Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Behavior and Ethology
To Play Or Not To Play? That’S A Resource Abundance Question, Jeremy David Auerbach, Andrew R. Kanarek, Gordon M. Burghardt
To Play Or Not To Play? That’S A Resource Abundance Question, Jeremy David Auerbach, Andrew R. Kanarek, Gordon M. Burghardt
Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Although play occurs in a wide variety of animals, models of the origins of play behavior are lacking. We propose a novel computational model exploring the evolution of non-social frivolous play. Asexually reproducing semelparous animals can either rest or forage. Foraging occurs when an organism is below an energy threshold. Success is determined by the combination of skill and availability of resources, which declines over time but replenishes for each generation. Play was introduced as a mutant strategy: a frivolous activity that uses energy and increases the probability of dying over resting with no direct fitness benefit. Simulations show that …
The Beasts In Our Brain, Neil Greenberg
The Beasts In Our Brain, Neil Greenberg
Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
In the neuropsychology of art, we must remember that the Brain of Man has not abandoned its ancient animal foundations, it has built upon them . . . . But it has also reconstructed them as the shifting earth beneath dictates . . . . We have done the best possible in the landscape in which we have found ourselves with the raw materials we have inherited." --(Greenberg, Prolegomena to a Study of Mind, 1973, ch. 42)