Two animals of the same species, same age, same habitat. Release them together and one lives. The other does not. Species, anatomy, and landscape will not tell you which.In 1963 Niko Tinbergen gave ethology four questions that still organize the field. They are necessary. They are not sufficient. All four start with a behavior and work outward. None of them asks about the animal that produces it.Configuration names that missing question and answers it with ...

The four quadrants of operant conditioning — add or remove, increase or decrease — have organized animal training for more than sixty years. They are technically correct. They are also built from outside the animal.A consequence is what the trainer delivers. An impact is what the animal makes of it. This book recovers the missing half of that transaction: the strategic work of promoting and demoting, and a structural reason reinforcement and punishment are not mirror images. Reinfo...

UnBehaviorThe Right Definition of Behavior Explains Mouse UtopiaIn 1968, a scientist built a paradise for mice. Unlimited food. Unlimited water. Perfect climate. No predators. No disease. Room for thousands. The colony flourished—then stopped reproducing, withdrew, and died out while the food hoppers stayed full and a fifth of the nest boxes sat empty.For fifty years the story has been told as a parable of overcrowding. It is not. The pen wa...

Does it feel like our society is crumbling from within? It is — and the real reason isn't the one everyone is arguing about.What makes humans different from every other animal? Not tool use, not language, not theory of mind. One capacity does — simpler and more ordinary than you'd expect — and everything we call civilization is built on it. As it weakens in individuals, the civilization resting on it comes apart.Why now? Institutions consume the individuals they were built ...

From the author of How Emotions Are Made, a myth-busting primer on the brain in the tradition of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.Have you ever wondered why you have a brain? Let renowned neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett demystify that big gray blob between your ears. In seven short essays (plus a bite-sized story about how brains evolved), this slim, entertaining, and accessible collection reveals ...

Harnessing Complexity will be indispensable to anyone who wants to better comprehend how people and organizations can adapt effectively in the information age. This book is a step-by-step guide to understanding the processes of variation, interaction, and selection that are at work in all organizations. The authors show how to use their own paradigm of "bottom up" management, the Complex Adaptive System-whether in science, public policy, or private commerce. This simple model of h...

"Gazzaniga is a giant in cognitive neuroscience . . . [He] advances a fascinating argument that both limits and contextualizes brain research." —Forbes.comThe author of Human, Michael S. Gazzaniga has been called the "father of cognitive neuroscience." In his remarkable book, Who's in Charge?, he makes a powerful and provocative argument that counters the common wisdom that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes we cannot control. Hi...

The analysis of how institutions are formed, how they operate and change, and how they influence behavior in society has become a major subject of inquiry in politics, sociology, and economics. A leader in applying game theory to the understanding of institutional analysis, Elinor Ostrom provides in this book a coherent method for undertaking the analysis of diverse economic, political, and social institutions.Understanding Institutional Diversity explains the Institutiona...

“A model of scientific writing: erudite, witty, and clear.” —New York Review of BooksThe Pulitzer Prize finalist and national bestseller How the Mind Works is a fascinating, provocative work exploring the mysteries of human thought and behavior. How do we see in three dimensions? How do we remember names and faces? How is it, indeed, that we ponder the nature of our own consciousness? Why do we fall in love? In this bold, extraordinary book, Pinker synthesizes the...

Environmental governance encompasses our relations to nature, spanning institutions and policies in fields such as biodiversity loss, climate change, land use and pollution. This book offers tools for the study of environmental conflicts, analyzes the current status of environmental policies and discusses why we are so far from resolving many of the issues we face. It also offers alternative directions for future environmental governance.Key features include:an interd...

This original and lucid account of the complexities of love and its essential role in human well-being draws on the latest scientific research. Three eminent psychiatrists tackle the difficult task of reconciling what artists and thinkers have known for thousands of years about the human heart with what has only recently been learned about the primitive functions of the human brain.A General Theory of Love demonstrates that our nervous systems are not self-contained: from ...

'Powerful and gripping... To have read it is to have consulted a first draft of the structural plan of the human psyche ... a glittering tour de force' SpectatorWhy do we laugh? What makes memories fade? Why do people believe in ghosts?From the acclaimed author of Enlightenment Now and Better Angels of Our Nature, How the Mind Works explores every aspect of mental life, showing that our minds are not a mystery, bu...