BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://bec.ucla.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20190310T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20191103T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20200308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20201101T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20210314T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20211107T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201005T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201005T133000 DTSTAMP:20260506T060831 CREATED:20200922T204656Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201025T214004Z UID:3904-1601899200-1601904600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:L. Ian Reed - The communicative functions of facial expressions DESCRIPTION:The communicative functions of facial expressions\nL. Ian Reed\nClinical Assistant Professor\, Department of Psychology\, NYU\nPrevious research suggests that some facial expressions of emotion serve a communicative function by signaling private feelings and action tendencies.  Further\, some expressions such as smiles and scowls affect receivers by increasing the credibility of accompanying verbal and/or written statements.  Here\, I will discuss the credible signaling hypothesis and the evidence in support of it.  This will include a discussion of experiments using economic games to create strategic situations in which facial expressions of emotion might benefit signalers and receivers.  These experiments test whether a signaler’s emotional expressions increase the credibility of promises\, threats\, claims of danger\, and assurances of trustworthiness.  The results speak to the hidden strategies behind spontaneous and deliberate expressions and their effects on receiver’s behavior. \n  URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/the-communicative-functions-of-facial-expressions-of-emotion/ CATEGORIES:2020,Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201012T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201012T133000 DTSTAMP:20260506T060831 CREATED:20200924T162418Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201024T195731Z UID:4565-1602504000-1602509400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Heidi Colleran - Rethinking reproduction in human evolutionary research DESCRIPTION:Rethinking reproduction in human evolutionary research\nHeidi Colleran\nBirthRites Independent Research Group\, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology\, Leipzig\, Germany\nDepartment of Human Behavior\, Ecology and Culture\, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology\, Leipzig\, Germany\nIn this talk I would like to critique and try to reframe the way that evolutionary researchers approach human reproductive behavior. Master narratives of human evolution have long promoted a naturalized\, eco- logically determinist account of reproductive decision-making: these are usually narrowly tied to resource acquisition and to the energetics of re- production. Concepts like ‘natural fertility’ raise more problems than they address. Problematic dichotomies between ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ so- cieties are often based on the number of children people have\, or on how individually ‘calculated’ reproductive decisions are\, or on the use of so- called ‘modern’ contraceptives\, all of which obscure how central cultural dynamics are to reproduction. Tacitly assuming reproduction is a private or a domestic activity\, generally limited to women\, also neglects the fact that it is often a public and a political domain. These conceptual slip- pages and shorthands can make the cultural influences on reproduction invisible\, in both the past and the present. Drawing on my own research on the dynamics of fertility decline as well as on broader work in cul- tural evolution\, cultural anthropology and anthropological demography\, I would like to reframe reproduction as a central activity around which culture and demography co-evolve. \n  URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/heidi-colleran-rethinking-reproduction-in-human-evolutionary-research/ CATEGORIES:2020,Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201019T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201019T133000 DTSTAMP:20260506T060831 CREATED:20200924T163025Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201024T195331Z UID:4569-1603108800-1603114200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Nadya Vasilyeva - Structural thinking about social categories DESCRIPTION:Structural thinking about social categories\nNadya Vasilyeva\nPostdoctoral Scholar\, Geography of Philosophy Project\, UCLA Department of Anthropology\nCategorical reasoning is one of the cornerstones of psychological functioning\, supporting explanation\, induction\, and learning in virtually every domain of knowledge\, including reasoning about social categories. Dominant theories of social cognition focus on the role of internal/essential characteristics in representations of social kinds. Drawing upon an emerging literature in philosophy\, I introduce an alternative to internalist thinking\, called “structural thinking”\, in which observed correlations between social categories and their properties are explained through stable external constraints\, rather than derived from the inherent nature of the categories. For example\, a structural explanation of why girls wear pink might appeal to the socio-cultural pressures that affect choices and their social consequences\, as opposed to inherent color preferences. I will present a series of studies which trace the developmental trajectory of structural thinking from age three through adulthood\, and establish it as a distinct\, early-emerging mode of thought with a unique cognitive\, linguistic and behavioral profile. Recognizing structural reasoning invites us to rethink theories of categorical representation both within and beyond the social domain. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/nadya-vasilyeva-structural-thinking-about-social-categories/ CATEGORIES:2020,Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201026T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201026T133000 DTSTAMP:20260506T060831 CREATED:20200925T005030Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201028T041431Z UID:4615-1603713600-1603719000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Tyler Marghetis - A history of our times DESCRIPTION:A history of our times\nTyler Marghetis\nAssistant Professor of Cognitive and Information Sciences\, University of California\, Merced & Omidyar Fellow\, The Santa Fe Institute\nThis is a talk about Time. I start with the tension between\, on the one hand\, the global diversity in how people conceive of time\, and on the other\, the sense of stability—even necessity—that we often assign to our own idiosyncratic conceptions. I then argue as follows. First\, conceptualizations of time are best understood\, not as concepts within individual brains\, but as heterogeneous systems distributed across brains\, bodies\, material artifacts\, and cultural practices—that is\, as “cognitive ecologies.” Second\, within a cognitive ecology\, mutual dependence is the rule rather than the exception. Third\, since cognitive ecologies consist of such varied components as neural circuits and Twitter timelines\, these ecologies exhibit change on multiple\, nested timescales—timescales that range from the slow evolution by natural selection of innate biases in our brains and bodies\, to the cultural evolution of language and other artifacts\, to the rapid pace of situated interaction. Fourth\, these considerations explain the patterns in cross-cultural diversity\, the stability of conceptions within communities\, and the ways in which conceptions do\, and do not\, change over time. This argument is intended to be generic and to apply equally to our conceptions of other domains. I conclude that our conceptions of time—and number\, and space—only make sense in light of their histories. \n  URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/tyler-marghetis-a-history-of-our-times/ CATEGORIES:2020,Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR