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Today we dive deep into the fascinating world of language evolution! We’ll explore groundbreaking research from PLOS Biology that unveils the cognitive mechanisms behind how humans and great apes visually track events to identify agent-patient relationships.
Discover the surprising similarities in visual attention between humans and our closest primate relatives, challenging the notion that event role tracking is uniquely human. We'll discuss how both species exhibit remarkable patterns in gaze behavior, particularly in food-related scenarios—highlighting the evolutionary importance of social learning and survival.
But that’s not all! We’ll unpack the intriguing developmental trajectory of human infants, who focus more on background elements as they learn to decode complex events. This episode will also delve into the evolutionary implications of these findings, suggesting that our ability to map event roles into language may have deep roots that predate the development of sophisticated communication.
With eye-tracking technology revealing captivating insights, we’ll share key quotes from the study that illuminate the cognitive continuum between humans and nonhuman apes. What do these findings mean for our understanding of language origins? How do they reshape our view of human uniqueness?
Sources:
Humans and great apes visually track event roles in similar ways
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002857
Researchers Are Stalled in Understanding the Origin of Human Language
This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy
Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.
Thanks for listening today!
Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.
We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.
Support the show
About SCZoomers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632045180447285
https://x.com/SCZoomers
https://mstdn.ca/@SCZoomers
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app
Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs
Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.
Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.
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By by SC ZoomersSend us a text
Today we dive deep into the fascinating world of language evolution! We’ll explore groundbreaking research from PLOS Biology that unveils the cognitive mechanisms behind how humans and great apes visually track events to identify agent-patient relationships.
Discover the surprising similarities in visual attention between humans and our closest primate relatives, challenging the notion that event role tracking is uniquely human. We'll discuss how both species exhibit remarkable patterns in gaze behavior, particularly in food-related scenarios—highlighting the evolutionary importance of social learning and survival.
But that’s not all! We’ll unpack the intriguing developmental trajectory of human infants, who focus more on background elements as they learn to decode complex events. This episode will also delve into the evolutionary implications of these findings, suggesting that our ability to map event roles into language may have deep roots that predate the development of sophisticated communication.
With eye-tracking technology revealing captivating insights, we’ll share key quotes from the study that illuminate the cognitive continuum between humans and nonhuman apes. What do these findings mean for our understanding of language origins? How do they reshape our view of human uniqueness?
Sources:
Humans and great apes visually track event roles in similar ways
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002857
Researchers Are Stalled in Understanding the Origin of Human Language
This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy
Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.
Thanks for listening today!
Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.
We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.
Support the show
About SCZoomers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632045180447285
https://x.com/SCZoomers
https://mstdn.ca/@SCZoomers
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app
Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs
Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.
Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.