Xref: utzoo sci.misc:2882 sci.psychology:1182 comp.ai:2794 comp.ai.neural-nets:359
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!gitpyr!loligo!pepke
From: pepke@loligo.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke)
Newsgroups: sci.misc,sci.psychology,comp.ai,comp.ai.neural-nets
Subject: Re: Learned Behavior vs. Hard-Wired Behavior
Message-ID: <164@loligo.fsu.edu>
Date: 2 Dec 88 21:47:53 GMT
References: <1824@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> <208@logicon.arpa>
Reply-To: pepke@loligo.UUCP (Eric Pepke)
Organization: Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Lines: 25

In article <208@logicon.arpa> Makey@LOGICON.ARPA (Jeff Makey) writes:

>A behavior that I once thought existed in all human cultures was
>nodding ones head up and down to mean "yes" and shaking from side to
>side to mean "no."  According to my girlfriend, who works for a
>company that does international trading, there is at least one place
>where this is not true.

Greeks who want to indicate vigorous assent sometimes shake their
heads and say "Nehnehnehnehnehnehnehneh..."

Here's another one: Nearly all languages in the world have a word for
"mother" that sounds like an infant suckling.  However, I doubt that 
this symbol is hardwired.  Rather, the fact that this symbol exists
is probably due to the universal nature of breast feeding and the
influence of the infants on the inventors of language.

Eric Pepke                           pepke%fsu.mfenet@nmfecc.arpa
Supercomputer Computations           pepke%scri.hepnet@lbl-csa2.arpa
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