Biological psych 2: Evolution of mental abilities (Lec 26)

Question 1

What does the acronym SSDR stand for? Define.

Answer 1

Species-specific defensive responses, eg deer mice of Oregon only froze in the presence of predators which exist on their side of the rocks

Question 2

How do SSDRs increase fitness?

Answer 2

Species-specific defensive responses increase fitness through equipping said species with appropriate responses for it’s specific environment

Question 3

What are Tinbergens 4 questions about the causes of behaviour?

Answer 3

1. What is the causation, or mechanism?
2. What is the ontogeny, or development of the feature?
3. What is the phylogeny, or evolution of this behaviour?
4. What is the function, or adaptive value of this behaviour?

Question 4

What is an adaptation?

Answer 4

Feature which evolves through natural selection because it increased reproductive fitness (directly or indirectly) during it’s evolutionary period.

Question 5

What is a spandrel?

Answer 5

An evolutionary bi-product that has become useful by enhancing fitness.

Question 6

What is an evolutionary bi-product, and what is considered noise/ random effects?

Answer 6

An evolutionary bi-product, such as a belly button, has evolved for some purpose (to nourish the baby via the placenta), but is not functional in it’s own right.

Noise or random effects are random variations that don’t affect fitness.

Question 7

What is an exaption?

Answer 7

“Co-opted adaptation”: An evolutionary feature that acquires a new function it didn’t originally evolve for