Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T02:04:31.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Section 1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2021

Edward A. Wasserman
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
Get access

Summary

In my book, I explore the origin and evolution of a variety of behavioral innovations – including the Butterfly Stroke, the High Five, and the Heimlich Maneuver – which appear to have been ingeniously and foresightfully designed. More commonly, however, these creative acts have actually arisen “as if by design.” This revelation requires a much more thorough look into the histories of these innovations in order to better understand the very nature of behavioral creativity. What emerges is an intricate web of causation involving three main factors: context, consequence, and coincidence. By concentrating on the process rather than the product of innovation, I elevate behavior to its proper place – at the very center of creative human endeavor – for it is truly behavior that produces the innumerable innovations that have captivated thinkers’ imagination. Those most splendid theories, goods, and gadgets would never have come into being without the behaviors of their inventors.

Type
Chapter
Information
As If By Design
How Creative Behaviors Really Evolve
, pp. 1 - 16
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Enfield, N. (2018, July 19). Our job as scientists is to find the truth. But we must also be storytellers. The Guardian.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, A. (2012, September 10). It ain’t necessarily so. The New Yorker.Google Scholar
Lattal, K. A. (1998). A century of effect: Legacies of E. L. Thorndike’s Animal Intelligence monograph. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 70, 325336.Google Scholar
Menand, L. (2015, November 15). The Elvic Oracle. The New Yorker.Google Scholar
Mischel, W. (2014). The marshmallow test: Mastering self-control. New York, NY: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, D. A., and Janczyk, M. (2019). Who is or was E. R. F. W. Crossman, the champion of the Power Law of Learning and the developer of an influential model of aiming? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 26, 14491463.Google Scholar
Rung, J. M., and Madden, G. J. (2018). Experimental reductions of delay discounting and impulsive choice: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147, 13491381.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B., Wasserman, E. A., and Robbins, S. J. (2002). Psychology of learning and behavior (5th ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York, NY: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Wasserman, E. A. (2019). Precrastination: The fierce urgency of now. Learning & Behavior, 47, 728.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

References

Colin, T. R. and Belpaeme, T. (2019). Reinforcement Learning and Insight in the Artificial Pigeon. CogSci: Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 15331539.Google Scholar
Cook, R. and Fowler, C. (2014). “Insight” in Pigeons: Absence of Means–End Processing in Displacement Tests. Animal Cognition, 17, 207220.Google Scholar
Epstein, R. (1981). On Pigeons and People: A Preliminary Look at the Columban Simulation Project. The Behavior Analyst, 4, 4453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, R. (1985). Animal Cognition as the Praxis Views It. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 9, 623630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scarf, D. and Colombo, M. (2020). Columban Simulation Project 2.0: Numerical Competence and Orthographic Processing in Pigeons and Primates. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 3017.Google Scholar
Shettleworth, S. J. (2012). Do Animals Have Insight, and What Is Insight Anyway? Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66, 217226.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Edward A. Wasserman, University of Iowa
  • Book: As If By Design
  • Online publication: 01 July 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108774895.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Edward A. Wasserman, University of Iowa
  • Book: As If By Design
  • Online publication: 01 July 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108774895.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edward A. Wasserman, University of Iowa
  • Book: As If By Design
  • Online publication: 01 July 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108774895.001
Available formats
×