Evolutionary biology of learning

我是将进化生物学与动物认知相结合的一门分支学科的先驱，它被定义为与信息的获取、保留和使用有关的一系列特征。这一分支学科的研究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主要的正在进行的项目。首先，我们评估了在整个生命周期中学习对表现的相对影响。这项工作是关于这一重要主题的唯一实证研究项目，与所有物种高度相关，对人类具有潜在的政策意义。其次，我们量化了果蝇学习的适应性意义，以及这种学习对分类交配和早期物种形成的影响。这项工作有助于解决两个基本的基础科学问题，即学习的进化和通过行为产生新物种。最后，我们正在开始一个新的项目，研究果蝇的社会学习作用。社会学习目前已知来自一些脊椎动物和群居昆虫。研究社会学习的起源可以帮助我们理解现代人类和文化的基本特征。

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.