"Darwinian creatures", "Skinnerian creatures", "Popperian creatures":

Daniel C. Dennett, From bacteria to Bach and back:

Darwinian creatures:

"They are born 'knowing' all they will ever 'know'; they are gifted but not learners."

"The merely Darwinian creature is 'hard-wired' ... We can expose its cluelessness by confronting it with novel variations on the conditions it has been designed by evolution to handle: it learns nothing and flounders helplessly."

Skinnerian creatures:

"[They] adjust their behavior in reaction to 'reinforcement'; they more or less randomly generate new behaviors to test in the world; those that get reinforced (with positive reward or by the removal of an aversive stimulus - pain or hunger, for instance) are more likely to recur in similar circumstances in the future."

"The Skinnerian creature starts out with some 'plasticity', some optionality in a repertoire of behaviors that is incompletely designed at birth; it learns by trial-and-error forays in the world and is hard-wired to favor the forays that have 'reinforcing' outcomes."

Popperian creatures:

"[They] extract information about the cruel world and keep it handy, so they can use it to pretest hypothetical behaviors offline, letting 'their hypotheses die in their stead'[.] Eventually thy must act in the real world, but their first choice is not random, having won the generate-and-test competition trial runs in the internal environment model."

"The Popperian creature looks before it leaps, testing candidates for action against information about the world it has stored in its brain somehow."

Data Science:

The art of extracting non-obvious and useful patterns from large data sets;

[Data Science - MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series]

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What is data science?

"A data scientist is a statistician who lives in San Francisco."

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Salopp: Ein Datensatz enthält gewisse Informationen, die von Interesse sein könnten. Eine geeignete Analyse macht diese Informationen sichtbar.

"Sensitiveness to immediately exciting sensorial stimuli characterizes the attention of childhood and youth. In mature age we have generally selected those stimuli which are connected with one or more so-called permanent interests, and our attention has grown irresponsive to the rest."

William James

Kausalitätsgedanke:

~ Unter gleichen Bedingungen passiert Gleiches;

Schlüsselaufgabe des bewussten Denkens:

Der Schluss von Bekanntem auf Unbekanntes;

[Siehe auch: noegenesis]

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Von zentraler Bedeutung ist sicherlich auch, zu identifizieren, was an Unbekanntem tatsächlich von Interesse ist. Und ob überhaupt, oder in welchem Ausmaß, das Unbekannte vom Bekannten her erschlossen werden kann.

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Wie viele Menschen gibt es, die so brennend an einer Frage interessiert sind, dass sie für die Beantwortung dieser Frage bereit wären, einen kleinen Finger zu opfern?

Langeweile:

~ Das Gefühl der Unruhe, wenn Zeit verschwendet wird;

Das Sichtbarwerden der Begrenztheit zeitlicher Ressourcen:

Kinder und Jugendliche sind sich der Begrenztheit ihrer zeitlichen Ressourcen in der Regel noch nicht sonderlich bewusst. Die Einsicht in die Überschaubarkeit der eigenen Lebensspanne kann sich bei unterschiedlichen Personen zu recht unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten einstellen.

[Siehe auch: Exploration & Exploitation]

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Das Leben des Einzelmenschen wäre recht anders, wenn ihm unbegrenzte zeitliche Ressourcen zur Verfügung stünden.

IIV:

"for more than 80 years (Fiske & Rice 1955), [psychologists] have accumulated evidence that nonsystematic variability in behaviour (i.e. IIV) is not simply random ‘noise’, but that it varies as a result of age and prior experience, may significantly vary across individuals, and may be stable across time within individuals (Nesselroade 1991; Siegler 2007; Ram & Gerstorf 2009; Salthouse & Nesselroade 2010)."

Judy A. Stamps et al. - Unpredictable animals

Play:

>play is comprised of sequences in which the players switch rapidly between well-controlled movements similar to those used in "serious" behavior and self-handicapping movements that result in temporary loss of control. We propose that this playful switching between in-control and out-of-control elements is cognitively demanding, setting phylogenetic and ontogenetic constraints on play, and is underlain by neuroendocrinological responses that produce a complex emotional state known as "having fun."<

Marek Spinka et al. - Mammalian Play: Training for the Unexpected

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"According to our hypothesis, play enables animals to develop emotional flexibility by rehearsing the emotional aspect of being surprised or temporarily disorientated or disabled. Although unexpected events that occur in a dangerous situation would likely magnify fear in inexperienced animals, we suggest that fear is modulated in play by the relatively safe context in which play occurs and the improbability that losing control will have serious consequences. In addition, regaining control following an unexpected challenge is likely to be rewarding, and the positive nature of this experience may be intensified by the rapid repetition of in-control and out-of-control elements that occur in play."

Functional consequences of play:

"Prediction 1: The amount of play experience obtained affects the ability to physically and emotionally handle unexpected events and temporary handicaps."

Marek Spinka et al. - Mammalian Play: Training for the Unexpected

Self-handicapping in play:

"Larger, older, or more socially dominant animals do not use their full strength in play with smaller, younger, or more socially subordinate animals, and they seem to modify their strength and skill to match that of their partner."

"One consequence of self-handicapping is that dominance distinctions are less evident in play than in other contexts."

"The term 'self-handicapping' denotes that an animal's behavior reduces its probability of achieving its tactical objective in play and thereby prolongs the play interaction. Such behavior appears inconsistent with the statement that animals seek to win playfights. Loizo's dominant chimpanzee initiated a playfight by fleeing from its subordinate; ..."

Robert Fagen - Animal Play Behavior

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"Effort restriction: An animal restricts their strength, skills, or social potential while playing with a partner and does not use their full power during the play interaction. This includes role reversals in which the animal with superior abilities assumes the role of the weaker or losing partner. For instance, a stronger animal allows a weaker one to chase."

Milada Petru et al. - Revisiting Play Elements and Self-Handicapping in Play

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"In social interactions, animals can self-handicap by using positions and movements that impair their competitive ability and enable their playmates to gain the "attack" position. For example, they may inhibit the force of their bites and pushes, and allow themselves to be pushed over and chased, even when they have the ability to harm or dominate a playmate. They may also put themselves at a self-induced disadvantage by playing with larger, stronger, or more experienced play partners, or even with animals of a different species. Because play is only performed when its costs remain low, however, there is an upper limit of unpredictability and loss of control above which animals will not play." 

Marek Spinka et al. - Mammalian Play: Training for the Unexpected 

"The more profound an insight, as well as the more personal or specific, the more difficult it is likely to be to absorb. ... Because they expand and enhance our imaginations, poetry and art press continually at the boundaries of mystery and incomprehensibility, so that, as audience, we are always faced with the necessity of deciding whether the artist is incomprehensible because of telling us something unusually profound or because of telling us something trivial or wrong in an obscure way."

Richard D. Alexander

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"In sophisticated circles originality and creativity have always been revered. But it has also been recognized that defining true creativity, in art, science, and other realms, as distinct from more waywardness, has been a fundamental difficulty."

Raymond B. Cattell

Differences in Receptivity:

Different people perceive different musical pieces / different pieces of literature / different chunks of knowledge as optimally stimulating.

Vergleichende Verhaltensforschung:

"Es ist Sache der vergleichenden Verhaltensforschung, [den] über Jahrmillionen erstreckten Differenzierungsprozess der Wahrnehmungs- und Aktionsweisen von Lebewesen darzustellen und zu erläutern."

Friedhart Klix

Grundregel für das Schreiben:

Nur dann schreiben, wenn man etwas mitzuteilen hat. Besser noch: Wenn sich Gedanken einfinden, die regelrecht nach Ausdruck drängen.

Die Auswahl geeigneter Aktivitäten:

"Jedes informationsaufnehmende System ist auf der Suche nach optimaler Verhaltensanpassung und für die Auswahl geeigneter Aktivitäten gezwungen, die aus der Umgebung einströmende Information nach ihrem Gehalt über reale Eigenschaften dieser Umgebung auszuwerten."

Friedhart Klix

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Salopp gesagt: Das sprachliche Denken ermöglicht ein differenzierteres Auswerten der aus der Umwelt einströmenden Information / ein differenzierteres Reagieren auf einströmende Information.

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Verglichen mit anderen Tieren kann der Mensch eine wesentlich größere Vielfalt an Nachrichten aufnehmen und generieren, wesentlich differenziertere Nachrichten empfangen und erzeugen.

The Enlightenment:

Peter Frost:

"The Enlightenment was due only in part to things like the invention of the printing press, the voyages of discovery, and the founding of universities. These were subsidiary causes that resulted from and supported a more fundamental change: a steady increase in the smart fraction of European societies—the proportion of people who enjoy reading, writing and, above all, thinking."

Das Neue und das Vertraute:

Nicht bloß die Beschäftigung mit dem Neuen und Unbekannten kann belohnend sein, auch der Berührung mit dem Gewohnten und Vertrauten haftet zuweilen ein starker Reiz an.

Self-Control:

>Far more than a "just say no" skill, self-control also gives us the gift of "what-if," an inner life that offers us the chance to mentally test out the future without suffering "real world consequences for one's mistakes," ... In other words, self-control is the essence of looking-literally and cognitively-before you leap.<

Maggie Jackson

Das Ichbewusstsein:

~ Das explizite Wissen um die eigene Fähigkeit, innerhalb bestimmter Grenzen das eigene Bewusstsein, das eigene Denken, Wahrnehmen und Handeln, beeinflussen zu können;

Verbal Courtship:

Geoffrey Miller, 1996:

"As human courtship relied more heavily on language, mate choice focused more on the ideas that language expresses. The selection pressures that shaped the evolution of the human mind came increasingly not from the environment testing whether one’s hunting skills were sufficient for survival, but from other minds testing whether one’s ideas were interesting enough to provoke some sexual attraction."

Ästhetische Präferenzen:

An welchen Strukturen, Mustern, Phänomenen, Gegenständen ein Mensch Gefallen findet;

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"the physical universe has structure, and one’s perceptions of this structure, one’s partiality to some of its characteristics and aversion to others, are precisely the elements that make up one’s taste."

Chen Ning Yang

Fangen spielen mit gleich bleibender Schwierigkeit:

"Immer wenn ich meinen Jagdhund Hussar auf offenen Feldern spazieren führe, spielt er ein recht einfaches Spiel - Prototyp eines kulturell weitverbreiteten Kinderspiels: Fangen. Er rennt mit äußerster Geschwindigkeit um mich herum, lässt die Zunge heraushängen, und seine Augen verfolgen jede meiner Bewegungen aufmerksam. Er fordert mich heraus, ihn zu fangen. Gewöhnlich springe ich auf ihn zu, und wenn ich Glück habe, kann ich ihn berühren. Das Interessante daran ist, wann immer ich müde bin und nur halbherzig zuspringe, rennt Hussar in engeren Kreisen und macht es mir leichter, ihn zu fangen; wenn ich jedoch in guter Verfassung bin und mich anstrengen will, vergrößert er den Durchmesser seiner Kreise. Auf diese Weise ist das Spiel stets gleich schwierig."

Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi

Zukunft:

1) das sprachliche Vorausdenken

2) das Anschauen eines Zukunftsszenarios

Analytisches Denken:

~ Die Fähigkeit, ein Problem so zu zergliedern (zu drehen und zu wenden), bis der Kern des Problems sichtbar wird.

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"[D]ie Aufgabe [besteht] im Wesentlichen darin, sehr schnell den Kern eines Problems zu identifizieren ..."

Gerhard Roth

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"Ein intelligenter Mensch ist jemand, der schnell sieht, was Sache ist, und dem ebenso schnell einfällt, was jetzt zu tun ist ..."

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"Verletzungen [im dorsolateralen präfrontalen Kortex] machen einen Patienten typisch unintelligent: Er erkennt nicht mehr, was Sache ist, kann keine Probleme mehr lösen, kapiert nichts und tendiert dazu, stereotyp vorzugehen, auch wenn sich Dinge und Situationen stark ändern."

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"Schlechte Problemlöser erkennen oft nicht, was ein Problem schwierig macht, und können ihre Strategien dem neuen Problem nicht gut anpassen."