Word: behavior
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Over the course of two decades, Vernon had a remarkable career in public service. Working for the Securities and Exchange Commission, he conducted the first serious study of the behavior of floor traders and specialists on the New York Stock Exchange...
There remains the nagging question of what it means precisely to say that Tsien & Co. have created a smarter mouse. "What is it that is being tested?" asks Gerald Fischbach, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. "That's the problem with mouse behavior. It's not clear that we're talking about the same thing when we talk about learning in a rodent and learning in a human...
...LABELING FALLACY. Complex organisms are not the sum of their genes, nor do genes alone build particular items of anatomy or behavior by themselves. Most genes influence several aspects of anatomy and behavior--as they operate through complex interactions with other genes and their products, and with environmental factors both within and outside the developing organism. We fall into a deep error, not just a harmless oversimplification, when we speak of genes "for" particular parts or behaviors...
...cite an example of this fallacy, in 1996 scientists reported the discovery of a gene for novelty-seeking behavior--generally regarded as a good thing. In 1997 another study saw a linkage between the same gene and a propensity for heroin addiction. Did the "good" gene for enhanced exploration become the "bad" gene for addictive tendencies? Biochemistry may be the same, but context and background matter...
...from being aberrant, clinging to parents is instinctual, adaptive behavior. "Human children are very fragile and vulnerable compared with animals that can move independently from their parents at birth. They really depend for survival on their parents or some other connected adult," says Ucci...