A set of interrelated principles and propositions that explains something of why children think and feel as they do, how they come to understand other people’s minds or mental (beliefs, desires, emotions, imagination, intentions) states, and why and how changes come about. The theory seemingly started with the question “Do the chimpanzee have a theory …
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Theory of population pressure
A theory developed by Thomas R. Malthus (1766-1834) and published as An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798. It can be summarised as follows 1. a plentiful food supply and supporting agricultural resources are necessary for the continuing existence of human populations, however 2. human populations increase at geometrical rates (i.e. 1, 2, …
Theory of pictures
A set of ideas explaining why pictures look as they do, as a product of what a picture might represent, what the artist may have intended, and what the viewer may succeed in seeing. The crude slogan ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ may become embedded in an intuitive theory of pictures at …
Theory of neuronal group selection (TNGS)
Derived from Darwin’s theory of natural selection and also referred to as ‘Neural Darwinism’, it is process-oriented approach to brain functioning. In a nutshell, TNGS posits non-instructive sensorimotor systems that can adapt to their environment. Based on a multi-agent architecture rather than a connectionist network, the resulting autonomous agent imposes perceptual categorisation on the environment, …
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Theory of natural selection
A theory devised independently by Darwin and Wallace and which through its integration with population genetics became the backbone of the Modern synthesis. In general, it a process by which gene frequencies in a population change as a consequence of certain individuals being able to produce more descendants than others because they are better able to …
Theory of multiple intelligences
A view put forward by Howard Gardner that there are eight multiple intelligences Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, and intrapersonal . See Embedded Figures Test (EFT), Intelligence, Mental modules, Triarchic theory of intelligence
Theory of molecular evolution
Also known as the neutral theory of protein evolution or the neutral mutation-genetic drift theory. According to Motoo Kimura, one of the originators of the theory in the late 1960s, most of evolution at the molecular level is adaptively neutral, based on the finding of widespread protein polymorphisms in natural populations. Much of this polymorphism …
Theory of Everything (ToE)
Sometimes referred to as the grand unified theory (GUT), and the holy grail of some physicists, it is the search for a theory that would bring together all known phenomena to explain the nature of all matter and energy in existence as well as, for example, the underlying symmetries of nature. It is a descendant …
Theory of descent with modification
Essentially, Darwin’s theory of speciation via descent from a common ancestor, and without the connotation that it is a progressive process as, for example, birds with flight can evolve into a flightless species. For him, and for the Modern synthesis, speciation is gradual, rather than saltatory, process arising from the accumulation of point mutations. The …
Theory
A conceptual framework within which observations are explained and new ones predicted. In its construction, a theory draws upon any existing principles and laws in a particular area of science, and then serves to generate hypotheses to test the explanations and predictions it offers, possibly with the aid of models. A hypothesis that survives rigorous …