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models

By: William Hoppitt,Kevin N. Lala

Many animals, including humans, acquire valuable skills and knowledge by copying others. Scientists refer to this as social learning. It is one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas of behavioral research and sits at the interface of many academic disciplines, including biology, experimental psychology, economics, and cognitive neuroscience. Social Learning provides a comprehensive, practical guide to the research methods of this important emerging field. William Hoppitt and Kevin N. Lala define the mechanisms thought to underlie social learning and demonstrate how to distinguish them experimentally in the laboratory. They present techniques for detecting and quantifying social learning in nature, including statistical modeling of the spatial distribution of behavior traits. They also describe the latest theory and empirical findings on social learning strategies, and introduce readers to mathematical methods and models used in the study of cultural evolution. This book is an indispensable tool for researchers and an essential primer for students. Provides a comprehensive, practical guide to social learning research Combines theoretical and empirical approaches Describes techniques for the laboratory and the field Covers social learning mechanisms and strategies, statistical modeling techniques for field data, mathematical modeling of cultural evolution, and more

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Page Count

320

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400846501

ISBN 13

9781400846504

Darwin's Unfinished Symphony

How Culture Made the Human Mind

By: Kevin N. Lala

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Darwin's Unfinished Symphony

How Culture Made the Human Mind

By: Kevin N. Lala

Humans possess an extraordinary capacity for culture, from the arts and language to science and technology. But how did the human mind—and the uniquely human ability to devise and transmit culture—evolve from its roots in animal behavior? Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony presents a captivating new theory of human cognitive evolution. This compelling and accessible book reveals how culture is not just the magnificent end product of an evolutionary process that produced a species unlike all others—it is also the key driving force behind that process. Kevin N. Lala tells the story of the painstaking fieldwork, the key experiments, the false leads, and the stunning scientific breakthroughs that led to this new understanding of how culture transformed human evolution. It is the story of how Darwin’s intellectual descendants picked up where he left off and took up the challenge of providing a scientific account of the evolution of the human mind.

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Page Count

465

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

069118447X

ISBN 13

9780691184470

Book's by Kevin N. Laland

Niche Construction

Niche Construction

Sense and Nonsense

Sense and Nonsense

Reality Unedited

Reality Unedited

Social Learning

Social Learning

Darwin's Unfinished Symphony

Darwin's Unfinished Symphony

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