Journal article
Development evolving: the origins and meanings of instinct
Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science, Vol.8(1-2), pp.e1371-n/a
01/2017
DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1371
PMCID: PMC5182125
PMID: 27906515
Abstract
How do migratory birds, herding dogs, and navigating sea turtles do the amazing things that they do? For hundreds of years, scientists and philosophers have struggled over possible explanations. In time, one word came to dominate the discussion: instinct. It became the catch‐all explanation for those adaptive and complex abilities that do not obviously result from learning or experience. Today, various animals are said to possess a survival instinct, migratory instinct, herding instinct, maternal instinct, or language instinct. But a closer look reveals that these and other ‘instincts’ are not satisfactorily described as inborn, pre‐programmed, hardwired, or genetically determined. Rather, research in this area teaches us that species‐typical behaviors develop—and they do so in every individual under the guidance of species‐typical experiences occurring within reliable ecological contexts. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1371. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1371
This article is categorized under:
Cognitive Biology > Genes and Environment
Psychology > Comparative Psychology
Neuroscience > Development
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Development evolving: the origins and meanings of instinct
- Creators
- Mark S Blumberg - The University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science, Vol.8(1-2), pp.e1371-n/a
- DOI
- 10.1002/wcs.1371
- PMID
- 27906515
- PMCID
- PMC5182125
- NLM abbreviation
- Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci
- ISSN
- 1939-5078
- eISSN
- 1939-5086
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons, Inc; Hoboken, USA
- Number of pages
- 7
- Grant note
- National Institutes of Health (R37‐HD081168; R01‐HD063071)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/2017
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Biology
- Record Identifier
- 9984002463802771
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