Evolutionary Psychology Flashcards
What is the mind?
A set of information-processing machines that were designed by
natural selection to solve adaptive problems
What sort of adaptive problems caused the mind to transform to what it is today?
Hunter-gatherer problems
How is the brain like a physical system?
It functions as a computer; circuits generate behaviour to solve environmental problems
How were our neural circuits designed over evolution?
Via natural selection from our ancestors
What are the 2 defining characteristics of organisms that solve adaptive problems?
- Recurrent in the evolutionary species
- The solutions to these problems impacted the reproduction of such organisms
What impact does consciousness have on our perception of our neural circuitry?
Our conscious experiences lead us to believe that our circuitry is much more simpler than it really is
How do our neural circuits solve different problems?
Different neural circuits become specialized to solve different problems
Why do our modern bodies house a “stone-age” mind?
The environment that humans – and, therefore, human minds –
evolved in was very different from our modern environment
In “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers”, what does Robert M. Sapolsky suggest about baboons’ stress and how it relates to stress in humans?
The social hierarchy of baboons mirror the social hierarchy of humans, with lower ranking baboons/humans experiencing more stress; even in the absence of survival demands, major stressors can occur
Which hormone is responsible for aggression?
Testosterone
How does testosterone directly influence aggression?
Testosterone amplifies existing inclinations, pushing individuals to pursue goals more aggressively if they’re already predisposed to do so
What is the function of disgust?
Promotes disease-avoidant behaviour to prevent infection that responds to cues of pathological risk
What function can be known as the opposite of disgust?
Fear
According to evolutionary cognitive science, what are the 3 principles that evolutionary theory is based upon?
- Variation
- Heredity
- Natural selection
Why do evolutionary cognitive scientists use different measures and methods to collect different forms of evidence?
The strength of an evolutionary argument is contingent upon the existence of different forms of
evidence
The evolution of cooperation is best described by what thought experiment?
Prisoner’s dilemma
What does Hamilton’s Rule regarding kinship suggest about a gene promoting altruism?
When the benefits (b) surpass the costs (c) and relatedness (r):
b > c/r
What is musicality?
A natural, spontaneously developing trait based on and constrained by our cognitive system which music is built upon
One of the debates in evolutionary cognitive science concerns whether musicality falls under what two arguments?
- A cognitive adaptation
- An evolutionarily irrelevant artifact
What are 2 common candidates for fundamental music skills?
- Relative pitch
- Beat induction
What is the difference between relative pitch and absolute pitch?
Relative pitch - ability to identify or produce musical ‘intervals’, or relations between pitches - allows us to recognize and reproduce melodies
Absolute pitch - the ability either to identify the chroma (pitch class) of a tone presented in isolation or to produce a specified pitch without external reference
Which animal suggests that animals can have relative pitch of their own?
Ferrets
What is the sense of rhythm?
The ability to produce rhythmic
behavior (is common in animal world)
What is beat induction?
The ability to hear a regular pulse in
music which we can synchronize to
