01:185:253- Final Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 38 pages long!)

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Cognitive Science
• Course: 01:185:253
• Professor: Stephen Stich

Document Summary

There are dramatic sex differences in sexual behavior and preferences (at least in our culture) Psychological differences between men and women which are part of human nature. According to the (relatively) new science of evolutionary psychology (ep) these differences are human universals. In order to answer that question, we need to understand what ep is. Since ep combines ideas from evolutionary biology and from cognitive science, so we must. Explain some of the central ideas of contemporary cognitive science. D. darwin did not create the theory of evolution. Many earlier thinkers had claimed that species evolved into other species. (common idea) E. darwin"s contribution was to propose a theory about the causal process that drives evolution (why did this happen) : the theory of natural selection (also simultaneously proposed independently by alfred russell wallace) The theory of natural selection: artificial selection practiced by plant and animal breeders, thomas malthus" obvious observation about limits on the size of populations.