We describe an as yet unidentified bias relevant to comparative cognition research: WEIRD-centrism. This bias leads us to take as the gold standard the practices, capacities, or concepts of WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) humans, that is, humans who grew up in WEIRD societies and whose behavior has been shaped by the influence of WEIRD cultural norms and practices. We identify how the bias impacts the study of practices, capacities, and concepts, and offer two suggestions for (...) mitigating the bias. The first is to use what we are calling a multibaseline approach, which involves starting with constructs that come not from our experiences as humans, but from our growing understanding of other species. The second is to make use of philosophical analysis and conceptual engineering, which includes identifying minimal concepts of psychological capacities as well as a dimensional approach that depicts the many ways in which a capacity can be instantiated. We hope that these tools will allow us to better understand the similarities and differences both within and between species. (shrink)

Comparative cognitive science often involves asking questions like ‘Do nonhumans have C?’ where C is a capacity we take humans to have. These questions frequently generate unproductive disagreements, in which one party affirms and the other denies that nonhumans have the relevant capacity on the basis of the same evidence. I argue that these questions can be productively understood as questions about natural kinds: do nonhuman capacities fall into the same natural kinds as our own? Understanding such questions in (...) this way has several advantages: it preserves the intuition that these are substantive empirical questions worth asking; it helps us to understand why they so frequently give rise to disagreements of the kind described; and it provides clues about how to diagnose and resolve them. (shrink)

This study explores English metaphors in the linguistic landscapes of Shanghai, China, focusing on four distinct research sites: Biyun, Gubei, Xin Tiandi, and the Bund. Through a mixed-methods approach, this research combines the qualitative framework, Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU), with quantitative analysis using the R software to examine 428 photographs. The study specifically investigates metaphor density and the prevalence of conceptual metaphors across official and private signage. The findings reveal that official signage in public spaces tends to avoid (...) metaphorical expressions compared to private entities that exhibit a greater use of metaphors. Furthermore, while official sources predominantly employ WAR metaphors, private institutions show a typical preference for metaphors from the HUMAN BEING domain. These results contribute to the growing body of research on the cognitive theories of metaphor by demonstrating their practical application in urban linguistic landscapes. Additionally, the study provides a more profound understanding of how conceptual metaphors are used to convey embedded social and cultural meanings, highlighting the influence of context on metaphorical expression in public spaces. (shrink)

This book offers substantial insight into students’ conceptualization of scientific terminology. The current book explores the commonalities and distinctions between Arabic and French physics terms, and the impact of the language disparities on students’ understanding of physics terms. This book adopts a novel approach to the problem of scientific terminology by exploring physics terms’ polysemy, prototypical meanings, and conceptual metaphor and metonymy, which motivates their extension of meaning. The book also investigates how the linguistic discrepancies and other variables affect the (...) learning of physics by Arab students (Moroccan students, in this book). Concepts in Physics: A Comparative Cognitive Analysis of Arabic and French Terminologies, whether you are a student of science, a science teacher or lecturer, a translator, or a linguist, is what you need. The book will help you comprehend the linguistic and cultural differences between western and non-western physics terminologies (in this book, French and Arabic physics terminologies) and the factors influencing the learning of physics concepts, and thus address the multiple challenges in learning scientific terms and concepts. (shrink)

With an extensive amount of research on the social lives of primates, Frans de Waal has been a pioneering advocate for the continuity of human and non-human minds, putting forward the idea that these creatures exhibit rudimentary political and moral behaviors. One of the traits which de Waal focuses on is animal normativity, a set of behaviors functionally defined as adherence to social standards. Recently, some philosophers have endorsed this position, holding that animals show a psychological capacity called normative (...) class='Hi'>cognition underlying those and other social behaviors. In this paper, I assess whether advocacy for animal normativity is an exercise of theory construction in comparative cognition. To that end, I present three features of this kind of theory construction. First, the explanatory goal of building functional analyses of cognitive capacities. Second, the conceptual aid of comparative thinking for theory construction. Third, the heuristic value of theory in specifying possible roads of inquiry. Taking these features into account, I assess whether the claims advocates make regarding animal normativity consider them. My answer is negative. First, since some advocates focus on behavioral traits and not on psychological capacities, they are not producing theory in comparative cognition, although, as I argue, they should. Second, there is a disregard for hypothesis testing and no evolutionary considerations to support their views. Finally, the claim that non-human animals exhibit normativity does not seem to have heuristic value. (shrink)

Behavioural flexibility is often treated as the gold standard of evidence for more sophisticated or complex forms of animal cognition, such as planning, metacognition and mindreading. However, the evidential link between behavioural flexibility and complex cognition has not been explicitly or systematically defended. Such a defence is particularly pressing because observed flexible behaviours can frequently be explained by putatively simpler cognitive mechanisms. This leaves complex cognition hypotheses open to ‘deflationary’ challenges that are accorded greater evidential weight precisely (...) because they offer putatively simpler explanations of equal explanatory power. This paper challenges the blanket preference for simpler explanations, and shows that once this preference is dispensed with, and the full spectrum of evidence—including evolutionary, ecological and phylogenetic data—is accorded its proper weight, an argument in support of the prevailing assumption that behavioural flexibility can serve as evidence for complex cognitive mechanisms may begin to take shape. An adaptive model of cognitive-behavioural evolution is proposed, according to which the existence of convergent trait–environment clusters in phylogenetically disparate lineages may serve as evidence for the same trait–environment clusters in other lineages. This, in turn, could permit inferences of cognitive complexity in cases of experimental underdetermination, thereby placing the common view that behavioural flexibility can serve as evidence for complex cognition on firmer grounds. (shrink)

Traditional vocabulary research often overlooks the crucial role of metaphorical language, essential for comprehensive lexical understanding. The presence of conceptual metaphors in English language textbooks for nonnative speakers remains under-examined, despite their pervasive nature. This study addresses this gap, investigating conceptual metaphors of time in selected Malaysian English language textbooks to highlight their importance for second language learning. A qualitative, corpus-driven study analysed conceptual metaphors of time in two intermediate and upper-intermediate secondary English language textbooks: Healan et al.’s (2018) Close-Up (...) and Mitchell and Malkogianni's Full Blast Plus 4 (2019). Using Sketch Engine’s Word Sketch and Concordance tools, the research identified verb + time collocations, cross-referencing them with the British National Corpus (BNC). For comparative analysis, the Malaysian Web Corpus in Sketch Engine was used to investigate verb + waktu (Malay for time) collocations. Linguistic metaphors in both corpora were manually analysed to identify incongruous vehicle terms and their target domain (time). Analysis of verb + time collocations in Close-Up and Full Blast Plus 4 revealed nine distinct verbs: have, take, spend, and leave. All identified collocations were metaphorical, predominantly conceptualising TIME as MONEY, VALUABLE COMMODITY, or LIMITED RESOURCE. A comparative analysis with the Malaysian Web Corpus showed striking similarities, with Malay waktu + verb collocations also conceptualising time as MONEY, VALUABLE COMMODITY, and LIMITED RESOURCE. The conceptual metaphor TIME IS MONEY emerged as a pervasive underlying system characterising all time-related collocations in both languages, reflecting cultural conceptualisation tied to time's quantification. The results of the current study have substantial theoretical and practical implications for integrating conceptual metaphor understanding in second language teaching. (shrink)