The Evolution of Play Dr. Gordon Burgart is a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee in the US. His research focus has been on comparative studies of behavioral development in animals with special attention to reptiles, bears and the evolution of play. He has edited or co-edited six books and offered the genesis of animal play testing the limits. Back to Mail Online home. Back to the page you came from. Transcript: Speaker 2 Hello everybody, welcome to a new episode of the Center. I’m your host Ricardo Lopez and today I’m joined by Dr. Gordon Burgart. He is alumni distinguished service professor in the departments of psychology and ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Tennessee in the US. His research focus has been on comparative studies of behavioral development in animals with special attention to reptiles, bears, and the evolution of play as well as historical And theoretical issues in mythology and psychology. He has edited or co-edited six books and offered the genesis of animal play testing the limits. So Dr. Burgart, thank you a lot for taking the time to comment the show. It’s a pleasure to have you. Speaker 1 And mine too. Speaker 2 Okay, great. So today we’re going to focus mostly on play. So first of all, what does play from let’s say an evolutionary and developmental psychologist perspective? Speaker 1 Well, we have to start with what is play to begin with. And before we get started asking (Time 0:00:00)
Criteria for Play in Animals and the Evolutionary Basis of Play Transcript: Speaker 1 So those are the five criteria that I think when we see them satisfied, regardless of what animal we’re looking at. And when we have those criteria, we can see that the octopus play some fish lizards, turtles, not just mammals and birds, engage in this behavior. Speaker 2 Yeah, that’s very interesting. But going back to my question regarding the evolutionary basis of play, I mean, is there any point in evolution where we can concretely start talking about play? I mean, is there a particular species or a particular, I’m not sure why I should call it a clay or something like that, where play first started? Speaker 1 Well, I think there are people who have thought that play went to the valve, then it was there, and it continued in the lineages of following. But I think that play is a very heterogeneous phenomenon. (Time 0:05:44)
El juego no tuvo necesariamente función intrínseca, fue coaptado por la evolución. Transcript: Speaker 1 Play can actually evolve without any overt function. But once it’s established, then it may become functional. So maybe a byproduct of other behaviors of the animal. But once it’s there, it can then be developed. Like the people doodling. You know, you’re bored and you’re sort of doodling in a class or something like that. And you’re just drawing stuff and then you look at it. Oh, that’s not bad. And then you start making some functional picture or something out of that. So something that started as sort of a random not adaptive kind of thing, you’re just sort of doing it, can become transformed into something that now has some possible purpose or value Or and push this back into animal behavior. You could maybe see how that could work. (Time 0:09:12)
2min evolución función juego
Evidencia no respalda teoría de que función del juego es desarrollar habilidades. Transcript: Speaker 2 So could we say that perhaps one of the functions of play would be for animals to develop certain kinds of abilities that they will need to put into practice later on in their development Or in their lives? Speaker 1 Yeah, that actually was one of the first major theories of play put up by some named ruse in the 1900s, late 19th century. And it was called a practice theory and it is still commonly talked about today. One of the problems that developed was that people who were looking, for instance, at kittens playing with objects and hunting humans, oh, they should be better hunters. And experiments were done, Pat Bateson and others, and Tim Carroll, kittens that had a lot of experience in that predatory play, object play, and others who were not exposed, not given That opportunity, they hunted equally well. So, and there’s a variety of studies now that have come out showing that the play does not help in the practice of that behavior that the play seems to be simulating. There are some exceptions, but overall, the evidence is not really that great for that skill development, a theory of play. (Time 0:12:27)
desarrollo evolución función juego práctica
desarrollo evolución función juego práctica
La señal lúdica. Transcript: Speaker 2 Another interesting aspect that I read about in your work regarding play is that there are particular, let’s say, behaviors and signals that animals send to the other one for them to Be able to identify play behavior. Otherwise, I mean, they could think that what they were going to do was in any way, let’s say, serious, and for example, there are postures, facial expressions, vocalizations, and So on that animals use to signal play behavior. Equally, that was a part of that. Speaker 1 Well, these are play signals and lots of animals, including humans, we use verbal signals a lot, but our dogs come up to me, do a bow between each other and then start chasing and so on. So there are these play signals. Now, lots of these play signals can also be used in other contexts, and they’ve just been sort of also used in play. But some animals have signals like there’s some mangus, mangus is that have a vocalization that’s only used in play. That’s only used as a play signal. (Time 0:17:11)
animales juego señal