Kalveram, K. Th. (2001) Neurobiology of speaking and stuttering. In H. G. Bosshardt, J. S. Yaruss & H. F. M. Peters (Eds.), Fluency Disorders: Theory, Research, Treatment and Self-help. Proceedings of the Third World Congress  of Fluency Disorders in Nyborg, Denmark (2000). Nijmegen: Nijmegen University Press, pp. 59-65. (PDF, 193kB)

Kalveram, K.T. (1997) Zur Evolution des Belästigungserlebnisses. Ökopsychologische und verhaltensbiologische Betrachtungen über die Wirkung von Lärm. Psychologische Beiträge 38, 315-230 (PDF, 68kB)

Engl. title:

Summery:"Traditional noise research" is sometimes said to focus too much on the psycho-physics of auditory perception and

to overvalue the ecological meaning of physical measurements of noise levels. In contrast, "ecological noise

research" emphasizes that acoustical signals have a psychological function, e.g. they convey information about the

environmental state, or provide for feedback of the individual's actions, or are used for communication or

environmental monitoring. Annoyance then is viewed to be caused when experiencing acoustical signals not

compatible with, or even severely disturbing, these psychological functions. In the present paper, this functional

approach is extended to imply the biological function as well. For this sake, a harmful environmental variable

affecting the individual's (Darwinian) fitness is assumed. Then, a chance is given that a neural detector will evolve,

the input of which is the sensory stimulation correlated with this variable, while the output is motivating actions

capable of diminishing that sensory input, thereby interrupting the ongoing behavior. An essential part of this

detector can be called event related integration of sensory data. The value of the annoyance experienced then should

be composed of components representing the number, the average intensity and the average duration of the

disturbing events. The energy-equivalent average sound level (Leq), correlating significantly with subjective

annoyance and thus governing the psycho-physics of noise perception, is approximately built up just in this manner.

That means that annoyance, measured by the Leq, can indeed be considered as representing primarily a possibleloss-

of-fitness signal (PLOF-signal). Therefore, the gap between "traditional" and "ecological" noise research is

much smaller than suggested above. However, the old problems remain to be solved, namely to control the

conditions influencing the annoyance rating and to search for learning processes shaping the PLOF-detector.

Keywords: noise, annoyance, energy-equivalence level, evolution

Kalveram, K.T. (1999) Zur Evolution der innerartlichen Aggression. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie, 30 (2/3) 1999, 111-125 (PDF, 207kB)

Engl. title:

Summary: Aggression is defined biologically as a type of social interaction aiming at a conspecific and reducing its fitness. In order to classify kinds of aggressive behaviour and violence, evolution of social behaviour has been simulated by a computer model. Results suggest that the evolution of aggression between conspecifics starts with 'unconditional aggression',  where injurying fights with everybody are the rule, continues to 'unconditional aggression paired with the ability to flee', and ends with 'conditional aggression paired with the ability to flee',  where injurying fights are avoided between g-relatives, but not with non-g-relatives. Thereby, gene relationship, or shortly "g-relationship", is defined as a genetical correspondence between persons or animals with respect to the particular attribute under consideration, here aggression and its control, whereby ritual threatening, dominance behaviour and peaceful competition function as relationship detectors. Conditional aggression is a strong evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) superseding  completely all other aggressive strategies. The evolutionary process results in a homogeneous population of g-relatives behaving non aggressively when meeting each other, but who are highly hostile against non-g-relatives or persons classified as "foreigners". The considerations are useful to discriminate spiteful aggression from other types of violence such as instrumental, explorative, pedagogic, punishing or defending aggression.

Key words: Aggression, evolution, control of aggression, relationship detector, ritualized threatening.

Kalveram, K.T. (1991) Über Aggression und Friedensfähigkeit des Menschen. Ein Beitrag zur Verhaltensbiologie des Krieges. Psychologische Beiträge, 33, 177-201 (PDF, 1888kB)

Engl. title:

Summary. Aggressive behavior is subdivided into several classes with respect to biological functions. Especially aggressive competition between groups exhibits to be destructive, whereas conflicts within groups are disarmed by innate mechanisms inhibiting an animal to kill the rival. In man, this inhibition is done by cultural rules, only allowing ritual or symbolic fights (e.g. peaceful competition in order to achieve social state symbols). Expeditions indented to kill the members of other groups were already observed in free living chimpanzeees, however, occor more than ever in men. A computer simulation suggests that fights between groups may result from highly aggressive competition with kin selections. The riskiness of such conflicts is potentiated by the cultural abilities of men. On the other hand, coping with war can again only be achieved by means of cultural rules regulating the access to resources and the kind of settling conflicts. Thought promising starting points can be recognized, the question remains, whether such rules can be elaborated and implemented before the next world war is breaking out. However, acceptable suggestions capable of bringing the growth of mankind under effective cultural control are not yet to be seen.

Kalveram, K.T. (1971) Modell und Theorie in systemtheoretischer Sicht. Psychologische Beiträge 13/3, 366-375 (PDF, 565kB)

Zusamenfassung. Ein neuer Modellbegriff wird entwickelt, der sich nicht an den gewöhnlich benutzten Isomorphiebegriff anlehnt, sondern systemtheoretisch orientiert ist.. Es werden uneigentliche oder Definitionsmodelle von eigentlichen Modellen unterschieden, wobei die eigentlichen Modelle hierarchisch klassifiziert werden nach der Theorie, aus der sie ableitbar sind. Ferner wird auf die engen Beziehungen zwischen Modell-, Meß- und Informationstheorie hingewiesen.

Engl. title:

Kalveram, K.T. (1999) Psychobiologie der Zeit. In J. Bilstein & G. Miller-Kipp (Hgr) Transformationen der Zeit. Erziehungswissenschaftliche Studien zur Chronotopologie. Weinheim: Beltz  S. 339-347 (PDF, 162kB)