1. Adapted Cognition The time lag problem and its implications
The time lag problem and its implications
Evolutionary perspectives on learning.
- Prepared learning.
- Conditioned taste aversion (“sauce béarnaise syndrome”).
Evolutionary perspectives on selective attention.
Evolutionary perspectives on memory.
- Survival-relevance.
- Planning for the future.

2. Readings for today… Dawkins, Chapter 4
(Finally, some actual psychology! Complex cognition as solutions to some very basic problems that genes need to solve when building survival machines.)
Nairne, J. S., & Pandeirada, J. N. S. (2008). Adaptive memory: Remembering with a stone-age brain. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17,

3. The time lag problem.

4. Cognition as solution to the time lag problem:
Dawkins: "Genes are the primary policy-makers; brains are the executives. But as brains became more highly developed, they took over more and more of the actual policy decisions, using tricks like learning and simulation in doing so.”
Dawkins: “Not only are brains in charge of the day-to-day running of survival-machine affairs, they have also acquired the ability to predict the future and act accordingly.”

5. Evolutionary perspectives on learning:

6. Modularity & functional specificity
(Lots of evolved learning mechanisms,
designed to learn specific kinds of things, in specific kinds of ways.)

7. Prepared learning:
Evolved predispositions to easily learn specific kinds of stimulus-response associations.
(“By prepared we mean that the biology and genetics of the animal contribute greatly to its ability and readiness to make the association at hand.” [Seligman & Hager, 1972])

8. Classic example of prepared learning:
Conditioned taste aversion (“sauce béarnaise syndrome”)
Remarkable characteristics:
- Time interval between paired stimuli.
- Specificity of association.
- Ease of learning (one trial!).
- Difficulty of unlearning.

9. Classic research:
Garcia’s research on one-trial learning of taste aversion.

10. + + Taste: Sweet liquid See: Flashing light Hear: Noise
Learned aversion to sweet taste
(But NOT to light or sound) +
Nausea
Taste: Sweet liquid
See: Flashing light
Hear: Noise
Learned aversion to light / sound
(But NOT to sweet taste) +
Pain

11. Another example: Prepared learning of fear responses to predators.

12. “Our modern skulls house a Stone age mind”
Evolutionary perspectives on selective attention:
Enhanced attention to things that were especially relevant to survival / reproduction within ancestral ecologies.
- Enhanced visual attention to snakes.
- Enhanced visual attention to animals in general (especially people)
“Our modern skulls house a Stone age mind”

13. Evolutionary perspectives on memory:
Enhanced memory for things that were especially relevant to survival / reproduction within ancestral ecologies.

14. Enhanced memory for contaminated things:
Lots of ordinary objects; touched by either sick or healthy person.
Later: Surprise free recall task.
Results:
(Fernandes, Pandeirada, Soares, & Nairne, 2017)

15. Enhanced memory for survival-relevant things in general:
(Nairne & Pandeirada, 2008)

16. Survival-relevance and word recall.
(Nairne & Pandeirada, 2008)

17. Memory as an evolved system for planning future actions.
Dangerous things encountered in one’s environment
Behavioral avoidance of those things in the future
“The brain is a physical system designed to generate behavior that is appropriate to one's environmental circumstances.”
Another evolutionary perspective on memory that is based on this same fundamental principle…
Memory as an evolved system for planning future actions.

18. Memory as an evolved system for planning future actions.
Underlying logic:
Within variable environments, fitness benefits were associated with proactive behavior—planning for the future.
Memory mechanisms evolved to serve this function.
(Planning for the future requires memory for the past; in order for plans to be successfully carried out, the details of the plans need to be recalled).
One implication:
Memory is enhanced when used in service of this planning- for-the-future function.

19. Planning for the future and word recall.
Knife
Puppet
Television
Rope
Water
Painting
Flashlight …
Etc.
(Klein, Robertson, & Delton, 2012)

20. Planning for the future and word recall.
(Klein, Robertson, & Delton, 2012)

21. “Our modern skulls house a Stone age mind”
“The brain is a physical system designed to generate behavior that is appropriate to one's environmental circumstances.”
“Our modern skulls house a Stone age mind”
These principles are evident in:
What we learn especially efficiently.
What we attend to especially closely.
What we remember especially well.