Beyond exaptation: The modules and metaphors program Laurence Fiddick James Cook University.
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Transcript of Beyond exaptation: The modules and metaphors program Laurence Fiddick James Cook University.
Beyond exaptation:The modules and metaphors program
Laurence Fiddick
James Cook University
The adaptivist program vs. the adaptationist program
Adaptivist program – focused on the reproductive consequences of traits. Traits that increase reproductive success are adaptive and held to be adaptations – the product of natural selection.
The adaptivist program vs. the adaptationist program
Adaptationist program – focused on mechanisms that are complex and functionally integrated – bear evidence of special-design – which are held to be adaptations.
Different programs, different problems
Adaptivist program – need to be vigilant for traits that currently increase reproductive success but lack the right evolutionary history.
Adaptationist program – need to be vigilant for traits that display evidence of special design, but lack the right evolutionary history.
Exaptations: An adaptivist’s problem
We suggest that such characters, evolved for other usages (or for no function at all), and later “coopted” for their current role, be called exaptations (Gould & Vrba, 1982, p. 6).
Two sources of exaptation
A character, previously shaped by natural selection for a particular function (an adaptation), is coopted for a new use – cooptation.
A character whose origin cannot be ascribed to the direct action of natural selection (a nonaptation), is coopted for a current use – cooptation.
What Gould & Vrba do NOT say
They do NOT claim that randomly ordered traits cannot be exaptations.
What Gould & Vrba DO say
They DO claim that all exaptations have current utility.
A completely random, disorganized trait can be an exaptation provided that it increases current reproductive success.
Exaptations: the adaptivist’s headache
But what causes the adaptationist to lose sleep?
Exadaptations: the adaptationist’s headache
Adaptations that have been largely been coopted for new applications, regardless of whether these new applications increase reproductive success.
Other sources of complexly organized functionality
Cultural evolution?
Intensive learning?
Human artifice?
Exadaptation: How does that work?
Adaptations – have an organized structure embodying a particular mode of operation (a modus operandi) that was designed for a specific set of problems in ancestral environments (a domain of application)
Exadaptation: How does that work?
Evolution through natural selection is a slow process. Accumulated design is slow to change.
Environments can change much faster
Exadaptation: How does that work?
The modus operandi of an adaptation is a reflection of its accumulated design.
An adaptation’s domain of application is in part determined by the environment in which it operates.
Proper vs. actual domains
Exadaptation: How does that work?
With environmental change, the modus operandi of an adaptation can potentially organize a different domain of inputs.
Exadaptations: Do they exist?Possible examples:
Moral disgust (Rozin, Haidt, & McCauley, 1999)Written language (Pinker, 1994)Law (Fiddick, 2004)Mathematics (Dehaene, 1997)Music (Dissanayake, 2000)Poetry (Miall & Dissanayke, 2003)Race (Gil-White, 2001; Hirschfeld, 1996; Kurzban, Tooby,
& Cosmides, 2001)Religion (Boyer, 1994; Kirkpatrick, 1999)Science (Atran, 1990)
Are these exaptations?
Possibly ... but
No effort to establish that these traits increase current reproductive success.
Every effort made to understand the organization of the phenomenon.
The organization of the phenomenon is traced back in part to prior adaptations.
…. but
What would be a good example of an exaptation?
Sperm bank donations – fairly high probability that one’s reproductive success will be increased by doing so but clearly an evolutionarily novel behavior.
Music
Poetry
Mathematics
Science
Kinship ClassificationManipulation
Sperm Bank Donations
Recycling Plastic
Watching TV
Increase Reproductive Success?
Yes No
Exaptations
Music
Poetry
Mathematics
Science
Kinship ClassificationManipulation
Sperm Bank Donations
Recycling Plastic
Watching TV
Increase Reproductive Success?Y
es
No
Co
mp
lex
Fu
nct
ion
alit
y?
Yes No
Exaptations
Exad
apta
tion
s
A systematic program of research without a name
The modules and metaphors program
Moral disgust (Rozin, Haidt, & McCauley, 1999)Written language (Pinker, 1994)Law (Fiddick, 2004)Mathematics (Dehaene, 1997)Music (Dissanayake, 2000)Poetry (Miall & Dissanayke, 2003)Race (Gil-White, 2001; Hirschfeld, 1996; Kurzban, Tooby,
& Cosmides, 2001)Religion (Boyer, 1994; Kirkpatrick, 1999)Science (Atran, 1990)
Modules
An evolved faculty of mind that is flexibly, domain-specific.
The proper domain of the mechanism is given by its selective history.
Flexibility is brought about by changes in the mechanism’s environment which affect its actual domain of application, but not its modus operandi
Metaphors
Taking a system of concepts and inferences from a base domain and applying them to a novel target domain.
Evolutionary theory as a scientifically coherent account of base domains.
Evolutionarily novel situations as possible target domains.
How does the program work?
some practitioners even explicitly note that
this is what they are doing – e.g. Gil-White
and Kurzban et al. when investigating race
1) Focus on a complexly organized, but evolutionarily novel trait.
2
How does the program work?
1) Focus on a complexly organized, but evolutionarily novel trait.
2) Characterize the modus operandi of the trait – how is the phenomenon organized?
3) Draw parallels with a plausible adaptation that possesses the same modus operandi.
4) Demonstrate a previously unknown aspect of the novel trait that is known to exist in the evolved trait or vice versa.
How does the program work?
1) Focus on a complexly organized, but evolutionarily novel trait.
2) Characterize the modus operandi of the trait – how is the phenomenon organized?
3) Draw parallels with a plausible adaptation that possesses the same modus operandi.
4) Demonstrate a previously unknown aspect of the novel trait that is known to exist in the evolved trait or vice versa.
How does the program work?
1) Focus on a complexly organized, but evolutionarily novel trait.
2) Characterize the modus operandi of the trait – how is the phenomenon organized?
3) Draw parallels with a plausible adaptation that possesses the same modus operandi.
Ideally…
4) Demonstrate a previously unknown aspect of the novel trait that is known to exist in the evolved trait or vice versa.
Is it compatible with evolutionary psychology?
Critics of evolutionary psychology have argued that precisely these sorts of phenomena are incompatible with and raise serious doubts about evolutionary psychology (Mithen, 1996; Chiappe, 2000).
Violates evolutionary psychology’s presumed modularity.
Is it compatible with evolutionary psychology?
Evolutionary psychologists are committed to the study of functional structure.
They assume that functional structure is best explained in evolutionary terms.
Is it compatible with evolutionary psychology?
Evolutionary psychologists are NOT committed to the view that present environments are the same as ancestral environments.
Given that the domain of an adaptation’s application is in part a function of the environment in which it operates, evolutionary psychologists are NOT committed to the view that the actual domain of a module is fixed.
Is it compatible with evolutionary psychology?
Evolutionary psychology is compatible with the possibility that novel environments can alter the actual domain of an adaptation.
Evolutionary psychology is not compatible with the possibility that novel environments can alter the functional organization of an adaptation – in function preserving ways.
The concept of metaphor, itself,
presupposes the preservation of conceptual
and inferential organization
from the base domain to the target domain.
What do evolutionary psychologists have to gain from the program?
1) An alternative account of expertise
2) A defendable boundaries to adaptationist proposals
3) A rich source of data
Face Processing
A B
A B
A B
A B
Kanwisher, McDermott, & Chun (1997)
Greebles
Gauthier, et al. (1999)
Gauthier, et al. (1999)
But…
Abacus experts show a bilateral increase in superior frontal sulcus and superior parietal lobule activation in a digit memory task (Tanaka, et al. 2002)
Expert pilots show more frontal and prefrontal activation, less visual and motor activation in an aviation track-following task (Peres, et al. 2000)
What do evolutionary psychologists have to gain from the program?
1) An alternative account of expertise
2) A defendable boundaries to adaptationist proposals
3) A rich source of data
Social Contract Theory (Cosmides, 1985)
Proposal: humans possess an evolved, “look for cheaters” algorithm
Based on evolutionary theories of reciprocal altruism (Axelrod, 1984; Axelrod & Hamilton, 1981; Trivers, 1971)
Evidence: studies conducted on the Wason selection task
Social Contracts
If you take the benefit, then you must pay the cost
Two types:
Personal exchanges – two parties cooperating for mutual benefit
Social laws – one person granted a benefit on the basis of a societal law
If you take the benefit, then you must pay the cost
Only personal exchanges correspond to the form of interaction modelled by evolutionary theory
Personal exchanges – two parties cooperating for mutual benefit
Social laws – one person granted a benefit on the basis of a societal law
1) Amend the evolutionary theory2) Draw a distinction between the proper
domain of the adaptation (personal exchanges) and the actual domain of the adaptation (personal exchanges and social laws).
Social laws as a metaphorical extension of cognitive adaptations for social exchange
Two possibilities
Do NOT claim that novel expressions of the adaptation are part of its evolved function
What do evolutionary psychologists have to gain from the program?
1) An alternative account of expertise
2) A defendable boundaries to adaptationist proposals
3) A rich source of data
Psychological Experiments
Many psychological experiments used to test adaptationist hypotheses rely upon the application of mental adaptations to evolutionarily novel situations.
Given conflicts of interest between the two sexes, it could be difficult to see the organization of female and male mating psychology in their unconstrained form.
The idealized worlds of romance literature and pornography potentially represent a valuable source of data about the ways that females and males think about mating and sexual relations.
Romance and Pornography
Fin
Social Contracts vs. Precautions
Reasoning about social contracts and precautions is neurologically dissociable.
e.g., Stone, Cosmides, Tooby, Kroll, & Knight (2002)
Precautions activate pain centers: insula and cingulate cortex
Fiddick, Spampinato, & Grafman (in prep)
Social contracts activate VLPFC and DMPFC regions
Fiddick, Spampinato, & Grafman (in prep)
But suppose one were to speculate that…
Catholicism is based on a “precautionary” logic.The community is the body of Christ. Sin
constitutes a threat to one’s soul and the body of Christ. Need to take precautionary measures to protect one’s soul and heal any wounds it may suffer.
Protestantism is based on a contractual logic.The community and one’s relation to God are
based on contractual relations placing one in a socially precarious position (“you can be replaced”). Need to establish “deep engagement” with God and members of the community so that one is irreplaceable.
What about saints?
Catholics venerate saints, Protestants don’t
Specific saints for specific problems
Dysentery? Polycarp
Infertility? Agatha
Kidney disease? Ursus of Ravenna
Perhaps the psychology of hazards is particularistic, whereas the psychology of contracts is not:
Any item of trade can be exchange for any other.