Curious Behavior

Curious Behavior
Author: Robert R. Provine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2012-08-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0674067223

Provine boldly goes where other scientists seldom tread—in search of hiccups, coughs, yawns, sneezes, and other lowly, undignified, human behaviors. Our earthiest instinctive acts bear the imprint of our evolutionary origins and can be valuable tools for understanding how the human brain works and what makes us different from other species.

Curious Behavior

Curious Behavior
Author: Robert R. Provine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2012-08-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0674071565

Robert Provine boldly goes where other scientists seldom tread—in search of hiccups, coughs, yawns, sneezes, and other lowly, undignified human behaviors. Upon investigation, these instinctive acts bear the imprint of our evolutionary origins and can be uniquely valuable tools for understanding how the human brain works and what makes us different from other species. Many activities showcased in Curious Behavior are contagious, but none surpasses yawning in this regard—just reading the word can make one succumb. Though we often take it as a sign of sleepiness or boredom, yawning holds clues to the development of our sociality and ability to empathize with others. Its inescapable transmission reminds us that we are sometimes unaware, neurologically programmed beasts of the herd. Other neglected behaviors yield similar revelations. Tickling, we learn, may be the key to programming personhood into robots. Coughing comes in musical, medical, and social varieties. Farting and belching have import for the evolution of human speech. And prenatal behavior is offered as the strangest exhibit of all, defying postnatal logic in every way. Our earthiest acts define Homo sapiens as much as language, bipedalism, tool use, and other more studied characteristics. As Provine guides us through peculiarities right under our noses, he beckons us to follow with self-experiments: tickling our own feet, keeping a log of when we laugh, and attempting to suppress yawns and sneezes. Such humble investigations provide fodder for grade school science projects as well as doctoral dissertations. Small Science can yield big rewards.

Why Dogs Do That

Why Dogs Do That
Author: Tom Davis
Publisher: Willow Creek Press
Total Pages: 106
Release: 2012-07-03
Genre: Pets
ISBN: 1607556839

Why do dogs bury bones? Why do dogs turn circles before lying down? Why do dogs chase cars? Or their tails? These and 36 other curious canine behaviors are informatively and lightheartedly answered in the handsomely illustrated Why Dogs Do That. An original pencil drawing, rich in detail, illustrates each insightful explanation of odd but characteristic dog actions, social graces and sometimes unseemly deportment.

Curious Minds

Curious Minds
Author: Perry Zurn
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2023-09-05
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0262547147

An exhilarating, genre-bending exploration of curiosity’s powerful capacity to connect ideas and people. Curious about something? Google it. Look at it. Ask a question. But is curiosity simply information seeking? According to this exhilarating, genre-bending book, what’s left out of the conventional understanding of curiosity are the wandering tracks, the weaving concepts, the knitting of ideas, and the thatching of knowledge systems—the networks, the relations between ideas and between people. Curiosity, say Perry Zurn and Dani Bassett, is a practice of connection: it connects ideas into networks of knowledge, and it connects knowers themselves, both to the knowledge they seek and to each other. Zurn and Bassett—identical twins who write that their book “represents the thought of one mind and two bodies”—harness their respective expertise in the humanities and the sciences to get irrepressibly curious about curiosity. Traipsing across literatures of antiquity and medieval science, Victorian poetry and nature essays, as well as work by writers from a variety of marginalized communities, they trace a multitudinous curiosity. They identify three styles of curiosity—the busybody, who collects stories, creating loose knowledge networks; the hunter, who hunts down secrets or discoveries, creating tight networks; and the dancer, who takes leaps of creative imagination, creating loopy ones. Investigating what happens in a curious brain, they offer an accessible account of the network neuroscience of curiosity. And they sketch out a new kind of curiosity-centric and inclusive education that embraces everyone’s curiosity. The book performs the very curiosity that it describes, inviting readers to participate—to be curious with the book and not simply about it.

Curious Dave's Behavior Journey

Curious Dave's Behavior Journey
Author: Dave Keeler
Publisher: FriesenPress
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2012-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 177097489X

Curious Dave's Behavior Journey reveals the ground-level events of the author's life for the past thirty-five years. Dave uses examples of unhealthy and healthy behavior to support the need for us to improve our character. He believes that most of our unhealthy behaviors are only being human and can be improved. This book is amazing because it reveals views of organizational and individual behaviors that most of us never see. Purely by accident, Dave was placed in office locations where it was easy to eavesdrop on management meetings. He learned some very disturbing information. Many leaders and managers make decisions based on their insecurities; and often these decisions cause the demise of the organization. Dave has conducted studies in three types of personal behavior. These studies, like the eavesdropping, reveal that we must improve our character. The studies were performed over five years. The studies were about personal driving habits, safety and security habits, and sexual arousal. His conclusions are fresh and rather alarming in some areas. And in some cases the findings are riveting. The book represents a great view of what is going on in America and how we can improve and improve our country.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Author: Mark Haddon
Publisher: Anchor Canada
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2009-02-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307371565

A bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—narrated by a fifteen year old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions. Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour’s dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing. Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favourite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the workings of Christopher’s mind. And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotions. The effect is dazzling, making for one of the freshest debut in years: a comedy, a tearjerker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.

Curious Emotions

Curious Emotions
Author: Ralph D. Ellis
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9789027251978

Emotion drives all cognitive processes, largely determining their qualitative feel, their structure, and in part even their content. Action-initiating centers deep in the emotional brain ground our understanding of the world by enabling us to imagine how we could act relative to it, based on endogenous motivations to engage certain levels of energy and complexity. Thus understanding personality, cognition, consciousness and action requires examining the workings of dynamical systems applied to emotional processes in living organisms. If an object's meaning depends on its action affordances, then understanding intentionality in emotion or cognition requires exploring why emotion is the bridge between action and representational processes such as thought or imagery; and this requires integrating phenomenology with neurophysiology. The resulting viewpoint, "enactivism," entails specific new predictions, and suggests that emotions are about the self-initiated actions of dynamical systems, not reactive "responses" to external events; consciousness is more about motivated anticipation than reaction to inputs. (Series A)

Curious Minds

Curious Minds
Author: Perry Zurn
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2022-09-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0262370298

An exhilarating, genre-bending exploration of curiosity’s powerful capacity to connect ideas and people. Curious about something? Google it. Look at it. Ask a question. But is curiosity simply information seeking? According to this exhilarating, genre-bending book, what’s left out of the conventional understanding of curiosity are the wandering tracks, the weaving concepts, the knitting of ideas, and the thatching of knowledge systems—the networks, the relations between ideas and between people. Curiosity, say Perry Zurn and Dani Bassett, is a practice of connection: it connects ideas into networks of knowledge, and it connects knowers themselves, both to the knowledge they seek and to each other. Zurn and Bassett—identical twins who write that their book “represents the thought of one mind and two bodies”—harness their respective expertise in the humanities and the sciences to get irrepressibly curious about curiosity. Traipsing across literatures of antiquity and medieval science, Victorian poetry and nature essays, as well as work by writers from a variety of marginalized communities, they trace a multitudinous curiosity. They identify three styles of curiosity—the busybody, who collects stories, creating loose knowledge networks; the hunter, who hunts down secrets or discoveries, creating tight networks; and the dancer, who takes leaps of creative imagination, creating loopy ones. Investigating what happens in a curious brain, they offer an accessible account of the network neuroscience of curiosity. And they sketch out a new kind of curiosity-centric and inclusive education that embraces everyone’s curiosity. The book performs the very curiosity that it describes, inviting readers to participate—to be curious with the book and not simply about it.

Understanding Ethics in Applied Behavior Analysis

Understanding Ethics in Applied Behavior Analysis
Author: Ann Beirne
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 582
Release: 2021-12-23
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1000507815

This book provides the foundation for a lifelong journey of ethical practice in service for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. The second edition of Understanding Ethics in Applied Behavior Analysis includes an explanation of each element in the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts, along with considerations for ethical practice and examples from the field. Professional behavior for the behavior analyst is also addressed when fulfilling roles as teacher, employee, manager, colleague, advocate, or member of a multidisciplinary team. This new edition expands on the first chapter’s introduction of moral philosophy, adds a new chapter on ethical decision-making and core principles, and provides a study guide to assist those preparing for the Behavior Analyst Certification Board exams. Drawing upon Beirne and Sadavoy’s combined 40 years of clinical experience as well as the reflections of colleagues in the field, this is an indispensable guide to ethics for behavior analysis students.

Curious Naturalists

Curious Naturalists
Author: Dr. Niko Tinbergen
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 442
Release: 2017-01-12
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1787209016

Dr. Niko Tinbergen was well known as a naturalist and a student of animal behaviour in England, on the Continent and in the United States. Ever since he was a young student in Holland he had been curious about nature, and in this book he sets out some of the facts that 25 years of curiosity gave him. As a biologist, anything living was his province—the bee-killing wasps and the digger wasps of the Dutch sand dunes; the Snow Bruntings and Phalaropes of Greenland; Hobbies and other hawks; moths and butterflies in various parts of England and Holland; Black-headed Gulls of the Ravenglass nature reserve, Cumberland, the Kittiwakes and Eider Ducks of the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland. Readers cannot fail to be struck—and possibly sometimes amused—by the patience and ingenuity shown in the field studies undertaken by Dr. Tinbergen and his fellow naturalists—and which are now passed on for the benefit and interest of his readers. The studies were always undertaken seriously, but this did not prevent Dr. Tinbergen from writing about them in the liveliest way; he realised that quite often he and his friends must have seemed to onlookers to be very curious naturalists indeed.