BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://bec.ucla.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20070311T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20071104T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20080309T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20081102T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20090308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20091101T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20100314T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20101107T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090527T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090527T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214423Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004829Z UID:4107-1243382400-1243382400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Athena Aktipis - Walking Away from the Haystack:\nConditional Movement Favors the Evolution of Cooperation in Groups DESCRIPTION:Athena Aktipis: University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyModels such as Maynard Smith’s Haystack model have shown that high rates of movement (i.e.\, migration\, mixing\, dispersal) undermine the evolution of cooperation. However\, these models generally assume that movement is unconditional. The present model replaces the assumption of unconditional movement with conditional movement; individuals stay in groups that provide higher returns (by virtue of having more cooperators)\, and ‘Walk Away’ from groups providing low returns. Implementing this conditional movement rule generates a number of findings including: 1) when individuals have high thresholds\, corresponding to low tolerance for defectors\, this lead to selection for cooperation\, 2) high thresholds lead to high rates of movement initially and lower rates of movement after selection for cooperators\, and 3) population structure becomes more stable after selection increases the proportion of cooperators in the population. These findings challenge the standard view derived from Maynard Smith’s Haystack model and others that high rates of movement undermine selection for cooperation. In contrast\, the current model demonstrates that high rates of conditional movement can be associated with stronger selection for cooperation. These results show that high rates of migration observed in nature are not prohibitive for the evolution of cooperation\, as standard group selection models have assumed.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/AktipisWalkingAwayTextAndFigs.doc URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/athena-aktipis-walking-away-from-the-haystackconditional-movement-favors-the-evolution-of-cooperation-in-groups/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090520T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090520T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214410Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004829Z UID:4106-1242777600-1242777600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Nina Jablonski - The Evolution and Significance of Human Nakedness DESCRIPTION:Nina Jablonski: Penn State Department of AnthropologyHumans are distinguished from other primates by being functionally hairless over most of their bodies. This condition evolved because hairlessness facilitated cooling of the body by sweating. The evaporative cooling made possible by sweating results in whole-body cooling of blood flowing in superficial vessels\, and the maintenance of constant brain temperature. The combination of anatomical\, physiological\, and new genetic information pertaining to the structure and function human skin have helped to “lay bare” the evolution of human hairlessness and sweatiness. Hairlessness had major consequences for the evolution of skin pigmentation and the communication of visual information and signals through elaborated facial expressions and\, later\, body painting and decoration.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/JablonskiTalk.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/nina-jablonski-the-evolution-and-significance-of-human-nakedness/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090518T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090518T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214410Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004829Z UID:4105-1242604800-1242604800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Daniel Geschwind - Transcriptome Organization in Human and Primate Brain: Connecting Genes to Brain to Cognition and Behavior DESCRIPTION:Daniel Geschwind: UCLA Departments of Human Genetics\, Neurology\, and PsychiatryWe are interested in understanding how genes influence human cognition and behavior\, leading to unique human cognitive specializations\, such as language. Advances in molecular and statistical genetics now allow us to identify genes that may be responsible for the emergence of some of these human cognitive features. But convergent approaches relying on data from several levels are necessary to understand a particular gene’s relationship to brain structure and function. To do this\, we have undertaken a multidisciplinary approach involving the study of human diseases affecting these features\, such as autism\, as well as human brain evolution. We have begun to develop methods that try to take into account the systems level organization of gene expression (the transcriptome)\, and applied these to large scale data sets. This has revealed a previously unrecognized organization to the transcriptional program in brain\, which provides a framework on which to understand adaptive changes in gene expression on the human lineage.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/OldhamEtAlNatureNeuroscience.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/daniel-geschwind-transcriptome-organization-in-human-and-primate-brain-connecting-genes-to-brain-to-cognition-and-behavior/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090511T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090511T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214409Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4104-1242000000-1242000000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Joseph Manson - Adherence to Conversational Norms in Interactions Among Strangers: Effects on Cooperation and Expectations of Cooperation DESCRIPTION:Joseph Manson: UCLA Department of AnthropologySeveral studies have shown that\, following brief interactions among strangers\, subjects perform better than chance at predicting whether their co-subjects will defect in a one-shot Prisoner’s Dilemma Game (PDG). However\, previous work did not explore how such predictive accuracy was possible. Theoretical work suggests that adherence to “arbitrary” norms serves a signaling function that allows individuals to assort so as to maximize coordination and cooperative efficiency. One set of norms\, documented by Conversation Analysis (CA)\, concerns the details of face-to-face interaction\, such as respecting interlocutors’ rights to complete each turn constructional unit (TCU). We hypothesized that Defection in a PDG and predictions of co-subjects’ Defections would be more likely vis-à-vis unfamiliar interlocutors who violated conversational norms at higher frequencies. We videotaped short conversations among same-sex triads of previously unacquainted university students who were naïve to the impending PDG. We then separated participants and directed each of them to (a) play a one-shot PDG with each of their two co-participants and to predict one another’s play decisions and (b) complete the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP) along with some demographic questions. From each videotaped conversation\, a mean of 3.93 min was transcribed using CA methods. Subjects chose to cooperate in 67.7% of decisions\, comparable to previous studies of face-to-face interaction. However\, participants performed no better than chance at predicting one another’s game play decisions. Nonetheless\, personality and conversational behavior were related to one another and to objective outcomes like game play and earnings\, in both expected and unexpected ways. We discuss these results with reference to the co-evolution of human cultural variation\, cultural capacities and social judgment mechanisms. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/joseph-manson-adherence-to-conversational-norms-in-interactions-among-strangers-effects-on-cooperation-and-expectations-of-cooperation/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090504T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090504T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214409Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4103-1241395200-1241395200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Scott Johnson - Mental Rotation in Adults and Infants: A Sex Difference DESCRIPTION:Scott Johnson: UCLA Department of PsychologyMental rotation (MR) is the process by which people imagine how an object would look when rotated into a different orientation in space; it may be related to performance on tasks like perspective-taking and navigation. Men typically perform faster and more accurately than women on MR tasks. Known influences on MR performance in adults are both biological (e.g.\, exposure to testosterone) and experiential (e.g.\, practice at spatial tasks)\, raising vital questions about the developmental origins of MR. Until recently\, developmental studies were limited to children 4 years and older. This talk will present evidence that sex differences in MR performance are present far earlier\, and can be observed in preverbal infants. I will also discuss the influence of task demands on MR in infants\, and the possible biological and environmental contributions to performance that may shed light on the intersection of visual/motor skills and mental imagery of 3D objects early in life.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/MooreJohnson2008.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/scott-johnson-mental-rotation-in-adults-and-infants-a-sex-difference/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090429T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090429T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214408Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4102-1240963200-1240963200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Paul Mellars - Rethinking Modern Human Behavioural Origins and Dispersal: Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives DESCRIPTION:Paul Mellars: University of Cambridge Department of ArchaeologyResearch over the past ten years in both DNA studies and archaeology has provided some remarkable new insights into the origins of biologically and behaviourally modern human populations\, and their widespread dispersal from Africa to the rest of the world around 60\,000 years ago. \nThe combination of DNA studies and recent finds of skeletal remains show that essentially ‘modern’ humans had emerged in Africa by at least 150-200\,000 years ago\, and subsequently spread from Africa into both Asia and Europe around 55-60\,000 years ago\, where they rapidly replaced the pre-existing “archaic” populations (including the Eurasian Neanderthals) within a matter of a few thousand years. \nThis talk will focus specifically on the patterns of dispersal of biologically and behaviourally modern humans from Africa\, and the nature of the cultural and behavioural adaptations which made this dispersal possible. The aim will be to compare and integrate evidence from both genetic (i.e. DNA) studies and the recent spate of new archaeological discoveries in Africa and elsewhere. The talk will focus on the two questions of (a) why there was a delay of around 100\,000 years between the initial emergence of modern Homo sapiens in Africa and their subsequent dispersal to the rest of the world; and (b) what range of behavioural innovations and adaptations allowed the widespread geographical dispersal of modern humans into a range of new and sharply contrasting environments\, and the rapid replacement of the pre-existing ‘archaic’ populations in these regions\, within such a short space of time. How far these behavioural innovations can be attributed to a major neurological change\, and how far to simple cumulative ‘feedback’ processes of technological\, social and other behavioural changes remains a central and critical question for future research.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/MellarsDispersalModel.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/paul-mellars-rethinking-modern-human-behavioural-origins-and-dispersal-archaeological-and-genetic-perspectives/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090427T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090427T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214337Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4101-1240790400-1240790400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Jenessa Shapiro - Perceiving White Norms: Ironic Effects in Blacks' versus Whites' Judgments of Minority Targets DESCRIPTION:Jenessa Shapiro: UCLA Department of PsychologyConformity to a perceived norm is a common strategy used to gain the approval of one’s interaction partners. Identifying a group norm is ordinarily relatively simple. However\, this task may be especially difficult when the norm is held by a group to which one does not belong\, as is the case in intergroup interactions. In contemporary American society\, Whites tend to believe that norms condemning public expressions of racial prejudices are pervasive (e.g.\, Dovidio & Gaertner\, 1986). In contrast\, Black Americans tend to view normative White behavior as prejudicial against themselves and other minority groups (e.g.\, Neimann\, Jennings\, Rozelle\, Baxter\, & Sullivan\, 1994). The present research examined some ironic implications of this divergent perception of White prejudice-relevant norms. In one study\, when evaluations of a Native American job candidate were to be made public to an unfamiliar group of White males upon whom participants were dependent\, White men expressed less prejudice whereas Black men expressed greater prejudice\, relative to when these responses remained private. In contrast\, White and Black females expressed no prejudice when their evaluations were to be public to White females\, although Black females expressed generally more favorable judgments of both White and Native American candidates. Follow-up studies support the hypothesis that differential inferences about White prejudice norms underlie this pattern of findings: The public judgments made by Black males (compensatory conformity) and Black females (compensatory pleasantness) can be seen as strategies aimed at reducing the likelihood that they themselves will be discriminated against in an intergroup interaction. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jenessa-shapiro-perceiving-white-norms-ironic-effects-in-blacks-versus-whites-judgments-of-minority-targets/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090420T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090420T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214336Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4100-1240185600-1240185600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Edouard Machery - Did Morality Really Evolve? DESCRIPTION:Edouard Machery: University of Pittsburgh Department of History and Philosophy of ScienceThat morality evolved is a commonplace among evolutionary biologists\, psychologists\, and anthropologists. In this talk\, I will however argue that biologists\, psychologists\, and anthropologists have failed to pay enough attention to the differences between three distinct interpretations of the hypothesis that morality evolved: (1) some components of moral cognition (e.g.\, some particular emotions\, concepts\, or norms) evolved\, (2) a capacity to grasp and be motivated by norms in general evolved\, and (3) a capacity to grasp and be motivated by a distinctive type of norms evolved. Under the first two interpretations\, it is fairly uncontroversial that morality evolved\, while under the third and most interesting interpretation\, the hypothesis that morality evolved is empirically unsupported. Philosophical implications in ethics will be incidentally considered.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/MacheryEvolutionOfMorality.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/edouard-machery-did-morality-really-evolve/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090415T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090415T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214336Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4099-1239753600-1239753600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Barbara König - Cooperation and Social Selection - A Case Study of Communal Nursing in House Mice DESCRIPTION:Barbara König: University of Zurich Institute of ZoologyIn addition to sexual selection\, selection resulting from social interactions in contexts other than mating can be a potent evolutionary force. Such social selection processes are facilitated whenever individual fitness varies as a result of any form of social interactions. The choice of social partners for communal care of young is such a situation in which interactants potentially experience fitness variance. We combine lab experiments with field data to investigate the existence and impact of female social partner choice and the potential for social selection to occur in the communally breeding wild house mouse (Mus domesticus). Female house mice display non-random preferences\, and social partner choice yields significant fitness benefits. This suggests that interactions among females are subject to social selection processes\, driving the evolution of female traits.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/Konig.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/barbara-ka%c2%b6nig-cooperation-and-social-selection-a-case-study-of-communal-nursing-in-house-mice/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090413T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090413T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214335Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004831Z UID:4098-1239580800-1239580800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Naomi Eisenberger - Why Rejection Hurts: Examining the Shared Mechanisms Underlying Physical and Social Pain DESCRIPTION:Naomi Eisenberger: UCLA Department of PsychologyNumerous languages characterize ‘social pain\,’ the feelings resulting from social rejection or loss\, with words typically reserved for describing physical pain (“broken hearts\,” “hurt feelings”) and perhaps for good reason. It has been suggested that\, in mammalian species\, the social attachment system borrowed the computations of the physical pain system in order to prevent the potentially harmful consequences of social separation. In this talk\, I will use a combination of behavioral and neuroimaging methodologies to explore the notion that physical and social pain rely on overlapping neural and experiential processes. Specifically\, I will examine: 1) whether social pain activates pain-related neural circuitry\, 2) whether individual differences in sensitivity to one kind of pain relate to individual differences in sensitivity to the other (e.g. Are individuals who are more sensitive to physical pain also more sensitive to social pain?)\, and 3) whether factors that up- or down-regulate one type of pain affect the other in a similar manner (e.g.\, Can physical painkillers reduce social pain?). URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/naomi-eisenberger-why-rejection-hurts-examining-the-shared-mechanisms-underlying-physical-and-social-pain/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090406T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090406T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214335Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004831Z UID:4097-1238976000-1238976000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Joseph Henrich - The Evolution of Cultural Adaptations: Fijian Food Taboos Protect Against Dangerous Marine Toxins DESCRIPTION:Joseph Henrich: University of British Columbia Departments of Psychology and EconomicsThis talk will first develop an evolutionarily-informed\, cognitively-grounded approach to culture\, and then apply this approach to explain patterns of food taboos for pregnant and lactating women on Yasawa Island\, Fiji. Within a broader cognitive framework\, I focus on (1) understanding our capacities for cultural learning as evolved cognitive mechanisms for acquiring adaptive information from other individuals\, in a complex\, noisy\, and changing world\, and (2) examining how and when these learning mechanisms result in cumulative cultural evolutionary processes that produce population-level patterns of adaptation and maladaptation. Then\, applying this framework\, I will argue that the patterns of food taboos observed across three villages in Fiji represent a culturally-evolved adaptation\, influenced by various cognitive biases\, that protects women\, fetuses\, and infants from dangerous marine toxins. Our findings indicate that these patterns likely emerged\, and are now maintained\, by the operation of the cultural learning mechanisms predicted by our evolutionary approach to cognition. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/joseph-henrich-the-evolution-of-cultural-adaptations-fijian-food-taboos-protect-against-dangerous-marine-toxins/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090330T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090330T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214331Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004831Z UID:4096-1238371200-1238371200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Roberto Delgado - Revisiting Island Differences in Orangutan Socioecology: Behavioral Flexibility and Geographic Variation DESCRIPTION:Roberto Delgado: USC Department of AnthropologyInitial field observations and reports from a few short-term studies pointed to island differences between Bornean and Sumatran orangutans in their general appearance and behavioral ecology\, implying meaningful taxonomic distinctions. However\, upon further scrutiny at multiple sites and for longer periods of study\, researchers have found population-specific differences across a wide array of features including dietary breadth\, foraging strategies\, life history parameters\, molecular markers\, morphological characters\, reproductive tactics\, sociality\, tool-using abilities\, vocalizations and other traits. Furthermore\, the nature of this variation is not always in line with expectations based on a simple island (i.e. Borneo vs. Sumatra) dichotomy\, making suspect previous assumptions about historical divergence patterns. Herewith\, I review the extent of qualitative and quantitative differences documented and explore a theoretical framework for examining geographic variation and behavioral flexibility among orangutan populations. In particular\, I address hypotheses invoking genetic differences\, anatomical differences\, ecological factors and opportunities for social learning to explain population-level differences. The available data to date suggest that differences in habitat productivity with its concomitant effects on demographic factors such as local population density can influence patterns of gregariousness as well as both the frequency and intensity of social learning within orangutan communities. By examining the occurrence and distribution of geographically varying characteristics such as subsistence skills\, comfort skills\, and signals\, we can determine whether or not the observed patterns of variation are justified with a cultural interpretation when other (i.e. ecological\, genetic) explanations are not adequate. Hence\, identifying the underlying factors leading to geographic variation in behavior has implications for understanding the emergence of local traditions among great apes as well as the origins and evolution of culture within the human lineage. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/roberto-delgado-revisiting-island-differences-in-orangutan-socioecology-behavioral-flexibility-and-geographic-variation/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090309T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090309T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214329Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004831Z UID:4095-1236556800-1236556800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Rebecca Bliege Bird - Why Women Hunt: Risk and Contemporary Foraging in a Western Desert Aboriginal Community DESCRIPTION:Rebecca Bliege Bird: Stanford University Department of AnthropologyAnthropologists commonly invoke an “economy of scale” to explain gender differences in hunter-gatherer subsistence and economic production: wives pursue childcare-compatible tasks and husbands\, of necessity\, provision wives and offspring with hunted meat. This theory explains little about the division of labor among the Australian Martu\, where women hunt extensively\, and gendered asymmetry in foraging decisions is linked to men’s and women’s different social strategies. Women cooperate with other women primarily hunt small\, predictable game (lizards) to provision small kin networks\, to feed children\, and to maintain their cooperative relationships with other women. They trade off large harvests against greater certainty. Men tend to hunt as a political strategy\, using a form of “competitive magnanimity” to rise in the ritual hierarchy and demonstrate their capacity to keep sacred knowledge. Resources that can provision the most others with the most meat best fit this strategy\, resulting in an emphasis on kangaroo. They trade off reliable consumption benefits to the nuclear family for more unpredictable benefits in social standing. Among the Martu\, gender differences in the costs and benefits of engaging in competitive magnanimity\, rather than an economy of scale\, structure men’s more risk-prone and women’s more risk-averse foraging decisions. These results suggest an alternative model of the foraging division of labor that emphasizes the role of ecological variance and social competition and de-emphasizes essentialized sexual and reproductive dichotomies. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/rebecca-bliege-bird-why-women-hunt-risk-and-contemporary-foraging-in-a-western-desert-aboriginal-community/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090302T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090302T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214328Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004831Z UID:4094-1235952000-1235952000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Patricia Gowaty - It's About Time: Reproductive Decisions Under Ecological and Fitness Constraints DESCRIPTION:Patricia Gowaty: UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BehaviorDo genes for choosy females and indiscriminate mates determine typical sex roles; or\, do ecological and social constraints determine sex roles? Or is sex role determination due to more complex interactions of sex-associated genes and ecological conditions? Answering this question has been difficult\, largely because until now there has been no null theory of ecological constraints on sex-associated “sex role” behavior. Here we describe the switchpoint theorem (SPT) that analytically solves the problem of what fraction of potential mates in a population a focal individual of either sex should find acceptable to mate in order to maximize relative lifetime fitness; the SPT is a null model of ecological constraints on reproductive decision-making. The SPT assumes that demographic stochasticity affects time available for mating and that there is variation in fitness that would be conferred by mating with alternative potential mates\, to prove that environmental induction of flexible\, reproductive decision-making of individuals of both sexes is adaptive. The SPT provides a reasonable scenario for the assumption that all individuals assess likely fitness outcomes before accepting or rejecting a potential mate. Rather than assuming sex differences in genes for choosy females and indiscriminate males\, the SPT is a sex-neutral hypothesis that begins with individual differences in ecological constraints to predict induced and adaptive sex role variation. The predictions of the SPT depend on five parameters: individual survival and encounter probabilities\, population size\, the distribution of fitness that would be conferred by mating with alternative potential mates\, and individual latencies (time outs after copulation). The SPT predicts that all else equal\, higher probabilities of individual survival and encounters\, higher population sizes\, and longer latencies decrease the fraction of acceptable mates for focal individuals\, so that focal individuals reject more potential mates. Similarly\, it predicts that when instantaneous survival and encounter probabilities decline\, adaptively flexible individuals accept more potential mates. The SPT provides a novel\, quantitative\, unified framework for studying how sexual selection and sexual conflict may operate when individuals manipulate the time available for mating of potential mates\, their mates\, and rivals. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/patricia-gowaty-its-about-time-reproductive-decisions-under-ecological-and-fitness-constraints/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090223T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090223T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214327Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004831Z UID:4093-1235347200-1235347200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Daniel Nettle - Why is the Theory of Evolution So Hard to Understand? DESCRIPTION:Daniel Nettle: Newcastle University Centre for Behaviour and EvolutionEven in the most developed countries\, many people do not accept the theory of evolution as true. Whilst there are cultural and ideological reasons for this\, part of the issue is that evolutionary ideas appear to violate certain intuitive beliefs. Even more interestingly\, recent research has shown that students who do accept evolution quite systematically misunderstand how it works\, tending to endorse species selectionism\, the idea that species are born and die abruptly\, and models of heredity in which useful characteristics are acquired by all members of the species\, not just the progeny of the individuals in which they arise. I will argue that all of these errors arise because in our intuitive cognition about animals\, there is little distinction between the species and the individual. Indeed\, species are seen as a kind of individual\, and individual animals are seen as appearances of the underlying species. This leads people into what Ernst Mayr called typological\, rather than population\, thinking. I report results of a recent study of conceptualisation of evolutionary change amongst undergraduate students\, and argue that a good way of conveying evolutionary ideas is by using human examples\, since our intuitive cognition about humans primarily works at the level of individuals\, their family relationships\, and the ways they are different from other members of their species. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/daniel-nettle-why-is-the-theory-of-evolution-so-hard-to-understand/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090217T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090217T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214326Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004831Z UID:4092-1234828800-1234828800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:David Sloan Wilson - Evolving the City: Using Evolutionary Theory to Understand and Improve the Quality of Everyday Life DESCRIPTION:David Sloan Wilson: SUNY Binghamton Department of Biological\nSciences & Department of AnthropologyEvolutionary theory is rapidly expanding beyond the biological sciences to include all human-related subjects in academia. Since evolution is fundamentally about organisms in relation to their environment\, basic scientific research needs to focus on people from all walks of life\, as they go about their daily lives. This kind of research is also most relevant for improving the quality of everyday life\, leading to a positive tradeoff between basic and applied science. I will provide an overview of The Binghamton Neighborhood Project\, a unique “whole university/whole city” approach to community-based research from an evolutionary perspective. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/david-sloan-wilson-evolving-the-city-using-evolutionary-theory-to-understand-and-improve-the-quality-of-everyday-life/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090209T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090209T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214324Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004832Z UID:4091-1234137600-1234137600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Robert Boyd - The Evolution of Social Stratification DESCRIPTION:Robert Boyd: UCLA Department of AnthropologyIn this talk I explain how culturally heritable differences in wealth between social groups can arise and be maintained even when the only adaptive learning process driving cultural evolution increases individuals’ economic gains. The key assumptions are that human populations are structured into groups and that cultural learning is more likely to occur within groups than between groups. Then\, if groups are sufficiently isolated and there are potential gains from specialization and exchange\, stable stratification can sometimes result. This model predicts that stratification is favored by (1) greater surplus production\, (2) more equitable divisions of the surplus among specialists\, (3) greater cultural isolation among subpopulations within a society\, and (4) more weight given to economic success by cultural learners. I will conclude by arguing that this mechanism may explain why there is much more heritable variation among groups within the human species than in other taxa.http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/boyd/HenrichBoydCA0908.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/robert-boyd-the-evolution-of-social-stratification/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090202T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090202T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214322Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004832Z UID:4090-1233532800-1233532800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Nathan Bailey - Same-sex Mating Behavior and Evolution DESCRIPTION:Nathan Bailey: UC Riverside Department of BiologySame-sex mating behavior has been extensively documented in non-human animals\, but we still know relatively little about its evolutionary impact. What evidence exists that same-sex sexual behavior can be adaptive? Do the genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying same-sex mating help explain its ultimate cause and maintenance in populations? How flexible is it\, and what is the significance of that plasticity? And can same-sex mating interactions influence the evolutionary dynamics of populations? My talk will draw upon studies published in the last several years in a wide variety of non-human animals to highlight discoveries addressing the role of same-sex sexual behaviors as agents of evolutionary change. I will focus on both the evolutionary causes and consequences of same-sex mating behavior. However\, the bulk of the discussion will be organized around the second theme\, because recent studies suggest that the impact of same-sex mating behavior on population-level processes can be powerful and of considerable importance. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/nathan-bailey-same-sex-mating-behavior-and-evolution/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090126T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090126T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214321Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004832Z UID:4089-1232928000-1232928000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:James Fowler - Genes and Social Networks DESCRIPTION:James Fowler: UCSD Political Science DepartmentSocial networks exhibit strikingly systematic patterns across a wide range of human contexts. While genetic variation accounts for a significant portion of the variation in many complex social behaviors\, the heritability of egocentric social network attributes is unknown. Here we show that three of these attributes (in-degree\, transitivity\, and centrality) are heritable. We then develop a “mirror network” method to test extant network models and show that none accounts for observed genetic variation in human social networks. We propose an alternative “Attract and Introduce” model with two simple forms of heterogeneity that generates significant heritability as well as other important network features. We show that the model is well suited to real social networks in humans. These results suggest that natural selection may have played a role in the evolution of social networks. They also suggest that modeling intrinsic variation in network attributes may be important for understanding the way genes affect human behaviors and the way these behaviors spread from person to person.http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.3089 URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/james-fowler-genes-and-social-networks/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090112T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090112T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214320Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004832Z UID:4088-1231718400-1231718400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Karthik Panchanathan - Quantifying the Bystander Effect in a Multi-Player Dictator Game DESCRIPTION:Karthik Panchanathan: UCLA Department of AnthropologyBehavioral economics studies have shown people to have other-regarding social preferences. In the Dictator Game\, for example\, dictators transfer some portion of their endowment to recipients\, who start out without an endowment. If people were self-interested\, those assigned the role of dictator would keep all of their endowment; those assigned to be recipients would go home with nothing. In social psychology\, scores of studies document the Bystander Effect\, in which the likelihood of receiving help declines as the number of potential helpers increases. To reconcile pro-social preferences with the Bystander Effect\, psychologists propose the notion of diffusion of responsibility: while people want to see the victim helped\, they feel less of a responsibility to help when others are present and able to help. Here\, we present results from two multi-player dictator games\, one in the lab with real stakes (N=196) and one online with hypothetical stakes (N=215)\, to look for evidence of the diffusion of responsibility in an experimental economics setting. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/karthik-panchanathan-quantifying-the-bystander-effect-in-a-multi-player-dictator-game/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090105T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090105T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214318Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004832Z UID:4087-1231113600-1231113600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Caleb Finch - The Role of Diet and Infection in Human Evolution DESCRIPTION:Caleb Finch: USC Davis School of GerontologyHuman lifespans have increased remarkably from the 20 year life expectancy (LE) of the great apes. The normative 40 y LE of pre-industrial peoples has recently risen to about 80 y in privileged populations during the last 200 years. I propose that diet and infections are key to understanding both demographic transitions. During human evolution\, human ancestors shifted from a largely plant based diet to include larger amounts of animal tissues and cholesterol intake that observed in the extant great apes. Exposure to infections also increased because of consumption of raw tissues and from close contact with feces not observed in great apes which rarely use the same night nest. In 2004\, Craig Stanford and I hypothesized that “meat-adaptive genes” enabled these transitions (Q Rev Biol. vol 79\, 2004). Apolipoprotein E is a candidate for pleiotropic genes with influences on blood lipids\, innate immunity\, and brain development; the apoE3 allele that increases LE spread in human populations about 225\,000 years ago. I will further discuss the possible role of apoE alleles and other genes in supporting the recent increase in LE during post 18th century improvements of diet and reduction of infections. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/caleb-finch-the-role-of-diet-and-infection-in-human-evolution/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081201T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081201T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214308Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004832Z UID:4086-1228089600-1228089600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Peter DeScioli - The Alliance Hypothesis for Human Friendship DESCRIPTION:Peter DeScioli: Chapman University\, Economic Science InstituteExploration of the cognitive systems underlying human friendship will be advanced by identifying the biological functions these systems perform. Here I propose that human friendship results from cognitive mechanisms designed to assemble support groups for potential conflicts. I draw on game theory to identify computations about friends that can increase performance in multi-agent conflicts. This analysis suggests that people would benefit from: 1) ranking friends\, 2) hiding their friend-ranking\, and 3) ranking friends according to their own position in partners’ rankings. These possible tactics motivate the hypotheses that people possess egocentric and allocentric representations of the social world\, that people are motivated to conceal this information\, and that egocentric friend-ranking is determined by allocentric representations of partners’ friend-rankings (more than others’ traits). I report several investigations designed to test predictions derived from these hypotheses. The results suggest that the alliance hypothesis merits further attention as a candidate explanation for human friendship. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/peter-descioli-the-alliance-hypothesis-for-human-friendship/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081124T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081124T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214307Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004833Z UID:4085-1227484800-1227484800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Tatsuya Kameda - Emotional Functioning and Socio-Economic Uncertainty: Is "Hikikomori" an Indigenous Cultural Pathology in Japan? DESCRIPTION:Tatsuya Kameda: Hokkaido University Department of Behavioral ScienceFeeling and expressing emotions appropriately in the right context is an essential component of social behavior. It has been suggested that emotional functioning has been weakened among contemporary Japanese youth\, who exhibit acute social withdrawal\, a “cultural pathology” known as Hikikomori (Hattori\, 2005; Zielenziger\, 2006). Assuming that Hikikomori is at least partially caused by socio-economic uncertainties faced by younger generations\, we predicted that the syndrome is not confined to a clinical subpopulation but should be manifested by even undiagnosed youth\, though in moderated form\, as a negative function of their family socio-economic status (SES). Results from an emotion-sampling study – in which participants’ reported their momentary emotional states 12 times per day for one-week during the course of their daily lives – and a laboratory experiment – which measured psycho-physiological responses to emotional stimuli – both supported this prediction. Implications of these findings for the well-being of youth in well-developed\, post-industrial societies are discussed. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/tatsuya-kameda-emotional-functioning-and-socio-economic-uncertainty-is-hikikomori-an-indigenous-cultural-pathology-in-japan/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081117T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081117T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214305Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004833Z UID:4084-1226880000-1226880000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:John Mikhail - Universal Moral Grammar: Theory\, Evidence\, and Future Research DESCRIPTION:John Mikhail: Georgetown LawScientists from various disciplines have begun to focus renewed attention on the psychology and biology of human morality. One research program that has recently gained attention is universal moral grammar (UMG). UMG seeks to describe the nature and origin of moral knowledge by using concepts and models similar to those used in Chomsky’s program in linguistics. This approach is thought to provide a fruitful perspective from which to investigate moral competence from computational\, ontogenetic\, behavioral\, physiological\, and phylogenetic perspectives. In my talk\, I first outline a framework for UMG and describe some of the evidence supporting it. I then discuss some initial findings of a related study in comparative law that seeks to determine how certain norms\, such as the prohibition of homicide\, are codified and interpreted in several hundred jurisdictions around the world. The study’s main finding\, the apparent universality or near-universality of specific justifications and excuses\, lends further support to UMG. It also raises novel questions for cognitive science\, broadly construed\, including neuroethics\, behavioral economics\, evolutionary psychology\, and legal anthropology.http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1163422 URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/john-mikhail-universal-moral-grammar-theory-evidence-and-future-research/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081110T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081110T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214304Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004833Z UID:4083-1226275200-1226275200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Noah Goldstein - The Constructive\, Destructive\, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms DESCRIPTION:Noah Goldstein: UCLA Anderson School of ManagementSocial norms can be powerful drivers of human behavior\, which means that communicators who can properly harness norms hold in their hands a powerful tool for persuasion. If utilized properly\, communicators can effectively convey such norms in ways that motivate individuals to engage in positive\, constructive behaviors that benefit not only those individuals themselves but society as a whole. However\, even thoughtful and well meaning communicators can convey norms ineffectively—or worse\, elicit a negative\, destructive backfire effect that may exacerbate an already unappealing situation. Yet\, even in such instances\, when a certain social norm leads individuals to perform destructive behaviors\, other types of social norms can be employed to mitigate the negative influence of that norm. I will discuss how\, when\, and why different kinds of social norms play constructive\, destructive\, and even reconstructive roles in motivating human behavior. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/noah-goldstein-the-constructive-destructive-and-reconstructive-power-of-social-norms/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081103T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081103T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214303Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004833Z UID:4082-1225670400-1225670400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:John Alcock - Why I Am Still a Single-Minded Adaptationist DESCRIPTION:John Alcock: Arizona State University Department of Life SciencesI will review why I became an adaptationist and continue to believe that the theory of natural selection as amended by W.D. Hamilton supplies us with all we need in order to understand all aspects of animal behavior\, including that of our own species. I will examine the state of the study of animal behavior when I entered the field and the effects of the revolution that occurred around this time thanks to Hamilton and George C. Williams. I will present my take on the challenges to the “adaptationist programme” that have occurred since 1966. These challenges include Gould and Lewontin’s famous attack in the 1970s but also the current attempt to revive group selection led by David S. Wilson and E.O. Wilson. In addition\, I will explain why the cultural evolution approach to human behavior has only limited usefulness. I hope to be still in one piece when I am finished. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/john-alcock-why-i-am-still-a-single-minded-adaptationist/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081027T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081027T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214300Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004833Z UID:4081-1225065600-1225065600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Brooke Scelza - Bush Forager\, Shop Forager: Production and Consumption Behavior in a Group of Western Desert Aborigines DESCRIPTION:Brooke Scelza: UCLA Department of AnthropologyAustralian Aborigines in the Western Desert have gone through a nutritional transition in the last 50 years; moving from a diet of mainly indigenous “bush foods” acquired during daily foraging trips to one that includes store-bought products delivered directly to community shops. Although store-bought foods are more convenient\, their availability fluctuates due to poor road conditions\, community budget constraints and food spoilage. Small game and certain species of widely available large game\, on the other hand\, require more energy to acquire\, but have a relatively consistent rate of return. An evolutionary perspective on diet choice suggests that people should make choices that will optimize their daily caloric intake and respond quickly to resource depletion. In this paper I will look at the consumption of foraged and store-bought foods in one Martu Aboriginal community to better understand issues of diet choice\, foraging time allocation and risk management. I will then place this case study within a broader framework to demonstrate how an evolutionary approach can illuminate new ways of thinking about human behavior related to diet and nutrition. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/brooke-scelza-bush-forager-shop-forager-production-and-consumption-behavior-in-a-group-of-western-desert-aborigines/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081020T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081020T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214259Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004833Z UID:4080-1224460800-1224460800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Gary Charness - Three Field Experiments on Procrastination and Willpower / Territoriality and Gender in the Laboratory DESCRIPTION:Gary Charness: UC Santa Barbara Department of EconomicsWe conducted three field experiments to investigate how people schedule and complete tasks\, providing some of the first data concerning procrastination and willpower under financial incentives. In our first study\, we paid students $95 if they completed 75 hours of monitored studying over a five-week period. We also required people to meet interim weekly targets in one treatment\, but not in the other. In a second study\, the task consisted of answering of multiple-choice questions on seven consecutive days\, with staggered start dates and an endogenous task ordering (tasks varied by number of questions). In our third study\, participants answered 20 multiple-choice questions over two consecutive days\, varying whether this was during the week or on the weekend. Participants were required to complete an easy or difficult Stroop test (used by psychologists to deplete willpower) on the first day\, before any questions could be answered. We find evidence of procrastination and willpower depletion/replenishment\, as well as evidence suggesting a self-reputation interpretation. And yet the behavioral interventions we used led to outcomes that surprised us in all three studies\, although these outcomes are largely consistent with the standard neo-classical model.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/Charness_Procrastination.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/gary-charness-three-field-experiments-on-procrastination-and-willpower-territoriality-and-gender-in-the-laboratory/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081013T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081013T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214257Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004833Z UID:4079-1223856000-1223856000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Jessica Lynch Alfaro - Biological And Cultural Evolution In Capuchin Monkeys: Mapping Behavioral Traditions Onto A Cebus Molecular Phylogeny DESCRIPTION:Jessica Lynch Alfaro: UCLA Center for Society and GeneticsDespite growing interest in capuchin monkeys as model organisms for social learning and cultural evolution\, comparative evolutionary study of Cebus behavioral traits across field sites and species have been impeded by the lack of a robust phylogenetic hypothesis for the group. Here I present the first molecular phylogeny of Cebus and use it as a framework to study the evolution of social and foraging traditions\, including anointing behaviors and tool use. Using tissue collected from museum specimens of wild-caught capuchins of known provenance across Latin America\, I sequenced portions of three mtDNA genes (12s\, 800 bp; cytB\, 307 bp; d-loop\, 435 bp) and reconstructed phylogenetic relationships using likelihood and Bayesian methods. My data revealed Cebus as a monophyletic genus composed of distinct tufted and non-tufted clades. In contrast to morphological studies\, the data revealed that C. albifrons and C. libidinosis are each paraphyletic. Genetic diversity in the tufted capuchin clade was concentrated in the Atlantic forest\, and the Amazonian tufted capuchins were nested as a subclade within Atlantic forest capuchins. I estimated divergence times within Cebus using external fossil calibrations under the assumption of a relaxed molecular clock and used this timetree to test whether social and foraging traditions have evolved more quickly in tufted versus non-tufted clades. This study provides both the first detailed molecular phylogeny for Cebus and new approaches to examining rates of behavioral evolution for different traits across capuchin populations. Conclusions from this study have implications for the prioritization of conservation funding and data collection. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jessica-lynch-alfaro-biological-and-cultural-evolution-in-capuchin-monkeys-mapping-behavioral-traditions-onto-a-cebus-molecular-phylogeny/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081006T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20081006T000000 DTSTAMP:20260504T014519 CREATED:20200922T214256Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004833Z UID:4078-1223251200-1223251200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Russell Jackson - What You See is not What You Get: Evolved Distance Perception Adaptations DESCRIPTION:Russell Jackson: CSU San Marcos Department of PsychologyDistance perception is among the most ubiquitous psychological phenomena known. Humans utilize distance estimation during all waking hours and even when sleeping. Distance perception likely takes place to this same extent in most other animals and distance perception also occurs in many non-animal species. \nFurthermore\, distance perception is one of the oldest researched topics in modern behavioral science. The most commonly cited founding of modern psychological science dates to Wundt’s investigations of distance perception in the late 1800s. Distance perception is among the most common mental tasks and has been investigated since the founding of psychology. \nUnfortunately\, some of the most important questions about distance perception remain unanswered. How and why do we perceive distances the way that we do? Why is distance perception sometimes wildly inaccurate? Why are there such big individual differences in distance perception? We have yet to answer to these questions well. \nRecent application of evolution by natural selection has yielded novel insights to these questions. I will discuss recent evidence from several empirical studies that discovered large magnitude visual effects\, including illusions\, in everyday distance perception. These illusions appear to occur constantly throughout human experiences and reach magnitudes of nearly a factor of two. These findings also illuminate a potential cause for the most prevalent\, but least acknowledged\, finding of all distance perception research. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/russell-jackson-what-you-see-is-not-what-you-get-evolved-distance-perception-adaptations/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR