01:185:253 Midterm: human nature- midterm

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Cognitive Science
• Course: 01:185:253
• Professor: Stephen Stich

Document Summary

Give a clear, accurate statement of darwin"s theory of natural selection. In your answer, you should be sure to explain: (i) what evolution means as it is used in this course (10%) Over many generations, organic forms change, and the distant ancestors of most contemporary organisms were very different. (ii) what artificial selection is, and why it is important in understanding darwin"s theory (15%) Human mediated selection- humans choose which traits to selectively breed for and then those are the traits that become more common in a population over many generations. In darwin"s theory of evolution, natural selection replaces artificial selection as the driving force for evolution to occur. (iii) what three factors are crucial for artificial selection - explain each factor (15%) Variation in population: the organisms in a population must vary (in size, shape, strength, intelligence, fighting ability, docility, etc. ) Inheritance: some of these variations are reliably passed down from parent to offspring.