Elena Cabrera

When does an animal become a pest? The distinction between pest and not-pest is explored in Bethany Brookshire's book, titled, Pests. Her work shows that there is a lot of effort and systems created to eradicate pests, so the distinction is not meaningless or merely semantic. It seems, that humans collectively strive to keep pests away through a variety of means from traps to poison to fences. 

Across the animal kingdom, hunting methods vary. The more adept an animal is at distinguishing prey from not prey and further distinguishing one type of prey from another,  the more likely they are to eat. 

This post was adapted from A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition. 

This post was adapted from A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition.  Researching any of the four DSRP patterns requires some creativity. One way scientists have achieved this is through the creation of "Greebles." Greebles are computer generated 3D figures that are intended to be unfamiliar to participants. 

This blog has been partially adapted from A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition. The Systems pattern (5) (the interaction between the elements part and whole) exists in mind and nature. Nature (a.k.a., reality) organizes parts into wholes; so, in order for humans to adequately describe nature, we should, too. Humans naturally systematize things by breaking them down into parts and wholes automatically, which often leads to the creation of "groupings" or what we often erroneously call "categories." However, categories require something else: a Perspective.

This blog has been partially adapted from A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition. You cannot feel empathy without taking perspective. Empathy is "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another [1]." It was once thought to be unique to humans, but empathy is found in a variety of organisms.

This blog has been partially adapted from A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition.

This blog has been partially adapted from A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition.

This blog has been partially adapted from A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition. Some earlier research into perspective taking focused on the development of a "theory of mind," which is the ability to attribute beliefs, thoughts or feelings to another person (i.e., take another’s perspective).

This blog has been partially adapted from A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition. When you picture things that think, a slime mold probably wouldn't be the first organism to jump to mind. However, research has shown that you don't necessarily need a brain to think; in other words, non-neural organisms can think. Previously, we discussed how chemotaxis is an inherently DSRP-based process which allows bacteria and cells to make distinctions, build systems, recognize relationships, and take perspectives. As research has shown, slime molds can do DSRP too. 

Dogs are our best friends, but we can't talk to them... we have no common language. But, what if you could use the simple rules of DSRP to teach your dog to communicate with you? This blog and the remarkable videos included illustrates how this is possible when we use the underlying stuctures of systems thinking.

Like all things, color is chock-full of DSRP patterns. Presented with the most common colors most of us can (unless colorblind) identify them on the spot. They are distinct from one another. 

Distinctions are universal. They are commonly thought to be uniquely human and to exist only as concepts.

In our jig series, we have explored many jigs such as a Barbell Jig, which combines the patterns R, D and S to create new molecular structures. In this post, we explore the "System of Relationships" jig or "S-of-R". A system of relationships is a part-whole system where the parts are relationships. Usually, (although not always) the relationships act together in some way to make up a meaningful system (as opposed to just being parts of a system of relationships without any dynamical properties or similarities). In other words, it is a jig where a set of relationships work together to form a system. 

 This blog is part of a set listed under the tag "cognitive jigs." Be sure to check out the tag to read them as a group and learnhow cognitive jigs are at play in our everyday lives. Ecologies are great systems to reference when teaching systems thinking.

Parties are a place where people get together and make connections. In other words, it’s a situation where people relate to each other. What would happen if you went

It is commonplace to hear the phrase, “I feel” used incorrectly. For example, the statement, “I feel like I deserve to win the trophy,” is an incorrect one. Deserving of