concept

adaptations

Facts (18)

Sources

Evolutionary Psychology | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy 8 facts

referenceRichardson (2008) argues that additional information is required to prove that cognitive traits are adaptations, though it remains unclear if such information can be obtained.

referenceStephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin published 'The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme' in 1979, arguing against the assumption that all biological traits are adaptations.

claimEvolutionary Psychology focuses on adaptations that evolved in response to characteristically human adaptive problems faced by hunter-gatherers during the Pleistocene, such as choosing a mate, recognizing emotional expressions, acquiring language, distinguishing kin, detecting cheaters, and remembering the location of edible plants.

claimPsychological tests that demonstrate the existence of cognitive mechanisms in Homo sapiens do not prove that those traits are adaptations, as the traits could alternatively be exaptations or spandrels.

claimEvolutionary Psychology posits that cognitive mechanisms are adaptations for solving recurrent adaptive problems in the evolutionary environment of ancestors, rather than problems prevalent in the modern environment.

claimThe human mind contains many problem-specific adaptations because the adaptive problems faced by human ancestors varied considerably.

claimThe controversial claim in evolutionary psychology is not that psychological faculties have evolved, but that they are adaptations specifically for solving particular adaptive problems.

claimIn Evolutionary Psychology, cognitive mechanisms are considered adaptations, which are traits present today because they helped ancestors solve recurrent adaptive problems in the past.

Evolutionary psychology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia 6 facts

claimAdaptations are expected to exhibit complexity, functionality, and species universality, whereas byproducts or random variations do not.

referenceDavid M. Buss, Martie G. Haselton, Todd K. Shackelford, April L. Bleske, and Jerome C. Wakefield published 'Adaptations, Exaptations, and Spandrels' in American Psychologist in 1998, which discusses the distinction between evolutionary adaptations, exaptations, and spandrels in psychological traits.

claimAdaptations function as proximate mechanisms that interact with the environment in either an obligate or facultative fashion.

claimAdaptationist research aims to identify which organismic traits are adaptations versus byproducts or random variations.

claimAdaptations can be identified by their improbable complexity, species universality, and adaptive functionality.

claimEvolutionary developmental psychology (evo-devo) studies how adaptations are activated at specific developmental stages and how developmental events alter life-history trajectories.

Resolving the evolutionary paradox of consciousness link.springer.com Springer Apr 1, 2024 4 facts

claimAdaptations are defined as features that have arisen through natural selection because they helped organisms survive and pass on their genes by increasing their fitness.

claimHuman sensations are likely adaptations because they possess subjective characters and arise in situations relevant to evolutionary fitness.

claimWhile mind-brain identity theory allows conscious states to be classified as adaptations, it does not a priori predict or specify the relations or patterns of associations between fitness contingencies and the characters of accompanying sensations.

claimInteractionism is compatible with the view that conscious states are adaptations because it allows for the possibility that consciousness provides fitness advantages by influencing behavior in ways that might be more efficient than nonconscious computational processes.