PSYC 3100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Reverse Engineering, Opportunity Cost

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3100
• Professor: Pat Barclay

Document Summary

Trait or set of traits that evolved because it serves a function. Eg white rabbit (snow) vs brown rabbit. Reliability- is this trait reliably produced in the relevant circumstance eg does the rabbits coat colour change every fall and every spring yes. E. g is hunger reliably produced - yes obvs we get hungry when we don"t have food. Speci city - how speci c is this response,is it only produced by that stimulus or is it stimulated by other shit eg the presence of food doesn"t make the rabbits fur change. E. g. hunger - is not produced in response to other stimuli such as hot person. Ef ciency - does a response produce a favourable bene t cost ratio is it an ef cient way of solving that problem (more bene ts than costs) Parsimony - is this the simplest and best explanation . or can this trait be more easily explained by a different adaptation.