CURRENT PERSPECTIVES ON THE BIOLOGICAL STUDY OF PLAY SIGNS OF PROGRESS

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the study of play behavior marked by much empirical research and them cheat review These efforts surest that play may be of greater biological significance than most scientists realize Here we present a brief synopsis of current play research covering issues of adaptive function phylogeny causal mechanisms and development Our goal is to selectively highlight contemporary areas of research in which the underlying processes and consequences of play should not be ignored We elucidate some of the new and burgeoning areas of play research and interpret them from an integrative biological theoretical perspective that highlights areas in need of further experimental comparative and field research