Search

Im Folgenden werden die Ergebnisse einer Studie über die Wirkung des nonverbalen Verhaltens des Kommunikationsroboters Nabaztag und deren Implikation für das Nutzererleben dargestellt. 100 Probanden in Deutschland wurden Fotos des Hasen gezeigt, auf denen dieser verschiedene Ohrenpositionen hatte. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass mit den Positionen der Ohren, dem Hasen verschiedene Gefühlszustände zugeschrieben werden. Diese Ergebnisse sind vor dem Hintergrund eines gezielten matchings zwischen verbalen und nonverbalen Kommunikationsinhalten, aber auch für ein stimmiges Nutzererleben, und damit für den Nutzungsspaß, von essentieller Bedeutung.

Im Folgenden werden die Ergebnisse einer Fallstudie zur Evaluation der user experience und Motivationsfunktion eines Vokabeltrainers in Form eines Roboterhasen präsentiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Schüler einer fünften Klasse, die mit dem Hasen lernten, die Anwendung sowohl hinsichtlich des Ease of Use und der Perceived Usefulness als hoch einschätzten, als auch die hedonische und pragmatische Qualität des Roboterhasen Nabaztag als hoch bewertet wurde. Zudem waren die Schüler, die mit dem Roboter lernten anschließend in einer positiveren Stimmung als die, die nach der traditionellen Methode lernten. Nach einer Woche konnte bei den Schülern, die mit dem Nabaztag gelernt hatten, eine durchschnittlich höhere Zahl an erinnerten Vokabeln festgestellt werden als bei der Kontrollgruppe. Die Tatsache, dass die Schüler nicht nur Bereitschaft zeigten, den Nabaztag erneut zu benutzen, sondern ihn auch an Freunde weiterempfehlen würden, zeigt, zusammen mit den Ergebnissen der erfassten Skalen, dass die Applikation eine grundlegende Voraussetzung für die Entstehung von Motivation und Nutzungsspaß erfüllt.

A field study with a simple robotic companion is being undertaken in three iterations in the framework of a EU FP7 research project. The interest of this study lies in its design: the robotic interface setup is installed in the subjects' homes and video data are collected during ten days. This gives the rare opportunity to study the development of human-robot relationships over time, and the integration of companion technologies into everyday life. This paper outlines the qualitative inductive approach to data analysis, and discusses selected results. The focus here is on the interactional mechanisms of bringing conversations to an end. The paper distinguishes between "closing" as the conversational mechanism for doing this, and "closure" as the social norm that motivates it. We argue that this distinction is relevant for interaction designers insofar as they have to be aware of the compelling social norms that are invoked by a companion's conversational behaviour.

We describe a research on the interplay that appears to exist in companies between Human Resource Management and innovation. This complex, multicomponent, non-linear and dynamic interplay is often viewed as a "black box". To help open the black box, we outline both a theoretical framework and preliminary empirical data. We view innovation as an organization-level property, favored by the organization's self-perception as a knowledge engine. Therefore, we devised a protocol to study the companies' strategies for training and development and their innovation profile. The protocol consisted in a questionnaire with 100 closed questions, suitable for companies which rely mostly on an inner training and development service. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of Italian firms from the Food & beverages and Fashion markets. The results show that certain facets of training and development are indeed correlated to innovation. Finally, we discuss the results.

Companions as interfaces to smart rooms need not only to be easy to interact with, but also to maintain long-term relationships with their users. The FP7-funded project SERA (Social Engagement with Robots and Agents) contributes to knowledge about and modeling of such relationships. One focal activity is an iterative field study to collect real-life long-term interaction data with a robotic interface. The first stage of this study has been completed. This paper reports on the set-up and the first insights.

EVOC (for EVOlution of Culture) is a computer model of culture that enables us to investigate how various factors such as barriers to cultural diffusion, the presence and choice of leaders, or changes in the ratio of innovation to imitation affect the diversity and effectiveness of ideas. It consists of neural network based agents that invent ideas for actions, and imitate neighbors’ actions. The model is based on a theory of culture according to which what evolves through culture is not memes or artifacts, but the internal models of the world that give rise to them, and they evolve not through a Darwinian process of competitive exclusion but a Lamarckian process involving exchange of innovation protocols. EVOC shows an increase in mean fitness of actions over time, and an increase and then decrease in the diversity of actions. Diversity of actions is positively correlated with population size and density, and with barriers between populations. Slowly eroding borders increase fitness without sacrificing diversity by fostering specialization followed by sharing of fit actions. Introducing a leader that broadcasts its actions throughout the population increases the fitness of actions but reduces diversity of actions. Increasing the number of leaders reduces this effect. Efforts are underway to simulate the conditions under which an agent immigrating from one culture to another contributes new ideas while still ‘fitting in’.

“Evoluzione” è una parola usata ormai frequentemente dall’uomo comune nonché in tutte le discipline, umanistiche e scientifiche. Culturalmente radicata, è diventata una metafora potente. Una definizione corrente è “sviluppo lento e graduale; svolgimento da una forma a un’altra, generalmente più completa e perfetta” (Garzanti). In questi termini non si parla soltanto dell’evoluzione biologica dell’uomo, ma anche dell’evoluzione del linguaggio, della società, della cognizione umana – a prescindere da un’effettiva conoscenza delle teorie evoluzionistiche. L’evoluzione, in quanto teoria biologica, rimanda quasi automaticamente alla teoria di Darwin, il quale, tuttavia, ha usato il termine solo una volta, nel paragrafo finale del suo celeberrimo L’origine delle specie (1859). Nel concetto di evoluzione è comunemente implicato il passaggio da una specie “primitiva” ad una specie “progredita”, più avanzata o sofisticata e strutturalmente più complessa. Nei suoi scritti, Darwin preferiva parlare di “discendenza con modificazioni” anziché di “evoluzione”, termine usato invece da Bonnet (1762) nella sua teoria dell’homunculus, proprio perché portatore della valenza semantica di “progresso”, non presente nella teoria che Darwin proponeva. Infatti, per quest’ultimo “evoluzione” ha più a che fare con il cambiamento (x --> y) che con il progresso (x --> x+1). L’idea che il concetto di evoluzione abbia a che fare con quello di progresso è in realtà posteriore: nell’accezione più comune del termine è presente l’idea di una temporalità lineare, nella quale l’hic et nunc è visto come la massima compiutezza dello sviluppo, della complessità e della “modernità”, e il passato è visto da un punto di vista situato in un setting storico del presente (antropo-, etno-, euro-, ego-centrico etc), in un’opposizione binaria tra “adesso” e “allora”, tra “noi” e “loro”, tra “progredito” e “primitivo”. Eppure l’evoluzione, in senso stretto, non è teleologica e non c’è un “avanti” o un “indietro”, c’è solo un cambiamento causato dall’adattamento nell’ecosistema in cui l’essere storico si trova. Evoluzione non è necessariamente sinonimo di ottimizzazione (chi può dire che la “prossima generazione” sarà migliore?). La mia ipotesi è che questa metafora (linguaggio) influenza il nostro modo di concepire e ragionare circa un oggetto (pensiero). Anticipando qualche dato, mi avvalgo delle discipline linguistiche, nell’ambito delle quali si parla dell’evoluzione non solo del linguaggio, ma anche della lingua. Ad esempio l’idea che una lingua sia meno complessa sintatticamente, come nel caso della lingua dei Pirahã del Sudamerica, ha generato il giudizio di “primitivismo” nei confronti del popolo che la parla da parte soprattutto di alcuni filochomskyiani e altri1. In altre scienze sociali, alcune manifestazioni culturali, come l’arte, vengono intese come “primitive” o “moderne”, oppure si parla di evoluzione di generi letterari. La dimostrazione forse più eclatante di questo antropocentrismo riguarda il problema del genere Homo, in cui l’avvento dell’Uomo Anatomicamente Moderno si fa coincidere con la nascita della cultura, utilizzando un doppio standard di modernità, visto che Neandertal fu probabilmente molto più simile a noi di quanto si tende a pensare2. L’utilizzo dell’idea di evoluzione come metafora può essere estremamente potente nell’ambiente accademico, ma occorre prestare attenzione alle sue possibili implicazioni. Il mio intento è quello di analizzare questa metafora usata comunemente all’interno delle varie discipline dal punto di vista della linguistica cognitiva (frames e metafore concettuali), mettendo in evidenza come il concetto target eredita delle implicazioni che emergono a causa delle qualità proprie del concetto source, per dimostrare che il modo in cui avviene il framing del concetto condiziona sovente la metodologia di studio, nonché la tassonomia applicata all’oggetto studiato.

Cognitive Linguistics as an enterprise provides new theoretical and methodological instruments in understanding the relationship between people’s thoughts and the language they use. Spiritual and religious experiences (particularly the ones involving some type of revelation from or communication with a transcendent being) are especially interesting since they involve some type of external, physically invisible force or agent, contributing an “ineffable” quality to the phenomenon. However, people can and do describe such events, and metaphors and blends pervade the representations of certain concepts of the transcendental when attempting to talk about such abstract ideas. One of the main tenants of Cognitive Linguistics is that people’s views about themselves and the world around them are deeply rooted in their conceptual systems, created by their experiences and their bodily interactions with the world, whether they be physical, psychological or social. People who practice spirituality reach certain states by means of personal or collective rituals, such as prayer, meditation, and bodily procedures involving discipline, as is the case of fasting or re-understanding pain. When they then communicate certain religious and spiritual concepts, they are revealing a great deal about themselves and their world and the way they interact with it. Concepts dealing with people’s system of beliefs are very “meaningful” for the individual, and the more entrenched a frame of mind is, the less plastic it is, a fact confirmed by the neurosciences which claim that it is difficult to break down and reconstruct certain synaptic structures of the brain. But how do people who have had such awesome experiences represent these supernatural encounters and their states of being? What is the relationship between the concepts of body and soul in devotees who torture their bodies, who have out of body experiences or who describe a body possessed by other spirits? What does the language they use say about the individuals’ concept of themselves and their world? I will present some of my own research data containing conceptual metaphors and blends collected in various sacred texts and during a series of interviews of people who claim to have had such supernatural experiences. The data includes linguistic expressions as well as gesture. Moreover, the interviewees were asked to draw on paper certain experiences of spiritual nature and then to describe their pictures. My investigation will try to shed new light on the phenomenology of spiritual experiences and personhood, using cognitive linguistics as a prime tool of analysis.

We investigated the interaction of structure and convention in the emergence of schemes for joint reference in the context of indirect category learning. Participants worked individually or in dyads to learn a set of functionally-defined categories, instantiated as supposed alien creatures. The perceptual structure of these categories was complex: one function could be predicted by a unidimensional rule but the other was defined by a family-resemblance substructure. In addition to the main function-prediction task, each learner worked individually to sort the exemplars (pre- and post-function prediction) and in an individual prediction test that yielded selective attention data. Dyadic learners predicted the functional features with significantly greater accuracy compared to individual learners. This dyadic advantage was even greater for predicting the simple rule-based function compared to the FR function. Also, the post-task sorts produced by dyadic learners correlated more closely to the true categories than did those of individual learners.

Traditionally, spiritual experiences have been considered "ineffable," but metaphors pervade the representations of certain concepts of the transcendental in an attempt to talk about such abstract ideas. Whether it be during the description of a vision or simply talking about morality, people use conceptual metaphors to reason and talk about these concepts. Many representations of God, spirits, or the afterlife are culturally based, but whereas some may differ based on individual experiences, others seem to have a more universal character. From a phenomenological point of view, it seems that the descriptions are contingent and not necessary, that is, the language a believer is exposed to may influence, but not condition a priori, his or her own spiritual experience as Constructivists have thought. People's views about themselves and the world around them are deeply rooted in their conceptual systems, which are created by their experiences and their bodily interactions with the world, whether it's having to do with gravity in the case of UP and DOWN, or what our individual and social concepts are. When people talk about religious and spiritual concepts, they are revealing a great deal about their world and themselves and the way they interact with it. Concepts dealing with people's system of beliefs are very "meaningful" for the individual, and the more entrenched a frame of mind is, the less plastic it is, a fact confirmed by the neurosciences, which claim that it is difficult to break down and reconstruct certain synaptic structures of the brain. How do today's common "faithful" relate to certain metaphors about spiritual concepts transmitted by their faiths? What do these metaphors say about the individuals' concepts of themselves and their world? I will explore some of my own conclusions concerning conceptual metaphors and figurative language collected in various sacred texts and during a series of interviews of religious people with different backgrounds of religious systems. The data include linguistic expressions as well as gesture. Moreover, the interviewees were asked to draw on paper certain experiences of religious nature and then to describe their pictures. My investigation will try to shed new light on the phenomenology of religious experiences and personhood, using cognitive linguistics as a prime tool of analysis.

A philological and comparative analysis of the lexical items concerning personhood in Ancient Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Modern English reveals semantic shifts concerning the relative lexical concepts. Ancient Hebrew presents an essentially holistic idea of personhood, whereas, via Biblical translations and Greek philosophical influences, the Western World has conceptualized humans as being dualistic in nature. I analyze the polysemy and semantic shifts in the lexicon used for "body" and "soul" in Ancient Hebrew and Ancient Greek, which are the two linguistic systems known by St. Paul of Tarsus, and then confront them with Paul's usage context, and finally with Modern English, hypothesizing a possible case of linguistic relativity.

As a first step toward an emergentist theory of collective cognition in collaborative problem solving, we present a proto-theoretical account of how one might conceive and model the intersubjective processes that organize collective cognition into one or another--convergent, divergent, or tensive--cognitive regime. To explore the sufficiency of our emergentist proposal we instantiate a minimalist model of intersubjective convergence and simulate the tuning of collective cognition using data from an empirical study of small-group, collaborative problem solving. Using the results of this empirical simulation, we test a number of preliminary hypotheses with regard to patterns of interaction, how those patterns affect a cognitive regime, and how that cognitive regime affects the efficacy of a problem-solving group.

Historically Christianity owes much to Judaism. St. Paul’s Christianity, however, changed the way of thinking of many of the first Jews because of a new way of reasoning about selfhood, the human body, and human cognition. Without wanting to treat certain theological concepts, I want to underline how modern science’s view of the person is closer to traditional Judaism than it is to Christianity, and how Paul’s “error” was diffused throughout the Western world, by analyzing the semantics of linguistic references to the body, the soul, and emotions. What was St. Paul’s error? The question means to be both allusive and provocative. He was born by the name Saul in the city of Tarsus, in modern Turkey, during the height of its splendour as a Roman-Greek city. Paul grew up as a “free man”, that is, as a Roman citizen in a cosmopolitan environment. He is considered to be the most influential and productive of the testimonies of the Christian thought throughout Asia Minor and Western Europe. His epistles circulated throughout his time and continue to influence millions of followers, who often interpret his thoughts in contrasting manner, but nonetheless attest to his authority. An erudite Greek-Roman, persecutor of the first Christians, Paul battled to spread the story of Jesus of Nazareth. His ideology, indeed, is a blend of Greek-Roman thought and of what he learned from the first Christians. The Hellenic characteristics of his faith created a divergence from traditional Judaic thought within what was to become the Christian creed though his influence. As a matter of fact, Christianity came to have a more coherent structure because of Paul, and Christian belief in a way is more Paul’s thought than it is Jesus’. Jewish teaching circa selfhood was quite holistic. The Hebrew word nephesh is often translated as “soul” but also means “body”, whereas Paul clearly distinguishes the two, talking about a co-existence, “concupiscence” and the necessity of dominating the body to exalt the spirit. I will examine the semantic changes in words dealing with body and soul, and how Paul’s authority eventually influenced the Western world’s way of reasoning about such concepts.

Homogeneity in Social Groups of Iraqis Jon Gresham, Farouk Saleh, Shara Majid June 2006 With appreciation to the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies for initiating the Second World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, this paper summarizes findings on homogeneity in community-level social groups derived from inter-ethnic research conducted during 2005 among Iraqi Arabs and Kurds living in the city of Basra, Iraq, and in the Netherlands. We found that perceptions towards out-groups were not based on religion, ethnicity, class, or location as in traditional individual-focused social networks. Patterns of perception towards out-groups seemed to be rooted in homogeneous social sub-groups with combinations of these factors. This research project used a 192-item survey of two hundred Iraqi business owners and managers in Iraq and in the Netherlands. It measured homogeneity of social group memberships. Survey elements included items drawn from the World Values Surveys (Inglehart), the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (Roper Center), and the Social Capital Inventory (Narayan and Cassidy). Homogeneity, relationship segregation, social trust, and community influence in social networks were estimated through indices reflecting components of social relationships in priority in-groups emerging from factor analysis of survey responses. Other indices included civic participation (socialization), perceptions of threat from out-groups, ethnic and religious identity, social trust, personal security, and contribution to community-based resources. Uniformity of responses to certain items about out-groups corresponded to findings by other authors on segregation and membership in social networks (Burt 1997, Buskins 2005, Inglehart 2004, Narayan and Cassidy 2001, Putnam 1995). This work was an expansion on a study on perceptions of threat from out-groups among Iraqis in five locations conducted in 2003 (Gresham 2004). This paper presents the following major sections: I. Introduction II. Purpose III. Background IV. Methodology V. Results VI. Reporting Process VII. Conclusions VIII. Further Work IX. Appendix X. End Notes *Jon Gresham, European Research Centre On Migration & Ethnic Relations, University of Utrecht, Netherlands Farouk Saleh, University of Tilburg, Netherlands Shara Majid, Erasmus University, Netherlands See other reports at: http://www.CivilSocietyIraq.seedwiki.com

Storicamente il cristianesimo deve molto al giudaismo. Il cristianesimo di San Paolo, tuttavia, ha cambiato il modo di ragionare su concetti come il sé, il corpo, e la cognizione umana. Senza volere trattare certi concetti teologici, mi prefiggo di sottolineare come il punto di vista della scienza moderna è più vicino al giudaismo tradizionale che al cristianesimo, e di spiegare la diffusione dell’“errore” di Paolo nel mondo occidentale, analizzando la semantica dei riferimenti linguistici (e in particolar modo le metafore e le metonimie) dei concetti anima e corpo e del rapporto con la concezione del sé. Cresciuto da “uomo franco” cioè, da cittadino romano in un ambiente cosmopolita, Paolo è considerato il testimone più influente e produttivo del pensiero cristiano nell’Asia Minore e nell’Europa Occidentale. Le sue epistole circolarono durante la sua vita e continuano ad influenzare miliardi di seguaci, i quali spesso interpretano le sue idee in modo contrastante, ma ciononostante attestando una specifica autorevolezza. Erudito greco-romano, inizialmente persecutore dei primi Cristiani, Paolo ha lottato per diffondere la storia di Gesù di Nazareth. La sua ideologia, infatti, è stata vista da molti come un amalgama tra il pensiero greco-romano e ciò che egli stesso ha appreso dai primi cristiani. Queste caratteristiche elleniche, più o meno reali, del sistema religioso introdussero una differenza significativa all’interno del pensiero giudaico tradizionale, dal quale, per mezzo dell’influenza dei suoi scritti, si sarebbe sviluppato il credo cristiano. Di fatti, il cristianesimo ha acquisito una struttura più coerente grazie a Paolo, quasi da inferire che la fede cristiana deve più a Paolo che a Gesù. Quale era l’errore di San Paolo? La domanda vuole essere sia allusiva che provocatoria. L’insegnamento giudaico a proposito del concetto del sé era piuttosto olistico. Per esempio, la parola ebraica nephesh è spesso tradotta come “anima” ma, metaforicamente, significa anche “corpo”, mentre, secondo i suoi interpreti, Paolo chiaramente fa delle distinzioni dualistiche, e parlando della “concupiscenza” predica la necessità di dominare la carne per esaltare lo spirito. Con gli strumenti della linguistica cognitiva, propongo un’analisi della polisemia e degli slittamenti semantici nei concetti di ANIMA e CORPO, e come l’autorità attribuita a Paolo eventualmente ha influenzato il pensiero occidentale sul ragionare di queste rappresentazioni mentali.

During interaction with computer-based 3-D simulations like virtual reality, users may experience a sense of involvement called presence. Presence is commonly defined as the subjective feeling of "being there". We discuss the state of the art in this inno vative research area and introduce a situated cognition perspective on presence. We argue that presence depends on the proper integration of aspects relevant to an agent's movement and perception, to her actions, and to her conception of the overall situ a tion in which she finds herself, as well as on how these aspects mesh with the possibilities for action afforded in the interaction with the artifact. We also aim at showing that studies of presence offer a test-bed for different theories of situated co gnition.›

The pragmatic analysis of cartoons poses numerous difficulties for theoretical pragmatics as well as applied areas. There have been theoretical, pragmatic and experimental studies to uncover the quality of humors, but there is neither a theory specifically designed to account for the source and degree of humorosity in cartoons nor a general theory applicable to the domain of cartoons. Yet three models are prevalent in humor research: the first model (the script-based semantic theory of humor; SSTH) addresses what makes a text humorous and a cognitivistic account mobilizing the notion of scripts and script opposition. The second model (Setup, Incongruity, Resolution; SIR) which dovetails with the former and the third one concerns the stages involved in humor comprehension: three stages are proposed. Finally the third model (the general theory of verbal humor; GTVH) addresses the issue of what makes a text humorous again in a seemingly comprehensive way though it fails to account the nature of cartoons since it is a theory of verbal humors only and since cartoons are not necessarily based on verbal humors to be humorous. In this study, Piyale Madra’s cartoon band ‘Ademler ve Havvalar’ is taken to be cases to investigate. The cartoons that had published at the newspaper ‘Radikal’ since Oct. 1st up until Dec. 17th 2001 are selected for closer scrutiny. Based on the bits and pieces of these cartoons a general overview of a theory of cartoons is presented though such a theory needs cross-validation transcending the idiosyncrasies of a single cartoonist. That is, in order to construct a theory, further studies are necessary in which cartoons by cartoonists of extremely different mentalities are necessary. This is one of the major limitations of this study.

THE BEGINNINGS OF SYMBOLIC-RELIGIOUS COGNITION - Cognitive Archeology and Cognitive Fluidity: About 30,000 years ago (70,000 years after the fossil records of the anatomically modern human), religious thought and symbolic conceptual activity arose from the capacity of integrating specific-domain a process called "cognitive fluidity" (Mithen 1996). Metaphor, Anthropomorphism and Cognitive Science: Metaphor is a basic mental capacity by which people understand themselves and the world around them through conceptual mappings of knowledge between mental spaces, using everyday knowledge to reason about more abstract concepts. Of all the templates for supernatural concepts, the ones that seriously matter to people are invariably person-like, because people are the most complex type of object that people know (Boyer 2001). WHY GOD AS AN EROTIC LOVER? - Diffusion and elaboration of religious memes: To reason about the ties between divine and human, man looks at his repertoire of human relationships, and the more significant ones are used to explain and speak of re-ligio. There are many metaphors used to represent the relationship between the divinity and the devotee (father/child, doctor/patient, teacher/pupil, etc.) The most significant relationship chosen by the mystic in terms of balance is Lover-Beloved. Blending between God and Lover: The idealized conceptual models of the Divinity/beloved and of a devotee/lover began to blend through composition, completion and elaboration. The concept of human love relationship of these ancient cultures probably needs to be re-evaluated by modern students if it had become such an entrenched concept to be used as a source for a cognitive input space. BLENDING THE EROTIC AND THE RELIGIOUS - Examples of erotic religious texts and emergent structure: Sir hassirim, or Song of Songs (Judeo-Christian); Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda (Hindu); Rumi’s Mathanawi (Islam). Strongly erotic in content, these are part of the canons of the respective religious traditions, and so have deeply influenced subsequent elaboration of the erotic symbolism The lover (the faithful) and the Beloved (the Divinity) are usually on a par, and the domination of one is hardly ever present. Poetic descriptions include psychological states of jealousy, passion, separation and reunion, and ultimate union. The time of reunion is spring and the place is nature. What emerges is a relationship that not only unilaterally satisfies the material and spiritual needs of the religious person, but is reciprocal. In other words, the needs of both parties are fulfilled (devotee: food, explanations; god: praise, sacrifice). Moreover, due to the blend, an emotional need is also fulfilled. The dignity of the woman is finding her place in society, like the devotee finds his/her place in his/her creator’s creation, and so their relationship must be lived in the same natural setting. Because of the fusion between counterpart input spaces, there is a completion that humanizes the divinity so it becomes a he, the Man, motivated by the dominating role. However the elaboration of the blend tends to eliminate any domination in the relationship, as the needs of both sides are equal, and only when they are united do they feel completely realized. Their place is in nature, at it’s most energetic and vibrant moment of springtime (ideally the time of life), and the time is eternal.

Presents a model of self-awareness that proposes the existence of three sources of self-information. (1) The social milieu includes self-relevant feedback, a social comparison mechanism leading to perspective-taking, and audiences. (2) The physical environment contains self-focusing and reflecting stimuli such as mirrors and video cameras. (3) The self can develop bodily awareness through proprioception and can reflect upon itself using imagery and inner speech. Furthermore, self-awareness is mainly mediated by the prefrontal lobes. Various links are established between these different neurological, social, and cognitive elements of the model.

In the past few decades, research in the psychology of emotion has benefited greatly from being located in a firm evolutionary framework. It is argued that research in the psychology of mood might attain equal rigour by taking a similar approach. An evolutionary framework for mood research would be based on evolutionary psychology, the main thesis of which is the Massive Modularity Hypothesis. Translating the folk-psychological language of moods into the scientific language of modules might clarify many theoretical questions and provide a sound basis for empirical research. It is argued that such an evolutionary approach would reveal mood to be a much more heterogeneous category than emotion. While the six basic emotions identified by Paul Ekman are probably each subserved by a single module, prototypical moods such as elation, depression, anxiety and irritability are likely to be subserved by a wide range of modules. An evolutionary approach to mood might therefore lead to the elimination of the concept of mood from scientific psychology altogether.

This is the text of the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture in Social Anthopology 1999 (To appear in the Proceedings of the British Academy). In it, I argue that to approach society and culture in a naturalistic way, the domain of the social sciences must be reconceptualised by recognising only entities and processes of which we have a naturalistic understanding. These are mental representations and public productions, the processes that causally link them, the causal chains that bond these links, and the complex webs of such causal chains that criss-cross human populations over time and space. Such causal chains may distribute and stabilise representations and productions throughout a human population, thereby generating culture. The lecture introduces several conceptual tools useful for such a naturalistic approach, and illustrates their use with the case study of ritual activity in a Southern Ethiopian household.