AN ODYSSEY THROUGH lEARNING AND EVOLUTION

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MICHAEL D. ZEILER

Abstract

Learning is a property of living animals, and so it, like other biological processes, is the product of evolutionary processes. Several questions arise when learning is viewed from an evolutionary contexto One is why animals should learn at all. Phrased in evolutionary terms, this is the question of the adaptive significance of learning. A second relates to similarities in how natural selection works at the species level to how reinforcement operates at the level of individuals during their lifetime. Are they indeed identical processes operating at different levels? A third question is the generality of learning principies across species and situations. A fourth is the extent to which learning processes revealed iri the laboratory are revelant to understanding learning as it occurs in the natural environment. These four questions are the focus of this paper.

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How to Cite
ZEILER, M. D. (2011). AN ODYSSEY THROUGH lEARNING AND EVOLUTION. Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis, 22(2), 139–151. https://doi.org/10.5514/rmac.v22.i2.25428