Offers a study guide for translating the work of Gregory Bateson and Humberto R. Maturana. Demonstrates that their work is highly compatible. Highlights their essential message: social systems and all human endeavor must be understood in light of our existence as biological entities. (BH)

Suggests that each dimension of perceived family environment appears to be influenced by a different combination of underlying factors: acceptance-rejection by genetic and specific environmental factors and restrictiveness-permissiveness by shared and specific environmental factors. (RH)

The author reviews the theories of S. Orton relating neurological factors to dyslexia. He further considers possible advantages of a predisposition to dyslexia, including the possession of talents. He answers four common critiques of Orton's biological approach to dyslexia, and suggests instead, the advantages of such an approach. (CL)

The author traces the origin of his thinking on a biobehavioral systems approach to human sociobiology and argues that it is a fruitful alternative to sociobiological models derived from population biology and genetics. Available from Behavioral Science, Systems Science Publications, University of Louisville, Louisvilly, KY 40208; sc $3.75.…

Explores the relationships between nutrition, stimulation, brain development, and learning. Consequences of malnutrition on learning include loss of learning time, interference with learning during critical periods of development, and motivation and personality changes. (Author/DB)

The 1954 article by Eliot Stellar provided the theoretical focus for a great deal of research on the biological bases of human behavior. Future attention to the infrastructure of behaviors being studied, combined with reductionistic studies of neurons, will fulfill the potential contribution to behavioral neuroscience implicit in Stellar's…

Discusses cognitive scientists' and psycholinguists' theories of the origins of consciousness and linguistic expression. Suggests that the hand is key in the development of human intelligence and in the origin of language. Maintains that the mutual influence of hand and brain reveals the subtleties of cause and effect, stories, and the…

Relating storage of specific information to a particular neuromorphological change is difficult because behavioral performance factors are not readily disambiguated from underlying cognitive processes. This issue is addressed here by demonstrating robust reorganization of the hippocampal mossy fiber terminal field (MFTF) when adult rats learn the…

Initial progress has been made in the conceptualization and study of attachment stability over time, and substantial evidence has accumulated on the association between attachment classification and biopsychosocial functioning (including social-emotional competence, cognition, physical health and mental health). The literature supports the…

Schools are a central interface between evolution and culture. They are the contexts in which children learn the evolutionarily novel abilities and knowledge needed to function as adults in modern societies. Evolutionary educational psychology is the study of how an evolved bias in children's learning and motivational systems influences their…

In 2 experiments, the authors examined the evolution of folkbiological reasoning in children (4 to 10 years of age) and adults from 4 distinct communities (rural Native American, rural majority culture, and suburban and urban North American communities). Using an adoption paradigm, they examined participants' intuitions regarding the inheritance…

The central nervous system transmitter serontonin may be altered in aggressive/impulsive and suicidal behaviors in humans. These reports are largely consistent with animal data, and constitute one of the most highly replicated set of findings in biological psychiatry. Suggests that some suicidal behavior may be a special kind of aggressive…

Research on risk factors for schizophrenia is reviewed with emphasis on children of schizophrenic parents. Four areas of biobehavioral functioning that have been examined in high-risk research are discussed. Three of these are considered compatible with hypothesis neurointegrative defect underlying schizophrenic-proneness. (Author/CL)

Presents a perspective on evolution which includes an explanation of the textbook theory of evolution, a review of evolutionary theory before Darwin, and an outline of Darwin's early theories. Describes a rethinking of evolutionary theory to include natural selection, conservative selection, discontinous evolution, catastrophism, and the…