Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Syntax refers to the phenomenon that an organism is able to form a new high-level language unit from several relatively low-level language units based on certain rules, it is an important characteristic of human communication system that distinguishes humans from other animals. According to the saltation view, syntax is the ability developed by human ancestors alone after the differentiation with other primates in evolution. In the history of human evolution, there is no pre- syntax stage. The gradual view holds that syntax has an evolutionary continuity in the primate lineage. Although the brain systems responsible for complex syntax processing are unique to humans, the sequential learning that underlies syntax processing can be traced back to older primates, but it has been further enhanced in humans. The ability of sequence learning to extract, summarize and generalize the abstract structural relations among multiple stimuli is an important cognitive basis for human to implement syntax processing. Numerous studies have shown that in artificial grammar tasks, many species of primate can summarize and master the sequence of stimuli. There has been a gradual evolution in sequence processing between other primates and humans. Comparative studies from neurobiology suggest that the neural mechanisms that support serial order processing and simple grammar stem from the more ancient brain regions that humans share with other primates. It is these brain regions that allow other primates to understand and master ordering in artificial grammatical tasks. The neural mechanisms that support hierarchical structure processing and complex grammar come from areas of the brain that are unique to humans and emerged much later in evolution. So though complex grammar is not present in other primate communication systems, the sequence learning on which human syntactic processing depend stems from a cognitive mechanism that has existed in the evolutionary history of primates. The gradual view poses a challenge to the explanation of the origins of syntax: if simple sequential processing is common to primates, why should it be that only humans have evolved complex grammatical mechanisms based on it? Several hypotheses have tried to answer this question. The Lexical Limitation Hypothesis suggests that the emergence of unique syntax in humans stems from the growth of vocabulary. This theory emphasizes the pressure exerted on the evolution of grammatical mechanisms by ‘information content’, that is, the expansion of expressed content leads to structured language. The Event Perception Hypothesis holds that syntax originated from the way organisms mentally perceive and represent natural events. According to this theory, syntax is the product of the co-evolution of human event coding system and expression system. The Self-Domestication Hypothesis holds that syntax evolved from self-domestication. Offensive language can belittle your competitors and show your strengths at the same time. In the process of human self-domestication, verbal aggression gradually replaced physical aggression and became an alternative means of social competition. This shift, in turn, imposes feedback and evolutionary demands on language itself, leading to the emergence of syntax and complex language forms. These theories discuss the evolutionary origin of grammar from different perspectives, but all of them have insufficient explanatory power. In the field of language evolution research, no theory has been able to fully answer the question of the origin of human syntax. In fact, it is not necessarily a single factor that has dominated syntax evolution. For example, self-domestication reduces interpersonal conflict and increases the frequency of mutual learning, communication and cooperation, thus creating a favorable environment for more knowledge sharing and information dissemination. Complex language allows community members to communicate with each other on interpersonal relationships, thus forming positive feedback on intimate relationships and cooperative alliances. Diversified social interaction makes human beings have a unique tendency of event perception. It was the interaction of different factors at different times that led to the eventual development of mature syntax mechanism in humans. Future research should clarify whether the neural mechanisms found in artificial grammar tasks are common processors for hierarchical processing in all fields, and further explore the relationship between syntactic processing and semantic processing.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Theory of mind refers to the ability of individuals to speculate about other people's mental states and make causal explanations for their behaviors. Comparative studies using non-human primates is an important way to explore the essence, origin and evolution of theory of mind. This article reviews a large number of empirical studies and demonstrate that nonhuman primates exhibit some basic theory of mind components, including joint attention, goal understanding and level-1 perspective-taking. Nonhuman primates can follow or attract the attention of other individuals, understand the behavior of other individuals based on potential goals and intentions, and judge whether other individuals perceive something from their perspective. The paper explains the above conclusions from the perspective of evolutionary continuity hypothesis. Species that appeared earlier in the primate evolutionary lineage have been shown to have basic theory of mind. Phylogenetic reconstruction proved that theory of mind has deep evolutionary roots in primates. Research from neuroscience is consistent with this view. Brain imaging studies have shown that non-human primates and humans rely on common brain regions for mind-reading tasks. On the one hand, there are obvious anatomical and connectivity similarities between these parts of the human and non-human primate brains. On the other hand, these areas of the human brain have undergone significant expansion over the course of evolution. So theory of mind has evolutionary continuity across primate lineages. The similarity between nonhuman primates and humans in theory of mind stem from shared descent. The paper also concludes that non-human primates are unable to achieve second-order perspective selection and false belief understanding as humans do. The submentalizing hypothesis, vicarious representation hypothesis, minimal theory of mind hypothesis and awareness relations hypothesis attempt to explain the differences. Although specific views and perspectives vary, these theories all emphasize that there is a primary representational system before a mature theory of mind is mastered by the individual, and these representational systems lay the foundation for the development of a complete theory of mind. However, non-human primates only have a primary representation system, and they are unable to form representations of other individuals' psychological beliefs about the external world. Belief representation is an important dividing point between non-human primates and humans in theory of mind. Unfortunately, there is no single hypothesis that can explain all the current empirical research. One possibility is that higher-level theory of mind depend on many different sub-processing mechanisms. Different task paradigms depend on different processing mechanisms, thus resulting in seemingly contradictory performance of non-human primates in different experimental modes. The differences and related explanations between non-human primates and human psychological theories in theory of mind need to be tested more fully in future studies. For humans, theory of mind is a psychological mechanism that plays an important role in both competitive and cooperative scenarios. Non-human primates, on the other hand, seem to be more likely to initiate mind-reading in competitive situations, and competitive activities lead to more pronounced use of theory of mind. They are more likely to perceive competitive intentions from others than cooperative intentions or shared intentions. One reasonable speculation is that during human evolution, specific social pressures led humans to develop sensitivity to shared intentions. Theory of mind is further improved when individuals are able to establish common goals and coordinate with each other for common goals. Future research should focus on this hypothesis, and further explore the influence of shared intention on the development of primate theory of mind through empirical research. The relationship between language and theory of mind is another topic that needs to be explored in the future. On the one hand, a higher level of theory of mind allows the individual to step into the perspective of the person he is communicating with, allowing him to understand the true meaning of the sender of the information senders. So the improvement of mind-reading ability in humans may have been a key shift in the evolution of language. Theory of mind is an important basis for the realization of complex language. On the other hand, language system provides a necessary tool for mental representation system. When represented in language, subjects can encode complex nested recursive relationships. Future research should focus on the relationship between the characteristics of non-human primates' theory of mind and their communication systems, and seek enlightenment for revealing the mysteries of human theory of mind and language evolution through comparative studies of different non-human primates. Furthermore, as an important social cognitive feature, theory of mind is bound to be closely related to the social ecological environment of a species. In the future, more comparative studies on differences can enable researchers to explore the relationship between theory of mind and social attributes, and also enable researchers to test whether each sub-component of theory of mind has different social driving factors, providing important basis for understanding the evolutionary mechanism of theory of mind.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： The success of protest in achieving its original aims may depend primarily on the events’ extent which shape public opinion. Collective action may play a significant and indirect role in influencing social change through changing public opinion. Partly, the success of a movement may derive from mobilizing the public to perceive a current context as illegitimate and turning bystanders into supporters. Though there is vast literature on the psychological factors promoting collective action, little is known about how collective actions influence a broader non-protesting community. The obtained articles mainly focus on the processes or mechanisms underpinning bystanders’ support for the social movement. We explored the effects of three key factors in shaping bystanders’ endorsements. This paper contains three experiments conducted to examine our hypothesis that participants were presented in a news article describing an instance of social protest during these studies. The details of the news were different in each group. Study1 was a 2(claim legitimacy: high vs. low) × 2 (protest tactics: violent vs. non-violent) design. Study2 was a 2(claim legitimacy: high vs. low) × 2 (protest tactics: violent vs. non-violent) × 2(expectation of achieving goals: high vs. low) design. Participants were asked to indicate their perceptions of the claim legitimacy, their support for the protests and other questions. Study 3 followed the pattern of Study2, but the background event was different. Results of Study1 showed that protests with legitimate claims were more supported than those with illegitimate claims in contexts of non-violent tactics. Meanwhile, there was only marginal difference of endorsements between participants in high-legitimacy group and low-legitimacy group when collective actions were violent. Study2 showed that in context of violent tactics, participants’ expectations of achieving goals could moderate the relation between claim legitimacy and their endorsements for collective actions. Participants’ supports for violent actions were positively predicted by claim legitimacy when there were little possibilities to achieve goals. However, this effect didn’t exist when possibilities of achieving goals were high. While in contexts of non-violent tactics, expectations of achieving goals did not affect participants’ endorsements for collective action. Only the factor of claim legitimacy was effective. The results of sStudy3 revalidated the results of Study2. The conclusions of the research is as following. First, legitimacy of the claims is the primary factor affecting bystanders’ support for collective action. Only when the protest’s aims accord with moral standards of the public will it gain the endorsements of public. Second, the use of violent tactics could even reduce bystanders’ endorsements of those protests with very legitimate claims. Violence may be seen as an action of alienation from the mainstream,which undermines the broader perceived legitimacy of a movement. Third, low possibility of achieving goals could inspire bystanders’ endorsements of violent collective actions when the claims are legitimate. Bystanders will lower their hostilities toward violence when they expect it will be very hard to achieve legitimate claims.
Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2022-05-09
Abstract：
Comparative studies using non-human primates is an important way to explore the essence, origin and evolution of theory of mind. A large number of empirical studies have shown that non-human primates have some basic components of a theory of mind, including joint attention, goal understanding and perspective-taking, suggesting that theory of mind has evolutionary continuity in primate evolutionary lineages. However, non-human primates are unable to achieve second-order perspective selection and false belief understanding as humans do. The submentalizing hypothesis, vicarious representation hypothesis, minimal theory of mind hypothesis and awareness relations hypothesis attempt to explain the differences. Although specific views and perspectives vary, these theories all emphasize that non-human primates are unable to form representations of other individuals' mental beliefs about the external world, and that belief representation is an important dividing point between non-human primates and humans in mind reading. Future research needs to further clarify the interaction between shared intention, language mechanism, social ecological environment and theory of mind.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2021-01-24
Abstract： Syntax is an important characteristic of human communication system that distinguishes humans from other animals. Comparative behavioral studies have shown that other primates besides humans can understand serial order rules; Comparative neurobiological studies have shown that the neural mechanisms that support order processing come from brain regions shared by humans and other primates. Therefore sequence learning ability on which syntax depends have evolutionary continuity between humans and other primates. Lexical constraint hypothesis, event perception hypothesis and self-domestication hypothesis explain the evolutionary origin of human syntax from different perspectives. Future research should clarify whether the neural mechanisms found in artificial grammar tasks are common processors for hierarchical processing in all fields, and further explore the relationship between syntactic processing and semantic processing.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2020-04-25
Abstract： Language evolution is an important issue of evolutionary psychology. Mirror System Hypothesis, Tool-making Hypothesis and Teaching Hypothesis explain the relationship between hand action and language evolution from different perspectives. All three hypotheses agree that human language originates from the experience of hand movements. Relevant empirical researches found that sign language and spoken language have some common features, language and hand movements share common neural circuits, gesture development can predict the level of language ability, and gesture can enhance the transmission efficiency of knowledge about tool making. These studies provide empirical support for specific inferences of above three hypotheses. Future research in this field needs to focus on the evolutionary relationship between sign language and spoken language, as well as the relationship between human language and other cognitive characteristics.
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