Spring 2006
Tuesdays 12:00 GWC
604
Seminar Schedule:<http://math.la.asu.edu/~tom/cognition/math+cogsched.html>
On Tuesday, February
14, at 12:00 Noon in
GWC 604,
the Mathematics and Cognition Seminar
will present a discussion with Mike McBeath
of the Department of Pschology,
on the topic of
"Natural Selection Operates at Multiple
Levels"
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Abstract
I will discuss the idea I raised in a recent Brain
and Behavioral Sciences publication that natural selection in evolution operates
simultaneously at several levels: Macro, Micro, and Social. I suggest
that in modeling evolutionary development it is helpful to demarcate the level
of change to help clearly differentiate the mechanisms by which natural selection
operates at the different levels. As examples, I will describe some
of my work examining the occurrence of asymmetries in human and animal functioning
such as handedness, turning biases, and attention-side biases. The
principal conclusions are that (i) the robustness or plasticity of a trait
is selected to match the level of permanence or malleability of the environment,
and (ii) operational mathematical models of change and variability at each
level of natural selection are likely to be entirely different from each
other.
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