PSYC 388 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Working Set, Circadian Clock, Embryonic Diapause
26 Nov 2020
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Today, seasonal change has far less serious impact on lives of ppl living in industrialized nations. Physical implications of annual cycles that dominated development of human culture & agriculture largely diminished in developed world. Anticipation is key to biological survival & hence success. Proximal anticipation - behaviour geared to what is appropriate in the immediate future. Animals produce future most dramatically by anticipating seasonal processes & regulate their annual breeding, migration, hibernation to chime w/ them. Historically much of our understanding of biological clocks has arisen b/c of our attempts to understand how they do it. Solar radiation - most intense when sun directly overhead & b/c earth more or less spherical. The tropics experience greatest annual input of solar energy & experience the smallest seasonal variation. Seasonal variation in daylength increases progressively towards poles. Availability of food around time of birth is vital factor determining when young should be born.
