Evolutionary Psychology - Chapter 1

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Three foundations of behaviour
- Natural selection
- Individual learning
- Cultural transmission
Approaches to studying animal behaviour
- Conceptual
- Theoretical
- Emprical
How natural selection affects behaviour

Through heritability
How individual learning affects behaviour

Alters frequency of behaviours whithin the lifetime of an orgism
How cultural transmission affects behaviour

Allows newly learned behaviours to quickly spread whithin populations
What isatellite mating behvaiour (field crickets)

When silent males intercept females heading toward singing males
Why don't some field crickets sing?

They evolved flat wings (silent) to avoid parasitism
Example of learned behaviour in birds

Female birds learning which mates can result in higher egg production
Example of cultural transmission in rats
- Rats observe a demonstrator eating a novel food
- Observers smell the demonstrator, after her has finished
- If he is ok, then the other rats will eat it
- The observer's children will follow their parents' behaviour
When did natural selection become accepted?

Between 1850 and 1900
For approaches to animal behavaiour developed in the 20th century (1900+)
- Comparative psychology
- Ethology
- Sociobiology
- Behavioural ecology
Who put forward natural selection

Charles Darwin
Title of Darwin's book

The Origin of a Species by Means of Natural Selection
Heritability of behaviour

Behaviour is heritable
Requirements for a trait to increase in a population
- Variation in a trait
- Trait heritability
- Trait improves reproductive success
Darwin's observations
- Ecological
- Populations can reproduce expontentially
- Population size stabilizes eventually
- Natural resources are limited
- Hereditary
- Individuals in a population are not identical
- Many characteristics are heritable
Darwin's inferences
- Not all offspring survive to reproduce
- Some individuals are more likely to survive (better traits)
- Therefore those with better traits produce more offspring to spread their traits
How can studying animal behaviour help humanity?

Animals can be studied as models for humans
Pros and cons of Comparative psychology
- Pros
- Highly controlled
- Labs allow for invasive techniques
- Cons
- Lab animals are not like real animals
- Relevance to real world is unclear
Characteristics of comparative psychology
- Lab environment
- Focus on mechanisms
- Proximate questions
- Compare species or use model species
Behaviourism

Theory that all behaviours are acquired through environmental conditioning
Law of effect
- Results modify behvaiour
- Reward and punishment are both effective
Thorndie's views are known as

Behaviourism
What did Skinner do?
- Developed operant boxes
- Studies operant conditioning
Steps in operant conditioning
- Stimulus
- Behavioural response
- Consequence/reinforcement
- Learn and modify repsonse
Strict behaviorism

Animals have specific inputs and outputs (like a computer)
When did ethology emerge?

20th century (1900s)
Characteristics of ethology
- Studies behaviour of animals in the wild
- Less lab work
- Applies evolutionary thinking
- Ultimate and proximate questions
Key names in Ethology
- Konrad Lorenz
- Niko Tinbergen
- Karl von Frisch
Key names in behaviourism
- Thorndike
- Skinner
Who first observed imprinting?

Konrad Lorenz
Characteristics of imprinting
- Occurs during a critical period (early life)
- Caused by inherited instinct
- Animal fixates on a particular signal
- Keeps young near their parents
Phase senstitive learning

Learning during a critical period
Example of phase senstive learning

Imprinting
Characteristics of fixed action patterns
- Innate/instinctive behaviour
- Unchangeable and will be completed once started
- Triggered by sign stimulus
Examples of fixed action patterns
- Goose mothers and egg rolling
- Male sticklebacks attacking red-belly things
- Black-headed gull mothers removing egg shells after hatching
Proximate

Short term (usually over the lifespan of an organism)
Ultimate

Long-term (evolutionary timespans)
Who wrote Sociobiology (and when)

E.O Wilson in 1975
Book describing Behavioural Ecology

E.O Wilson's Sociobiology
Characteristics of Behavioural Ecology
- Behavioural interactions of animals with their environment
- How population parameters affect the evolution of behaviour
- How behaviour works and evolves to promote reprouctive success
- Focus on function (adaptation)
Who came up with the idea of a selfish gene (and when)?

Richard Dawkins in 1976
Characteristics of the selfish gene
- Natural selection maximizes self-replication at the genetic and individual levels, but not at the population or species levels
- Gene information is immortal and is the primary unit of natural selection
Who came up with Kin selection?

W.D Hamilton
Principles of kin-selection
- Favours reproductive success of organisms relatives
- Might result in decreasing reproductive success of a given organism
Eusociality
- Cooperative brood care (child care, essentially)
- Division of labour into reproductive and non-reproductive groups
Characeristics of Cognitive Ethology
- Combines Ethology and Cognitive psychology
- Studies animal cognition/animal minds
Approaches to animal behaviour (ethology)
- Empirical approach
- Conceptual approach
- Theoretical approach
Conceptual approach

Integrating disperate, unconnected ideas and combining them in new ways
Example of direct fitness

Mother helping children
Example of indirect fitness

Children helping siblings or helping their mother
Inclusive fitness

Sum of direct and indirect fitness
Why are close relatives important (kin selection)?

They share genetic information
Example of a theoretical approach

Using math to calculate parameters (e.g value of a fawn)
Key domains of the empirical approach
- Observation - More hands off
- Experimentation - More hands on

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Evolutionary Psychology - Chapter 1

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2022-10-08T19:23:31Z

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