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Put these steps in a sensible order for predicting whether a cognitive trait will evolve indirectly due to selection on a correlated trait.

  • Estimate the genetic correlation rgr_g between the selected trait and the cognitive trait of interest (e.g., Working Memory)

  • Identify the trait under selection (e.g., Attention Control) and measure/define the direction of selection on it

  • Decide whether the correlation is likely to persist (pleiotropy) or decay (linkage disequilibrium + recombination)

  • Predict the indirect (correlated) response of the cognitive trait from selection on the correlated trait

Course
Cognitive Evolution (Evolutionary Cognitive Science): Comparativ
8 units37 lessons
Topics
Evolutionary biologyCognitive scienceComparative psychology / animal cognitionBehavioral ecologyAnthropology (paleoanthropology and archaeology)Neuroscience (comparative and systems)
About this course

This course develops an integrative, research-oriented framework for explaining how and why cognitive abilities evolve across taxa, with special attention to humans. Core coverage includes evolutionary forces (selection, drift, mutation, constraint), adaptation vs exaptation, and Tinbergen’s four questions linking mechanism, development, function, and phylogeny. Methods emphasize comparative cognition task validity, phylogenetic comparative inference, and socio-ecological/behavioral-ecology models. Competing hypotheses (e.g., Social Brain, Machiavellian, Cultural Intelligence), gene–culture coevolution, and neuroscience/genetic evidence are evaluated alongside paleoanthropological and archaeological constraints. The course culminates in designing discriminative tests and synthesizing falsifiable evolutionary accounts.