Aesop's Fables Research Articles

Meta-analytic techniques reveal that corvid causal reasoning in theAesop's Fable paradigm is driven by trial-and-error learning.

The classic Aesop's fable, Crow and the Pitcher, has inspired a major line of research in comparative cognition. Over the past several years, five articles (over 32 experiments) have examined the ability of corvids (e.g., rooks, crows, and jays) to complete lab-based analogs of this fable, by requiring them to drop stonesand other objects into tubes of water to retrieve a floating worm (Bird and Emery in Curr Biol 19:1-5, 2009b; Cheke et al. in Anim Cogn 14:441-455, 2011; Jelbert et al. in PLoS One 3:e92895, 2014; Logan et al. in PLoS One 7:e103049, 2014; Taylor et al. in Gray R D 12:e26887, 2011). These researchers have stressed the unique potential of this paradigm for understanding causal reasoning in corvids. Ghirlanda and Lind (Anim Behav 123:239-247, 2017) re-evaluated trial-level data from these studies and concluded that initial preferences for functional objects, combined with trial-and-error learning, may account for subjects' performance on key variants of the paradigm. In the present paper, we use meta-analytic techniques to provide more precise information about the rate and mode of learning that occurs within and across tasks. Within tasks, subjects learned from successful (but not unsuccessful) actions, indicating that higher-order reasoning about phenomena such as mass, volume, and displacement is unlikely to be involved. Furthermore, subjects did not transfer information learned in one task to subsequent tasks, suggesting that corvids do not engage with these tasks as variants of the same problem (i.e., how to generate water displacement to retrieve a floating worm). Our methodological analysis and empirical findings raise the question: Can Aesop's fable studies distinguish between trial-and-error learning and/or higher-order causal reasoning? We conclude they cannot.

The Tortoise and the Hare: Investigating Rates

Aesop's Fables are universally wellknown short tales. Although each tale teaches a moral lesson, some of these stories can also be settings for teaching mathematics lessons.

How to combat emerging artemisinin resistance: Lessons from "The Three Little Pigs".

It is rare to come across an Aesop’s fable in respectable journals. It might catch scientists outside the malaria field by surprise to learn that the famous story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” has been repeatedly compared to the threat from artemisinin-resistant malaria parasites, including the two latest reports on the rise of a specific haplotype in Cambodia and Thailand, sensationally dubbed “Super Malaria” by the media [1, 2]. The comparison to a children’s tale should not negate the fact that malaria drug resistance is one of the most pressing threats to the global public health community. Here, the findings leading to this contentious discourse will be delineated in order to provide a perspective. Possible solutions will be presented to stimulate further research and discussion to solve one of the greatest public health challenges of our lifetime.

THE TRANSLATRESS IN HER OWN PERSON SPEAKS: ESTUDIO DE LAS TRADUCCIONES DE APHRA BEHN A PARTIR DE LA TIPOLOGÍA DE DRYDEN

Este trabajo investiga las traducciones realizadas por Aphra Behn a partir de la clasificación tripartita que estableció John Dryden entre metáfrasis, paráfrasis e imitación. Behn cultiva la metáfrasis principalmente en sus traducciones de La Rochefoucauld, la paráfrasis en las versiones de Cowley o Tallemant, entre otros; mientras que aplica la imitación a las Fábulas de Esopo. Se constata que Behn rompe con la tradición de traducir principalmente a los autores clásicos, ensanchando los cauces de entrada de literatura moderna en Inglaterra y ampliando las posibilidades de la traducción literaria. Analizando unas muestras, se infiere la manipulación del texto original que la autora realiza en ocasiones, en consonancia con su ideario creativo, generando un texto meta provisto de nuevas resonancias de género y políticas contextualizadas en su época. Asimismo, se deduce que la escritora profesional de la Restauración cultiva la traducción movida, entre otros motivos, por los gustos del naciente mercado literario en cuanto a las novedades del país galo y, por tanto, motivada por un afán comercial.

A Study on Choosing Tales for Utilising as Teaching Materials in Turkish Language Education

Fairy tales are used intensively by Turkish teachers in Turkish lessons. Elements in tales need to be examined in many respects such as their suitability for cultural transmission, psychological benefits, and harms, correct and effective use of language and so on. The opinions of the Turkish teachers in the field are very important for this subject which needs to be examined in depth.This research’s model is descriptive, semi-structured interview is a data collection tool for this research.Participants except one seem to have found tales interesting for all students. It is seen that teachers use talents primarily for semantic knowledge and moral values, and then for language skills achievements. Teachers have answers that they use tales more for values such as goodness, honesty, respect, and love. There may be an interpretation that teachers often do not encounter situations where students generally look askance at tales. It is seen that teachers are leading the opinion that there is not a fairy tale that should not be read. This answer is followed by the response that tales with negative contents should not be read. Ranking of tales of most positive reactions given by students can be done respectively as: all tales which have a happy ending, Keloğlan tales, Snow white tales, Aesop's Fables… According to teachers, tales which should be absolutely read by students are listed as follows: Keloğlan, Grimm Brothers, One Thousand and One Nights,..

Ego Defense Mechanisms in Aesop's Fables

Ego Defense Mechanisms in Aesop's Fables

Adaptation of the Aesop's Fable paradigm for use with raccoons (Procyon lotor): considerations for future application in non-avian and non-primate species.

To gain a better understanding of the evolution of animal cognition, it is necessary to test and compare the cognitive abilities of a broad array of taxa. Meaningful inter-species comparisons are best achieved by employing universal paradigms that standardize testing among species. Many cognitive paradigms, however, have been tested in only a few taxa, mostly birds and primates. One such example, known as the Aesop's Fable paradigm, is designed to assess causal understanding in animals using water displacement. To evaluate the universal effectiveness of the Aesop's Fable paradigm, we applied this paradigm to a previously untested taxon, the raccoon (Procyon lotor). We first trained captive raccoons to drop stones into a tube of water to retrieve a floating food reward. Next, we presented successful raccoons with objects that differed in the amount of water they displaced to determine whether raccoons could select the most functional option. Raccoons performed differently than corvids and human children did in previous studies of Aesop's Fable, and we found raccoons to be innovative in many aspects of this task. We suggest that raccoon performance in this paradigm reflected differences in tangential factors, such as behavior, morphology, and testing procedures, rather than cognitive deficiencies. We also present insight into previously undocumented challenges that should better inform future Aesop's Fable studies incorporating more diverse taxa.

Esopo em Portugal: das origens à contemporaneidade

Esta investigação pretende compreender como se processoua recepção de Esopo na Literatura Portuguesa, da Idade Média àcontemporaneidade, analisando a relação entre o gênero fabulístico e aliteratura infantojuvenil e para adultos. Partindo de um corpus de fábulasesopianas e, dentro dele, de uma fábula específica, este trabalho analisará ascaracterísticas que permitirão demonstrar a alteração, ao longo do tempo, dotipo de público-alvo e do objetivo edificante das obras em estudo. Observarse-á, assim, que a fábula, em Portugal, passou de um gênero de literaturapara adultos para um típico da literatura infantojuvenil, registando-se,atualmente, alguma tendência para o regresso às origens a este nível.

A Question of Life and Death: The Aesopic Animal Fables on Why Not to Kill

This article deals with Greek animal fables, traditionally attributed to a former slave, Aesop, who lived during the sixth century BCE. As a genre, the Aesopic fables, or the Aesopica, has had a significant impact on the Western fable tradition and modern Western children’s literature. The Aesopica owes much to the Mesopotamian fables and has parallels in other Near Eastern cultures. Modern research has concentrated on tracing the oriental roots of the fable tradition and the dating of the different parts of the Aesopica, as well as defining the fable as a genre. The traditional reading of fables has, however, excluded animals qua animals, supposing that fables are mainly allegories of the human condition. The moral of the story (included in the epimythia or promythia) certainly guides one to read the stories anthropocentrically, but the original fables did not necessarily include this positioning element. Many fables address the situation when a prey animal, like a lamb, negotiates with a predator animal, like a wolf, by giving reasons why she should not be killed. In this article, I will concentrate on these fables and analyse them from the point of view of their structure and content. Comparing these fables with some animal similes in Homer’s Iliad, I suggest that these fables deal not only with the ethical problem of ‘might makes right’ as a human condition, but also the broader philosophical question of killing other living creatures and the problem of cruelty.

AN ANALYSIS OF NOUNS AND VERBS USED IN SELECTED ONLINE FABLES

This study analyzed parts of speech found in forty Aesop’s fables with specific attention to the categories and frequencies of nouns and verbs used. This study aimed to analyze the most used of nouns and verbs in the stories. The material used in the forty selected Aesop’s fable from the website entitled http://www.bbc.co.uk. An analysis of the types of words was done using the program entitled https://open.xerox.com as an instrument for collecting data. The statistics used in data collection was percentage. The results of the study showed that there were two types of nouns and two types of verb in the selected Aesop fables. “Common Nouns” was the most commonly used with a frequency of 95.47%, and “action verbs” were the most commonly used with a frequency of 83.62%. Furthermore, “gerund” was also found in these Aesop fables. Comprehending types of words will help strengthen reading efficiency, reduce confusion of words usage as well as for readers to fully enjoy reading.

Socrates' Dying Words (Plato Phaedo 118a) as an Aesopic Fable

Socrates' Dying Words (Plato Phaedo 118a) as an Aesopic Fable

Socrates' Dying Words (Plato <em>Phaedo</em> 118a) as an Aesopic Fable

Socrates' Dying Words (Plato <em>Phaedo</em> 118a) as an Aesopic Fable

Performance in Object-Choice Aesop's Fable Tasks Are Influenced by Object Biases in New Caledonian Crows but not in Human Children.

The ability to reason about causality underlies key aspects of human cognition, but the extent to which non-humans understand causality is still largely unknown. The Aesop’s Fable paradigm, where objects are inserted into water-filled tubes to obtain out-of-reach rewards, has been used to test casual reasoning in birds and children. However, success on these tasks may be influenced by other factors, specifically, object preferences present prior to testing or arising during pre-test stone-dropping training. Here, we assessed this ‘object-bias’ hypothesis by giving New Caledonian crows and 5–10 year old children two object-choice Aesop’s Fable experiments: sinking vs. floating objects, and solid vs. hollow objects. Before each test, we assessed subjects’ object preferences and/or trained them to prefer the alternative object. Both crows and children showed pre-test object preferences, suggesting that birds in previous Aesop’s Fable studies may also have had initial preferences for objects that proved to be functional on test. After training to prefer the non-functional object, crows, but not children, performed more poorly on these two object-choice Aesop’s Fable tasks than subjects in previous studies. Crows dropped the non-functional objects into the tube on their first trials, indicating that, unlike many children, they do not appear to have an a priori understanding of water displacement. Alternatively, issues with inhibition could explain their performance. The crows did, however, learn to solve the tasks over time. We tested crows further to determine whether their eventual success was based on learning about the functional properties of the objects, or associating dropping the functional object with reward. Crows inserted significantly more rewarded, non-functional objects than non-rewarded, functional objects. These findings suggest that the ability of New Caledonian crows to produce performances rivaling those of young children on object-choice Aesop’s Fable tasks is partly due to pre-existing object preferences.

The National Joker: Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of SatireToddNathan Thompson. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2015.

The National Joker: Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Satire Todd Nathan Thompson. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2015.Todd Nathan Thompson examines Lincoln's political image. In essence, Lincoln's self-deprecation rendered his critics' satires harmless: his folksy, fallible figure (2) seemed impervious to the kind of caricature that leveled and even destroyed his more pompous contemporary rivals.Thompson distinguishes satire from humor: the former belittles its targets by exaggerating stereotypical behavior or appearance; the latter amuses its audience by exaggerating the foibles of human nature. By poking fun at pompous men, satire effectively undercut the presidential aspirations of Senator Stephen A. Douglas and General George B. McClellan. But by poking fun at a self-confessed frontier rustic, satire ironically helped forward the candidacy of a common man.Lincoln's reputation as a storyteller preceded him. If a political cartoon included the caption, reminds me of a story, readers instantly recognized Lincoln as its speaker. A parabolic storyteller, he was famous for repurposing even apolitical anecdotes for political purposes. For instance, in an Aesop fable, a lion foolishly has his claws and teeth removed at the request of a sly woodsman (father of the girl the lion was courting). When he saw the lion was disarmed, the woodsman easily beat out the lion's brains. Lincoln retold the story to someone advising him that the best way to avoid a civil war was to surrender federal forts in the South. May it not be so, Lincoln said, with me, if I give up all that is asked (13).Lincoln used satiric modesty rhetorically to expose the pretentions of his opponents. For instance, in 1848, when running against a former general who styled himself a war hero, Lincoln would exaggerate his own supposedly unglamorous record in the Black Hawk War. This underdog strategy made the self-proclaimed hero seem a braggart. Later, during the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, six-foot four-inch Lincoln played off the much-touted prominence of his opponent by repeatedly calling five-foot four-inch Douglas a giant, good man. Audiences got the joke. Lincoln was satirizing Douglas's somewhat precious way of describing himself as the little big man.Why didn't the joke backfire on Lincoln? Whereas Douglas was touchy and self-defensive about his shortness, Lincoln made fun of his own awkward height (eight inches taller than the average American). …

Suicidal thinking and behaviour as of 600 BCE (Aesop’s fables)

Psychiatry has ignored history, anthropology, sociology and literature in the search for enlightenment regarding suicide. Our objective was to determine what, if anything, Aesop's fables had to teach us about suicide in around 600 BCE. Aesop's account is around two centuries older than the oldest text (Herodotus: The histories) previously examined by our group. We examined two translations of Aesop's fables, seeking accounts fitting the following categories: (1) suicidal thinking, (2) suicidal behaviour without fatal consequences, and (3) suicidal behaviour with fatal consequences. One account fitting each of these categories was identified. The triggers were: (i) self-doubt and criticism, (ii) unpleasant predicament (constant fear), and (iii) inescapable physical pain. Evidence indicates that around 600 BCE, suicide was practised as a means of coping with self-doubt and criticism, unpleasant predicaments and inescapable physical pain. Recent scientific evidence confirms these observations.

The National Joker: Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Satire

The National Joker: Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Satire

“Ὦ ἀνόητοι καὶ βραδεῖς τῇ καρδίᾳ”

Scholars have overlooked a direct parallel between Luke’s pericope of the Walk to Emmaus (24:13-35) and two Aesopic fables. This article investigates the parallel, which appears as a quotation on the lips of Jesus, and the direction of its literary dependence. Analysis of both internal and external evidence commends understanding the fables to reflect Luke due to its well-known status, but none of the arguments are definitive. The evidence also allows the possibility that Luke portrayed Jesus quoting Aesop, perhaps as an ironic hermeneutical critique. Both explanations for the direction of dependence are satisfactory in their own ways, and may only be resolved with further analysis or the appearance of more textual evidence.

Humanoid infers Archimedes' principle: understanding physical relations and object affordances through cumulative learning experiences

Emerging studies indicate that several species such as corvids, apes and children solve ‘The Crow and the Pitcher’ task (from Aesop's Fables) in diverse conditions. Hidden beneath this fascinating paradigm is a fundamental question: by cumulatively interacting with different objects, how can an agent abstract the underlying cause–effect relations to predict and creatively exploit potential affordances of novel objects in the context of sought goals? Re-enacting this Aesop's Fable task on a humanoid within an open-ended ‘learning–prediction–abstraction’ loop, we address this problem and (i) present a brain-guided neural framework that emulates rapid one-shot encoding of ongoing experiences into a long-term memory and (ii) propose four task-agnostic learning rules (elimination, growth, uncertainty and status quo) that correlate predictions from remembered past experiences with the unfolding present situation to gradually abstract the underlying causal relations. Driven by the proposed architecture, the ensuing robot behaviours illustrated causal learning and anticipation similar to natural agents. Results further demonstrate that by cumulatively interacting with few objects, the predictions of the robot in case of novel objects converge close to the physical law, i.e. the Archimedes principle: this being independent of both the objects explored during learning and the order of their cumulative exploration.

‘Aesop’, ‘Q’ and ‘Luke’

The last chapter of the gospel of Luke includes a story of the risen Christ meeting two of his disciples on their way from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus and chastising them with the poetic expression ὦ ἀνόητοι καὶ βραδεῖς τῇ καρδίᾳ ‘O foolish ones, and slow in heart’ (Luke 24.25). No commentator has ever observed that Jesus' expression occurs verbatim, in the same iambic trimeter metre, in two poetic versions of animal fables attributed to the famous Greek fabulist Aesop. It is plausible that Luke is here, as at least twice elsewhere in his gospel, tapping into the rich tradition of Aesopic fables and proverbs that were widely known throughout the Mediterranean world in the first century ce.

Western scrub-jays do not appear to attend to functionality in Aesop's Fable experiments.

Western scrub-jays are known for their highly discriminatory and flexible behaviors in a caching (food storing) context. However, it is unknown whether their cognitive abilities are restricted to a caching context. To explore this question, we tested scrub-jays in a non-caching context using the Aesop’s Fable paradigm, where a partially filled tube of water contains a floating food reward and objects must be inserted to displace the water and bring the food within reach. We tested four birds, but only two learned to drop stones proficiently. Of these, one bird participated in 4/5 experiments and one in 2/5 experiments. Both birds passed one experiment, but without attending to the functional differences of the objects, and failed the other experiments. Scrub-jays were not motivated to participate in these experiments, suggesting that either this paradigm was ecologically irrelevant or perhaps their flexibility is restricted to a caching context.