Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution Theodosius Dobzhansky Descent with modification Darwin

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1 Evolutionary Psychology: Emotion, Cognition and Intelligence Bill Meacham, Ph.D. APDG, 11 May Evolution Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution Theodosius Dobzhansky Descent with modification Darwin Offspring may vary from parents. Offspring compete for resources. Favorable variations survive better and have more offspring. Traits are heritable, so over time favorable variations prevail. Not a purposive process. No foresight. Traits are inherited as discrete units. Genes pass traits to new generations. Genes replicate across generations. Memes are cultural replicators, from mind to mind. 1

2 Evolutionary Psychology Mind as information processor, composed of various mental modules, organs of computation. Different modules evolved in the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA) million years ago (Pleistocene era, 80,000 generations) Open savannah Small bands of humans, 20 to 150 people Within the band, people cooperated for survival but also competed for resources. Bands competed with each other. Ev Psych does not discover facts about humans, but provides a framework for understanding. Also suggests testable hypotheses. Cognition The single most limiting resource was information. Mental modules evolved to solve adaptive problems. Humans who solved them survived and had offspring. Cognition (thinking) is mostly not conscious. Most of it happens quite rapidly: perceptual judgments, instinctive responses, hot cognition. Cold cognition, like working out a math problem, is rarer. The mind is a set of capabilities for solving problems and for guiding behavior. Capabilities are instantiated in specific cultures. All humans can learn to speak a language. Which specific language depends on culture and community. 2

3 Emotion (1) The mind is composed of many domain-specific expert systems, cognitive modules, specialized for reasoning about different things: Objects, physical causality, number, language, the biological world, the beliefs and motivations of other individuals, social interactions. etc. Emotions coordinate the cognitive modules. Provide context. High-level programs that activate subordinate programs. Set high-level goals and trigger sub-goals of thinking and acting. Example: Fear triggers alertness, even it s dark and you are tired. What defines an emotion is its function, not how it feels. Emotion (2) Examples of emotion (Cosmides and Tooby): cooperation, sexual attraction, jealousy, aggression, parental love, friendship, romantic love, the aesthetics of landscape preferences, coalitional aggression, incest avoidance, disgust, predator avoidance, kinship and family relations, grief, playfulness, fascination, guilt, depression, feeling triumphant, disgust, sexual jealousy, fear of predators, rage, grief, happiness, joy, sadness, excitement, anxiety, playfulness, homesickness, anger, hunger, being worried, loneliness, predatoriness (an emotion pertaining to hunting), gratitude, fear, boredom, approval, disapproval, shame Some are felt states: fear, anger, joy, etc. Some are strategies: predator avoidance Some are oriented to external objects: fear, attraction Some are oriented to how we think others perceive us: guilt, shame, pride 3

4 Emotion (3) Emotions coordinate cognitive subsystems: perception; attention; inference; learning; memory; goal choice; motivational priorities; categorization and conceptual frameworks; physiological reactions (such as heart rate, endocrine function, immune function, gamete release); reflexes; behavioral decision rules; motor systems; communication processes; energy level and effort allocation; affective coloration of events and stimuli; recalibration of probability estimates, situation assessments, values, and regulatory variables (e.g., self-esteem, estimations of relative formidability, relative value of alternative goal states, efficacy discount rate), etc. Four aspects of emotion: Physiology, what happens in our bodies Behavior, what the emotion inclines us to do Cognitive appraisal, what the emotion tells us about its object Feeling state, how it feels No sharp line divides thinking from feeling. Pinker Summary: Cognition and Emotion Most of our thinking is hot cognition, quick intuitive flashes of judgment. These flashes are emotional. They impel us to action. We can be under the influence of an emotion without knowing it. Emotions have a cognitive component. They are ways of knowing ourselves and our world. Emotions have an intentional structure. They are about something. Every emotion has an effect on our readiness for action. A lot goes on in our lives to which we don t pay attention. We are far less rational than we like to think. 4

5 Intelligence (1) Cognition is how we acquire knowledge. Intelligence is what we do with it. Intelligence is the ability to Entertain in thought something that is not happening at the moment. Evaluate possible alternative courses of action. Compare envisaged consequences to goals. Tailor behavior to the specifics of the situation. We can consider more possibilities and show more flexible behavior than can other animals. Intelligence (2) Intelligence requires three things: A goal or goals to be obtained. Knowledge about how the world works, beliefs that turn out to be true and workable in practice. The ability to apply the knowledge in flexible ways, depending on circumstances, to reach the goals. We can plan ahead. Intelligence widens the range of environments in which we can survive and reproduce. 5

6 The Scope Problem How to distinguish facts and inferences that are true and valid in one scenario from those in another or in the world. Scope representation is the ability to identify under what conditions information can be treated as accurate and inferences as valid. We don t confuse different scenarios. This ability is the foundation of story-telling. We don t confuse the story with reality. Humans in all cultures love stories. Stories allow us to learn vicariously. Scope Representation Enables Abilities All the following decouple one scope from another: Theory of mind and prediction of behavior. We guess what another person is thinking or feeling and anticipate what they will do. We decouple our assessment of their mental state from ours. Representation of goals. Goal state vs current state. Making plans to accomplish goals: Plans vs the present. Simulating the physical world: Simulation vs actuality. Creating and enjoying fiction: The fictional world vs the real world. Remembering episodes of our own past and maintaining a sense of our identity through time Memories are decoupled from our present experience Personal memories are decoupled from general knowledge gained through other means. 6

7 Theory of Mind Humans are ultra-social and obligatorily gregarious. We must live in cooperative societies with many other people. We understand others as having subjectivity like our own. Theory of Mind is the ability to attribute mental states to others: Beliefs, desires, intentions, pretense, knowledge, etc. It s not so much a theory as a capability hot cognition. We can detect who cooperates and who cheats, who is kind and who is dangerous, who can be trusted and who can t, who is dominant and who is subordinate. Agency A built-in cognitive module: understanding agents. Stages in the development of theory of mind: If something moves on its own, we interpret it as an agent. If it moves toward something, we take that to be its goal. If it changes direction flexibly in response to changes in its environment we take it to have some degree of rationality. If its action is followed closely by another agent s action, we take the latter to be a socially conditioned response. If it is a goal-directed, flexible agent, then we know it can cause harm or comfort to others or ourselves. Other animals can do these things to some extent. We do them far more capably and fine-tune them with far more precision. 7