Experimental studies of learning evolution: the role of reliability and uncertainty

这个项目将研究自然选择如何塑造动物的学习能力。它将在许多代人中操纵简化“环境”的两个理论上重要的属性。该项目将询问这些环境差异是否会导致果蝇（果蝇）种群的学习能力增强或降低。学习是人类和非人类行为的基本机制，研究人员长期以来一直认为，不断变化的环境选择了学习能力。然而，要验证这样的说法是很困难的，因为很难测量或控制进化过程中的“环境变化”。这项研究将使用新技术来控制几代人的环境变化，并将测试关于选择学习能力的变化特性的假设。预计该项目将产生具有不同程度学习能力的果蝇系，这些果蝇系将为进一步研究学习能力的生理基础提供有用的信息。了解学习能力的变化是很重要的，有几个实际的原因。首先，它将帮助我们在不断变化的环境中管理人口（例如，在不断变化的气候中），并进一步加深我们对人类学习能力变化的理解。本项目将为至少九名本科生提供实践研究经验。

This project will study how natural selection shapes animal learning abilities. It will manipulate two theoretically important attributes of a simplified "environment" across many generations. The project will ask whether these environmental differences lead to enhanced or reduced learning abilities in populations of the fruit fly (Drosophila). Learning is a basic mechanism of both human and non-human behavior, and investigators have long believed that changing environments select for learning abilities. It has been difficult, however, to test claims like this because it is hard to measure or control "environmental change" over evolutionary time. This research will use novel techniques to control environmental change over many generations and it will test hypotheses about the properties of change that select both for and against learning abilities. It is expected that this project will generate lines of fruit flies (Drosophila) with varying degrees of learning ability, and that these lines of flies will be useful for further study of the physiological basis of learning ability. It is important to understand variation in learning abilities for several practical reasons. First, it will help us manage populations in changing environments (for example, in changing climates) and it furthers our understanding of variation in human learning abilities. This project will provide hands on research experience for at least nine undergraduate students.