Beyond the Brain

How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds

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  • 4.5 (2 ratings) ·
  • 45 Want to read
  • 4 Currently reading
  • 2 Have read

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Last edited by ImportBot
September 18, 2021 | History

Beyond the Brain

How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds

  • 4.5 (2 ratings) ·
  • 45 Want to read
  • 4 Currently reading
  • 2 Have read

"When a chimpanzee stockpiles rocks as weapons or when a frog sends out mating calls, we might easily assume these animals know their own motivations--that they use the same psychological mechanisms that we do. But as Beyond the Brain indicates, this is a dangerous assumption because animals have different evolutionary trajectories, ecological niches, and physical attributes. How do these differences influence animal thinking and behavior? Removing our human-centered spectacles, Louise Barrett investigates the mind and brain and offers an alternative approach for understanding animal and human cognition. Drawing on examples from animal behavior, comparative psychology, robotics, artificial life, developmental psychology, and cognitive science, Barrett provides remarkable new insights into how animals and humans depend on their bodies and environment--not just their brains--to behave intelligently. Barrett begins with an overview of human cognitive adaptations and how these color our views of other species, brains, and minds. Considering when it is worth having a big brain--or indeed having a brain at all--she investigates exactly what brains are good at. Showing that the brain's evolutionary function guides action in the world, she looks at how physical structure contributes to cognitive processes, and she demonstrates how these processes employ materials and resources in specific environments. Arguing that thinking and behavior constitute a property of the whole organism, not just the brain, Beyond the Brain illustrates how the body, brain, and cognition are tied to the wider world"--

"This book illustrates how the intelligent behaviour of animals doesn't necessarily depend on having a big brain; having the right kind of body and exploiting the right kinds of environmental resources can be equally important"--

Publish Date
Pages
288

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Beyond the Brain
Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds
Mar 22, 2015, Princeton University Press
paperback
Cover of: Beyond the Brain
Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds
2011, Princeton University Press
in English
Cover of: Beyond the Brain
Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds
2011, Princeton University Press
in English
Cover of: Beyond the Brain
Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds
2011, Princeton University Press
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Source title: Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds

Classifications

Library of Congress
QL933

The Physical Object

Format
paperback
Number of pages
288

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL27520823M
ISBN 10
0691165564
ISBN 13
9780691165561
Amazon ID (ASIN)
0691165564

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
September 18, 2021 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 23, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
October 21, 2019 Created by ImportBot Imported from amazon.com record