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Evolution and Human Behaviour (PSYC2537) > 7. Evolution of Cognition > Flashcards

7. Evolution of Cognition Flashcards

1
Q

Natural selection affects frequencies of ____ in a population in response to _______ ______

A

genes

environmental pressures

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2
Q

How did cognitive psychology view the mind?

A

As a computer
A valid scientific concept
An information processor

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3
Q

What is the hardware and software in the brain as a computer concept?

A

The brain is the hardware

The mind is the software

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4
Q

Computational theory of the mind creates…

A

testable hypotheses

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5
Q

What is the common feature between the mind and the computer?

A

Processing information

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6
Q

Problems with the computational mind theory

A

Views mind as an abstract, general-purpose problem-solver
General procedures that could be applied to any information
BUT testing this –> humans were poor at simple abstract problems

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7
Q

Jerry Fodor: The Modularity of the Mind

A

The mind is a collection of special purpose modules

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8
Q

Cosmides and Tooby

A

Modules in the mind are domain-specific

Each is designed for a specific task

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9
Q

Why does Fodor disagree with Cosmides and Tooby?

A

“massive modularity” - 100s of modules

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10
Q

Why is it important to detect cheats?

A

To be able to recognise and remember them in order to avoid them in the future –> avoid wasting resources

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11
Q

Cheater detection task

A

Abstract task - computer would solve easily, humans struggled with
Social contract version - humans perform better on this version (90%)

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12
Q

Cheater detection module enables…

A

reasoning about social contracts

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13
Q

How do we know cheater detection is an evolved trait?

A

Cheater detection tasks - shows it can be used for all possible social contracts and it is universal among humans (cross cultural findings)

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14
Q

Further evidence for cheater detection

A

Brain damage patients performed well on abstract versions of Watson task but poor on social contract versions

Individuals high in emotional intelligence quicker at reasoning on social contract tasks

Violations of social contracts elicit anger as the predominant emotion in humans

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15
Q

Cheater detection and face recognition

A

Faces of cheaters are more important to remember than cooperators

Research - cheaters recognised and remembered better

Individuals involved in social contract scenarios are remembered better than those in hazard management scenarios, & cheaters in both rules remembered better

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16
Q

Adaptive problems

A 
Predator avoidance
Mate selection
Food selection
Forming alliances + friendships
Communication
Incest avoidance
Reading minds
Kin selection
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17
Q

Adaptive problems: food selection

A

Brain size linked to foraging behaviour
Fruit eating species are larger-brained than other diets e.g. leaf eaters
Fruit is more sparsely distributed than leaves –> requires better spatial memory
Frugivores also have larger home and foraging ranges

18
Q

What is the adaptive value of disgust?

A

motivation to avoid infected food, contagious individuals and waste material

19
Q

Disgust leads to activation of the…

A

amygdala and the insula

20
Q

The amygdala and insula are important in emotions, particularly…

A

leaning and remembering emotional events and recognising emotions

21
Q

The insula…

A

interprets information coming from outside the body (e.g. tastes, smells)

22
Q

Insula is activated by…

A

both disgusting stumilu and observing disgusted facial expressions

23
Q

Adaptive value of module for ‘activating disgust’?

A

Important to interpret information relevant for survival quickly
Can be done by interpreting others’ expressions
The internal motivation we have to aversion following feelings of disgust is strong

24
Q

Amygdala

A

Role in emotion

Particularly learning and remembering emotional events

25
Q

Swanson-Petrovich hypothesis

A

Amygdala is arbitrary grouping of cells, not structural or functions unit
Identifies 4 groups within te amygdala

26
Q

What is a module in the brain?

A

A series of connections between different brain areas

27
Q

TRUE OR FALSE: Evolution produces perfect solutions to problems.

A

False: It creates adequate solutions

28
Q

What is base-rate fallacy?

A

People ignore base-rate information (e.g. mathematical proportions) when presented with other information

29
Q

What is the conjunction fallacy?

A

Violating the cannons of logic

30
Q

What is ecological structure?

A

Humans have observed statistical regularities e.g. rain often follows thunder

31
Q

What is ecological rationality?

A

Evolved mechanisms use this ecological structure for (adaptive) problem solving

32
Q

Why do we fear snakes but not cars?

A

Cognitive mechanisms coordinated with the recurring statistical regularities of our ancestral environments

33
Q

What types of problems are our problem solving strategies adapted for?

A

evolutionary problems, NOT artificial/novel ones

34
Q

What types of problems is the world full of?

A

Arbitrary, logical ones

35
Q

We have content-specific, evolved ______ that use _______ _______ to solve _______ problems.

A

modules
ecological structure
adaptive

36
Q

We’ve evolved to solve problems based on _______

A

frequencies

37
Q

The medical diagnosis problem (Casscells et al., 1978)

A

Question of probability when given prevalence and false positive rate
Only 18% of experts from Harvard Medical school answered correctly
The rest ignored base rate information about false positives

38
Q

The medical diagnosis problem (Cosmides and Tooby, 1996)

A

Same question of probability when given prevalence and false positive rate
BUT presented in a more ecologically valid way (no percentages)
76% got it right
Shows humans have better reasoning ability with frequency information rather than probability

39
Q

What was the effect on results when the medical diagnosis problem was presented visually?

A

Using squares

Higher percentage of people answered correctly

40
Q

What is the tall woman fallacy?

A

People trying to disprove the fact that males on average are taller than females by stating that they know a tall woman

41
Q

Why do we have difficulty with the Watson selection task?

A

Because of confirmation bias

42
Q

What is confirmation bias?

A

We tend to seek information to confirm our hypotheses/beliefs

Evolution and Human Behaviour (PSYC2537) (14 decks)

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