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Laland, Kevin N.

September 18, 2017 by admin

WORK TITLE: Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony
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PERSONAL

Born October 5, 1962.

EDUCATION:

University College, London, Ph.D., 1990.

ADDRESS

Office - University of St.Andrews, School of Biology, Sir Harold Mitchell Building, Greenside Place, St Andrews, Scotland.

CAREER

Writer, editor, evolutionary biologist, researcher, public speaker, and educator. University of St. Andrews, St.Andrews, Scotland, professor of behavioral and evolutionary biology, 2002—.

MEMBER:

Royal Society of Edinburgh (fell0w), Society of Biology (fellow), European Human Behavior and Evolution Association (president).

AWARDS:

ERC Advanced Grant; Royal Society University Research Fellowship;Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award; Human Frontier Science Programme Organization, postdoctoral fellowship; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, postdoctoral fellowship; Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship, University of California Berkeley.

WRITINGS

(With Gillian R. Brown) Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002 , published as Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2011
(With F. John Odling-Smee and Marcus W. Feldman) Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2003
(With William Hoppitt) Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2013
Darwin`s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Explains the Evolution of the Human Mind, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2017
EDITOR
(With Simon M. Reader) Animal Innovation, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003
(Under name Kevin Laland; with Jonathan C. K. Wells and Simon Strickland) Social Information Transmission and Human Biology, CRC/Taylor & Francis (Boca Raton, FL), 2006
(Under name Kevin Laland; with Jens Krause and Culum Brown) Fish Cognition and Behavior, Blackwell Publishing (Ames, IA), 2006 , published as Fish Cognition and Behavior, 2nd edition, Wiley-Blackwell (Ames, IA), 2011
(With Bennett G. Galef) The Question of Animal Culture, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2009

Contributor to journals and periodicals, including the British Journal of Psychology, Behavioural Ecology, and Interface Focus. Animal Behaviour, editor, 2005-08.

SIDELIGHTS

Kevin N. Laland is a writer, editor, evolutionary biologist, and educator at the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland. He has been with the university since 2002. As a researcher, Laland studies animal behavior and evolution, “with a specific focus on animal social learning, cultural evolution and niche construction,” he stated on the University of St. Andrews Website. He is the head of the Laland Lab, where he and his colleagues study animal social learning, innovation, and intelligence through experimental work with fish, birds, nonhuman primates, and even humans. They also study niche construction and human evolution in the lab. “Our work is highly interdisciplinary, lying on the interface of evolutionary biology, animal behavior, ecology, and psychology,” noted a writer on the Laland Lab Website. Laland is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Society of Biology. He earned his Ph.D. at University College, London in 1990.

Sense and Nonsense and Niche Construction

In Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour, Laland and coauthor Gillian R. Brown explores the concept of evolutionary theory and how it can be used to interpret and understand human behavior. He makes it plain that some areas of science, such as evolutionary biology, anthropology, and psychology, have great hopes for how evolutionary theory can be applied within those fields. Other scientific disciplines, however, are unconvinced about the usefulness of evolutionary theory. Laland covers this controversy and presents detailed information on five schools of scientific thought that have emerged during the pursuit of the best way to apply evolutionary theory. These consist of sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, cultural evolution, human behavioral ecology, and gene-culture coevolution. The authors clarify many of the concepts and controversies in this field of study while providing a clear background on the ideas, methods, and discoveries so far made within these areas.

Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution, written with F. John Odling-Smee and Marcus W. Feldman, examines the concept of niche construction, the process of environmental change and modification that occurs as the result of the activities of organisms that live within that environment. Laland and his coauthors present the case that this process has been largely ignored in the study of evolution. They believe that it can reveal significant information about both the organisms and the environments in which they live. They discuss the complexities of niche construction and provide research findings, conceptual models, and empirical data that supports it. They argue in favor of its broader application in evolutionary studies and provide comprehensive on how niche construction works, supporting their advocacy with in-depth information on its role in modifying the dynamics of evolution. Their inclusive theory of niche construction, they assert, can explain some long-unresolved issues in ecology and give scientists new tools to understand important evolutionary questions.

Darwin`s Unfinished Symphony

Darwin`s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Explains the Evolution of the Human Mind provides a detailed examination of evolutionary biology and its principles. Laland’s discussion is based on the findings from ten years of research, both his own and that of other professionals in the field. With this material as background, he also presents a “comprehensive and fascinating solution to the vexing problem of the human mind,” commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Laland argues in this book that human culture did not originate in the human mind. Instead, it was actual “early cultural tendencies shaped the evolution of our brains,” the Publishers Weekly writer noted.

Laland believes that early humans copied behaviors that they observed in relatives. The larger part of these behaviors would be successful (since unsuccessful behaviors would be likely to lead to death). Once the observers adopted these behaviors, they would have new techniques to use to improve their chances of survival. Later, our ancestors developed the active teaching of useful behaviors, further increasing the chances that offspring and family members would survive to pass on both genetics and learned strategies.

Laland further suggests that it was the need for teaching in this context that led to the development and evolution of language. As all of these behaviors combining in our early ancestors, their brains became more complex and more advanced than their closest evolutionary relatives.

Steven Rose, writing in Times Higher Education, remarked that “Kevin Laland’s ambitious new book is, to my mind, the best account yet” of the development and evolution of the human mind. Rose called Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony a “richly rewarding and powerfully argued book.”

Animal Innovation, Fish Cognition and Behavior, and The Question of Animal Culture

Laland is also the coeditor of several books on animal behavior and human biology. Animal Innovation, edited in collaboration with Simon M. Reader, includes a collection of scholarly essays on how animals develop new behavior patterns and adjust their established behavior to respond to a new stimulus in their environment, to find a different position for themselves in an unfamiliar situation, or to react to problems and stresses in a new way that improves their chances of survival. Animals, like humans, have the ability to react constructively to change, and the essays in this book provide insight into how this happens.

Fish Cognition and Behavior, edited with Jens Krause and Culum Brown, covers how fish learn and behave. The essayists cover topics such as foraging and food-finding skills, the recognition of predators, the social organization of fish communities, learning in fish, and the maintenance of individual fish welfare and the reactions to threatening stimuli such as pain. The material in the book provides insight both for biologists and for those involved in the commercial use of fish, such as hatcheries and fisheries.

The Question of Animal Culture, edited with Bennett G. Galef, contains essays that address the sometimes controversial topic of whether or not animals possess a unique culture, and how that culture can be adapted to and modified according to individual and group needs. The essays address both sides of the issue, discussing evidence to suggest that animals indeed have an identifiable culture within their species groups and other positions that believe animals do not and cannot maintain a culture of their own, even if it is simple or geared toward evolutionary improvements.

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

Publishers Weekly, January 23, 2017, review of Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind, p. 73.
Times Higher Education, May 18, 2017, Steven Rose, review of Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony.

ONLINE

Big Questions Online, http://www.bigquestionsonline.com/ (November 5, 2017), biography of Kevin N. Laland.
Conversation, http://www.theconversation.com/ (November 5, 2017), biography of Kevin Laland.
Laland Lab Website, https://lalandlab.st-andrews.ac.uk/ (November 5, 2017).
University of St. Andrews Website, https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/ (November 5, 2017), biography of Kevin N. Laland.

Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002
Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2003
Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2013
Darwin`s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Explains the Evolution of the Human Mind Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2017
Animal Innovation Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003
Social Information Transmission and Human Biology CRC/Taylor & Francis (Boca Raton, FL), 2006
Fish Cognition and Behavior Blackwell Publishing (Ames, IA), 2006
The Question of Animal Culture Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2009

1. Darwin`s unfinished symphony : how culture explains the evolution of the human mind LCCN 2016944396 Type of material Book Personal name Laland, Kevin N. Main title Darwin`s unfinished symphony : how culture explains the evolution of the human mind / Kevin N. Laland. Published/Produced Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2017. Projected pub date 1702 Description pages cm ISBN 9780691151182 (cloth : alk. paper) Library of Congress Holdings Information not available. 2. Social learning : an introduction to mechanisms, methods, and models LCCN 2012049339 Type of material Book Personal name Hoppitt, William. Main title Social learning : an introduction to mechanisms, methods, and models / William Hoppitt and Kevin N. Laland. Published/Produced Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2013] ©2013 Description ix, 307 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm ISBN 9780691150703 (hardback : alk. paper) 0691150702 (hardback : alk. paper) 9780691150710 (pbk. : alk. paper) 0691150710 (pbk. : alk. paper) Shelf Location FLM2014 022435 CALL NUMBER QL785 .H725 2013 OVERFLOWA5S Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLM1) 3. Fish cognition and behavior LCCN 2011002188 Type of material Book Main title Fish cognition and behavior / edited by Culum Brown, Kevin Laland, Jens Krause. Edition 2nd ed. Published/Created Chichester, West Sussex, UK ; Ames, Iowa : Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Description xxii, 450 p. : ill. ; 26 cm. ISBN 9781444332216 (hardcover : alk. paper) CALL NUMBER QL639.3 .F575 2011 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms CALL NUMBER QL639.3 .F575 2011 Copy 2 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms 4. Sense and nonsense : evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour LCCN 2011293187 Type of material Book Personal name Laland, Kevin N. Main title Sense and nonsense : evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour / Kevin N. Laland, Gillian R. Brown. Edition 2nd ed. Published/Created New York : Oxford University Press, 2011. Description ix, 270 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. ISBN 9780199586967 (pbk.) CALL NUMBER BF701 .L26 201 LANDOVR Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 5. The question of animal culture LCCN 2008030549 Type of material Book Main title The question of animal culture / edited by Kevin N. Laland and Bennett G. Galef. Published/Created Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009. Description vi, 351 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. ISBN 9780674031265 0674031261 Links Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0903/2008030549.html CALL NUMBER QL751 .Q84 2009 CABIN BRANCH Copy 2 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 6. Fish cognition and behavior LCCN 2006004742 Type of material Book Main title Fish cognition and behavior / edited by Culum Brown, Kevin Laland, Jens Krause. Published/Created Oxford ; Ames, Iowa : Blackwell Pub., 2006. Description xviii, 328 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. ISBN 1405134291 (hardback : alk. paper) 9781405134293 (hardback : alk. paper) Links Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip068/2006004742.html Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0802/2006004742-d.html Contributor biographical information http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0802/2006004742-b.html CALL NUMBER QL639.3 .F575 2006 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms 7. Social information transmission and human biology LCCN 2006044585 Type of material Book Main title Social information transmission and human biology / edited by Jonathan C.K. Wells, Simon Strickland, and Kevin Laland. Published/Created Boca Raton, FL : CRC/Taylor & Francis, 2006. Description 289 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. ISBN 0849340470 9780849340475 Links Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0613/2006044585.html Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0648/2006044585-d.html CALL NUMBER BF444 .S62 2006 LANDOVR Copy 2 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 8. Animal innovation LCCN 2004296817 Type of material Book Main title Animal innovation / edited by Simon M. Reader and Kevin N. Laland. Published/Created Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003. Description x, 344 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. ISBN 0198526210 (hbk.) 0198526229 (pbk.) Links Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy044/2004296817.html Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0620/2004296817-d.html CALL NUMBER QL751 .A66 2003 FT MEADE Copy 2 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 9. Niche construction : the neglected process in evolution LCCN 2002031747 Type of material Book Personal name Odling-Smee, F. John, 1935- Main title Niche construction : the neglected process in evolution / F. John Odling-Smee, Kevin N. Laland, and Marcus W. Feldman. Published/Created Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2003. Description xii, 472 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. ISBN 0691044384 (alk. paper) 0691044376 (pbk. : alk. paper) Links Contributor biographical information http://www.loc.gov/catdir/bios/prin051/2002031747.html Sample text http://www.loc.gov/catdir/samples/prin031/2002031747.html Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/prin031/2002031747.html CALL NUMBER QH546.3 .O35 2003 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms CALL NUMBER Copy 2 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms CALL NUMBER Not available Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms 10. Sense and nonsense : evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour LCCN 2002283254 Type of material Book Personal name Laland, Kevin N. Main title Sense and nonsense : evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour / Kevin N. Laland and Gillian R. Brown. Published/Created Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002. Description ix, 369 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0198508840 Links Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0614/2002283254-d.html Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0614/2002283254-t.html Contributor biographical information http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0724/2002283254-b.html CALL NUMBER BF701 .L34 2002 LANDOVR Copy 2 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE

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University > Research portal > Researchers > Kevin Neville Laland

Kevin Neville Laland
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Kevin Neville Laland
School of Biology - Professor
Postal address:
School of Biology
Sir Harold Mitchell Building
Greenside Place
St Andrews
United Kingdom
Scottish Oceans Institute
Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences
Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution
E-mail: knl1@st-andrews.ac.uk
Web address: http://lalandlab.st-andrews.ac.uk/
Direct phone: +44 (0)1334 463568
Research overview
My principle academic interests are in the general area of animal behaviour and evolution, with a specific focus on animal social learning, cultural evolution and niche construction. I am engaged in empirical studies of animal social learning and innovation, including experimental work with fish, birds, non-human primates and humans. This laboratory work is complemented by theoretical investigations of the role of niche construction in evolution, the diffusion dynamics of learned behaviour and the co-evolution of genes and culture throughout human evolution.

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

President of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association.

Editor, Animal Behaviour, 2005-2008.

Member of The Royal Society’s Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship scheme selection panel, 2004-2008.

Core member of EU-funded research network CULTAPTATION (NEST-PATH-043434).

Principal Investigator of the AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity (CECD), UCL.

Principal Investigator on four current research council grants, with a combined value of nearly £3 million.

Recipient of ERC Advanced Grant (2,128,195 Euros)

Past recipient of a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, as well as postdoctoral fellowships from the Human Frontier Science Programme Organization and the BBSRC.

Research Group: Ms Nicola Atton (EU), Ms Alice Cowie (EU), Mr Lewis Dean (EU), Ms Laurel Fogarty (BBSRC), Dr William Hoppitt (BBSRC), Dr Anne Kandler (AHRC), Ms Katherine Meacham (EU), Mr Thomas Morgan (EU), Dr Luke Rendell (EU), Dr Mike Webster (NERC), Ms Birgit Weinman (NERC).

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Research publications (227)
New trends in evolutionary biology: biological, philosophical and social science perspectives
Bateson, P., Cartwright, N., Dupre, J., Laland, K. & Noble, D. 6 Oct 2017 In : Interface Focus. 7, 5, 3 p., 20170051
Editorial
Niche construction, sources of selection and trait coevolution
Laland, K., Odling-Smee, J. & Endler, J. 6 Oct 2017 In : Interface Focus. 7, 5, 9 p., 20160147
Article
Social information use and social learning in non-grouping fishes
Webster, M. M. & Laland, K. N. 11 Sep 2017 In : Behavioural Ecology. 6 p.
Article
View all
Activities and awards (30)
Presentation to the New York Sceptics Society on 'Darwin's Unfinished Symphony'
Laland, K. N. (Speaker)
3 Jun 2017
Public lecture/debate/seminar
The Social Synapse: Neuroscience and the Roots of Human Connections
Laland, K. N. (Speaker)
2 Jun 2017
Public lecture/debate/seminar
Hay Festival: Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind
Laland, K. N. (Speaker)
30 May 2017
Invited talk
View all
Funded projects (10)
Putting the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis to the Test
Laland, K. N.
1/09/16 → 31/05/19
Understanding animal innovation
Laland, K. N.
9/01/12 → 8/01/15
Understanding and predicting diffusion of innovations in animal populations
Laland, K. N.
BBSRC
3/10/11 → 2/10/14
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The Laland Lab
In the Laland Lab, we study evolution and animal behaviour. We focus on three main areas:

1. animal social learning, innovation and intelligence
2. niche construction, inclusive inheritance, phenotypic plasticity and the extended evolutionary synthesis
3. human evolution, particularly the evolution of cognition

Our work is highly interdisciplinary, lying on the interface of evolutionary biology, animal behaviour, ecology and psychology, and combines a wide variety of empirical and theoretical approaches.

We are part of an international collaborative project entitled, Putting the extended evolutionary synthesis to the test led by Kevin Laland and Tobias Uller (Lund University, Sweden). Visit the extended evolutionary synthesis website to learn more.

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Latest news

Kevin’s latest book, Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony, wins the 2017 British Psychological Society (BPS) Book Award for Academic Monograph.

Select publications

The extension of biology through culture [pdf]
Whiten A, Ayala FJ, Feldman MW & Laland KN
Proc Natl Acad Sci, 2017 doi:10.1073/pnas.1707630114

Coevolution of cultural intelligence, extended life history, sociality, and brain size in primates [pdf]
Street SE, Navarrete AF, Reader SM & Laland KN
Proc Natl Acad Sci, 2017 doi:10.1073/pnas.1620734114

Fish pool their experience to solve problems collectively [pdf]
Webster MM, Whalen ACZ & Laland KN
Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2017 1:135

Experimental evidence for the co-evolution of hominin tool-making, teaching and language [pdf]
Morgan TJH, Uomini NT, Rendell LE, Chouinard-Thuly L, Street SE, Lewis HM, Cross CP, Evans C, Kearney R, de la Torre I, Whiten A & Laland KN
Nature Communications, 2015 6:6029

The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions [pdf]
Laland KN, Uller T, Feldman MW, Sterelny K, Müller GB, Moczek A, Jablonka E & Odling-Smee FJ
Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2015 282:20151019

Identification of the social and cognitive processes underlying human cumulative culture [pdf]
Dean LG, Kendal RL, Schapiro SJ, Thierry B & Laland KN
Science, 2012 335:1114-1118

Cause and effect in biology revisited: Is Mayr’s proximate-ultimate dichotomy still useful? [pdf]
Laland KN, Sterelny K, Odling-Smee FJ, Hoppitt W & Uller T
Science, 2011 334:1512-1516

Why copy others? Insights from the Social Learning Strategies Tournament [pdf]
Rendell L, Boyd R, Cownden D, Enquist M, Eriksson K, Feldman MW, Fogarty L, Ghirlanda S, Lillicrap T & Laland KN
Science, 2010 328:208-213

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Professor of Biology, University of St Andrews
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Kevin Laland is Professor of Behavioural and Evolutionary Biology at the University of St Andrews, where he is a member of the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Centre for Social learning and Cognitive Evolution, the Institute for Behavioural and Neural Sciences, and the Scottish Primate Research Group. After completing his PhD at University College London, Laland held a Human Frontier Science Programme fellowship at UC Berkeley, followed by BBSRC and Royal Society University Research fellowships at the University of Cambridge, before moving to St Andrews in 2002. He has published over 230 scientific articles and 13 books on a wide range of topics related to animal behaviour and evolution, particularly social learning, cultural evolution and niche construction. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Society of Biology, and the recipient of both an ERC Advanced Grant and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.

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–present Professor of Biology, University of St Andrews
Education

1990 University College London, PhD
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Big Questions Online - https://www.bigquestionsonline.com/author/kevin-laland/
ABOUT Big Questions Online ARCHIVE
Kevin N. Laland
Kevin N. Laland
Kevin N. Laland is Professor of Behavioural and Evolutionary Biology at the University of St Andrews, United Kingdom, and studies animal behavior and evolution, with a specific focus on niche construction, the extended evolutionary synthesis, and the evolution of cognition. He is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. He has published over two hundred scientific articles and is the author or coauthor of several books, including Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour (2002), Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution (2003), and Social Learning: an Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods and Models (2013).
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10/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1507252305841 1/1
Print Marked Items
Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How
Culture Made the Human Mind
Publishers Weekly.
264.4 (Jan. 23, 2017): p73.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind
Kevin N. Laland. Princeton link, $35 (480p) ISBN 978-0-691-15118-2
Laland, professor of behavioral and evolutionary biology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland,
covers basic principles of evolutionary biology as he describes a decade's worth of his and others' research,
culminating in a comprehensive and fascinating solution to the vexing problem of the human mind. He
advocates for the position that human culture is not a product of the human mind; instead, he believes that
early cultural tendencies shaped the evolution of our brains. Employing a combination of experimental and
theoretical data, Laland hypothesizes that early humans copied successful behaviors from relatives and thus
increased their fitness. Passive imitation led to active teaching with large benefits accruing to those who
were able to pass on complex behaviors most accurately. Teaching, in turn, led to the need for language. "It
sounds paradoxical that teaching should both explain the advent of human cultural complexity and be the
product of it," he writes, "but that is exactly what we should expect if a feedback mechanism... is operating."
All of these interactions helped shaped the brains of early humans, making them far more complex than
those of our closest relatives. Throughout, Laland successfully draws readers into the scientific process that
led to his conclusions while presenting data from a very wide atray of disciplines. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind." Publishers Weekly, 23 Jan. 2017,
p. 73. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479714224&it=r&asid=0a0126eac86cc8513ca081915145bc96.
Accessed 5 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479714224

"Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind." Publishers Weekly, 23 Jan. 2017, p. 73. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479714224&it=r. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017.

Times Higher Edication
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/review-darwins-unfinished-symphony-kevin-n-laland-princeton-university-press
Word count: 517
Please follow link for review - Researcher reached max articles for the month.

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Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind, by Kevin N. Laland
Steven Rose on an eloquent explanation of the rapid mechanisms of human cognitive evolution

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Bean for the Future—CUHK Scholar Breeds Soybeans Worth their Salt
Beans are common foodstuff, but they remain the supporting cast in our diets. Few are aware that grain legumes contain more proteins than cereals and that soybean is a major....
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