Intelligence and Evolutionary Biology

In evolutionary biology, "intelligence" must be defined in terms of traits that are subject to the major forces of organic evolution. Accordingly, this volume is concerned with the substantive questions that are relevant to the evolutionary problem. Comparisons of learning abilities are highlighted by a detailed report on similarities between honeybees and higher vertebrates. Several chapters are concerned with the evolution of cerebral lateralization and the control of language, and recent analyses of the evolution of encephalization and neocorticalization, including a review of effects of domestication on brain size are presented. The relationship between brain size and intelligence is debated vigorously. Most unusual, however, is the persistent concern with analytic and philosophical issues that arise in the study of this topic, from the applications of new developments on artificial intelligence as a source of cognitive theory, to the recognition of the evolutionary process itself as a theory of knowledge in "evolutionary epistemology".

Texte du rabat

In evolutionary biology, "intelligence" must be defined in terms of traits that are subject to the major forces of organic evolution. Accordingly, this volume is concerned with the substantive questions that are relevant to the evolutionary problem. Comparisons of learning abilities are highlighted by a detailed report on similarities between honeybees and higher vertebrates. Several chapters are concerned with the evolution of cerebral lateralization and the control of language, and recent analyses of the evolution of encephalization and neocorticalization, including a review of effects of domestication on brain size are presented. The relationship between brain size and intelligence is debated vigorously. Most unusual, however, is the persistent concern with analytic and philosophical issues that arise in the study of this topic, from the applications of new developments on artificial intelligence as a source of cognitive theory, to the recognition of the evolutionary process itself as a theory of knowledge in "evolutionary epistemology".

Contenu
Evolutionary Biology of Intelligence: The Nature of the Problem.- Intelligence and Natural Selection.- The Conceptual Role of Intelligence in Human Sociobiology.- Artificial Intelligence and Biological Intelligence.- An Evolutionary Epistemological Approach to the Evolution of Intelligence.- Comparative Neuroanatomy and the Evolution of intelligence.- The Forebrain as a Playground of Mammalian Evolution.- Comparing the Structure of Brains: Implications for Behavioral Homologies.- Language, Intelligence, and Rule - Governed Behavior.- The Evolution of Human Cerebral Asymmetry.- The Evolution of Intelligence: A Palaeontological Perspective.- Allometric Analysis and Brain size.- Mammalian Domestication and its Effect on Brain Structure and Behavior.- Vertebrate -Invertebrate Comparisons.- Species-Specific Differences in Learning.- Contribution of the Genetical and Neural Memory to Animal Intelligence.- Animal Language Research: Marine Mammals Re-enter the Controversy.- Basic Processes in Human Intelligence.- Human Brain Evolution: I. Evolution of Language Circuits.- Human Brain Evolution: II. Embryology and Brain Allometry.- The Function of Information Processing in Nature.- A Neurophysiological Basis for the Heritability of Vertebrate Intelligence.- Brain, Mind and Reality: AN Evolutionary Approach to Biological Intelligence.- The Evolutionary Biology of Intelligence: Afterthoughts.- Author Index.