MEETING TIME:  Monday or Wednesday, and Friday, 1:30 - 2:45
with 4-5 outside  speakers scheduled on Fridays at 12:15.
CONTENT:  The purpose of this course is to provide students with
Basic exposure  to the literature on evolution and learning and an
Appreciation of important  conceptual issues.  The majority of the
material will be drawn from work with  nonhuman animals, but similarities
to issues arising in human learning will be  noted.
We will consider four broad types of Analyses:
Protoevolutionary Analyses: trends and grades in learningabilities,
allometric relations, universal laws, commonprocesses, model systems.
Phylogenetic Analyses: homologies, comparative series, animalmodels,
theory of mind.
Ecological Analyses: convergence, divergence, costs and benefits of
learning as a function of selection pressures.
Microevolutionary Analyses:  the relation of learning, genetics, and
development. sex differences, nicheconstruction, speciation, and the
modeling  of learning and evolution.
Conceptually we will consider several ways in which evolution
And learning may  relate, including the extent to which:
Learning abilities can be ordered empirically or conceptuallyto
allow species to be ordered in capacities.
Learning and evolution can be modeled in a single framework.
-Learning is a general process cutting across domains versus adivergent
adaptive process  evolved for specific domains.
Learning mechanisms are conserved across phyla
Learning interferes with evolution
A cost/benefit analysis applies to learning capabilities
Human learning can be traced to ecological requirements
RESPONSIBILITIES:  Students will be expected to do weekly readings,
answer questions, take sides, and participate in discussion.  They will
also be responsible for several small presentations on specific readings,
and will  produce a final paper of 15 to 25 pages.  The focus of the final
paper is relatively open but must relate to evolution and learning.
Reading materials will be selected from both books and journals.  It will
help the student to be familiar with either learning or evolution, or
both. QUESTIONS:  Bill Timberlake, 5-4042, timberla@indiana.edu