Evolution

Question 1

Define EVOLUTION

Answer 1

The way in which inherited characteristics of of a population of organisms change over time

Question 2

Define NATURAL SELECTION

Answer 2

How individuals with different inherited characteristics differ in their propensity to survive and reproduce

Question 3

Define EXAPTION; how can we determine if a trait is exapted?

Answer 3

• When a biological trait originally evolved for a separate purpose to how it is adopted now
• Examining common ancestors and comparing characteristics and adaptive functions

Question 4

Give an example of an exapted function of pitch perception

Answer 4

Vocalisations used by primates and many other animals, i.e., danger calls, mating displays etc

Question 5

Define CONVERGENT ADAPTATION

Answer 5

Where two unrelated organisms by chance develop the same adaptation

Question 6

Define BEAT PERCEPTION

Answer 6

The ability to identify and entrain to an underlying isochronous beat (regular pulse/metre)

Question 7

What is VOCAL LEARNING; what biological mechanisms does it involve?

Answer 7

• Learning to produce vocal signals from auditory experience and sensory feedback
• Requires specialised neural circuitry connecting regions of the brain involved in processing metric and auditory information

Question 8

Give two ways in which music may have adapted for social functions

Answer 8

• Social bonding occurs from group rhythmic entrainment

- Emotional cues shared with language that helps communicate an individual’s feelings to the group

Question 9

What is AUDITORY STREAM ANALYSIS and why is it evolutionarily beneficial?

Answer 9

• Ability to separate the soundscape into multiple perceptual streams
• Easier to understand/untangle auditory environments to detect prey/predators

Question 10

What is MUSICAL SYNTAX?; why is this theory difficult to evidence?

Answer 10

• Musical structures are organised into sequential and hierarchical groups which require complex cognitive processing to understand
• Other species haven’t the same complex language to compare against

Question 11

Explain the AUDITORY CHEESECAKE hypothesis

Answer 11

• Music has no evolutionary function, it merely ‘tickles the pleasure centres in our brain’ by stimulating the complex processing systems used for other means
• Brain rewards itself for doing a task

Question 12

What are the 4 ways music is involved in emotional processing? Explain each

Answer 12

• Simulation: listen to others and learn from their mistakes
• Pleasurable compassion theory: reciprocal altruism, building kinship
• Social surrogacy: simulation of a virtual person with contingent emotions to a comforting/consoling effect (RELATING to the music)
• Distraction: distract from present emotion with supplementary emotion

Question 13

Explain SEXUAL SELECTION; what is the main issue with this theory?

Answer 13

• Sexual attraction induced by musical skill

- Lack of sexual dimorphism in humans (other than culturally inscribed notions of gender)

Question 14

How might musical CREDIBLE SIGNALLING be evolutionary beneficial?

Answer 14

• Group musicking communicates group strength, size and coordination as a threat to outsiders
• Lullabies signal parental proximity, building emotional bond between parent and offspring

Question 15

Define CREDIBLE SIGNALLING

Answer 15

A communicative event that cannot be deceptive by virtue of its nature, i.e., using a vocalisation to make someone aware of your presence is credible because you have to be physically present to make the sound