Background
Zweers, Gart Arie was born on November 4, 1940 in The Hague, The Netherlands. Son of Erich Ewald Ferdinand and Pieternella Burg (Veld) Zweers.
(Anthropocentricity and pragmatism seem to be the main rea...)
Anthropocentricity and pragmatism seem to be the main reasons why pigeons have served as the "black boxes" of so many psychologists and neurobehaviorists during the past decade. Anthropocentricity, because at first glance pigeons show several strik ing features which bear a beautiful similarity to human systems in respects such as drinking, bipedality, territoriality, and apparently easy pursual of individual interests. Pragmatism, because of the suspected lesser complexity of the pigeon's system, which enables them to serve as good paradigms for human systems. For example, the visually guided grasping system of the beak could be used as a model for the visually guided grasping system of the tips of the thumb and forefinger in humans (personal communi cation, Zeigler). Other pragmatic reasons are the low cost of breeding these birds, their easy adaptation to experimental conditions, and their obvious capacity for learning and remembering. Although a closer and more critical examination largely undermines the anthropomorphic arguments, this has not diminished interest in the pigeon. In many studies on sensorimotor and motivational processes of hunger, thirst, and learning, pecking and drinking behavior serve as the systems on which the outcome of different black box systems is measured. Clear examples of this application are found in McFarland (1964, 1965), Dawkins (1966), Dawkins and Dawkins (1973), Goodman and Schein (1974), Machliss (1977), and Zeigler, Levitt, and Levine (1980).
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Zweers, Gart Arie was born on November 4, 1940 in The Hague, The Netherlands. Son of Erich Ewald Ferdinand and Pieternella Burg (Veld) Zweers.
Doctor in Biology, University Leiden, The Netherlands, 1965. Doctor of Philosophy, University Leiden, The Netherlands, 1971.
Biology teacher The Hague City Government, 1968-1969. Assistant professor University Leiden, 1969-1976, associate professor, 1976-1993. Professor evolutionary morphology, since 1994.
Head, research director Institute Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences University Leiden, 1991-1996, deputy research director, since 1998, chair biology teaching committee, since 1999. Visiting researcher Columbia University, New York City, 1974-1975.
(Anthropocentricity and pragmatism seem to be the main rea...)
Officer special/medical services Dutch Army Reserve, 1965-1967. Member International Ornithological Committee, International Committee Systematics and Evolutionary Biology, International Committee Avian Anatomical Nomenclature, International Interim Committee Vertebrate Morphology (chair 1991-1993), International Society Vertebrate Morphology (secretary general 1994-1997), American Society Zoology, New York Academy of Sciences, Deutsche Ornithologische Gesellschaft, Netherlands Anatom. Society (board directors since 1994).
Married Tineke Truus van Giffen, May 26, 1965. Children: Anne Pieternel, Erik-Jan Tycho, Machteld Marleen.