On Demand
The Story of Me
- Comments [2]
We visit U.C. San Diego Neurologist, V.S. Ramachandran who tells us about the evolution of human consciousness…or the difference between the way we think of some abstraction, like love and the way a baboon thinks of a rear end. Something in the way our brain operates tells us about our ability to imagine and perceive ourselves. Paul Broks, author of Into the Silent Land, invites us into his childhood dreams, inhabited by tiny little men whom he had no control over. Robert Lewis Stevenson, famed spinner of dark tales, had his own little men in his head, that he exploited for fame and profit.
Robert Louis Stevenson's Book: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Actor Joshua Kane's website
- "Maddalena" Mus - Fai - Darla Records
- "Vertigo" Radian - Juxtaposition - Thrill Jockey
- "Zwei Sonatinen for piano Op.1- No. I- II: Larghetto" Stephen De Pledge - Arvo Pärt: Stabat Mater - Black Box
- "The Gal From Joe's " Duke Ellington - The Duke: The Columbia Years, 1927-1962
Podcast
Stay up to date.
Subscribe to the Podcast
Radio Lab Blog
Radio Lab’s got a blog! Check out our rants and ramblings, hear bonus audio, and get all kinds of other goodies like ringtones and videos.
More
Radio Lab Email
Tell Radio Lab What You Think
Have questions about the show? Ideas for topics for Radio Lab to investigate? Heard things you like? Don’t like? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you.
Email us at radiolab@wnyc.org
Comments
Refresh
In this segment, Ramachandran seems to be claiming that animals do not have the ability to comprehend and remember abstract concepts like the color Red and apply those concepts to new situations. However, this supposition has been shown false by Brandeis University animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg, who assisted her grey parrot Alex in learning abstract concepts like colors and shapes. Pepperberg's work and the work of animal behaviorist Temple Grandin show that animals cannot learn abstract concepts using operant conditioning, which has traditionally been the methods scientists have used to teach animals to push levers, etc. Operant conditioning (stimulus- response conditioning) is an unnatural form of learning that does not exist in the wild. However, Social Modeling Theory shows us that by performing a behavior as a demonstration for an animal, we can easily teach it all sorts of complex concepts like, in the case of Alex, concepts of color and shape and how to utilize these concepts in unfamiliar, unrehearsed situations. Using Social Modeling Theory to teach abstract concepts has been demonstrated to work on birds and humans, and probably by now, been demonstrated on non-human primates also.
This idea of multiplicty echos ideas by the philosophers Deleuze and Guittari (the paradox of oneness in spite of multiplicity captures it best). I believe these guys' ideas hooked into a conception of the self as multiple- in an interesting way that I do not know how to elloborate, per say. But I do wonder about the connections between the research/thought and whether philosophy (it seems to do this often!) has anticipated discoveries in science.
Leave a Comment
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Back to EpisodeEmail addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.