List Books » Cognitive Ecology: The Evolutionary Ecology of Information Processing and Decision Making
Authors: Reuven Dukas
ISBN-13: 9780226169330, ISBN-10: 0226169332
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date Published: July 1998
Edition: 1
How does the environment shape the ways an animal processes information and makes decisions? How do constraints imposed on nervous systems affect an animal's activities? To help answer these questions, Cognitive Ecology integrates evolutionary ecology and cognitive science, demonstrating how studies of perception, memory, and learning can deepen our understanding of animal behavior and ecology.
Individual chapters consider such issues as the evolution of learning and its influence on behavior; the effects of cognitive mechanisms on the evolution of signaling behavior; how neurobiological and evolutionary processes have shaped navigational activities; functional and mechanical explanations for altered behaviors in response to changing environments; how foragers make decisions and how these decisions are influenced by the risks of predation; and how cognitive mechanisms affect partner choice.
Cognitive Ecology will encourage biologists to consider how animal cognition affects behavior, and will also interest comparative psychologists and cognitive scientists.
Contributors lay a foundation for a field of study that integrates theory and data from evolutionary ecology and cognitive science to investigate how animal interactions with natural habitats shape cognitive systems, and how constraints imposed on nervous systems limit or bias animal behavior. Topics considered include the evolution of learning, how neurobiological and evolutionary processes have shaped navigational behavior, how cognitive mechanisms affect partner choice, and the adaptive design of specific brain capacities. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Acknowledgments | ||
1 | Introduction | 1 |
2 | Neural Representation and the Evolution of Signal Form | 21 |
3 | Constraints on Information Processing and Their Effects on Behavior | 89 |
4 | Evolutionary Ecology of Learning | 129 |
5 | The Cognitive Ecology of Song Communication and Song Learning in the Song Sparrow | 175 |
6 | Cognitive Ecology of Navigation | 201 |
7 | The Ecology and Neurobiology of Spatial Memory | 261 |
8 | Risk-Sensitive Foraging: Decision Making in Variable Elements | 297 |
9 | Behavioral Decisions about Foraging and Predator Avoidance | 343 |
10 | Evolutionary Ecology of Partner Choice | 379 |
11 | Cognitive Ecology: Prospects | 405 |
Contributors | 411 | |
Index | 413 |