The Role of Animal Psychology in Evolutionary Biology

Abstract

Evolutionary biology of behavior and animal psychology are often regarded as separate disciplines. However, both fields depend strongly on each other. Examples of field studies of an ant navigation system and the fighting behavior of a spider are used to illustrate the interrelatedness of animal psychology and behavioral ecology. Both studies are based on research in the natural habitat. Yet, even one who knows this habitat well cannot analyze the evolution of observed behavior patterns without making basic assumptions about the animal's psychology. These assumptions relate to the animal's capability of information processing and the structural organization of this processing. The concept of strategic analysis in evolutionary game theory makes it an obligatory task to state such assumptions. Strategic analysis at the phenotypic level is well founded in population genetics theory despite its apparent lack of taking genetics into account. It helps to bridge the gap between psychology and evolutionary biology.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barkow, J. H. , Cosmides, L. , & Tooby, J. (Eds.). (1992). The adapted mind. New York: Oxford University Press.

Davies, N. B. , & Halliday, T. R. (1979). Competitive mate searching in male common toads, Bufo bufo. Animal Behavior, 27, 1253-1267.

Dugatkin, L. A. , & Reeve, H. K. (Eds.). (1998). Game theory and animal behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.

Eshel, I. , & Feldman, M. W. (1984). Initial increase of new mutants and some continuity properties of ESS in two locus systems. The American Naturalist, 124, 631-640.

Fisher, R. A. (1930). The genetical theory of natural selection. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.

Haig, D. (1993). Genetic conflicts in human pregnancy. Quarterly Review of Biology, 68, 495-531.

Haldane, J.B.S. (1932). The causes of evolution. New York: Harper & Row.

Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour: Parts I and II. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 1-16, 17-52.

Hamilton, W. D. (1996). Narrow roads of gene land. Vol. 1: Evolution of social behaviour. New York: Freeman.

10.

Hammerstein, P. (1996). Darwinian adaptation, population genetics and the streetcar theory of evolution. Journal of Mathematical Biology, 34, 511-532.

11.

Hammerstein, P. , & Riechert, S. E. (1988). Payoffs and strategies in territorial contests: ESS analysis of two ecotypes of the spider Agelenopsis aperta. Evolutionary Ecology, 2, 115-138.

12.

Hammerstein, P. , & Selten, R. (1994). Game theory and evolutionary biology. In R. J. Aumann & S. Hart (Eds.), Handbook of game theory with economic applications (Vol. 2, pp. 929-993). Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Elsevier.

13.

Hausfater, G. , & Hrdy, S. B. (Eds.). (1984). Infanticide: Comparative and evolutionary perspectives. New York: Aldine.

14.

Krebs, J. R. , & Davies, N. B. (1993). An introduction to behavioural ecology (3rd ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

15.

Maynard Smith, J. (1964). Group selection and kin selection. Nature, 201, 1145-1146.

16.

Maynard Smith, J. (1976). Group selection. Quarterly Review of Biology, 51, 277-283.

17.

Maynard Smith, J. (1982). Evolution and the theory of games. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

18.

Mock, D. W. , & Parker, G. A. (1997). The evolution of sibling rivalry. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

19.

Moran, P.A.P. (1964). On the nonexistence of adaptive topographies. Annals of Human Genetics, 27, 338-343.

20.

Sober, E. , & Wilson, D. S. (1998). Unto others. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

21.

Tinbergen, N. (1963). On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift fuer Tierpsychologie, 20, 410-433.

22.

Wehner, R. (1994). Himmelsbild und Kompaßauge—Neurobiologie eines Navigationssystems [Sky pattern and compass eye: Neurobiology of a navigation system]. Verhandlungen der Deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft 87(2), 9-37.

23.

Wehner, R. (1997). Sensory systems and behaviour. In J. R. Krebs & N. B. Davies (Eds.), Behavioural ecology: An evolutionary approach (4th ed., pp. 19-41). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

24.

Williams, G. C. (1966). Adaptation and natural selection: A critique of some current evolutionary thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

25.

Wright, S. (1931). Evolution in Mendelian populations. Genetics, 16, 97-159.