PSYCH 1XX3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Daphne Major, Assistive Technology, Adaptationism
15 Jan 2017
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Adaptations biological traits/characteristics that help an individual survive and reproduce in its habitat; they perform a specific function: ex. Human eyes, racoon paws, bats can use an echolocation system to discriminate between a falling leaf and a flying moth at night. Psychologist study selective attention, memory encoding, and memory retrieval these are referred to adaptive functions of mental activity. Cognitive psychologists are also adaptationists they find it helpful to break down large- scale cognitive processes into adaptive problems/tasks and look for the adaptations that solve those problems. Some of the adaptive functions served by our brains include control of movements, attraction/aversion to stimuli, language, etc. Adaptive functions of minds evolved through natural selection. Natural selection differential survival and reproduction of organism because of the heritable differences between them. Natural selection is one of the four (mutation, genetic drift, and migration) mechanisms of evolution.
