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Causal Mechanisms of Behavioural Development
B HAVIOURAL 6 ROCESSES ELSEVIER
Behavioural
Processes 37 (1996) 253-254
Book review Causal Mechanisms Cambridge University,
of Behauioural Development. Edited by Jerry A. Hogan and Johan J. Bolhuis. Cambridge, 1994, xix + 416 pp, ISBN O-521-43241-3.
Of the various fundamental approaches to behaviour, those attending to causation and ontogeny have received relatively little attention despite their importance. Hence the present volume celebrating the accomplishments of Jaap Kruijt of Groningen upon his retirement is most welcome. Eighteen contributors from both sides of the Atlantic analyze advanced topics in the tradition in which Kruijt has participated. In a polite Foreward, Baerends reviews Kruijt’s intellectual roots with Tinbergen and Lehrman and his works as Baerends’ successor. Of the five parts of the book, the first consists of fine chapters by each of the editors: Hogan scrutinizes the concept of cause, highlighting several non-obvious features, while Bolhuis usefully considers the logic of the neurobiology of behavioural mechanisms. The second part is almost entirely restricted to solid reviews of such avian topics as singing, sexual imprinting, and action patterns. In the third part, on the development of behavioural systems, T. Groothuis examines social displays usefully from several aspects, but it is clear that much remains to be understood about such displays; A. Fleming and E. Blass carefully evaluate motheryoung relationships, duly lauding “forward-thinking neurophysiologists and intrepid psychobiologists”; and Hogan broadly synthesizes findings on the principles of operation and interaction of systems. In the fourth part, on cognitive ontogeny, there is an interesting trio of chapters on cortical mechanisms (M. Johnson), general cognition (D. Sherry, appropriately overtly “agnostic” on trendy “animal awareness”>, and language (J. Locke). In the fifth part, on learning and development, P. Balsam and R. Silver, and S. Shettleworth provide related chapters insightfully addressing ontogeny through principles of learning, while there is a strange final chapter on representation by I. McLaren with unclear significance. Throughout, and in contrast to much work on functional issues in animal behaviour, the presentations are detailed and critical, examine special topics (such as methodological points and constraints on behaviour) and alternative interpretations, and suggest further work. The text is lightly illustrated and there are author and subject indices. Overall, this book contains almost uniformly excellent material and, unlike many edited volumes, is intellectually cohesive and focussed; it hews closely to the selected tradition, and the small number of species studied within that tradition; it does not deal extensively with other traditions in behavioural ontogeny or at all with larger issues such as relations with functional morphology, or ontogeny at large as treated by, say, Brian Goodwin or Steven Jay Gould. Several of the chapters convey happy messages that comprehension of
0376.6357/96/$15,CCl SSDI 0376-6357(95)0008
Copyright 0 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. 1 -X
254
Book Rwiew
ontogenetic dynamics and support for some very broad principles of behavioural organization indeed growing. For providing superb syntheses on such matters this volume is outstanding. Patrick W. Colgan, Programmes Branch, Canadian Museum of Nature, PO Box 3443, Station D, Ottawa, Ontario KlP 6P4, Canada
are
Behavioural
Processes 37 (1996) 253-254
Book review Causal Mechanisms Cambridge University,
of Behauioural Development. Edited by Jerry A. Hogan and Johan J. Bolhuis. Cambridge, 1994, xix + 416 pp, ISBN O-521-43241-3.
Of the various fundamental approaches to behaviour, those attending to causation and ontogeny have received relatively little attention despite their importance. Hence the present volume celebrating the accomplishments of Jaap Kruijt of Groningen upon his retirement is most welcome. Eighteen contributors from both sides of the Atlantic analyze advanced topics in the tradition in which Kruijt has participated. In a polite Foreward, Baerends reviews Kruijt’s intellectual roots with Tinbergen and Lehrman and his works as Baerends’ successor. Of the five parts of the book, the first consists of fine chapters by each of the editors: Hogan scrutinizes the concept of cause, highlighting several non-obvious features, while Bolhuis usefully considers the logic of the neurobiology of behavioural mechanisms. The second part is almost entirely restricted to solid reviews of such avian topics as singing, sexual imprinting, and action patterns. In the third part, on the development of behavioural systems, T. Groothuis examines social displays usefully from several aspects, but it is clear that much remains to be understood about such displays; A. Fleming and E. Blass carefully evaluate motheryoung relationships, duly lauding “forward-thinking neurophysiologists and intrepid psychobiologists”; and Hogan broadly synthesizes findings on the principles of operation and interaction of systems. In the fourth part, on cognitive ontogeny, there is an interesting trio of chapters on cortical mechanisms (M. Johnson), general cognition (D. Sherry, appropriately overtly “agnostic” on trendy “animal awareness”>, and language (J. Locke). In the fifth part, on learning and development, P. Balsam and R. Silver, and S. Shettleworth provide related chapters insightfully addressing ontogeny through principles of learning, while there is a strange final chapter on representation by I. McLaren with unclear significance. Throughout, and in contrast to much work on functional issues in animal behaviour, the presentations are detailed and critical, examine special topics (such as methodological points and constraints on behaviour) and alternative interpretations, and suggest further work. The text is lightly illustrated and there are author and subject indices. Overall, this book contains almost uniformly excellent material and, unlike many edited volumes, is intellectually cohesive and focussed; it hews closely to the selected tradition, and the small number of species studied within that tradition; it does not deal extensively with other traditions in behavioural ontogeny or at all with larger issues such as relations with functional morphology, or ontogeny at large as treated by, say, Brian Goodwin or Steven Jay Gould. Several of the chapters convey happy messages that comprehension of
0376.6357/96/$15,CCl SSDI 0376-6357(95)0008
Copyright 0 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. 1 -X
254
Book Rwiew
ontogenetic dynamics and support for some very broad principles of behavioural organization indeed growing. For providing superb syntheses on such matters this volume is outstanding. Patrick W. Colgan, Programmes Branch, Canadian Museum of Nature, PO Box 3443, Station D, Ottawa, Ontario KlP 6P4, Canada
are