Spring 2003
Tuesdays 12:15 Goldwater 604
Seminar Schedule:<http://math.la.asu.edu/~tom/cognition/math+cogsched.html>
On Tuesday, February 18, at 12:15 PM in GWC 604,
the Mathematics
and Cognition Seminar will present
a lecture by Prof. Douglas Kenrick of the
Department of Psychology.
The topic will be:
"Dynamical evolutionary psychology: How societal norms emerge from individual decision rules"
| A new theory integrating evolutionary and dynamical approaches is proposed. Consistent with work in evolutionary psychology, the model assumes: human psychological mechanisms can be conceived as a set of conditional decision- rules designed to serve fundamental motivations associated with key problem areas confronted by human ancestors; qualitatively different decision-rules are associated with different problem domains, and individuals differ in decision-rules as a function of adaptive and random variation. Consistent with research and theory on dynamical systems, decision mechanisms within given individuals are assumed to unfold in dynamic interplay with decision mechanisms of others in the social network. Combining these assumptions implies that decision mechanisms in different domains have different dynamic outcomes, and sometimes lead to different socio-spatial geometries. Three series of simulations examining trade-offs in cooperation and mating decisions --illustrate how individual decision- mechanisms and group dynamics mutually constrain one another, and offer insights for an understanding of gene-culture interactions. |