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"Brooks, Alison"
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Talk : the science of conversation and the art of being ourselves
A leading Harvard professor shows how we can all become better at conversation - and why this will help us all thrive. Conversation is at the heart of our relationships and our decision-making. From meeting a colleague to saying goodnight to our loved ones, our days are filled with verbal communication - but the science of everyday conversation is little known. We may spend time thinking about difficult exchanges, but research shows that there's room to improve seemingly easy interactions too. In 'Talk', Harvard professor Alison Wood Brooks shows how simple changes in how we communicate can enhance our relationships, our performance at work and our lives; who we talk to affects our happiness; and how to talk across differences.
BOOK
Assessment of complex projectiles in the early Late Pleistocene at Aduma, Ethiopia
Complex projectiles-propulsion via mechanical aid-are considered an important technological innovation, with possible relevance for the successful Out-of-Africa dispersal of our species. Conclusive evidence for the beginning of this technology, however, is lacking from the early Late Pleistocene (ca. 130 to 70 thousand years ago; ka). Given the extremely limited applicability of relatively robust methods for validating stone-tipped projectile use, such as through fracture propagation velocity, converging lines of circumstantial evidence remain the best way to examine early complex projectiles. We assess here suggestions for an early Late Pleistocene origin of complex projectiles in Africa. Results from both previous and present independent approaches suggest a trajectory in which complex projectiles were likely adopted during the early Late Pleistocene in eastern Africa. At Aduma (Middle Awash, Ethiopia), morphometric, hafting, and impact damage patterns in several lithic point assemblages suggest a shift from simple spear technologies (thrusting and/or hand-cast) to complex projectiles. Broadly dated to 80-100 ka, lithic points from later phases of the Aduma succession represent a particularly strong candidate for projectile armatures most comparable to ethnographically known spearthrower darts, lending support for previous suggestions and warranting further investigations.
Journal Article
Flying machines : how the Wright Brothers soared
Follow the famous aviators from their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, to the fields of North Carolina where they were to make their famous flights.
BOOK
Microfossils in calculus demonstrate consumption of plants and cooked foods in Neanderthal diets (Shanidar III, Iraq; Spy I and II, Belgium)
The nature and causes of the disappearance of Neanderthals and their apparent replacement by modern humans are subjects of considerable debate. Many researchers have proposed biologically or technologically mediated dietary differences between the two groups as one of the fundamental causes of Neanderthal disappearance. Some scenarios have focused on the apparent lack of plant foods in Neanderthal diets. Here we report direct evidence for Neanderthal consumption of a variety of plant foods, in the form of phytoliths and starch grains recovered from dental calculus of Neanderthal skeletons from Shanidar Cave, Iraq, and Spy Cave, Belgium. Some of the plants are typical of recent modern human diets, including date palms (Phoenix spp.), legumes, and grass seeds (Triticeae), whereas others are known to be edible but are not heavily used today. Many of the grass seed starches showed damage that is a distinctive marker of cooking. Our results indicate that in both warm eastern Mediterranean and cold northwestern European climates, and across their latitudinal range, Neanderthals made use of the diverse plant foods available in their local environment and transformed them into more easily digestible foodstuffs in part through cooking them, suggesting an overall sophistication in Neanderthal dietary regimes.
Journal Article
Smart People Ask for (My) Advice: Seeking Advice Boosts Perceptions of Competence
Although individuals can derive substantial benefits from exchanging information and ideas, many individuals are reluctant to seek advice from others. We find that people are reticent to seek advice for fear of appearing incompetent. This fear, however, is misplaced. We demonstrate that individuals perceive those who seek advice as
more
competent than those who do not. This effect is moderated by task difficulty, advisor egocentrism, and advisor expertise. Individuals perceive those who seek advice as more competent when the task is difficult rather than when it is easy, when people seek advice from them
personally
rather than when they seek advice from others and when people seek advice from experts rather than from nonexperts or not at all.
This paper was accepted by Yuval Rottenstreich, judgment and decision making
.
Journal Article
Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age
The Olorgesailie basin in the southern Kenya rift valley contains sediments dating back to 1.2 million years ago, preserving a long archaeological record of human activity and environmental conditions. Three papers present the oldest East African evidence of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and elucidate the system of technology and behavior associated with the origin of Homo sapiens . Potts et al. present evidence for the demise of Acheulean technology that preceded the MSA and describe variations in late Acheulean hominin behavior that anticipate MSA characteristics. The transition to the MSA was accompanied by turnover of large mammals and large-scale landscape change. Brooks et al. establish that ∼320,000 to 305,000 years ago, the populations in eastern Africa underwent a technological shift upon procurement of distantly sourced obsidian for toolmaking, indicating the early development of social exchange. Deino et al. provide the chronological underpinning for these discoveries. Science , this issue p. 86 , p. 90 , p. 95 Social, technological, and subsistence behaviors and pigment use emerged during human evolution more than 300,000 years ago. Previous research suggests that the complex symbolic, technological, and socioeconomic behaviors that typify Homo sapiens had roots in the middle Pleistocene <200,000 years ago, but data bearing on human behavioral origins are limited. We present a series of excavated Middle Stone Age sites from the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya, dating from ≥295,000 to ~320,000 years ago by argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series methods. Hominins at these sites made prepared cores and points, exploited iron-rich rocks to obtain red pigment, and procured stone tool materials from ≥25- to 50-kilometer distances. Associated fauna suggests a broad resource strategy that included large and small prey. These practices imply notable changes in how individuals and groups related to the landscape and to one another and provide documentation relevant to human social and cognitive evolution.
Journal Article
Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa
The Olorgesailie basin in the southern Kenya rift valley contains sediments dating back to 1.2 million years ago, preserving a long archaeological record of human activity and environmental conditions. Three papers present the oldest East African evidence of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and elucidate the system of technology and behavior associated with the origin of Homo sapiens . Potts et al. present evidence for the demise of Acheulean technology that preceded the MSA and describe variations in late Acheulean hominin behavior that anticipate MSA characteristics. The transition to the MSA was accompanied by turnover of large mammals and large-scale landscape change. Brooks et al. establish that ∼320,000 to 305,000 years ago, the populations in eastern Africa underwent a technological shift upon procurement of distantly sourced obsidian for toolmaking, indicating the early development of social exchange. Deino et al. provide the chronological underpinning for these discoveries. Science , this issue p. 86 , p. 90 , p. 95 Changes in fauna, landscapes, and climate were associated with novel adaptive behaviors in the earliest Homo sapiens . Development of the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) before 300,000 years ago raises the question of how environmental change influenced the evolution of behaviors characteristic of early Homo sapiens . We used temporally well-constrained sedimentological and paleoenvironmental data to investigate environmental dynamics before and after the appearance of the early MSA in the Olorgesailie basin, Kenya. In contrast to the Acheulean archeological record in the same basin, MSA sites are associated with a markedly different faunal community, more pronounced erosion-deposition cycles, tectonic activity, and enhanced wet-dry variability. Aspects of Acheulean technology in this region imply that, as early as 615,000 years ago, greater stone material selectivity and wider resource procurement coincided with an increased pace of land-lake fluctuation, potentially anticipating the adaptability of MSA hominins.
Journal Article
An Experimental Study of Hafting Adhesives and the Implications for Compound Tool Technology
Experimental studies of hafting adhesives and modifications to compound tool components can demonstrate the extent to which human ancestors understood and exploited material properties only formally defined by science within the last century. Discoveries of Stone Age hafting adhesives at archaeological sites in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa have spurred experiments that sought to replicate or create models of such adhesives. Most of these studies, however, have been actualistic in design, focusing on replicating ancient applications of adhesive technology. In contrast, this study tested several glues based on Acacia resin within a materials science framework to better understand the effect of each adhesive ingredient on compound tool durability. Using an overlap joint as a model for a compound tool, adhesives formulated with loading agents from a range of particle sizes and mineral compositions were tested for toughness on smooth and rough substrates. Our results indicated that overlap joint toughness is significantly increased by using a roughened joint surface. Contrary to some previous studies, there was no evidence that particle size diversity in a loading agent improved adhesive effectiveness. Generally, glues containing quartz or ochre loading agents in the silt and clay-sized particle class yielded the toughest overlap joints, with the effect of particle size found to be more significant for rough rather than smooth substrate joints. Additionally, no particular ochre mineral or mineral mixture was found to be a clearly superior loading agent. These two points taken together suggest that Paleolithic use of ochre-loaded adhesives and the criteria used to select ochres for this purpose may have been mediated by visual and symbolic considerations rather than purely functional concerns.
Journal Article
Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa
The Olorgesailie basin in the southern Kenya rift valley contains sediments dating back to 1.2 million years ago, preserving a long archaeological record of human activity and environmental conditions. Three papers present the oldest East African evidence of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and elucidate the system of technology and behavior associated with the origin of Homo sapiens . Potts et al. present evidence for the demise of Acheulean technology that preceded the MSA and describe variations in late Acheulean hominin behavior that anticipate MSA characteristics. The transition to the MSA was accompanied by turnover of large mammals and large-scale landscape change. Brooks et al. establish that ∼320,000 to 305,000 years ago, the populations in eastern Africa underwent a technological shift upon procurement of distantly sourced obsidian for toolmaking, indicating the early development of social exchange. Deino et al. provide the chronological underpinning for these discoveries. Science , this issue p. 86 , p. 90 , p. 95 Emergence of the Middle Stone Age, a milestone in hominin evolution, occurred in Kenya by about 320,000 to 305,000 years ago. The origin of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) marks the transition from a highly persistent mode of stone toolmaking, the Acheulean, to a period of increasing technological innovation and cultural indicators associated with the evolution of Homo sapiens . We used argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series dating to calibrate the chronology of Acheulean and early MSA artifact–rich sedimentary deposits in the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya rift. We determined the age of late Acheulean tool assemblages from 615,000 to 499,000 years ago, after which a large technological and faunal transition occurred, with a definitive MSA lacking Acheulean elements beginning most likely by ~320,000 years ago, but at least by 305,000 years ago. These results establish the oldest repository of MSA artifacts in eastern Africa.
Journal Article
Consensus Definition of Sport Specialization in Youth Athletes Using a Delphi Approach
A single, widely accepted definition of sport specialization does not exist. A consensus definition is necessary to guide youth sport stakeholders on issues associated with sport specialization.
The aim of this study was to develop a consensus definition of youth sport specialization and to identify elements that support the construct of specialization.
Delphi Study Setting: Directed Surveys Patients or Other Participants: A consensus panel of 17 experts was created to provide a broad multidisciplinary perspective on sport specialization in youth athletes.
The final definition was developed per an iterative process that involved four rounds of review. A comprehensive review of literature and expert input supported our initial proposed umbrella definition that included six additional elements. The study team reviewed the results after each round and changes were made to the definition based on panel feedback.
Panel members were provided with the definition and six elements and then asked to rate each specific to importance, relevance, and clarity using a 4-point Likert scale.
In four Delphi consensus rounds, 17 experts reviewed the umbrella definition and six elements before consensus was reached. The umbrella definition and three of the initial six elements achieved >80% agreement for importance, relevance, and clarity after the fourth round of review. The remaining 3 components did not reach >80% agreement even after iterative edits and were removed. The process resulted in a final consensus definition: Sport specialization is intentional and focused participation in a single sport for a majority of the year that restricts opportunities for engagement in other sports and activities.
A consensus-based conceptual definition for sport specialization has been developed using a Delphi method. This definition has important implications for clinicians and sports medicine professionals who support youth athletes.
Journal Article