Oct 19

Dominance hierarchies can reduce conflict

Some initial aggression to establish the hierarchy prevents a lot of conflict in the longs run because the hierarchy provides clear rules for who gets access to which resources and when

Natural selection: some genes may make animals more satisfied with dominance hierarchies

Humans and chimpanzees argued to be the only two species that form coalitioins for the express purpose of lethal aggression.

Could be related to frontal lobe in that is requires the ability to plan ahead

Demonstrates a sort of premediated or planned aggression that is relativley rare in the natural world.

Frontal lobe related

Common logical errors

Assuming every aspect of behaviour can be explained by evolution is a common error (not appreciating that these theories are often not falsifiable)

Genetic determinism: the idea that genes have invariant and unavoidable effects

Social darwinism: the idea that societies which are more prosperous are genetically superior (disproved- some societies happened to develop near resources, some ended up gaining immunities to certain disease, some had just the right opportunity to develop a technology to get them ahead)

Directionality: idea that evolution acts in a purposeful way, progressing towards some ulitimate goal/state/trait/ability and that more recent adaptations/changes are always better than previous ones

Sensation and perception

Our senses allow us to engage with and understand the world around is

There is great diversity is sensory experience, both within and between different species Lots of examples of 'anomalous' perception (synaesthesia)

Various kinds of sensory deficits (deafness)

Many interspecies differences (electroreception)

People with colour-grapheme synaesthesia automatically perceive particular numbers as being coloured in specific ways ex. 5 is green

Many forms of synaesthesia exist, which generally involve abnormal cross-modal associations that are automatically/involunarily triggered by certain stimulai (hearing colours, tasting words, etc)

In addition to basic research, many practical application follow from sensation and perception research. airport screening, eye-witness testimony, radar operator, designing signage, driving,etc. (air traffic controlling)

Sensing/percieving something seems automatic, effortless, seamless, trivial

Eye/ear as a video/sound recorded analogy

Don't know for certain if it's accurate, or if accuracy is really the goal

Sensation: begins with sense organs translating respresentation of stimuli

Transduction: characteristics of a stimulus are converted into nerve impulses

Feature detectors: neurons which respond to specific features

Perception: involves organizing and giving meaning to input, often drawing on memory, prior experience, etc.

Perception is an active and creative process- the same input may be perceived