Overview
- Presents a series of experiments that confirm our innate fear of snakes, and explains the evolutionary cause of that fear
- Uses various approaches including comparative, developmental, and electro-physiological experiments
- Describes the neural mechanism involved in detecting snakes quickly
- Readers will learn how to use multiple techniques, indices, and tasks including EEGs, visual search tasks, the RISE technique, and infant looking time
Part of the book series: The Science of the Mind (The Science of the Mind)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book provides a series of compelling evidence that shows that humans have innate fear of snakes. Building on the previous studies on the Snake Detection Theory (SDT), the author presents a summary of psychological and neuropsychological experiments to explain the fear of snakes in humans and primates. Readers will come to understand why and how we are afraid of snakes from an evolutionary perspective.
The first half of the book discusses the history of psychological behaviorism and neobehaviorism. The latter half of the book consists mainly of the experimental studies performed by the author with a focus on three key items: First, compared with other animals, snakes especially draw the attention of primates and humans. Second, the ability of primates and humans to recognize snakes with particular efficiency. Third, processing mechanisms within the brain for snake detection is discussed from a new viewpoint.
The book offers a unique resource for all primatologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, herpetologists, and biologists who are interested in the evolution of visual and cognitive systems, mechanisms of fear, snakes or primates.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Nobuyuki Kawai
Professor of Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences
Nagoya University
Nagoya, Japan
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Fear of Snakes
Book Subtitle: Evolutionary and Psychobiological Perspectives on Our Innate Fear
Authors: Nobuyuki Kawai
Series Title: The Science of the Mind
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7530-9
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and Psychology, Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-7529-3Published: 27 September 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-7532-3Published: 28 September 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-981-13-7530-9Published: 05 September 2019
Series ISSN: 2192-6646
Series E-ISSN: 2192-6654
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 187
Number of Illustrations: 45 b/w illustrations, 12 illustrations in colour
Topics: Behavioral Sciences, Biological Psychology, Neurobiology, Popular Life Sciences, Neurosciences