Evolutionary biology of learning

我站在一个子学科的前沿，该学科将进化生物学与动物认知相结合，动物认知的定义是与信息的获取、保持和使用有关的一组特征。这一分支学科的工作成功地改变了生物学和心理学的传统思维。在我的实验室里有三个正在进行的主要项目。首先，我们评估学习在一生中对表现的相对影响。这项工作是关于这一重要主题的唯一经验性研究计划，与所有物种高度相关，具有潜在的人类政策含义。其次，我们量化了学习在果蝇中的适应意义，以及这种学习对种类交配和初始物种形成的影响。这项工作提出了两个基本的基础科学问题，涉及学习的进化和通过行为产生新物种。最后，我们正在启动一个新的项目，研究社会学习在果蝇中的作用。社会学习目前是从一些脊椎动物和群居昆虫那里得知的。考察社会学习的起源可以帮助我们理解现代人和文化背后的一个基本特征。

I am at the forefront of a subdiscipline that integrates evolutionary biology with animal cognition, defined as the set of traits concerned with the acquisition, retention, and use of information. Work in this subdiscipline has successfully changed traditional thinking in biology and psychology. There are three major ongoing projects in my lab. First, we evaluate the relative effect of learning on performance throughout the lifespan. This work, which is the only empirical research program on that important topic, is highly relevant to all species, with potential policy implications in humans. Second, we quantify the adaptive significance of learning in fruit flies and the effects such learning has on assortative mating and incipient speciation. This work has contributed to two fundamental basic-science questions regarding the evolution of learning and the generation of new species through behaviour. Finally, we are commencing a new project examining the role of social learning in fruit flies. Social learning is currently known from some vertebrates and social insects. Examining the origins of social learning can help us understand a fundamental characteristic underlying modern humans and culture.