Biology 770: Cognitive Ecology

Fall 2006

3-4:30 pm Tuesdays, Kuehne Conference Room (map)

Instructor: D F Westneat

e-mail: biodfw at uky.edu

    Cognitive Ecology is a subfield of behavior focusing on the mechanisms by which animals process information about their physical and social environment. Such mechanisms have arisen through evolutionary processes, making them subject to interesting ecological and evolutionary constraints. Cognitive Ecology is, I think, of interest to students of behavior or of ecological patterns in which behavior plays an important role (e.g., meta-population structure, predator-prey systems, or competitive systems). I have several personal goals in organizing this seminar, which I hope will be adopted by the class at least in part. First, I want to review some of the important empirical work that has been done recently and assess both the concepts and techniques used in that work. Second, I'd like to assess and perhaps help formulate a theory of the evolution of cognition. To this end I am hopeful we can draw from a variety of perspectives.  

    I expect students to put some effort into the seminar. I like to operate graduate seminars with the goal of eventually publishing a review on some aspect of the topics we cover. Whether that comes to pass will depend on many things, but I hope most will see the value of having that possibility on the horizon. This goal does not mean that I expect students to expend many hours working on this, but I do hope that discussions are energetic and well-informed so we can make as much progress as possible.

SCHEDULE  

The following is a tentative schedule of topics, along with a brief statement of why it is included and a partial list of references to get us started. I expect session leaders to refine the topic, find additional references, and to prepare beyond the very general issues and brief list of references listed below.

August 29: Introduction and Organization

    We will learn names, discuss topics, and organize presenters.

    What do others mean by cognition and how is it approached from an ecological and evolutionary view? What are the main types of questions being asked and from what perspectives?

Possible readings:

Kamil AC 1998. On the proper definition of cognitive ethology. In: Animal Cognition in Nature (Balda RP, Pepperberg IM, and Kamil AC, eds), pp.1-28. Academic Press, San Diego.

Healy, S Braithwaite, V. 2000. Cognitive ecology: a field of substance? Trends in Ecology and Evolution15: 22-26

Giraldeau, LA 1999. Cognitive ecology: The evolutionary ecology of information processing and decision making. Behavioural Processes 47: 137-138

Dukas, R 2004. Evolutionary biology of animal cognition. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 35: 347-374

Possible Readings:

Dukas, R 1999. Costs of memory: Ideas and predictions. Journal of Theoretical Biology197: 41-50

Dukas, R. 2003. Causes and consequences of limited attention. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 63: 197-210

Stevens, JR, Cushman, FA, Hauser, MD 2005. Evolving the psychological mechanisms for cooperation. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 36: 499-518

Macphail, EM Bolhuis, JJ 2001. The evolution of intelligence: adaptive specializations versus general process. Biological Reviews 76: 341-364

Brown, C, Braithwaite, VA 2005.Effects of predation pressure on the cognitive ability of the poeciliid Brachyraphis episcope. Behavioral Ecology16: 482-487

Healy, SD,  de Kort, SR, Clayton, NS. 2005. The hippocampus, spatial memory and food hoarding: a puzzle revisited. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20: 17-22

Healy, SD Hurly, TA. 2003. Cognitive ecology: Foraging in hummingbirds as a model system. Advances in the Study of Behavior 32: 325-359

September 26: Consequences of Cognitive Mechanisms for Ecology

Possible Readings:

Vuilleumier, S Perrin, N. 2006. Effects of cognitive abilities on metapopulation connectivity. OIKOS113: 139-147

Farina, A, Bogaert, J, Schipani, I 2005. Cognitive landscape and information: new perspectives to investigate the ecological complexity. BIOSYSTEMS 79: 235-240.

Schlaepfer MA, Runge MC, Sherman PW. 2002. Ecological and evolutionary traps. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 17: 474-480.